Walking the Shamanic Path
My time walking the Shamanic pathway, with trusted mentors, Claudia Goncalves and Mark Halliday, has provided me with a safe and sacred space, to not only explore the depths of myself, but to also discover myself! To connect with who I am.
I consider this pathway to be one that I walk for the rest of my life. I consider my mentors to be a part of my community for the rest of my life. It is that knowing, that provides me with the strength that I need, to keep walking my path.
I will be eternally grateful to my spirit guides for leading me to the Edinburgh Shamanic centre. And I will be eternally grateful for Mark and Claudia, who continue to guide me.
It has not been easy an easy path. It is still challenging. However, I consider my guides and mentors to be a lantern, on a dimly lit road. I cannot always see what is ahead, but I trust that this is the path to walk.
In The Beginning
My case studies for the Feather Stone Energy Healing became the foundation for my research. This began to shape the foundations for the Being Connected course, after I found that every case study participant claimed they had felt mental, physical, emotional or spiritual benefits.
Regardless of their own life experience or personal beliefs they had found Shamanic practices beneficial. It is the findings from the Being Connected group sessions which have developed the Energy Connections Workshop Series. These sessions support individuals as they uncover their soul’s potential through meditative practices.
The ethos of this work is to help people learn self-healing practices which they can use for their own journey. Whether this may lead to transformational change, personal and spiritual growth, or to a more balanced lifestyle. It is our intention, to help you, to help yourself.
The Academic
I had spent the previous fifteen years working as an arts practitioner within community settings. I utilised theatre as a platform where communities could share their stories. I drew upon the methodologies of practitioners such as Augusto Boal, Dorothy Hethcoate, and Paulo Friere. I used performative practices to explore identities, heritage acquisition, and positionalities. Asking communities to explore their own roots and give a voice to the generations that came before them. More importantly, offering a space where the generations which were yet to come, can be heard.
Inspired by theorist such as Bourdieu and Lorde I continued my studies. For my Doctoral thesis I had focused on self-narratives and the relationships we formed with identities exploring how this affected the ontological viewpoint of the individual. I had found myself, in multiple roles throughout the research projects. Switching through the many identities that I had during my time facilitating community projects.
At the time I was collecting qualitative data, and I needed the sessions to be recorded verbatim, including myself. When completing several projects between 2011-2013 in my hometown, I absolutely refused to use any form of academic language. I did not want to be distinguished as ‘other’ from my own community. The irony was clear. I felt I would not ‘belong’ if I spoke any language other than the same as the participants. This demonstrated my own influences of personal narratives.
It was this irony which inspired my next research project. The whole time I was teaching others about their heritage. Their fixed positionality. How it shaped their narratives and created their identity. I did not know that there was another world to be explored. At the time I thought we were influenced by these parts of the self. I had no idea that the self-narrative, was only half, of my story..
” We start from the principle that the human being is a unity, an indivisable whole.” -Boal, 2002
Restrictive Frameworks
Working within the structured frameworks of educational settings I was already restricted with the activities I could use. I aimed to empower the participants through performative practices. However, specific departments within the institution wanted research which was based on their areas of interest. They also wanted results which were ‘positive’. Naturally. Just as teachers focus on meeting specific targets with groups of learners. It was suggested that my research focus on a specific area. A theme which would be more aligned to the department I was studying in.
Discourse, Power and Resistance
In 2013 I was fortunate enough to present my findings at the Discourse, Power and Resistance conference in Melbourne, Victoria. The findings, whilst well recieved by my peers, were still not as welcomed in the Scool of Education I was studying in. Through performative presentations, I embedded arts practices to support my presentations becoming more interactive. Whilst I loved every part of the research project, when working at the grass roots. In truth, I realised the same restrictive frameworks were equally fierce at the top of the pyramid.
The more restrictive it became the higher I had to climb. Until eventually, I would be so far away from the ground, it would be extremely difficult to work at the roots. To work with the people. To be in the community
Before committing to my final research thesis, I decided to quit the academic world entirely. With the realisation that the further up the ladder I climbed, the more restrictive it became. My supervisor and I, came to an agreement. We amicably split due to Artistic differences I was able to cash-in the credits of my work so far, aquiring another post graduate degree.
If you can’t beat them, Join them.
In all honesty, I was beaten. The academic world had slowly sucked all my energy, my inspiration and in many ways my soul.
The fire which had once burned so fiercely within, was no more.
I retreated into the comfortable world of distance learning, internal moderation, and workplace wellbeing.
The Researcher Reborn
Of course, the skeptic within was delighted to be given case-studies as part of my Shamanic training. At the time, I was a non-believer of spirit.
Combining the modules of the Wellbeing topics I was teaching at the time, I created a short course for participants. As part of my qualification for my meditation teachers certification, I had to record my findings.
Of course, the inner researcher was ignited. Equally the inner skeptic had no expectations.
Friends from my running group were willing participants. Work colleagues also participated. Other acquaintances joined as well. I knew them through my work in education and business settings. None of them knew anything about Shamanism, nor had any specific belief systems.
Once I received everyone’s feedback I could not ignore the results. EVERYONE had felt some benefits from the sessions.
These results became the frameworks of our Being Connected course.
At this time I was also facilitating a 10 week spiritual coaching programme. The participants on the coaching course would reiterate similar benefits to those who did the meditation group. It was the findings of the work with the four elements that stirred a deeper exploration.
Eventually, this would form the foundation of the Energy Connections Workshop.
GRIMSBY SHAMANIC 