EXCERPTS

1. From the Introduction

The teachings in this little booklet are those of Feminist Shamanism®. Feminist shamanic philosophy and practice are based upon the wisdom of the Feminist Shamanic Medicine Wheel Mandala®.

The Feminist Shamanic Medicine Wheel Mandala® is a two-dimensional image representing the three-dimensional world of shamanic reality. It is first visualized and then consciously entered in its three-dimensional form during shamanic journeys.

Shamanic journeys are facilitated by a particular form of shamanic percussion, usually created with drums, which enables one to make a shift from ego-consciousness (one’s ordinary, everyday state of consciousness, and a function of the Masculine principle), into mythic consciousness, a function of the Feminine principle. While in a state of mythic consciousness, we are able to enter the alternate reality of the shamanic realm. Once there, we can visit and explore its dire3ctional landscapes, and interact directly with its archetypal inhabitants to receive guidance and healing for ourselves and others.

During feminist shamanic journeys, the wisdom of the medicine wheel mandala is shared with us by various shamanic archetypes found within its boundaries. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung used the word archetype to define unconscious ideas, patterns, or images universally present in individual psyches. Feminist shamanic archetypes can be thought of similarly, except that they express themselves primarily as animal, ancestral, and feminine and masculine spirits.

As you read, study, and practice the teachings that follow, you will be introduced to certain archetypes found within the directional landscapes of shamanic reality in the middle Level of the Medicine Wheel Mandala. (There are many more archetypes to be met within the three levels of shamanic reality found within the Feminist Shamanic Medicine Wheel Mandala®, but listing them all here is beyond the scope of this booklet.)

You’ll also be introduced to feminist shamanic directional personality types, the particular challenges each faces and the accomplishments one can earn by successfully meeting those challenges.

2. From the Section on the Shamanic South

The Summer Woman of the South

Key Words:Physicality, Vitality, Fertility

If you were born a South Woman, you express yourself through your body, maintain health and wellbeing through good diet and exercise, and are generally a positive, energizing influence on others. While others are becoming bogged down by a difficult situation, the South woman may have the ability to see the situation as though in the bright light of the Noonday Sun, and can often quickly perceive the best solution to the difficulty as though by magic.

The Summer/South Woman under Stress

When under severe stress, the South woman may neglect her physical health and wellbeing by engaging in physical excesses such as overeating or heavy drinking, or may begin eating poorly, or stop her daily exercise routines, and so become unable to maintain her usual energy level or to be a positive, energizing influence on others. She may also become a bit of a hypochondriac, worrying incessantly about various aches and pains.

Shamanic First Aid for South Issues

This is a practice for physically grounding yourself through your womb center. (If you have had a hysterectomy, it doesn’t matter; the place of the womb remains your “womb center.”)

1. Stand facing South in a place where you feel safe and strong. Ideally this would be outside somewhere, but it can also be done inside if necessary.

2. Extend your arms out in front of you, palms down, tips of thumbs and index fingers touching, creating a triangular shape. Hold your arms and hands in that position, asking for feminine life force to come up from within the earth into the palms of your hands. When this energy rises up to you from deep within the earth, you will feel a sensation of some kind (warmth, tingling, etc.) in the centers of your palms.

3. Keeping the tips of your thumbs and forefingers touching, bring your hands to your womb center, placing the triangular shape over it.

4. Hold your hands over your womb center in this position, asking that the feminine life force in them be transferred to your womb center.

5. You may repeat this movement several times if necessary, until you feel restored. 

3. South Affirmation Chant

Deer in the Shamanic south

South Affirmation Chant

In the place of the Noonday Sun

In the place of eternal Summer

In the bright and watery realm

Where Deer roams,

I stand naked beneath the Waterfall at its heart,

Gazing towards the Center, where Sea Turtle abides.

As vital life force washes over me,

I am cleansed of the pain of my past.

My feet stand upon the collective knowledge of life’s cycles

Known to my feminine ancestry.

My arms reach for the sky,

Calling down unto myself that which is needed

To realize my soul’s purpose.

Before me is innocence. May I walk in innocence.

Behind me is trust. May I walk in trust.

To my right are magical ways. May I honor them.

To my left are youthful ways. May I discover them.

I set my intent to honor, embrace, and fully express

These, the gifts of the shamanic South.