When I was in Glastonbury last year at the SSP conference, I performed a large ceremony for everyone gathered there.
It was a group healing, where every participant had an oportunity to transfer their pain, sorrow, suffering, obstacles, sadness, and trauma into postive healing energy. In that ceremony we used sacred grains and a sacred earth mandala as a part of the process.
The sacred earth mandala is called the Jhankri mandala (shaman mandala). It is the anthropomorphic representation of the universe. The four directions are represented by four figurative heads and the cardinal directions by four figurative hands connecting the heads. It has three outer three circles represents the three worlds of the shamans, with tridents in four outer most directions representing the process of transmutation.
The inner most space of the mandala is divided up into nine square ‘boxes’ like the game ‘noughts and crosses’. These nine boxes represent nine ‘houses’ or ‘rooms’, and are created to represent the nine planets. These are the seven planets plus the head of the dragon (rahu) and tail of the dragon (ketu) which makes nine. As misplaced planets are sometimes the causes of problems they are represented here. It was a very deep and strong ceremony.
The spirits worked through me, making me dance, whistle, and drum during the whole thing. I have found that if the intensity of suffering felt by the people taking part in a ceremony is high, then the dance will be strong and long lasting. The more the spirits inspire, the greater the dance and greater the healing takes place. But shamans are not really the healers, they are the facilitators and creators of the sacred space within which an individual can receive the healing energies brought by the spirits.
The creation of a sacred space takes place by singing a song of peace, harmony and joy; drumming a harmonious rhythm, cleansing the environment; purifying the outer spiritual body of the sick person the ceremony is being held for; relighting the candle of hope; awaking the slow life forces and penetrating inside the profound vital energy that safeguards the whole mechanism of an individual.
As I said before, shamanic healing is a partnership between the client and the healer. Healing is not only meant for curing the affected body parts, but also should bring about a profound harmony between the spiritual, emotional, energetic and soul parts.
Nepalese shamans believe that only having a healthy physical body is not enough, we need to have healthy relationships with our environment, our family, friends, ancestors and all the spiritual realms. Shamanic healing takes place in a very safe and calm environment where the client and the shaman can express themselves, feel safe and well protected.
Healing can be a long process for some, but for others it may happen during the first session itself. The more we are open and collaborative, the faster the healing takes place. The shaman in his altered state of consciousness (shamanic trance state) travels through imagery landscapes, symbols, colours, shadows and lights. During this journey they try to find out the causes of the clients problems and through songs, metaphors, symbolic actions and myths bring back the harmony within their client.
In some cases the shaman creates a safe environment for the soul parts to come back to its place of origin. Sometimes very dramatic healings take place due to the strong presence of malignant spirits and dark opposing forces which the shaman drives out. But really, there are no words to explain a healing session, it is an individual feeling, and one should try and see how it feels oneself by taking part.
Namaste...
