Image by Susan Wilkinson @ unsplash
BE YOUR OWN MEDICINE
I often say be your own medicine, when I’m doing a reading with a client. In other words, whatever it is you need to heal, transform, evolve or understand on a deeper level is residing within you. The truth is, even if you are going to a professional or specialist to address an issue or concern you have, that person on some level, is reflecting the information or truth that you already know, even though it may be unconscious at the time.
This is also the basis of any divination practice, as above, so below, whatever is within is without . . . it’s all connected. The more specific or profound the answer, the deeper you are looking within for the truth or guidance you are seeking. We have been so conditioned NOT to trust ourselves, believe in separation, to have fear of the unknown and to adopt patterns restricted by linear time, that we often miss the answers or deep guidance right before our eyes. As we look closely at our most ancient wisdom teachings it is revealed that plants and animals have always been here to support us on our healing journey.
. . . Our human ancestors had the ability to self-medicate because of our animal heritage. Animals are incredibly discerning at diagnosing ailments and seeking out certain plants or minerals to treat a variety of ailments. Animals are also very precise about using the correct dosage. Animals also know how to get intoxicated. Some even use psychedelics. (2002, Engel,C.). Caribou seem to love to ingest the hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria. (1997, Devereux,P.). Our ancestors also knew about psychedelics. Human use of psychedelics may be as old as humanity.
— Written for the Journal ReVision, Winter 2003 by Karen Vogel: Female Shamanism, Goddess Cultures, and Psychedelics
THE EVOLUTION OF THE WHOLE
The inspiration for the March News came through my discovery of a book by Christopher Bache. Drawing on his training as a philosopher of religion, Bache set out to explore his consciousness as systematically as possible on a 20 year journey with high doses of LSD. Bache is professor emeritus in the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and on the Advisory Council of the Grof Legacy Training. Stanislav Grof, M.D., is a psychiatrist with over sixty years of experience in research of non-ordinary states of consciousness and one of the founders and chief theoreticians of transpersonal psychology and the creator of Holotrophic Breathwork. I feel honored to have trained with Stan and his first wife Carol many years ago in California.
WE ARE ASPECTS OF THE ONE
I find there are common threads that run through shamanism, BQH regression, Family Constellation processes (more to share below) and any consistent meditative practice one undertakes. The most powerful piece is your personal knowing of the truth about Source and the pure presence of love that is in every living thing. Bache shares this idea beautifully in the quote below.
. . . the universe is the manifest body of a Divine Being of unimaginable intelligence, compassion, clarity, and power, that we are all aspects of this Being, never separated from it for a moment, that we are growing ever more aware of this connection, that physical reality emerges out of Light and returns to Light continuously, that Light is our essential nature and our destiny, that all life moves as One, that reincarnation is true, that there is a deep logic and significance to the circumstances of our lives, that everything we do contributes to the evolution of the whole, that our awareness continues in an ocean of time and a sea of bliss when we die, that we are loved beyond measure and that humanity is driving towards an evolutionary breakthrough that will change us and life on this planet at the deepest level. (Bache 2017)
— LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven by Christopher Martin Bache
THE SELF IN NON-ORDINARY REALITY
. . . it is a living identity that changes as our psychedelic experience deepens. It could also be called the shamanic self. — LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven by Christopher Martin Bache
Though the roots of shamanism are probably much older, Siberian shamanism is often used as the model for all shamanic tradition because it was one area where shamanism was first extensively studied. — Karen Vogel Image by Joshua Newton @ unsplash
BACK TO OUR ROOTS
The work Karen is referring to is Family Constellation Therapy. It is a therapeutic process that helps break destructive family patterns of unhappiness, illness, failure, and addiction. This approach is becoming one of the most rapidly expanding forms of therapy in the world and is practiced in more than 35 countries.
Constellations is a part of my Evolutionary Coaching and my certification in Magnetic Mind Training. It is often woven into an ancestral healing session as well. Constellations is the creation of Bert Hellinger, a German psychologist who traveled to South Africa as a missionary in the 1950s. He became interested in the customs of the Zulu people and a particular ceremony they used to understand one another.
This resonates deeply with my Symbols Readings or the reading of the bones, which is also based in the Zulu traditions. The process rests on the idea that problems sift down through generations to cause stress in the present moment. It posits that when we examine our feelings and perceptions in a “field of knowing,” we can break out of familial patterns that cause personal and collective suffering.
Image: Constellations by Greg Rakozy @ unsplash
YOUR EMOTIONAL BLUEPRINT
Family Constellations are patterns of our ancestral lineage that are accessible in the knowing field.
. . . Are you wanting to transform? Are you willing? With this work, your hopes will not go unmet. Just know that the degree to which you are willing to transform will match your result. The more you understand and elevate your emotional blueprint, the further you will move within this mystical yet practical field and expand your life. The ancestors protect and guard the past and offer us deep insights and wisdom. But it is up to each one of us to shape our individual destiny and thereby the destiny of our system. You may be confused, struggling, or lost. But systems speak. If you set up your system and interact with it, you will find the answers you are seeking. You will realize that the mystical is all around you and flowing through you, waiting for you to see it. And when you do, you will manifest things you never thought possible.
— Decoding Your Emotional Blueprint: A Powerful Guide to Transformation Through Disentangling Multigenerational Patterns by Judy Wilkins-Smith. This is a fantastic place to start exploring Constellations.
UNIVERSAL MIND
While living in Corral Canyon in Malibu, CA I experienced a spontaneous soul remembering of a past life as a medicine woman who lived on that land generations before. This is what launched my personal exploration of shamanism and eventually led to my training and travels around the world to work with native peoples.
I experienced the teachings of many different kinds of hallucinogenic plant medicines since the age of 12 and each one has enhanced my life exponentially. I have been blessed to have had compassionate and powerful teachers to guide me along the way and I highly recommend seeking master teachers for the best results. I realized when I had the spontaneous past life recall, I wanted to know who I really was and who I had been in the past. Vogel’s quote below mirrors much of how my journey unfolded.
. . . the viewpoint I gained from psychedelics and my ongoing relationship with the Nature, Plant and Animal Spirits inspired me to search for the roots of shamanism in key threads in my life: sacred art, ancestral healing, and hypnosis. I wanted to know about my lineage. I’ve been following a calling to explore these realms and create services that are informed by my journey.
— Written for the Journal ReVision, Winter 2003 by Karen Vogel: Female Shamanism, Goddess Cultures, and Psychedelics with an extensive Bibliography.
Image: Totem by Stefano Girardelli @ unsplash
ORIGINS OF THE MOTHERPEACE TAROT
In the late 1970s Vicki Noble and Karen Vogel became research and writing partners in Berkeley, CA. Together they birthed the Motherpeace Round Tarot deck and a movement that catapulted them out their academic foundation, Karen’s in anthropology and human evolution and Vicki’s in history and women’s studies. They dove heart first into the fields of alternative healing, psychic studies, ancient occult and magical traditions, and Goddess spirituality and the rest (they say) is history. The book Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art, and Tarot by Vicki Noble has been, for decades, an inspiration and oracle for women all over the world. This was one of the first card decks I used and still love the images and teachings it offers!
EXPLORE PAST LIFE REGRESSION through BQH HYPNOSIS
SYMBOLS READINGS + SHAMANIC SESSIONS ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE
WATCH FOR APRIL NEWS POST: The Intelligence of Water and my work with Veda Austin!
