Curanderismo Soul Retrieval: Ancient Shamanic Wisdom to Restore the Sacred Energy of the Soul - Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. 2019

Journeying to The South
The South: The Space of Discovery and Understanding

As in the ancient Maya and Mexica understandings, the South is a path that can be somewhat unpredictable and challenging. But dedicated devotion to spiritual development, healing, and awareness tempers its influence and can overcome any difficulties or excesses. Many of the ancient Mesoamerican associations with the South still hold for soul retrieval work, although we are applying them to our own modern Western issues.

The South is both the path to and serves as our internal Underworld: we go from within to discover the causes of lost soul pieces and why the soul pieces have not returned. We can also understand and heal soul pieces, shadow aspects, undisciplined excesses, and neglected and unloved aspects of ourselves. In this space, we begin to comprehend what we need to learn and integrate and how we can honor our lost soul pieces. Moving forward on this path of healing, introspection, and self-awareness can eventually serve as our own resurrection and rebirth, whereby we create a loving and healthy space for our soul pieces to come home to.

In the soul retrieval process, the principal sacred essence energy that the South has to offer is a fruitful path of personal discovery, self-awareness, and understanding.

To obtain the greatest benefits in working with the South, it is important to realize that the South, or any of the other cardinal spaces, is not simply defined by, or limited to, the time and space we allot for journeying to its realm. If we let it, the wisdom and medicine of the cardinal spaces can intersect with our mundane world and bring synchronicities into our lives that will allow us to understand and integrate the questions we have posed. This will enable more soul pieces to return. Each time a soul piece comes back, we get more energy to persevere and create ideal realities for ourselves.

Journeying into the South

Choose and create a space where you feel comfortable, and cleanse it. Cleansing spaces generally helps us to feel more comfortable and allows for deeper journeys. One easy way is to place some copal on a charcoal burner. The copal both cleanses and acts as an offering to the spirits of the South. (In my book Cleansing Rites of Curanderismo, I provide many more methods for cleansing and creating sacred spaces.)

Begin by recognizing sacred space and thanking the wise teachers of the South for welcoming you into their sacred space and helping you to discover and understand whatever is necessary for the journey.

If you are a practitioner facilitating the soul retrieval journey for a client, remember that the person that is going into the trance is you: you are the person doing the trance-journey work. But you can also include your client. I typically take my clients on the soul retrieval journey with me. To help clients go into a trance state and become centered in it, I start them out with Cobra Pranayama breathwork. This invigorates the body, giving the client enough energy to stay awake during the trance rather than falling asleep. (It is normal to fall asleep during the trance journey, as this is the way we are used to traveling.)

Navigating

Before going into the South, decide whether you intend to journey into a specific nonordinary realm or you will wait and see where your lost soul piece is. If you want to choose your destination, you can apply any of the shamanic tools.

During the first few times when you journey, you may not recognize the realm where your lost soul piece is; furthermore, this soul piece may also be fragmented and lie in different realms or in the same realm. Consequently, consider coming back to the South in another journey to see if you find another soul piece that is connected to the set of issues or traumas that you are dealing with. When coming back, get a feel of which nonordinary realm you found the soul piece in. Doing so will help you understand more about this piece. Every nonordinary realm has its own characteristics that reflect the reasons the soul piece is there, and understanding these characteristics will illuminate how best to honor, heal, and love the lost soul piece.

Going into Trance

Start by inducing a slight trance state. You can engage in any of the suggested methods outlined: shamanic breathwork, dancing, drumming, rattling, or using sound frequencies. If you can induce a trance state quite readily, you may not need these tools. Nonetheless, you may choose to incorporate them in the understanding that they encompass your own personal ceremony. It is your ceremony: create it in a way that complements your life and preferences.

This exercise is ideal for slowing down brain-wave activity and entering into a deep trance state. Of course, drumming and any of the other shamanic tools also work.

The mudra is chok (to sprinkle). For chok, the index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers are together and slightly curled in; both hands are in Chok Mudra (see fig. 5.1,). The right hand is above the head, with the arm gently extended up, elbow slightly bent, and the left hand is between the navel and sternum. With a slow inhale, switch the positions of the hands, so the left hand is now above the head, with the arm gently extended up, elbow slightly bent, and the right hand is between your navel and sternum. When the hands have switched positions, take 3 sharp breaths through the mouth while contracting the abdomen. Repeat this for at least 3 minutes. Then take 7 slow inhales and exhales in and out from the nose, feeling the heartbeat slow down as you inhale and exhale.

Fig. 5.1. Chok Mudra.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

Entering through Your Sacred Heart

In this slight trance state, set the intention to journey into the South through your sacred heart. You can state the command, “Stand aside, ego, in the name of God: I am that I am.” See yourself immersed in the violet fires, throwing fear, doubt, and toxic emotions into them. Then see yourself enveloped in the white fires of purification and resurrection, allowing them to purify you further and open you up to your full potential. (For more information on traveling into and out of the sacred heart, review here.) After this, allow yourself to go deeper into your journey, and go into the South.

Going into the South

Go into a deeper trance state, frame your journey, and allow your consciousness to go to the South, the place of discovery, awareness, and understanding. You can do so by stating, “Wise spirits of the South, take me to your home, so that I may connect with a lost soul piece that is ready to be healed, nurtured, and honored. In this space, I will continue to discover and understand what I need to do to create a loving and safe space for this soul piece to return to. Thank you for your ongoing guidance and help.”

If this is not your first time journeying to the South, couch your command with the intention of continuing to work with a soul piece that is connected to the issues or traumas that you have discovered.

Finding the Soul Piece

When your consciousness navigates you to the South, you can call on your power animals, or other guides to take you to your lost soul piece. Alternatively, you can simply permit yourself to go to it. While you are in this space, notice your surroundings, and see if you can tell which realm you are in.

Once you perceive that you have come across the lost soul piece, observe it with whatever senses are the most predominant. See if you recognize it, and sense whether the energy is you in this lifetime or in another lifetime. Let it know that you have come to discover and understand why it left and has not returned. Allow the light of love to radiate out from your sacred heart and connect to the soul piece. Connect to it through that love-light and proceed with the discovery. You can ask it questions, such as:

When did you leave me?

Why did you feel you have to go?

What do you have to teach me?

What do you and I need to be healed?

How can I honor you?

How can I look after you?

How can I help you feel safe?

How can I love you?

What can I do to create a space within me that you want to come home to?

Are you ready to come home into our sacred heart?

On some occasions, the soul piece is ready to come back immediately. Generally this is when the person has been doing complementary work on the issue or trauma that prompted the soul loss. If the soul piece is ready to come back, use the love-light as a connection for it to find its way back home. If you are facilitating a soul retrieval for someone, encourage the person to allow their love-light to serve as a beacon for the lost soul piece.

If the soul piece came back, remember, the work is still not done. Go to all the cardinal spaces for their medicine and their sacred wisdom; every cardinal space has sacred essence energy for you, and your work with these spaces and energies will strengthen your soul piece. Continue to the West to see if there is anything that needs to be released, to the North for divine wisdom and guidance, and to the East for new beginnings. You can do so in one journey or throughout the days, weeks, and months to come. I recommend allowing time to integrate the wisdom and medicines of the cardinal spaces and spacing out the journeys. You may discover that there is more than one lost soul piece connected to the issue you have been working on.

Other times, the soul piece is not ready to come back immediately, for whatever reason. If the piece is not yet ready to return, maintain a connection with it by shining a love-light out to it from the sacred heart. It may come back after your journey during your contemplative integration, or at some other point in time. Whenever the piece comes back, be patient, compassionate, and loving with yourself. Soul retrieval is a process, and a wonderful opportunity for personal growth, self-awareness, and spiritual development. Always thank the wise spirits of the cardinal space you are working with to take care of the soul piece until it is ready to return.

Before you leave the South, ask the wise loving spirits of the South and the nonordinary realm you are in to continue to help you discover and understand what you need to do to create a loving and safe space for this soul piece. When your consciousness is ready to leave, go out through your sacred heart, seeing yourself immersed once again in the sacred white fires of purification and resurrection, and then in the violet fires. Take 6 deep inhales through the nose and exhales out of the mouth. Now allow some time to reflect on what you saw, heard, felt, or learned.

When we go into these spaces, sometimes the information retrieved is literal or metaphorical, and we must allow space for tuning in to what is relevant for the soul retrieval journey. Allowing space for sorting through the information is a wonderful way to step into our power and deepen self-awareness. It also reaffirms that ultimately we are responsible for our own healing and soul retrieval.

Contemplative Exercises

Make the time and space to stay in the South throughout the days and weeks to come by being open to understanding the answers to the questions you asked while journeying. As the ancient Mesoamerican shamans knew, diligent and disciplined rites can influence and possibly change repeated patterns of misfortunes.

Following are some contemplative exercises that can help ensure guidance from the South, whether or not you are engaging in a trance journey. As you reflect on what you have discovered, you will often have one soul piece or more return to you. The breathwork exercises in this book will also be helpful for grounding the return of the soul pieces.

Contemplative Questions

Starting the day with contemplative questions is a great way to open up to the divine guidance of the South. When our consciousness is contemplating the questions of the South, we continue to open up to its wisdoms and gifts, even in the mundane realm. You can say, “Today I will be open to receiving information concerning these things.”

What do the soul piece and I need to be healed?

How can I honor myself in order to create an ideal space for the soul piece to come back to?

What can I do to create a space within me that will inspire the soul piece to come home to me?

Journaling

Writing about the soul retrieval process is a very effective way to reflect on the process, what is needed, and what is or is not working. Try to spend at least five minutes a day to journal, and record the following:

Any insights regarding the lost soul piece

Observations about how connecting with the lost soul piece made you feel, and what it brought up for you

Any dreams about the soul piece

Any blocks that you may be experiencing

If you are experiencing blocks, it is helpful to take a mindful approach, do some breathwork, and settle into a meditative or trance state. Observe the blocks as a detached, present, and objective observer. Identify the emotions driving the blocks, and then identify the opposite of each emotion. Dive into this opposite emotion, and visualize yourself moving through those blocks by using the opposite emotion to do so. If you do this repeatedly, you will eventually rewire your thoughts to move through those blocks.

Breathwork and Stimulating the Chakras

Take five minutes in the morning and/or the evening to do breathwork. Stimulate the chakras associated with the issues that are coming up during the soul retrieval process. Stimulating our energy centers while gently focusing on an intention helps frame it into our subtle energetic bodies, so that the mundane world, which is also made up of energy, interacts with these bodies through synchronicities to help us further along the path of discovery.

Start with Cobra Pranayama breathing and stimulate the chakras you have decided to work on. Afterward, turn your attention inward and repeat the questions you asked during your journey, or ask the sample questions. Reflect quietly on what came up, and be open to receiving information while you sleep. I find that doing breathwork before going to sleep is a great way to induce lucid dreaming and journey into the cardinal spaces.

Here are examples of issues that may have come up, and the chakras I would recommend working with that address those issues. For more information about the chakras, and the soul-loss information that is recorded in them, go here.

Root chakra. Issues: mistrust, defensiveness, aggression, and unhealthy sexual relations and patterns. The Vayu Mudra and “UH” toning stimulate the root chakra. Press the index finger on the base of the thumb, and keep the thumb on the index finger. Let the other fingers be straight. Now place your straight fingers ²/₃ of the way up from the upper lip to the nose, stimulating the root chakra. Slowly inhale and exhale with a guttural “UH.” Repeat this 3 times. (See fig. 3.5, for the Vayu Mudra.)

Sacral chakra. Fear, anxiety, paranoia, inability to manage emotions, and involvements in codependent relationships. Prana Mudra and “OO” toning stimulate the sacral chakra. Join the tip of the thumb with the tips of the little and ring fingers while keeping the other two fingers straight. Place pressure with the middle and index finger, two fingers’ distance below the belly button. Slowly inhale and exhale with “OO.” Repeat this 3 times.

Fig. 5.2. Prana Mudra.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

Solar plexus chakra. Disempowerment, powerlessness, narcissism, imbalanced energy levels, and inability to filter intuitive information. Ling Mudra and “OH” toning stimulate the solar plexus. Make a soft fist with your right hand and cup your left hand around your right, so both hands are together. Keeping the left thumb up, place your cupped hands together between the navel and sternum. Slowly inhale and exhale with “OH.” Repeat this 3 times.

Fig. 5.3. Ling Mudra.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

Heart Chakra. Inability to receive love or love selflessly, lack of compassion, and self-loathing. Prithvi Mudra and “AH” toning stimulate the heart chakra. Join the tip of the thumb and ring finger, while the other fingers are straight. Use your fingertips on both sides of your chest to firmly press at the center of your chest. Slowly inhale and exhale with “AH.” Repeat this 3 times. (See fig. 3.4, for the Prithvi Mudra.)

Throat chakra. Inability to express oneself or commit to change and being prone to weight-related disorders. Om Mudra and “EYE” toning stimulate the throat chakra. Join the tip of the thumb and index finger while the other fingers are straight. Use your middle fingers on both sides of your chest to firmly press in the indentation between the first rib and the lower border of the collarbone. Slowly inhale and exhale with “EYE.” Repeat this 3 times.

Fig. 5.4. Om Mudra.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

Third eye. Spiritual disconnection, emotionlessness, inability to be dependable, and poor discernment skills. Active Guyan Mudra and “AYE” toning stimulate the third eye. The first joint of the index finger is bent under the first joint of the thumb, while the rest of the fingers are straight. Place your straight fingers directly between the eyebrows, in the indentation where the bridge of the nose meets the forehead. Slowly inhale and exhale with “AYE.” Repeat this 3 times. (See fig. 3.6, for the Active Guyan Mudra.)

Crown Chakra. Deep depression, confusion, and feelings of isolation. Suchi Mudra and “EE” toning stimulate the crown chakra. Place the middle, ring, and pinky fingers at the tip of the thumb, and keep the index finger straight. Place the index finger behind the earlobes at the indentation. Slowly inhale and exhale with “EE.” Repeat this 3 times.

Fig. 5.5. Suchi Mudra.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

Discovering Soul Theft

When I discover that there has been a soul theft, I always encourage compassion and strength. Often a person who steals another’s soul has done so without ill will or malicious intent. But if they did it intentionally, it is more than likely that someone did the same to them and they experienced their own share of abuse. Approaching this vicious cycle with compassion aids the person in detaching from the drama and its effects, which is helpful in gaining the energy and power to take back the soul piece.

Soul theft is common in relationships that have unequal power dynamics, such as those between employer and employee and parent and child. People generally steal the soul of another for power; envy of a person’s power and the attention they get is also a very common reason. Some people attempt to deal with feelings of powerlessness by taking a soul piece from someone else. Mothers, for example, who are physically abused and/or are not valued in a relationship may do this with a child to help them deal with their feelings of powerlessness. These situations can be difficult because the child may not be ready to take back the soul piece, thinking the parent needs it more than they do.

The results of soul theft can be severe, manifesting as mental, emotional, spiritual, and/or physical illnesses, as well as repeating patterns of traumatic events. A spiritual illness can also manifest as being closed off and withdrawn; people may try to dim down their light so it will not be taken away again.

When I am journeying and I have learned of a soul theft, I assess the situation. If I sense that the thief is unaware of the negative effects on the victim and would have compassion when learning of this, I may try to explain to the thief what has been happening and ask them to return the soul piece. I may also bargain with the thief and offer them a visualized sacred object that contains and emits sacred essence energy, such as a staff, pendent, crystal, or idol. Ancient Mesoamerican shamans believed that to sustain life, humans had to recycle themselves or find appropriate substitutions such as precious objects, aromas, and liquids.⁴⁹ Similarly, I may offer a sacred object that I envision as having an abundance of sacred essence energy to trade for the stolen soul piece.

If I sense hostility, if I sense that the thief took the soul piece intentionally or is not ready to give it back, I will distract them and have one of my power animals come in and take back the piece.

Even apart from theft, there are many reasons that a soul piece may not have been retrieved. No one can take any part of our soul unless we have allowed it on some level. Before returning the soul piece, I inquire if the person has stepped into their own power and created a safe, loving, and honoring space within their heart and life for the piece. Working on closing off, healing, and rescripting the allowance is recommended before returning the soul piece. (See chapter 6, for more information on rescripting and sealing off allowances). If the soul piece is not ready to come back, I ask the person to emit a light of love from their sacred heart and connect to the piece with that love-light, keeping a sacred connection between the two.

Soul theft may happen in any one of the cardinal spaces; similarly, working to get the soul piece back can be done in any cardinal space. Even when the soul piece has been retrieved from the person who took the soul piece, it may not be ready to come back. On the other hand, even if there has been a theft, our soul pieces tend to naturally come back to us when we are honoring and loving ourselves. If the piece has not returned, it is likely that something else needs to be discovered and released. A lesson may need to be integrated before it can come back permanently.