R – Healing Spirits

By Jodi Lee
Originally Published 2002
(see author/copyright info below)

Author: Judith Joslow-Rodewald & Patricia West-Barker
Photographs: Susan Mills
Publisher: Crossing Press
Pages: 295
ISBN: 1-58091-064-5
Release/Copyright: © 2001 Patricia West-Barker & Judith Joslow-Rodewald

Although I received this book quite some time ago, I hadn’t been able to sit down with it until recently. I’d pick it up, take it to my chair – but then set it down again and look at it. It just wasn’t time for me to read about the lives of other healers. After a recent experience which brought months of stress to a culmination of larger proportions than I’m used to, it definitely was time. I needed to see what the others did at this point in their lives, if they had such a point.

The authors travelled all over the United States to visit with and interview many spiritual and energetic healers. Some of the names are familiar to me, others sound as though they should be, when I speak them out loud. Perhaps there is a connection farther into Astral than I thought, but nevertheless, the familiarity is there.

The beginning of each chapter is a brief prologue of the healer’s life, methods or how he or she came to the path. Following this is an extensive look at the life and practice of the healer, in his or her own words. It’s a cross-cultural, cross-spiritual adventure, all leading to the same point – healing. From Native practices to buddhist to Reiki to other forms of energetic and spiritual healing, these ladies have provided a wonderful resource for the new and adept healer.

Quote from page: 186 ‘Jonathon Goldman’; para. 2

“In 1986, Tibetan monks from the Dalai Lama’s Gyume Monastery came to the United States for their first historic visit. During this tour, it was my honor to assist in making their first recording in a modern studio. The was in Boston, where I was living at the time.

I took the tape of their chanting home with me and put it in my crystal grid – a deep-meditation energy field which utilized 12 very large crystals in a specific geometric pattern designed to enhance higher dimensional consciousness. I listened to the tape all night and fell asleep with it running.

When I awoke the next morning, this deep, frowl-like tone emerged from me. It was the same “Deep Voice” that the monks chanted with. The sound is extremely deep and bass-like and feels like an aspect of one of the original creational sounds – a very, very long wave that seems almost inhumanly low. Included in this Voice is another sound, a harmonic that is quite high, almost like a soprano voice. It is an extraordinary sound and somehow I had received it.”

There are many more such anecdotal stories in this book, and I for one am glad to have read of the lives of others, their excitement, their achievements on the path. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I!
–
Jodi Lee – is a freelance writer/editor living in southern Manitoba, Canada.
© 2002 – present All Rights Reserved; Republish notice excluded.

This article can be republished elsewhere in its entirety so long as the author is notified (see contact information), a link is provided to the website, and this notice is left intact.

R – CD: Sounds for Healing 1

By Jodi Lee
Originally Published 2002
(see author/copyright info below)

Product: CD – Sounds for Healing/1
Composer/Performer: Rainer Tillman
Publisher/Producer: Binkey Kok
Distributed by: Binkey Kok (Red Wheel Weiser)

The CD is composed of two tracks, the first running just under 20 minutes, and the second runs just under 45. The music is comprised of the sounds from Tibetan singing bowls, bells, crystal singing bowls, cymbals, Thailand soundplates and chimes. My first reaction was one of irritation in the back of my head, as though I was again listening to a brain wave generator with only one speaker.

However, after some adjustments with balance, bass and treble, I found a working situation, and the experience became enjoyable. After checking this on both my portable CD player, our stereo system as well as the computer stereo system – I found it needed to be adjusted on all of these, to varying degrees.

Never the less, once I was settled and began listening with my inner self, I found this CD to be quite helpful in bringing about the relaxation desperately needed by me, in order to meditate. I haven’t been meditating as often as I should, because I can’t seem to shake my responsibilities long enough to sit still for a few minutes. Quieting the inner voice telling me I’m missing a deadline, laundry is waiting, dinner hour is well past does not come easy. Sounds for Healing helped here – something in the music caught my inner self attention, and distracted her from bugging me with mundane details.

Within no time I was well into my sacred space, relaxing under the trees of my own world – having a wonderful, peaceful rest. All too quickly, I began to slip back into my physical self and the mundane world.

An hour and a half had passed! The CD had long since stopped, and I felt like I’d had a nights sleep, refreshed and ready to go on. Whatever it is that catches my inner self attention is something I’ll have to keep investigating – or maybe I shouldn’t, and just leave well enough alone.

Despite the rocky start – I highly recommend this CD to those who have difficulty with meditation. If you get a discomforting feeling within your head, try adjusting the stereo. Or, you may not get that at all, depending on your own state of health and mind. The sounds will capture you eventually – and take you to your sacred space. Never doubt the healing power meditation has one stress relief, once one can get past the mundania.

Check your local bookstore or new age store for this one folks – it’s well worth the money!
–
Jodi Lee – is a freelance writer/editor living in southern Manitoba, Canada.
© 2002 – present All Rights Reserved; Republish notice excluded.

This article can be republished elsewhere in its entirety so long as the author is notified (see contact information), a link is provided to the website, and this notice is left intact.

R – Witchcraft and the Shamanic Journey

By Jodi Lee
Originally Published 2001
(see author/copyright info below)

Author: Kenneth Johnson
Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
ISBN: 1-56718-379-4
Pages (incl. back matter): 262
Release Date: Second Edition 1998

I requested this book to review as a tie-in with my articles on shamanism (see Shaman’s Path 1-4). Although not specifically directed at healing, I have found this book to give a fairly thorough depiction of shamanism practices from several cultures.

Kenneth Johnson takes the reader through the vast expanses of time, exposing various shamanic cultures from India to Egypt, Mayan to Native American. Every culture at some point in history has had methods of contacting the spirit realm, whether it be for healing practices, guaranteeing a bountiful harvest, or providing counselling and spiritual guidance. Mr. Johnson has covered pretty much any question that could arise – What is a shaman? How does a shaman journey into other realms? Were shamans male or female?

As I read through the book, I found I became more interested in the correlation between modern pagan/witchcraft practices and those used by shamans in ancient times. It seems to me that Mr. Johnson holds the belief that witches and shamans are essentially one and the same – just under different names or “titles.” I grant this much – many of the shamanic journey practices described in the book are very similar to the pathworking rituals and exercises used by modern witches.

At the end of the book, Mr. Johnson describes a gathering of hundreds of Native Americans in South Dakota in 1890. These peoples had come from far and wide, to dance the Ghost Dance. Medicine men began the ceremony, chanting and dancing throughout the teepees set up, eventually arriving at the center pole. There, the ritual began in earnest, with at least one hundred shamans taking part. They danced and circled and chanted, reaching a state of ecstasy, where they could then speak to the spirits of their dead. It is described much better in the book, very vivid – almost as if one were actually there!

Here’s a taste of what you will find between the covers. (mid-paragraph 2, pg. 40)

“Scholars acknowledge that Odin is one of the most genuinely shamanic figures in European mythology. He suffers a dramatic initiatory torment on the World Tree which is chronicled in an old Norse poem entitled Havanal (“The Song of the High One”):

I know I hung
on the windswept Tree,
through nine days and nights.
I was stuck with a spear
and given to Odin,
myself given to myself….
They helped me neither
by meat or drink.
I peered downward,
I took up the runes,
screaming, I took them -
then I fell back.

Odin has been wounded by a spear (like Llew) and – a mystical paradox – sacrificed to himself. Bleeding, he hangs from the branches of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, with none to give him food and drink. He peers downward, perhaps into the depths of Mimir’s Well, which lies at the root of the World Tree, for we are told in another place that Odin is privileged to converse with the prophetic head of Mimir because he sacrificed an eye for wisdom. And indeed, wisdom is what he seeks, for to the Norse the runes were not simply a secular alphabet – they constituted a body of lore, each letter rich with magical correspondences and esoteric meanings. Odin wins his goal and grasps the runes, but scream with the pain of knowledge acquired.”

I recommend this book to anyone curious about the history and mythology of shamanism. It’s a good starting point for those interested in learning a new path.
–
Jodi Lee – is a freelance writer/editor living in southern Manitoba, Canada.
© 2001 – present All Rights Reserved; Republish notice excluded.

This article can be republished elsewhere in its entirety so long as the author is notified (see contact information), a link is provided to the website, and this notice is left intact.