The Song of the Land

Shamanism to me is all about working with the Spirits of place, Ancestors, plants and animal teachers. Being an Animist, this is where the roots of my path are formed, and I follow my instinct when working with all of these things.
There is a kind of synergy that forms, a feeling that your intent joins with the natural world and starts to craft what you want to happen, like when a potter takes a lump of clay and puts it on his wheel, then what seems like nothing begins to flow with the finger tips and an object of beauty is formed.
It's this kind of wholeness and truth that we look for as we work with the land to enlighten others to a way of living that has been all but forgotten, this for me brings a sense that my intention is honorable, and that those who cross my path will leave with their hearts and souls enriched not by me but by the very land that I love.
I am nothing but a gatekeeper,
I am just there to facilitate the connection,
I am just there to shine the light.
This is where the Shaman and the Druid both blend into each other for me, working with stories, energies and sound to weave the natural Magic of this ancient Island we live on, and in so doing the Healing is found deep within all of us, from the Birch to the Oak, from the Hawthorn to the Yew.

We all at sometime in our journey feel disconnected, or unable to connect to a path we feel drawn to, this leads to frustration, or questioning ourselves and our beliefs, doubts begin to creep into our minds. This is a natural reaction that we must overcome, we live in a world with faster and faster ways to get what we want and so we are conditioned to think this way about all we do, but this is not the case when we work with the Earth and her spirits.
Nature grows at its own steady pace and accepting this is the first lesson we have to learn when working with Spirit, whether you are Wiccan, Druid or any of the paths that come under the Pagan umbrella.

Intuition is an observation, an awareness of the subtlest of energies, inside and outside of you. Know that whatever is happening outside of you; your body is mimicking and/or duplicating it inside at the same time. Trust what you perceive. You do not have to understand it.
Judge none of it; just observe it.
When we judge it as right or wrong, we begin to dilute our perceptions.
Slow down, listen with all of your senses. Slow down to the speed that you can comprehend. Feel what the energy is like.
All living and non-living things have a vibration. Be open to the sensation of all of them. You are discovering and building a vocabulary of energetic frequencies. When you live in this kind of reality, you are no longer totally dependent on what you hear and see for information.
Perceiving the energy gives you so much more. Everyone’s abilities are different. Do not try to be like someone else. Trust your own information. Trust your own process in getting there.
For me Nature is the greatest guide there is. When I want guidance in a decision, contact with the souls of my ancestors, or solace in suffering, I wander the hills and woods of my land where I am held, rooted in the very soil, finding inspiration in the patterns of tree bark, the pebbles in a river, or the dawn mist.
Sitting inside the womb tombs, the temples of the dead, for me, is a meditation with the living Earth and the spirit of the ancestors, this is where I find inspiration.
Working with the spirit of the Yew tree is where I am remade, shattered then put back together.
Working like this, trusting in your own perceptions of events leads you deeper and deeper, till the day comes when you break through and you feel a change in that connection.
You then have a profound shift inside of yourself, you find that your awareness changes and this brings a change in reality, a kind of shift in your perspective on life. Work with this, learn to flow with the energies, draw their healing powers into you.
This is “connection”, this is what we yearn to achieve......

Phil /|\