When spirit wants our attention, sometimes it puts out subtle hints and signs. Other times, it whacks you on the head with a stick. And if that doesn’t work, it just gets a bigger stick.
I’m a shaman. I’ve written about what that means and if you haven’t read that look around on the blog or the site. It’s probably rambled about on both, by now. Mostly being a shaman means that some spirit or spirits have chosen to talk to or through you. Cool, right? I mean, you get a super special insight into things and thoughts not available to most people. Power, knowledge, abilities beyond what ordinary mortals may achieve are all available to the shaman. It also means that you get to do those things that the spirits want you to do. That, by the way, can be everything from talking random strangers through their troubles to facing down creatures of evil intent to creating rituals to heal someone’s spiritual wounds.
Like I’ve said before, you have a choice. You can always ignore the spirits completely. With any luck they’ll leave you alone and you can go right on living your life like most people on earth. Of course, if they really want you, specifically, they won’t leave you alone and that isn’t likely to turn out so well. The subtle hints and signs can be easy to look past. So what if every time you open a browser or a magazine there’s an ad for soap. And the fact that an owl has swooped past your windshield every time you’ve driven at night for the past week only means the birds must be really active now, right? The spirits will surely find someone who can figure out what they’re trying to say if only you don’t react.
But when they want you and nobody else but you, they get more insistent. You get sick over and over and the regular treatments just don’t work. You have vivid dreams that either wake you up every night or haunt you during the day so that you dread sleeping again. Or maybe you lose things - first your lunch out of the refrigerator at work, then your hubcaps when you were sure you were in a safe lot, then your phone or your wallet or your credit card goes missing. Those aren’t hints and they aren’t coincidences, they’re sticks thumping you in the head. Spirits are going to do whatever it takes to get your attention. Do they have it yet? If not, things can get worse, trust me.
Now, I’m not saying that every debilitating illness, streak of absent-minded bad luck or stress driven dreams of falling are spirits trying to tell you something, oh fellow shaman or shaman to be. Some of those things are simply experiences you need in order to be prepared to do your job. But if they are spirit communications and you know what the message means and still chose not to get with the program? Well, there are bigger sticks to hit you with.
Many shamans have lost everything - family, jobs, possessions. Some have been dragged into an alternate state and failed to cope so badly that they were no longer able to function in the regular world for a time. Some suffered a major health crisis or financial loss. If that wasn’t a big enough stick to get their attention, to get them back on the path the spirits chose for them, you can bet there could be worse to come.
I’ve heard some folks talk (or write) about how so many shamans to be don’t make it through their initiation. I can see that. It’s tough being remade. What you don’t hear talked about is what happens when a shaman loses heart and tries to give up. Mostly, I think, it’s because we’ve been remade and we are tougher than the average person, so it takes more to discourage us. But it’s also likely that we’re embarrassed when we backslide, when we lose faith or get tired of the demands. What follows our backsliding, our discouragement and our helplessness is a thump with a stick, and that’s probably mostly why we don’t want to talk about it. After all, who wants to admit that they’re violently sick because they got tired of devoting a half hour a day to meditation? Or that their car stopped running right because they haven’t paid attention to where the spirits want them to be lately.
I admit that I’m writing this to scare you, oh shaman to be. Because if you have been chosen, things can get bad. If you haven’t been remade yet, that’s coming. If you haven’t been tested, that’s coming, too. If you think you can walk away from this and still be fine, you might want to think again. Or at least ask those spirits who guide you about your options. Because you have some.
The same spirits that choose and test and thump recalcitrant shamans with big metaphorical sticks are also the ones who protect, nurture and support us. Some of our illness and loss is necessary for reasons we may never actually understand. But some are reminders that we have a shamanic path to walk and, unlike most folks who can ignore the spirits and their messages if they want to, we have a job to do. Trust your guides and pay attention to them, and you’ll find that lots of your life takes care of itself, and time and energy becomes available for what the spirits want you to do.
It’s your choice, after all.
Love and light!
Rev. Wolfie, shaman
