Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition - Raven Kaldera 2012

Summer Solstice
The Golden World: Sun

This is the second half of the exercise we began at the winter solstice, and now we’ll explain the point of it. Sacred and blessed substances are important to shamanic work. Every longtime practitioner has a supply of objects and substances that have been energetically changed in some way. The simplest method, which we will refer to again and again in the various craft sections, is making or manipulating something with Intent—meaning that you actively put energy of a certain flavor into the item, using your motions and activity as the way to embed that energy. You can also embed energy that isn’t your own—for example, sitting next to a lake while knotting together a net and actively drawing “lake-ish” energy off the body of water in front of you to suffuse each knot. These create what we call charged items, and you can do the same with substances while chopping, sifting, or grinding them.

However, making them sacred means getting a blessing on them. This usually requires that they be touched in some way by a God or spirit. In the last exercise, you practiced being the conduit of a blessing, which you’ll do again in the fall. The solstice exercises are a different way to go about it. On the winter solstice, you asked the Sun to bless a piece of amber (which has an affinity with the Sun), and you buried it, as the Sun is at its darkest point on that night. You created affinity, and asked for the Sun to put her touch on the item that was dancing her dance. This is a way to get a blessing on something that does not require the ability to be a conduit. It’s very useful for people who can’t master the equinox exercises, or who are having a bad day and can’t manage it at the moment, or have a client who has to do the process for themselves without a close relationship with the spirits in question.

Both energized and blessed substances are useful, for instance, to burn and “smoke down” a person or place, to place in extremely tiny amounts (what Raven’s partner refers to as a “shamanic dose”) in food or water, to put in a power bag or spirit house. Amber is a wonderful substance that can be worn as jewelry or ground into a powder to burn as incense, mark on someone’s body, or grind into sacred bath salts. You can also place a few grains into some mead for drinking. Sun-blessed amber can be used in any shamanic working in which you need to focus the Sun’s energy.

Exercise: Unearthing Amber

At noon on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, go to the place where you planted the amber six months ago. Before you do any digging, face the sky and thank the Sun for touching its tiny spark underground. Then get down on the ground and thank the land spirit for keeping it safe. If you’ve brought offerings to pour out for the Sun and the land spirit—and by this time it should be routine for you—give the gifts and dig up the stone. Unwrap it and let it sit out in the Sun for a while. If it is a rainy day, let it sit out for a few hours during the next sunny day.

Then get a piece of fine-grit sandpaper, and sand the rough stone until it is smooth. Don’t use coarse grit and work your way down to fine like you would normally; do the whole thing with fine sandpaper. It is all right if it takes many days of periodic work to get it smooth and in the shape you want; erode it slowly like Nature erodes stone. The point is to get as much fine powder off of it as possible, all the same grain. Sand the amber over a large piece of paper so as not to lose any of the powder. After each session of sanding, carefully shake the powdered amber into a small vial with a tight lid. This will be your Sun-blessed incense, and many other things as well. When you have the stone sanded into the shape and smoothness that you want, you can place it on a Sun altar or wear it as sacred jewelry to connect with solar energy.