Earth Spirit Dreaming: Shamanic Ecotherapy Practices - Elizabeth E. Meacham 2020

How to Know Vibrational Reality
Sacred Space and Preparation for Working with Light
Spirit-Connecting Practices

Practicing the Earth-connecting activities in Part Two of this book will support working with vibrational reality. The longer and more consistently we work with the Earth-connecting practices, the more facility we develop for working with vibrational energy. When we move into working with energetic/vibrational reality, we can create a picture of ourselves rooted to the Earth and connecting with Spirit. Visualizing this truth helps us develop an embodied knowing that we are beings of Earth and Spirit, and thus can blend and move through these realms with sensitivity and intention. Deepening these practices, we move from unconscious to conscious creation.

Our rational mind rejects the sensations of the practices; we have a little Descartes in our heads telling us that our mental concepts of reality represent truth, and to distrust the other-than-rational knowing of our bodies and spiritual perceptions that often fail to fit neatly within that rational framework. Ironically, embodied, spiritual experience shows us that our thoughts are creating truth; in that sense, Descartes was right — “I think, therefore I am” is truer than he knew, albeit with a completely different slant. Rather than our thoughts accurately reflecting objective reality “out there,” it is the truth of our inner experience, expressed in thoughts, that empowers us to co-create the world “out there” through intentional, heart-informed thinking. Joseph again: “Your current problems arise because your minds have come to instruct your hearts. The shift now is for your hearts to give directions to your minds.”⁶⁴ This is moving back into our bodies and hearts, and activating an adjusted alignment with the skills of our rational minds.

Words are very limited for describing experiences with energy and light and can distort our ideas of these other realms. Instead, we are required to move beyond the limits of our language to learn the special ways of knowing available to us in vibrational, spiritual reality. Yet, words are what we have to share these experiences until we can share by connecting to one another in those realms, which does begin to happen with shamanic healers and long-time spiritual practitioners. After long practice, our understanding is seated more and more in our heart-mind, which speaks in symbols, feelings, intuitions and story. Only this symbolic part of ourselves, our wisdom self (archetypal self), can “understand” energetic and spiritual forces. While the Western paradigm champions rational thinking, and rational thinking has grown human knowledge in tremendous and valuable ways, it is time to reawaken our symbolic, Earth-connected heart wisdom.

Preparing to Work with Light in Vibrational Reality

Our vibrational awareness is connected to, and inseparable from, our emotional, mental and physical bodies. While attempting to separate ourselves into various aspects and systems — mind, body, spirit, psyche, soul — is a limitation of Western language, these concepts provide useful maps. These maps, however, are merely guides that are unable to capture our wholeness as integrated beings. Developing ecological consciousness, we understand that as nothing in the world is ultimately separate from anything else, so none of our “parts” are separate from one another. As we move fully into Earth Spirit Dreaming, we embody the truth that everything is connected. Cultivating reverence for life — through ceremony, creativity, learning a sacred and intuitive flow with Earth — we create sacred space to open gateways to vibrational experience.

Our subtle energy system, the origin of our ability to perceive vibrational fields, is deeply integrated with all of the other systems of our bodies as well as the life systems of the planet. Awareness of vibrations is interlinked with our sensitivity to physical and emotional sensation. Thus, our physical and emotional sensations can guide us toward a deeper understanding of vibrational reality. Eventually, this changes the way that we experience and understand our thinking. For that reason, it is helpful, and strongly encouraged, to always start with an embodying Earth-connected practice from the previous section of the book before actively engaging with vibrational fields. It is important to do vibrational work with as much clarity and conscious intention as possible, and as much connection with Earth through our bodies as we can foster in any given sacred dreaming experience. It is essential to be strongly grounded, and to clear your physical and emotional space before working with vibrational fields. Without this preparation, we are inevitably pulled into an ingrained tendency to entrain with the dominant fields surrounding us, rather than transforming and lightening consciousness in ourselves and the world.

Preparation and clear intention lead to active awakening to our creative and healing abilities as spiritual beings. Take time to prepare; again, take time to prepare. The basis of the Earth Spirit Dreaming method is that we become aligned with our evolutionary, genetic full selves: That all of our gifts and ways of knowing are attuned to the profound task at hand. We enter the work of dreaming initiated into fullness as humans and as much completeness of alignment with Earth and Spirit as we can muster in any given moment. Though we are never as far as we might go next time, we practice, practice, practice with dedicated intent to bring forth a new world. Preparation is the most important part of the work: creating the gate, learning to let it open, stepping through to consciously dream and envision the world anew.

Michael Laitman captures beautifully the mystery and humbling wonder of working in vibrational light fields in his book, A Glimpse of Light: The Basics of the Wisdom of Kabbalah:⁶⁵

I am in a large, expansive system, which I don’t feel or understand. In that tremendous system, I live in a tiny place called “this world.” How do we reveal the entire system, know it all, feel it all, and become its owner?

Drawing the Light within the system is the force that will open up my senses, my inner channels, the force of life that will restore my consciousness.⁶⁶

We begin our preparation to enter the light realms with awareness and intention by creating sacred space, the groundwork of opening gateways to cross the threshold of reason into conscious perception of light.

EXERCISE: Creating Sacred Space

Purpose

To support your practice working with healing vibrations and light, first create a sacred space and set a clear intention. There are many ways to create sacred space and it is important to find a method that feels right to you. Trust your intuition, and all of your fully developed natural senses, to lead you to the methods that will be personally powerful and connective. You can do this by exploring rituals for creating sacred space, then improvising from these methods until you find the elements of ritual that work. To do this, by following the guidance in this exercise, find your own sacred objects, rituals and places that tell your body and mind that you are now entering a deep spiritual place, opening to vibrational awareness, a practice to re-vision your life and the world.

Through regular practice, your own sacred space and personal ceremonial cues will help you reach gateways to spiritual-vibrational reality more quickly and dependably. Also, whatever space and place you choose to do this work will become increasingly “charged” for you, and those who you may choose to invite into the sacred work. Your rituals, sacred place and ceremonial objects will become a reservoir of strength and insight for you.

Description

Begin to create sacred space with the locations and tools that you worked with for the Earth-connecting practices earlier in this book. The connections and cues to your body to wake up and engage with ecological consciousness is the first element of effectual vibrational work for healing the world. Eventually, your sacred space becomes the landscape for shamanic visioning. Creating sacred space comes from an intention to do things in a sacred way.

Compose an altar with sacred objects: things that bring you positive feelings of joy, gratitude and love; special and meaningful memories; and beloved places.

Also, collect things from nature. Locate your altar in a place that feels safe and special to you. Choose a beautiful cloth for it. Arrange the altar with great care, feeling the relationship between all of the sacred things, holding each one in gratitude and allowing a web to form between them.

You can create circles of objects and stones honoring the directions, and add things to honor earth, wind, fire and water; the species of the world such as feathers from the winged ones, water beings with shells, earth walkers, herbs, sacred plants and trees, or any other aspects of the world community. And, it is okay and just right to start where you are, even with just a few sacred things and a small shelf or place on the floor. Altars grow and shift over time. The most important thing is to begin and cherish the process with as many things and any space that you can find.

Keep the objects and this place in a sacred way and interact with them from a place of beauty. Send this space light, love and gratitude as often as you can. Loving objects changes the charge and meaning of these things in our lives and sacred work. If possible, use these objects and this place only for spiritual work.

Eventually your sacred space and objects will signal to your body, mind and spirit that it is time to enter your spiritual work. Over time, your body will learn to catalyze with the signifiers more quickly and deeply. These repeat patterns help you get to the appropriate state of consciousness quickly and effectively. Repetition of routines that create a grounded and clear space support the practice of vibrational work.

This is where rituals come in. The components and order of activities that create a preparation ritual for vibrational/energy work will be different for everyone, but often start with sacred locations and sacred objects. You can work with various exercises and ideas from the previous chapters and those later in the book, as well as weaving in other activities that activate your sense of awe.

Experiment with a process that feels good to you, then improvise within this framework to keep it fresh and in line with your growth. Clear your thoughts through quiet time, meditation, journaling — again, whatever works to clear the clutter. If you need guidance, try the suggestions for ceremonies in Chapter Two of this book.

EXERCISE: Grounding to the Earth

Purpose

The importance of grounding, and why we do it as part of an integrated spiritual practice, is the Earth-connecting aspect of this method. It is important to ground every time we open sacred space to vibrational healing work for ourselves or for others. Eventually the goal is to feel grounded to the Earth throughout our lives, and definitely any time we are doing spiritual practices. Grounding to the earth becomes a daily part of living in an ecologically conscious way. To ground you can use any of the exercises from the Earth-connecting section of this book.

Along with developing an awareness of grounding throughout your life and spiritual development, choose a place within any ceremony to intentionally ground and honor the Earth and all of life. I usually do this a few times in different ways in each ceremony. Where you do it is not particularly important, but doing it is essential to work with vibrational and shamanic reality safely and effectively.

Description

Often before I create or enter sacred space I feel my feet on the ground, and go barefoot on the Earth if I am outside; or I imagine a cord reaching from the base of my spine where I am sitting down into the core of the Earth through any simple visualization that comes to me in the moment. Also, I work with stones as sacred objects, as mentioned throughout this book, to help me ground, and often place stones on my body or rest my feet on stones during rituals and healing work.

I consciously ground as soon as I begin any ceremony or ritual, and often before. If I am preparing a ceremony in a new place, I will ask the Earth to show me where and how to connect with the energetic patterns and elementals in a particular location. Hold grounding as an intention as often as you can. This will come naturally as a result of regular Earth-connecting practices. Always find a place in your ceremonies to intentionally ground your sacred space to the Earth. The more time we give to preparing — grounding, clearing, setting our intention — the more impactfully will our vibrational and visioning experiences translate into the world over time.

EXERCISE: Setting Clear Intentions

Purpose

Like the physical world, the world of vibrations is filled with a wide variety of information, experience and drama. Becoming actively engaged and intentional with our action in this realm is essential to bring healing and transformation to our lives and our world. Before entering an energetic/vibrational experience (after embodied grounding), be clear about your intention for the practice.

In the vibrational realm, many of us are programmed by our experience in Western culture to take, to pull energy through wanting and longing. One of our guiding cultural norms is to consume, and we are often thinking about what we can get, and what we need, even if we don’t realize we are thinking about it. Pulling energy is often unconscious: I need more money, who will care for me if I’m sick, where will I live. This underlying and insidious insecurity perpetuated by the dominant global consciousness can influence our work with vibrations. Whether we know it or not, we are always moving through the world of vibrations. Seemingly paradoxically, we are able to lighten and clear our energy at a vibrational level by giving, rather than pulling.

The energy of giving — love, light, positive intention — increases (raises) our vibration and allows us to connect with other souls with high vibrations, and open a channel to higher beings that want to support our spiritual growth. With this in mind, when setting intentions for working with energy, your work will be more effective if you set your intention with a goal of giving.

Carefully reflect on and consider your intentions for spiritual work. We can unintentionally perpetuate our old stories and patterns through our intentions. When we ask for specific things, it’s important to know that we may not be surrendering to our spirit for our own best growth and healing. Often, what is best for our spiritual development and growth feels uncomfortable and scary. Yet, we also need to keep our day-to-day lives in balance. So, it is a careful balancing act to set intentions for healing ourselves and the world and honoring our own agency to open to this in a way that we can handle. Our spirit guides are eager to help us grow, which can feel overwhelming and beyond our ability to manage sometimes. It takes time to grow our capacity for letting go of many of the things that feel safe and most relevant in our lives.

It is okay to say no and set limits, and also good to create intentions that support healing. Sometimes, if this feels too hard, we can stay neutral in our spiritual work, simply asking for support and wisdom to get through a day or a period of our lives. When I set an intention, I do my best to let go of the outcomes, while also identifying my bottom line and setting that within the parameters of my intention. For example, my intention is to fulfill my spiritual mission on the planet to the best of my ability. My bottom line for my Earth self is that I want to give my children a stable home and live in a warm, safe house with my furniture and my friends nearby.

Description

Create a daily prayer that is a general intention for your life, and then create individual intentions within that when you do specific pieces of work. Taking the time to create a general intention that is informing your life becomes a good guide to lean on when life is very busy or becomes unexpectedly difficult.

My daily prayer of intention for many years was, “Divine Creator of the Universe, what can I most be to glorify you?” My always prayer now is, “I pray that my life will be in alignment with my soul mission and the healing of the world.” This can be a scary prayer, as things that my ego is very attached to have fallen away or been transformed beyond recognition. But, these shifts in my life have opened me up to levels of healing, peace and joy that I wouldn’t have imagined possible. So, instead of asking for this or that thing to work out (which of course we all do sometimes, anyway), it helps to reframe concern for individual issues into a giving, flexible approach when possible. That said, when things get really hard I still sometimes fall on my knees and beg-pray for help and for certain outcomes.