“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to find all the barriers you have built up against it”

– Rumi 

I am a shamanic practitioner trained in Celtic shamanism. Celtic shamanism is as old as this land and as deep and powerful as all other shamanic practices in the world. I also work with cacao as my plant medicine teacher.

Shamanic worldview is very simple at heart – everything is connected. There is no separation. On one layer, everything on the earth is connected without hierarchy and territory. This applies to the plants, animals, humans and minerals of the earth. The planets and cosmos. An ant and an elephant are equal – both with a valuable job to do. No hierarchy in society, wisdom keepers are revered, yet still equal. We are all sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, grandmothers and grandfathers to everything and our raison d’être is to protect this, contribute to it and be part of it. The experience of being part of nature as opposed to having a nice time in nature is different to the way we have been brought up in the West. This difference when re-aligned can feel deeply healing.

On top of this worldview is a second layer of knowledge to the shamanic practitioner. Deeply integrated within this is a huge network of energies. Some from earthly energies such as the soil, wind, mountains and waters. Some from other subtle energies. The energy that we each have as individuals, the subtle energies around our bodies, celestial energies, planetary energies – a vast network of life force that is deeply connected to the first layer. The spirit world accessed through the imagination and visionary seeing helps guide us and bestows great wisdom.

Lastly are the sacred waters and life flow of the planet. This is the life blood that feeds every level of the material and energetic layers. These waters have never dried up and continue to flow to this day. Where I live these waters flow in Bath and Glastonbury, but they are all over the world

The medical model does not believe or operate as if things are connected. You could go to hospital for a hip replacement and when your knee hurts it is considered a separate problem to the damaged hip needing a different appointment. Of course, we may need our hips replaced, medicine has amazing offerings in the healing world.

However on subtle levels many of our issues can’t be separated out and healed in this way, especially when it comes to our sense of well being or emotional health.

A shamanic view of mental health is that it is like a tree. If you want to deeply make a change to your life:

• you need to look at your roots and how you grew from them
• your trunk, who you are now and what supports you in life
• your branches and where you are reaching out towards
• the water and nutrients that are feeding your life force
• and the environment you have planted yourself in

This needs to be considered without separation as it it the totality of all of these elements that have shaped you to where you are today. Today then shapes your future.

What is shamanic healing like and what can I expect when I come to one?

Firstly we talk to see what is presenting itself to be addressed and resolved. My psychotherapy skills help in this part of the session.

Next we do a shamanic journey. You will be taken into a deep state of relaxation and then, with my help, begin a ‘journey’ within to access what you need to heal yourself. Shamanic journeying is a trance like state between the layers of meditation and dreaming using theta brain waves.

In this liminal space you can make energetic, emotional and psychological shifts. You can receive messages and feel your emotional response with clarity. Working creatively and energetically deep within your imagination can feel very real and be deeply healing.

It is often much more help finding these resources within you, than be given advice from others. You may meet your own guides, discover spirit animals that feel meaningful, receive gifts that feel deeply symbolic, meet yourself as a child or even meet your future self. Sound is used in a journey from instruments such as rattle, drum, stones, mbira, harp and also from my own voice, so is silence used.

After the journey we take time to ‘return’ to this world, process the journey and get clarity on what you need to do in order that the healing session integrates into your life. You receive cleansing anointments to ground yourself before you leave.

Shamanic Amulets

A shamanic amulet or despacho is a traditional offering used in ceremonies or in rites of passage such a births, marriages, death, to support during illness or simply bring comfort or joy to the receiver.  They are used to express gratitude, bestow blessings or restore balance. They can be given as gifts or used as sacred offerings. My amulets or despachos are created by infusing soapstone with flower essences, carving it, and adding symbolic items from nature while incorporating sound through mantras and toning. This is a unique and spiritually meaningful process for both the giver and gifted.

Step 1: Gathering Materials

I start the process of amulet and despacho making by gathering the materials for the intention of that particular amulet. This is pure alchemy and potion making. I start by walking in nature with the intention of gathering what is needed. This includes the place I gather from. I am very lucky to live in Somerset a place in the UK associated with deep spiritual healing. It is between Stonehenge and Glastonbury and has many old, old trees, long barrows, stone circles, ancient wells and a deep ancient connection to mother earth.

In my personal work I connect some very old and ancient tees in the UK and sometimes I have been lucky enough for the tree to ‘gift’ me a piece of itself. Once during an all night vision quest a huge chuck of a 1500 year old yew literally fell off onto my head.

These ‘gifts’ are sometimes incorporated into the amulet along with feathers that have appeared during the walk. All plants have consciousness and offer us healing. Roses for love, vines like ivy and bramble to untangle, marigold for the suns energy.

If plants have thorns they can be protective, heal trauma and help us confront our shadows. Nature provides everything we need to heal, to celebrate, to connect and to love. Once I have gathered I return home to select the stone, add crystals, spices, herbs – anything that feels intuitively needed in the alchemical pot for healing.

This process can be over many walks or come together swiftly. Every part of the process informs me of what is needed and tells me more about how the amulet needs to be.

Step 2: Carving the Soapstone

Once I have selected the stone or stones I will use I start the process of carving. I mostly use soapstone sourced from regular stone carving outlets. As I carve small items these are normally off cuts and from waste. Soapstone is a very soft, metamorphic rock.  Rock falls into three categories – igneous rock formed from molten magma, sedimentary rock formed from mineral and organic matter and metamorphic rock which is formed through metamorphism a process that transforms existing rock into new forms of rock. So soapstone is perfect for the alchemical process.

Soapstone is soft so small pieces can be carved using files called rifflers. My riffles are mostly Italian rifflers from Tiranti’s who have been supplying carving tools since 1895. These tools are deeply personal to me. I’ve had them for decades and those that meet me are often surprised when I pull out a small lump of stone and a riffler from my bag when I go on trips. I find carving deeply regulating and have taught 100’s of people this process for their enjoyment and regulation.

Carving the shape is intuitive for me. It’s like finding a shape in a cloud. I descend into a complete reverie, become very in the moment and everything peripheral to this experience fades into the background. I may carve in silence or play spiritual music, sing or chant mantras that feel appropriate. I often like to make holes through the stone. I either do this by hand with a riffler or use one of those old fashioned hand drills. I do not like to use power tools as they bring a different energy and I feel that the piece needs to be shaped by my hands. Often I put twists into the stone, its a very visceral process and helps me feel deeply embodied.

Step 3: Preparing Flower Essences and Polishing

Once the stone is carved it needs to be polished to bring out its colour. Again I do this by hand. I start by wet sanding it with a low grade wet and dry paper and go up through 6-8 stages until I reach a very fine one. The process of polishing further carves the stone as I use the shape of my fingers to refine the shape.

Before I polish I prepare the essence with the plants and flowers I gathered from my walk.

I use water from the Chalice Well and sacred springs in Glastonbury that I collect on my regular visits. This water is very special and it is very important to me. There are two springs – The Blood Well where the water is rich in iron and The White Well where the water is rich in calcium. The Chalice or Blood well. You can read about the history of the spring HERE constantly flowing at 25,000 gallons / 13650 litres per day its energy truly harnesses transmutational energies. I may also add flower remedies (such as Bach), and essential oils. I place the flowers, plants, crystals and other items in the water. The essence will stay in the sun for a few days. I sing and tone over the water and infuse it with love.

At some point the stone carving will also be added. This has to be gauged carefully as some soapstones love to be soaked in water and others are more talc like and need a careful bath in which case they will be droppered. Either way the stone and the essence meet and become one energy and the polishing begins to infuse the amulet with its unique combination of energies.

Polishing takes a few days. Each time a grade of paper is changed to a finer one the water is discarded, the essence ingredients washed and the essence is refilled. Each time the grade of paper is changed, it enables me to help discard or extract an old pattern from the receivers personal process and add in love and healing. This continues until the 6-8 layers are all complete.

Step 4: Adding Symbolic Items

Spiritually symbolic items and transmutation is at the heart of making the amulet. As the carving is being assembled and bathed in it’s essence other symbols weave their way in. Moon phases can be used to carve amulets. The energy of the new or full moon or during an eclipse, on the equinox, the solstice.

The season the amulet is carved in will also determine its medicine. Metals in the form of wires are used to attach symbolic and meaningful items. A piece of my 1000 year old yew will be attached with copper or silver wire imbuing the amulet with more energy. Copper is often considered lucky – “see a penny pick it up and all the day you’ll have good luck”, silver is considered the metal of love and healing – you cross the palm of the healing with silver.

Sometimes I use gold leaf or paint on the stone itself for spiritual enlightenment, transformation or even to help stuck finances. I may weave in a piece of a special tree, each has a special meaning, birch for birth, hazel for dreams, yew for death and rebirth, holly for anger, hawthorn for sexual healing and fertility. Feather from significant birds are used. Magpies are messengers of good luck, crows death and rebirth. 

I may use different elements water always, but sometimes I use fire and incense for air – of course stone is always the element of earth. Pieces of coloured wool can bring the symbolism of colour and the chakra colours into the amulet. Each item added gives the amulet deeper meaning. Every item is placed intuitively like a spider weaving its web.