Intent is the willful focus of attention upon a specific purpose or direction. Intent is what we carry with us on our journey between worlds. It’s a beacon, a reminder, a guide to keep us on point.
In shamanic practice, intent is an essential part of your work. If you approach a task with curiosity or just a strong interest, it’s likely that you’ll get lost in distractions if you go anywhere at all. Before you begin, you must have a clear understanding of what it is you wish to accomplish.
If you’re seeking answers, have a specific question. Don’t just have the words in your head. Make it a strong desire to find the exact answer to the question. If you’re going ask for help from your guide or other spirit, know exactly what it is you want them to do.
Unless you spend a lot of time tuned into the spirit layer, your brain is going to be struggling to make sense of what it’s seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. That means your normal analytical thoughts, your logical mind, may take a back seat because it simply hasn’t come to terms with the spirit sense and has nothing to offer.
So you will likely rely on the more primal areas of your mind to keep your goal in front of you. The primal mind is driven by desire. Intent is how you “load your mission” into this part of your mind.
Intent is a practiced skill. In order to better prepare yourself for journeys, you should exercise purposed intent more regularly in your life. Consider actions before taking them. Visualize what you want to accomplish before beginning the process of making it happen.
For example, if you are hungry you may typically go to the fridge, open it up and look at what is there. You are unsure of what you want to eat, you only have the vague feeling that you are hungry. Instead, make that decision before going. Do you want to make a sandwich? Do you want some fruit? Perhaps a bowl of chicken soup? Make all the decisions first, then go to it. Your intent is set and you do not have to rely on any other choices to make that happen.
In the spirit world, making choices on the fly may not be as easy as they are in the familiar world. Intent is the solution.
Urban Shamanic Healing Process
Note: Urban shamanism does not follow a specific indigenous tribal tradition. The methodologies of each urban shaman may vary. This post outlines one method. Although the details may differ, the overall concept of the shaman working with spirits to facilitate healing are common across all traditions and methods.
The process begins with the shaman being asked for help. The shaman never initiates healing based on their own wishes. Experiencing illness is just as much a right as being healthy.
The person asking the shaman for help should be a part of the shaman’s community (either in a physical community or an online one). This is a matter of practicality. The spirit contacts that a shaman works with should be able to easily locate the recipient’s spirit self. The people we interact with regularly will become familiar to our spirit allies. This allows us to work with people we have not physically met, however, complete strangers are unfamiliar to us and will likely not be familiar to the spirits we work with as well. There are billions and billions of spirits bound here and we come in contact with thousands of them daily. A quick IM or email from someone is not a strong connection and can be a lot more effort for the spirit to locate.
The shaman will ask the person what ailments trouble them and discern if the illness is likely something that originates from spirit. Not all ailments are the result of a fragmented spirit. If the person has physically injured their body, has a physical infection, or other body related illness, this is in the realm of physical healing. Some shamans are also adept with physical healing and may choose to address the healing directly through herbal remedies or other medical knowledge and skill.
If the shaman determines that spirit healing may be needed, they will consult with their spirit contacts. Some shamans have different spirits they work with depending on the nature of the ailment. The spirit will examine the recipient to see what type of damage the recipient’s spirit has. The physical experience is not trivial and bound spirits (us) can be fragmented out of the experience. The shaman’s helper will communicate the damage to the shaman, who can in turn, relate this knowledge to the recipient.
If the recipient desires to have their lost fragments restored, the shaman will work with their spirits to locate these and return them. These exist in the spirit realm, and are often near the person seeking healing, but not always. Sometimes the fragmentation is very old and it can take longer for the spirits to find them.
Typically this stage of the procedure will be two fold. On the spirit side, the shaman’s spirit allies do their work, and on this layer, the shaman helps prepare the recipient’s mind through ceremony. If everything is successful, the fragments will be re-absorbed. The time it takes for this to happen can vary, but the healing effects will usually become evident within the first 24 to 48 hours.
In some cases, the shaman works with the recipient to help them avoid the trauma that caused the most serious fragmentation as well as make sure the mind does not resist the re-integration.
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Posted on July 24, 2018 by Spiorad Cainte
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healing, herbalism, illness, spirit, urbanshamanism