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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.

Since childhood, I have had the same dream about two or three times a year. I appear to be a peasant with long dark (Asian?) hair, working in a field of some kind in a wooded, mountainous area. I can't tell my gender; it seems to be unimportant. I see myself in the third person. I am near a village when I become aware of an army of enemies preparing to attack my village. I begin to run toward the village to warn them of the impending assault. I am spotted so I run in another direction so as to lead them away from the village. I am chased by the invaders. It feels as though I run for several miles through dense woods and undergrowth. I experience the feeling of crashing through the brush and the tearing of the skin on my arms. I hide in a small wooden structure and am discovered. I am crouched under something and receive multiple blows to the head and bleed to death. I do not feel the blows or experience any pain during the assault. I do not see the faces of the attackers or recall any describable objects. I always wake up exhausted and sweating. I am not disturbed by witnessing my death. The dream was always exactly the same until about three years ago. Now the situation is the same, but I am on a horse and the village has become a community that lives in some sort of a bunker underground. I do not hide but am knocked off the horse and killed. Logic tells me this is a past life memory of a death, but the feeling I get from the dream is that it is future tense - not past - and has not yet occurred. There is the sense that this is a warning of some kind; I feel compelled to warn others but I don't know what I am warning them of.

Linda

Susyn:

I feel these dreams hold memories of a past life, for the common details and events you recall are too specific to not involve an event you actually lived through. When past life memories come up, we can often see clues to them in our current lives. For example, though you are not an Asian peasant this lifetime, you may have always had a fascination with Asian culture.

When we recall the moment of death in a past life, it can influence our health in some way in this lifetime. For example, many people who lost their lives due to blows to the head experience inexplicable headaches, while those who were killed by hanging may be uncomfortable with having anything around their necks like ties or scarves. The crashing through the brush and tearing of the skin on your arms could manifest as rashes or skin irritations in this life that crop up for no apparent reason.

I see a couple of different ways to interpret these dreams that seem to be of the future. Sometimes we can tap into Collective Memory and dream of a past life experience of another person we've been close to in both lifetimes. This could explain why you dream in the third person; perhaps this dream is answering a question you have long held about what happened to someone you loved well in another life. It is likely that you know or are related to this person in your current lifetime.

The second interpretation is that you are indeed dreaming of a future event, though without having more information, it is impossible to predict the time or place of its occurreence or to warn others about it. Premonition dreams can be particularly upsetting, for seeing the future can make us feel like we are responsible for preventing or influencing it whether that is possible or not.

As a Gemini born in May, you could find it particularly difficult to distinguish past life memories from current life issues. You carry the imagination and intellect of a Gemini, but because you were born in May, you also have the earthy, physical influence of Taurus in your astrological makeup. This can make your dreams seem more intense and make it harder to determine whether they are past events, future events, or symbolic of something you are currently going through.

Though there are lots of movies and ideas out there that suggest the End Times are near and that people could indeed be hiding out together in bunkers in the future, I strongly feel that this second dream is arising from Collective Memory, by which I mean that you are dreaming the experience of someone close to you and not an event you are doomed to experience in the future.

*****

Oceania:

There are some clear themes in your dreams: trying to evade harm, being attacked, and yearning to spare others from suffering. These could be things you personally experienced as a child or something you witnessed. It's important to note that the Vietnam War was taking place throughout your childhood, so you may have been exposed to disturbing news footage without consciously remembering it.

Along with real life experiences, children can be traumatized by upsetting news and fictional violence in books, games and movies, especially if they're not allowed to talk about it. Children can survive most trauma emotionally intact if they have an opportunity to process it with a loving witness. Damage can be done when children are forced to push upsetting feelings aside, but it's never too late to heal.

Your mind may be using elements in your dream to contain some of your own feelings. Seeing ourselves in the third person is an element of dissociation, where the mind leaves the body and observes events from a distance, detached from pain. Trauma victims often describe this phenomenon of observing from afar in a detached manner. While this is a valid way to cope and survive at the time, to find freedom, we must consciously acknowledge repressed feelings and express them in some therapeutic way.

We go through life much like bellhops, pushing a cart of baggage. While we might manage to ignore the baggage most of the time, it's always there, taking up psychological space, sapping our energy, even popping open to spill out into the present. The only way to free ourselves is to stop and sort through it in a safe setting.

Because your dream happens two or three times a year, it is likely triggered by something in your life today that is reminiscent of your original trauma. Start keeping a log of these nightmares and think about what happened and what you were exposed to just before they occur. With some good detective work, you can decipher why you keep having these dreams.

What was happening for you last year? Did you do some personal growth work, expand your circle of support, or undergo a spiritual awakening? That may be when the dream symbolism changed for the better. Instead of running on foot, you began riding a horse, which suggests that you began to feel carried and assisted by a higher power.

You're also no longer alone, and you don't go into hiding. That the community you are hoping to protect has moved underground suggests that it is better defended. These changes suggest that you've been feeling more empowered for the past three years, and are progressing through a healing process.

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.