Crystal Shamanism

INTRODUCTION

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which you read this book and ask that you join me in paying respects to their Elders past and present and future generations.

My path has led me down a deeply healing and life-changing journey, and I have been blessed to have connected with some very special souls, traditional shamans and spiritual leaders over the years. The door first opened when I had a powerful soul awakening with an amethyst crystal, which then led me to manifest a job at Hay House Publishing working as Doreen Virtue’s personal assistant and mentor to thousands of angel initiatives. My heart then guided me on an adventure around the world and meeting shamans from different cultures, which allowed me to birth and connect deeply with my own shamanic teachings and wisdom. I spent 20 years, from 2000 to 2020, running my own academy of healing, sharing my stories and guiding healers to connect with their own personal medicine and supporting them to share it with the world. Over that time more than 10,000 students and 50 teachers came through the door. I have continued to travel the world facilitating workshops on crystals, shamanism, drum making, inner child and Pleiadian healing, offering this sacredness to whoever feels the calling.

I invite you to take a journey with me as we uncover the secrets that have led me to this sacred work and the awakening of my own personal soul’s medicine.

The information, ceremonies and healings found in this book are not from any specific lineage but are birthed from my own connection with each medicine and my own personal awakening and remembering. I offer this book to you as an initiation from my soul to yours and invite you to open and receive the ancient downloads of energy contained within. The book and its contents are sacred, and I ask that you treat them accordingly. As you embark upon this journey and read through the book, actively working with the processes, know you will enter into a vortex and sacred space just as though you were sitting with a shaman or visiting a sacred site. As you read you will activate a powerful energy that is offered to you for the highest good of all and with the highest form of love possible. There is no mistake that you have been guided to connect with this book and its sacred teachings. Possibly we have a soul contract in this life and my part is to offer this sacred space for you to remember and discover your own shamanic wisdom.

The intention of this book is to offer inspiration and be an invitation to rekindle your own connection with this beautiful earth, her allies, energies, great spirit and your own personal medicine. Many of us are awakening ancient shamanic wisdom from within, wisdom held in our DNA from our ancestors and our past-life experiences as medicine people. All of this information is available now and can be activated at will, so it’s time for you to awaken to your inner shaman and embody this power in your own life. Please take what feels right and leave what doesn’t and, most importantly, allow my story and the shamanic wisdom to spark and awaken your own truth and powerful medicine. This offering is from my heart to yours, and that you are here in this moment reading these words means that you are a powerful medicine person.

I hope to invite a fresh perspective on shamanism while at the same time honouring all ancient law and culture and respecting the sacredness of the old ways, stories and ceremonies. I believe we are all native to this land called Mother Gaia, and that some of us have soul contracts to share our medicine utilising the old ways while creating new ceremony and integrating fresh practices. The calling and passion to do so is driven from a need to heal and bring our land and her people into a state of balance, harmony and peace.

I truly hope that me sharing these stories opens you up to see that you have shamanic medicine within you, whether it is in this lifetime, a past life or your ancestors: somewhere in your soul there has been a deep connecting with shamanism. If you have a yearning then it’s time to awaken, to look after this earth, each other and yourself and it’s time to create new ceremonies and bring back the sacred. I truly hope the wisdom and medicine in this book inspires you to awaken to your shamanic gifts.

HOW TO WORK WITH THIS BOOK

Over the last 20 years I created a range of powerful healing processes that I use in my healing business and offer in my workshops. Most of the healing processes you will find in this book are what I teach in my Crystal Shamanism levels 1 and 2 workshops. I invite you to utilise the healings for yourself or work with them in your healing practice. However, if you choose to offer them to others make sure you have experienced them yourself and that you thoroughly understand the medicine.

The chapters of the book begin with an outline of the subject of the chapter and some healing earth medicine processes you can utilise for yourself or offer to others. After that I offer my personal experience and awakening of the medicine. Next I relate which crystals guided me to awaken to my knowledge, crystals that worked as allies to assist me in building a strong relationship with the spirit of each medicine. Finally, I offer you a healing process or ceremony so you can have your own experience. Some of the healings are advanced processes, so it’s very important that you embody and understand the medicine before you offer it to others.

Part III runs through all of the important steps of healing for practitioners and has a healing code of conduct. If you choose to offer healings to other people, please ensure you read this key section of the book.

Note: when you see the words ‘Personal healing’ it refers to a meditation, process, healing or ceremony you do with yourself, while ‘Practitioner healing’ refers to a meditation, process, healing or ceremony you facilitate for someone else.

AWAKENING YOUR INNER SHAMAN

I was born and raised in the city, and my connection with Mother Earth and her medicine and my shamanic gifts were never taught to me by my parents or anyone in my sphere of influence in my younger years. My journey into shamanism came from a natural awareness that was sparked within and my own personal experiences as I walked the path of healing. I definitely had guidance and support from some very special people along the way, but the majority of my shamanic connection came through my own inquiry.

I have had many moments of awareness of being a shaman in a past life and have been given the opportunity to bring this energy and my gifts into this life. Mother Earth with her powerful medicines and my team in the spirit world facilitated many healings and initiations so I could understand the medicine intimately. The more I connected with myself the more connected I felt with my surroundings and the wisdom of shamanic practices. There were times when I would have amazing experiences and then receive confirmations in books and conversations that what I was awakening to was ancient shamanic healing processes. How could I have this knowledge, and who was I to have these experiences?

Something really sacred and special was happening to me, something beyond my comprehension. I was invited to trust and allow a deep awakening to occur, and so I did. It was like waking up from a deep sleep to an ancient wisdom from the beginning of time. I came to understand that we are all connected with this beautiful earth and all her medicines and I believe it’s everyone’s birthright to understand this union. This awakening is a personal journey and powerful vision quest through life.

We are currently living in a very special time, when as a race and mass consciousness we are awakening to a deeper truth. I believe the veils of the worlds are at their thinnest and the ability to access ancient wisdom is abundant. This knowing is in our blood and bones, our DNA, and it’s in our souls, and we are currently in a global awakening to this deeper truth. People are starting to wake up, to question the main narrative and delve deep within their own souls for guidance and healing. Religions are being questioned, and the development of modern-day medicine appears to be stagnant.

People are looking for alternative ways of living and a deeper connection and truth, and are turning to shamanism and back to the old natural ways of the land for guidance and answers. The shamans have understood this connection from the beginning of time, and I believe we are shamans who have been birthed back into this world to help humanity. We are rainbow bridges offering fresh wisdom and new ceremonies to assist society and Mother Earth as we come together to create an alternative way forward, one that doesn’t destroy or harm the planet and all who inhabit her but instead allows us to live in harmony with nature and the law of the land in balance and with love at the core.

It is time to awaken this innate knowing inside of us and offer it in our present time to our community and those who feel lost and in need of guidance and healing. We are the wounded healers and we are driven and inspired to help others through our own life challenges and diversity. You are one of these people and it is time to listen to your own inner calling and birth your light on this planet; it is time to awaken your ancient inner shaman. This wisdom is within you – it always has been and always will be – and it’s time to bring it forth and birth it into reality for the greater good of the planet and the divine healing of all.

Your powerful spirit has guided you to this moment and will continue to support and direct you on your path. Trust your inner calling. I am so happy that you have arrived at this moment in time. Life hasn’t been easy for you, and you have made it. My heart and soul honours your heart and soul for all that you have been through and all that you are.

This book is for anyone drawn to the path of healing or helping humanity or who has an interest in shamanism and earth medicine. You can simply read this book or you can delve deeply into your soul and awaken to your powerful truth: the choice is yours. This constant awakening leads us down a path of walking gently on this land to be the best possible version of ourselves and sparks a deep fire inside to guide others on their path of self-love and healing. I invite you to take this shamanic journey with me, walking side by side, and will share many stories and wisdom that has opened me up profoundly to earth wisdom and offer processes that will assist you to awaken, trust and follow your own path of shamanism.

Let’s begin this journey together.

THE MEDICINE OF SHAMANISM

A shaman is the healer or medicine person of a tribe, the one who holds the wisdom and creates healing, ceremony and rites of passage for their community. Shamans walk between the worlds, one foot in reality and the other in non-reality states of consciousness. They experience and invoke trance-like states that allow them to journey into the spirit worlds to access powerful energy and medicine for people who seek healing. They work with the medicine of the earth and spirit and know them both intimately.

The three shamanic paths

Although there are three main ways to embark upon the shamanic path, no matter what path awakens you to your shamanic roots they all lead you to the same destination of working deeply and sacredly with the medicine of the earth and the spiritual realms. You learn to walk with one foot in both worlds and become the conduit and medium between them.

The first way to journey the shamanic path and the traditional way is to be born into a family of shamans and be chosen to continue the ancestral wisdom from previous generations. The shaman of the family watches the young ones growing up to see if they show any traits of a shaman. If they do the shaman takes that young person under their wing and teaches them their sacred craft and the secret ways of their people. The young person spends many years in training, going through countless ceremonies and rites of passages to ensure they are ready and fit for the job.

The second way to journey the shamanic path is an internal calling to a particular lineage, one in which you devote your life to a specific tradition and make your way through the teachings and initiations with the intention of mastering the craft. You would spend time with a master of this medicine learning how to fully embody the shamanic processes and wisdom.

The third way to journey the shamanic path and the way in which many these days are finding shamanism is through a soul awakening or dark night of the soul. This is usually invoked by some type of personal trauma such as sickness or a mental health crisis in which you are called to look deeper within yourself for the answers. As I mentioned before, we are living in a time when many are waking up from a deep sleep to a birthing that is happening inside us, in our souls, in our DNA, a want to do better and help others in this world. This birthing can invoke memories of being a shaman in another time and place and open the veils of the worlds to a place where we are able to access this wisdom at will more than ever before.

Similarities between traditional and modern-day shamanism

In traditional shamanism the shaman enters into a trance-like state and journeys into other realms to gather healing energy to bring back and offer to others for healing. Modern-day healers or shamans drop into deep meditation and bring through healing energy for their clients. Although it is a slightly different process, the intention and outcome are the same.

Traditional shamans connect with the spirits of many different earthly medicines and offer this energy to others for healing. Modern-day shamans work with the same medicine; for example, crystals to assist others and themselves in healing.

Traditional shamans lived away from the tribe and were seen as being slightly mad or eccentric. Modern-day shamans usually feel like the black sheep of the family or the odd one out. It is the same essence, just played out slightly differently due to our contemporary age.

There are many similarities between the healers of today and ancient shamans: they all access the same source to create healing and awakening for themselves and others. A shaman or healer’s intention is to bring balance and healing to the mind, emotions, physical body and spirit, with the ultimate goal being to create powerful healing for the soul. By finding your own connection with the god source, spirit, earth and its healing medicines and tools you will start to awaken your inner shaman and truly understand this amazing world we live in, the universe and the power of love and healing.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

On my shamanic path I have been truly blessed to have received several initiations from shamans and medicine people around the globe, but I don’t believe you need to be initiated by others because this wisdom is inside you and the gifts from past lives as shamans is awakening within you. However, at different times of the journey you may meet someone who assists in activating this energy within you or you may be drawn to certain places on the planet – vortexes – that also hold this energy to assist you to awaken. Fundamentally, it is within you. A part of my awakening and soul contract was to meet up with certain souls to assist me on my journey, and I would love to share some of my story and how I awoke to my own shamanic wisdom and deep connection with our earth and her powerful medicine.

Despite not being guided onto this shamanic path in my early years and my traditional Catholic upbringing, it was still an organic and natural part of my journey to start becoming aware of this more shamanic aspect within myself. After my time working with Doreen Virtue and Hay House Australia and connecting deeply with all the angelic energies, I felt it was time to understand and connect with the new energy that was stirring within me.

I started to become aware of a deep inner calling to travel to Peru and I felt a strong knowing that I was going to meet a very powerful shaman. I decided to listen to the calling and went travelling around the world, spending six months living in South America. It was one of the most challenging but also amazing times of my life; I felt as though I