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January 9 through January 15, 2023

Doors can magically open on Monday, as the Leo Moon urges us to reach for the stars and start pursuing our dreams. Tuesday the Moon moves into Virgo for a three-day visit, bringing out our detailed and organized sides. Watch for criticism or stubbornness over the course of the week, as Virgo can tend to bring out our idealistic sides. Mars will turn direct on Thursday after a two-month retrograde cycle, and officially kick off the new year with action, action, and more action! Get ready to rock and roll! Friday and Saturday’s Libra Moon will be a call for balance, as we clear out the remnants of the last year and start preparing for the new one. If you haven’t hung your calendars, dusted off your day planner, or set up your virtual scheduling apps, now is the time. Sunday’s Scorpio Moon will cast a spiritual vibe all around us, compelling us to stop, pause, and look internally for the balance and intuitive direction we need to move forward.

Soul Walk: A Simple Exercise for Soul Integration, by Daniel Moler

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

The soul has many parts. With my work in shamanic practices, I have been astounded at the repeating presence of the number three. Various aspects of the number three will crop up in many ways on the shamanic path. For instance, there are three worlds in the shamanic universe: the upper, middle, and lower worlds. The shamanic healing process unfolds in three phases: the cleansing, the alignment, and the raising. Likewise, the psyche itself is comprised of three elements.

This segmentation of the self is not just reserved for shamanic traditions. In Qabalah, the self is reduced to three expressions of being known as Nephesch (the primal subconscious), Ruach (the base personality), and Neschamah (the higher self). Similarly, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory divided the psyche into the Id (base, primitive instincts/subconscious self), Ego (reality-based personality/conscious self), and the Super Ego (the moral conscience/ideal self).

In my book, The Shamanic Soul: A Guidebook for Self-Exploration, Healing, and Mysticism, I discuss the three aspects of the self as taught to me from my training in Peruvian curanderismo. They each are rooted in the concept of sombra, translated in Spanish as "shadow" or "shade," which is a projection or image of oneself cast upon the world. The sombra is the way the soul is expressed in reality. The three aspects of sombra are known as the:

• Sombra Ganadera: Known as "the rancher" shade, but also referred to as "the contrary" (contrario), this sombra typically corresponds to the lower self, the subconscious state of mind where base instincts and repressed memories reside. Therefore, this aspect of the soul is primarily concerned with the past. If not properly controlled or corralled (hence, "the rancher") this sombra will resurface and sabotage one's life in often unintentional ways.
• Sombra Primera: The "prime" shade is the primary personality, conscious and aware of the world around us, the aspect of our soul concerned with relationships and day-to-day living. This part of the soul is more concerned with the present.
• Sombra Criandera: The "wet nurse" or "nursemaid" shade is the aspect of the soul that nurtures the self upon one's path, encouraging them toward evolution. Other traditions call this the higher self, that which is concerned with transcendent reality.

Often life will bring upon a set of challenges that will fracture these aspects of the soul. The natural way of life is for these parts to work together in unison. If they do not, they will work against each other and individuals will wade through life confused, disgruntled, and even engage in self-sabotage. One can be easily ruled by emotions or ego, and disharmony of the sombras will reflect a disharmony of the soul.

Although my book The Shamanic Soul is comprised of many spiritual healing practices, most of them are centered upon the mesa, a shamanic altar used for shamanic training and practice. However, one does not have to have a mesa to engage in shamanic healing. In fact, you have everything you need already! Your mind, body, and soul are built to heal themselves. Just as a physical wound will heal in the right conditions, all you need to do is nurture your healing capacities and provide the time/space for your soul to do its job. If my own soul feels fragmented, disjointed, or not quite in alignment, if the three sombras don't seem to be working in alignment, this is the simple ritual I follow for true soul integration.

The Soul Walk Ritual
Carve out some time for yourself. A true healing ceremony cannot be done while working or in a space where you can be distracted with other tasks. You need to allot some time specifically for your soul care, just as you would for any other event. I would suggest at least a good 3 to 4 hours, but if you cannot do anymore than that, then at minimum schedule an hour.

Find a space where you can go for a walk out in a natural setting, specifically where you will not be interreacting with other people. It is good to have some isolation from others, so you are not distracted from your healing process. There are plenty of State and National Parks you can look up, even close to the city, with walking trails that will provide an appropriate amount of isolation from the populace. You will want a space where the only connection is between you and the natural world, ideally a space to which you are connected.

You may want to take a backpack to carry a water bottle, sunscreen, or insect repellent, if that is conducive to your needs. Dress appropriate for the weather and wear comfortable shoes. Leave your phone behind. If you need to let someone know where you are, in case of an emergency, do so. However, you do not want another opportunity for distraction to arise.

When you arrive at your space, state your intention to the land that you intend to heal yourself and ask for permission and assistance. The lands listens, and the land will answer.

Ganadero Walk
First is the walk with the sombra ganadero, the aspect of the soul typically concerned with the past or subconscious state. For this you will want to begin your walk by locating a stone. If you are in an area where no stone can be found, you can choose a stick or some other natural object. However, a stone is ideal for this exercise, specifically a dark, dense one.

Place the stone in your right hand and begin your hike. The first third of your walk will focus on brining up your issue at hand. Are you having issues with a spouse? Do you feel alone, confused? Is work stressing you out? How does your issue reflect back upon you and your personality? How does it make you feel? Why do you think it makes you feel that way? Was there an event in your past that causes you to react in the way that you do, that causes you to feel or think these thoughts?

Don't judge any of these notions. And please don't try to solve the problem at hand. Just bring up these feelings, thoughts, and emotions, and witness them, without judgement. Whatever they are, just observe as you walk.

Using the power of your imagination, fueled by the physical power of your walking, intend for any thoughts, feelings, or memories that make you uncomfortable to flow from your body, down your right arm, and into the stone in your right hand. Intend for the stone to act as a magnet, attracting any density these feelings bring up to be absorbed into the stone itself, leaving your body and mind. Everything in the natural world is conscious and can utilized as a tool to assist us in our own healing. Stone are wonderful ancestors who are great at absorbing these sorts of dense energies from the sombra ganadera. It is okay, they will not affect the stone, because we will soon disburse these energies where they need to go.

When you feel that the first third of your walk is complete, that you have appropriately distributed the negativity of these feelings and emotions into the stone, find a place to bury the stone in the ground. It doesn't have to be deep. Even with your own hands or a stick you can remove enough soil to bury the stone and long as it is beneath ground-level. When you do, thank the stone for its assistance and intend for the energies you have distributed into the stone to back into the earth. Mother Earth knows what to do with these energies, as she will transmute them into something good, composting them from dense negativity into nutritive life.

Primera Walk
Next, is the walk with the sombra primera. Since this is the aspect of the soul mostly concerned with the present, you will take the next third of your walk being completely open and mindful of the present moment. Do your best to clear your mind. Pace your breathing with your walking. If any thoughts try to crop up in your mind, use the exhale of your breath to breathe them away. Focus only on the natural world around you. The shuffle of your feet on the ground. The brush of grass against your legs. The sound of the wind rustling through the leaves of trees. The chirps of any nearby birds. The movement of the clouds. Let the natural world be your only stimulus.

This aspect of the walk is a palate cleanser, from being in denser energies to now realigning oneself to the presence of your own soul as an integrated whole. This walk can be the best form of meditation. Your soul is meant to be operating in unison. You are multifaceted, but also whole, and the sombra primera reminds us of that. Let the natural world speak to you and reconnect you with the holism of soul integration.

Criandera Walk
The "nursemaid" aspect of soul looks toward the future. This sombra will caretake the necessary aspects of oneself to encourage evolution. In the shamanic path, this is often done by giving back to Mother Earth in some way, in thanksgiving for the support she has provided us. In my tradition this giving back is what we call a pago ("payment") in sacred reciprocity of the work complete.

For the final third of your walk, scan the landscape for any flowers or plants that catch your eye. A common form of pago is to pluck these flowers or plants and arrange them in a mandala-like design on the earth, providing an artful gift of beauty to the Mother. You can be as creative and detailed as you want with it, as long as you are working from the heart as a payment back to the medicine you have received in your integration ritual. If you are in a landscape where there not many flowers, you can create a design using stones, such as medicine wheel. If no natural materials are available, you can provide a gift yourself by either singing a song or plucking a piece of your hair to leave on the land.

Sacred reciprocity is an artform itself. There are not specific rules, but it must be done with earnest gratitude. It is about establishing a connection with the natural world, a rapport in which you and earth commune as one soul to another. This aspect of the sombra can be a great boon in overall soul integration, uplifting one's spirit and charging the physical body with positive energy to move forward in one's endeavors.

Summary
When done with focus and intention, the Soul Walk Ritual can mend fractured thoughts and emotions. It can bring clarity to one's soul walk in life, so that when you feel uncertain about a situation, you can provide a space for yourself where harmony can take place. Integration is about taking the unconnected pieces of the soul and connecting them so they can work together, not against each other. Take the time and space for yourself—you deserve it!

To explore more shamanic exercises, you can check out my book The Shamanic Soul.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

Life has been tough lately. I can't find work, had to fight to get grant money to upgrade my skills, and have been fighting the VA to upgrade my disability. I was at a metaphysical fair a while back, and while looking at some merchandise, this woman walked up to me and told me that the Universe wants me to rest, and that's why I'm having all these problems, why I can't seem to get a job, etc. Does the Universe/Spirit decide such things as when I need a rest in my life? I have worked most of my life and have chosen to remain single. I have gone through all my assets and I am scared I will not have enough to retire on. If what that woman said is true, the Universe/Spirit has picked the damnedest time to force me to rest. I don't know if I can handle much more, especially living here in the desert. What do you think?

- Karen

Dreamchaser:

Karen, you say that "the Universe/Spirit has picked the damnedest time to force" you to rest. Would there have been a better time in your life? Were you ever at a point where you were able, in any form, to take a rest? I would venture to say the answer to those questions is "no." There is no good time (in our human opinions) for struggle. We tend to say, "Why NOW?" Well, as I said, it is not like there going to be a better time.

Whenever we struggle in any way (with finances, health, faith, etc.), we tend to try to find a solution or an answer. The iceberg theory applies here: we can usually only see just the tip of things. Under the surface, there is this HUGE mountain of ice that is keeping everything frozen. You cannot see why this is happening, so your efforts to try to fix things are not really helping at all. There is a bigger plan. You just are not privy to it at this time, so all the fixing that you are trying to do is not accomplishing much of anything except making you tired.

I keep flashing back to a man from the Christian Bible named Job. I am sure you have heard of him. His problems were not even about his life. His problems were a result of God and the Devil doing battle - a bet, if you will. All Job did "wrong" was be the most just man on the planet. He was tortured for being too GOOD. I think you need to look at Job as an example in your own life. Read about him if you want. Maybe you'll get some much-needed inspiration.

You also said another mouthful when you said, "I am scared." This is like a light switch. It cannot be on and off at the same time. We cannot be walking in faith and afraid at the same time. You believe in Spirit enough to go to a metaphysical fair and listen to something a woman walked up and told you out of the blue. Maybe you should go find your faith that went missing. If you could find it, you would stop trying to fix things, and you would be at peace with how things are, because you would know that things would move again when the time is right.

I do understand how you feel. We all lose our faith from time to time. It is time for you to go looking for it again. You have worried and tried to fix things for long enough. Just because we are suffering and things are very difficult does not mean that Spirit has abandoned us. It just means that we are going through hard times and they've gotten the better of us. It's easy to trust when things are good. Are we really THAT fickle?

I wish you attainment.

*****

Astrea:

We are LUCKY. No matter what happens, something always comes along to save us. You can't find a job right now? When you get down to your last two nickels, a dream job will fall right into your lap. You can't get yourself motivated to get going? Something will come along after this last Mercury Retrograde that will inspire you.

Everyone gets depressed from time to time, but a Sag knows how to blast herself out of that state. You need to do some BLASTING, that's all. Blast away at that feeling of lethargy; giving up is dangerous. NEVER GIVE UP!

I know what an awful year it's been for you: piles of stress piling onto more big piles of stress that were there already, people being ugly and rude, family letting you down at every turn. Yes, I do know. This next year (2004), however, is going to be FABULOUS for FIRE SIGNS! We're finally going to slow down enough to allow the abundance the Universe has planned for us to come into our lives.

Perhaps this was what the lady in the store was trying to tell you. Sit tight and wait and rest NOW, and let these things start to stack up on the POSITIVE side of your life. You're going to be so busy in 2004 making money and having a good time that this is the only "down time" you'll have for a long time. Take advantage of it until January 6, and then go ALL OUT to get what you've only dreamed of before.

As for the Universe wanting us to REST - OH! If that was so, I would be back in bed this morning! Whether it's a blessing or not, a Sag is DRIVEN. We're driven to do everything BUT rest! From my own Sagittarius experience, I know very well that "rest" is a foreign concept to us; it's something we do when we're SICK. It's that way with all Fire Signs, but we seem to get an extra dose of "busy hands are happy hands." Even if you're not working, you can be creating. Write, dance, walk, run, play! Lots of exercise will help your head get straightened out, and will lift that depression, too!

As tempting as it might be to heed the stranger who came up to you in that store, I think you know that was just the Devil trying to make you get all lazy. As a Sag, you have to take charge of your own life EVERY SINGLE DAY to make sure you get as much out of each day as possible. Life is too short for us; more so than for any other sign. Gosh, GIRL, have some FUN!

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.