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

Journeying to The East
The East: The Space of New Beginnings

As for the ancient Mexica and Maya, the gifts of the East for soul retrieval include rebirth, emergence, new life, and new beginnings. When we come to the East, we understand what occasioned the soul loss, have released whatever may have impeded the soul pieces from returning, have developed a stronger connection with the ancestors, and have developed our spiritual maturity, intuitive awareness, and discipline. In the East, we are ready to emerge, resurrect ourselves on a new path with our restored soul pieces, and retrieve a core part of our soul piece that can provide the energy to maintain and ensure our positive evolution. This core piece is not necessarily different from the pieces that may have been returning to us during our work with the cardinal spaces; rather, it is the part that is ready to embark on new beginnings, where we create new stories, identities, habits, patterns, and ventures. Typically, I find this soul piece in the Middleworld, a hologram of an Earth realm, when clients are being true to themselves and have been on a journey of authenticity and self-love.

As with the other spaces, going to the East may be more than a one-time occurrence. Sometimes we proclaim that we are ready for new beginnings, but we do not yet have sufficient energy to sustain this new path. Being patient and compassionate with ourselves, and being willing to continue our work, will continue to build a stronger connection with our soul pieces, and inspire them to return and remain in an increasingly loving and nurturing home. Because the soul is sacred essence energy, when more of that energy returns to us, we have the capacity to sustain our new path and grow in exciting and positive ways.

Journeying to the East

Start by cleansing the space you will be working with. You can smudge the space with any bundle of dry herbs to cleanse the space. (Smudging is a cleansing method that requires getting a bundle of dried herbs, lighting it, and walking throughout the space to bless it with the smoke.) Thank the teachers and spirits of the East for welcoming you into their sacred space, so that you may retrieve your soul piece with ideal and divine grace.

Releasing Foreign Energy to Go into the East

This breathwork exercise is a very simple way to purify the body and charge it. While doing this exercise, set the intention of releasing all energies that are not yours and give yourself permission to just be in your own pure essence energy. Cup your hands over the mouth, and take a prolonged inhale. Open your hands, and exhale quickly 3 times using your abdomen to exhale and release. Repeat this exercise 7 to 10 times.

Navigating

Decide whether you will navigate your journey into a specific nonordinary realm or you will wait to see where your lost soul piece is. If you want to choose your destination, you can apply any of the shamanic tools to go into this specific realm.

Entering through Your Axis Mundi

In a slight trance state, set the intention to journey into the East 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, toxic emotions into them. Then see yourself enveloped in the white fires of purification and resurrection, allowing them to purify you more deeply and open you up to your full potential. (For more information on traveling into and out of the sacred heart, review chapter 2, here.)

Navigating Your Journey into the East

Set the intention that you will journey into the space of the East, of emergence and new beginnings. Ask the wise spirits of the East to take you to their home so that you may connect with a lost soul piece that is ready to return to you for new beginnings. Allow your consciousness to fully move into this intention and into the space of the East.

When you sense, feel, see, or hear the soul piece, observe its surroundings. Approach it with love, and allow yourself to recap your soul retrieval journey for it, including what you have discovered, the releasing and cleansing work you have done, how you have begun to love and honor yourself more, the new paths you will be starting, and anything else you feel is pertinent and inspiring. Once you have shared your process, ask the piece if it is ready to come home and emerge on this new path with you. Reaffirm that together you two will have the energy and motivation to persevere on this path.

If it responds in the affirmative, allow a love-light to radiate out from your sacred heart, connect with this soul piece, and guide it back home into your sacred heart. If you are working with a client and returning their core piece to them, you can instruct them to shine a love-light from their sacred heart and use it to guide the soul piece back home. If the piece is not yet ready to return, foster a connection with it by shining a love-light out to it from the sacred heart. If you are honoring yourself and integrating the lessons, this will eventually result in a graceful and permanent return of the soul piece.

If you are working with a soul piece that returned to you early on in another cardinal space, connect with that soul piece in the East. Make a commitment to each other and agree on the new path you will be taking. Proclaiming this commitment will typically draw in increased sacred essence energy, and you will probably feel even more reinvigorated after your journey.

Before leaving the East, ask the wise spirits of the nonordinary realm and the East to continue to help you to understand what living your authenticity looks like and feels like. Thank them for infusing you with sacred essence energy to be successful in your path of new beginnings. 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, exhaling out of the mouth. Now allow some time to reflect on what you have experienced.

When you come back, this breathwork exercise is recommended for grounding and running this sacred essence energy throughout the body, including the subtle energetic bodies.

Take a deep inhale, hold your breath, tilt your head back, open your eyes, close your eyes, bring your head back to center, and exhale. Repeat 3 times.

Take a deep inhale, squeeze your shoulders, hold your breath for about 30 seconds, exhale, and release the squeeze. Repeat 3 times.

Take a deep inhale, make a tight fist with both hands, hold your breath for about 30 seconds, exhale, and release the fist. Repeat 3 times.

Take a deep inhale, squeeze your buttocks, hold your breath for about 30 seconds, exhale, and release the squeeze. Repeat 3 times.

Take a deep inhale, curl your toes in tight, hold your breath for about 30 seconds, exhale and release the squeeze of your toes. Repeat 3 times.

Drink a glass of water, and take some time to reflect on the journey. Journaling, along with the other contemplative exercises mentioned throughout the book, is also incredibly helpful for noting your progress. Your new path should be one centered on self-love, self-care, self-awareness, and honoring yourself on all levels—career, relationships, health, and activities.

Contemplative Exercises for Creating Something New and Magical to Honor Your New Beginnings

In honoring new beginnings, it is helpful to engage in a magical activity that will promote reflection and hold the intention of the new path. Examples can include setting up a new altar; rearranging living spaces; creating an oil blend, a bead necklace or bracelet, a tincture, or a spritzer; or sewing a blanket or an item of clothing. I find making spritzers to be relatively easy and fun, so this is the exercise I will expand on.

Making a Spritzer

First get a bowl that can hold at least 16 ounces of water, and put water that has been blessed or charged into the bowl. Here are two ways to charge or bless water:

Water, crystals, and light. Put filtered water or preferably spring water in a clear glass or bowl, and put a clear calcite or clear quartz crystal inside the bowl. Then place the bowl on top of a parchment paper that states the intention of the new beginning. The prayer should be written using a number 2 pencil. Leave the glass of water outside or on a windowsill for a full 24 hours to get the magical energy of the moon and the stamina of the sun.

Prayer or invocation. Say a prayer or invocation over the water and send your loving intentions into the water. It also helpful to place a label on the glass that states the intention of the new beginning.

Sit for a while and allow yourself to further contemplate the new path you are opening up to. Decide which plant and oil resonates with your intention and use it to make the spritzer. Get a 16-ounce bottle that has a spritzer top and fill it about 70 percent with one of the plants below, and then place the charged water in the bottle filling it almost to the top. Finally, place a drop of your essential oil into the bottle and seal it.

Sit for a while, and allow yourself to further contemplate the new path you are opening up to.

Allow yourself to go into a trance state and connect with your I Am presence. From this divine space, set your intention into the spritzer.

Leave your spritzer on a windowsill that gets sunlight, or in the sun, for 5 days. If the weather is cloudy, that’s OK: leave your spritzer out for 7 days instead of 5. After the days have passed, strain your spritzer with a cheesecloth, and take out the herbs. Place the herbs back in the earth or in a compost bin. Clean out the spritzer bottle with water, and place the strained infused water into it.

Use your spritzer daily, especially when you are giving yourself time to reflect, and allow the spritzer’s magic to propel you further into your new beginnings with ease and grace.

The spritzer will typically be good for a few weeks. You can also place 1 or 2 drops of vitamin E oil to preserve your spritzer solution for another 2 to 3 weeks. But be careful to not place more than 3 drops of any oil in total. Doing so will likely clog the head of the spritzer after a while.

(There are of course many more essential oils and plants that will help to bring the intentions to fruition. I have chosen some of my favorites.)

Spritzer for Welcoming New Love

Essential oils: lavender, ylang ylang, or sandalwood

Plants:

Rose hips: attract romantic love

Lavender: attracts sensual and peaceful love

Spritzer for Forgiveness and Compassion

Essential oils: lavender, Roman chamomile, or jasmine

Plants:

Lavender: softens the heart and helps with compassion

Lemongrass: encourages forgiveness and peace

Spritzer for Good Fortune and Opening Pathways

Essential oils: peppermint, pine, or rosemary

Plants:

Chamomile: removes misfortunes and enhances good fortune

Comfrey: increases monetary good fortune and deters theft

Lemongrass: changes bad luck to great fortune, and opens pathways

Spritzer for Happiness and Joy

Essential oils: lemon, orange, or bergamot

Plants:

St. John’s wort: eliminates depression and inspires joy

Mint: enhances the power of any intention and inspires joy

Soul Release and New Beginnings

Many of us have been involved in taking someone else’s sacred essence energy, often unintentionally. For whatever reason, we may feel we need someone else’s energy, and we take it. Sometimes they are willing to give it to us. There are also traumas and interactions that result from picking up soul pieces that do not belong to us. They can seem to haunt us and can weigh us down. The person whose soul piece has been taken may act out against you in different ways.

Soul release does not have to be done in the space of the East. It can be done in any cardinal space whenever it becomes apparent that we may have taken someone else’s soul piece. If you feel that this may have happened, or would like to simply make sure that you have not done so, you can engage in this exercise.

Releasing Someone Else’s Soul Piece

Recognize sacred space, calling to the wisdom and spirits of the cardinal spaces. Allow yourself to go into a trance through any of the suggested exercises, and enter the nonordinary realms through your sacred heart.

Ask your power animal, spirit guides, or I Am whether you are holding on to someone’s soul, alive or deceased. Then request an ideal ritual for returning the soul piece back to the person. Examples of soul-releasing ceremonies include:

Blowing the soul piece into a crystal and giving them the crystal, or burying the crystal for 6 months and asking that the Earth help you to return their soul piece.

Getting an object from the person, or one that belonged to them, blowing the soul piece into the object, and returning it to them.

Using the West releasing exercises, such as lighting a fire and releasing the soul piece, as you throw flowers, copal, or some other offering into the fire. Thank the fire for helping you to return the soul piece to the person.

Giving the person a gift, and giving the soul back through the gift.

During a journey, calling in the person’s I Am into your sacred heart, the heart of oneness, the heart of God, and returning their soul piece through your breath.

However you decide to return the soul piece, honor and thank the person, and let them know that you no longer need their energy. Thank the sacred fires of God’s Love and Light for cleansing the soul piece, and return the soul piece to the person by engaging in any of the recommended rituals or one you felt intuitively was needed.