The subject of power often comes up in shamanic practice. Power within comes from the knowledge that one can respond to situations from a place of inner strength and integrity. Power is also shared as a partnership with helping spirits, as in with one’s power animals. It’s very common to hear about and to have power animal retrievals.  A shamanic practitioner can work with helping spirits to retrieve a power animal for a person who may have been separated from theirs. We can also track where we may have lost power in other ways and retrieve it.

Just about everyone has experienced giving power away or having it taken from them. Often this comes with a feeling of being victimized.  With assistance from helping spirits we can go back to those points on our timeline where we felt like we gave away our power to another person or circumstance. We can work with our helping spirits in non-ordinary reality and gather up our lost power.

This week I recently had a major power retrieval situation come up for my own healing. I went back to Arizona for the holidays to visit family.  Driving in Tucson I turned down 22nd street, instead of another road I had planned to take. My arms moved the wheel while my mind was occupied with something else.  I realized I was going by a duplex where I lived for three years back in my early 20’s.  There were many painful points in those years, coming up from the deepest rock bottom I had ever been in my life. Pluto was just coming out of conjunction with my natal sun back then, its depths obscuring my brightness and bringing many of my shadows up for me to deal with in a harsh way. What I remember most from that time is feeling like a victim; of relationships, society, and circumstance. Now almost thirty years later my shamanic self is finding this route not accidental, but a meaningful nudge from helping spirits.

I did a check in. Am I coming back by here because there are still cords to cut to disconnect me from the energy of this place? No, not cords, but I’m seeing that there are threads of power that need to be reclaimed and brought back home to myself. An Ah-hah moment! Then later due to road work, I had to detour and drive through another neighborhood where I lived before the duplex, which was the point where I began my slide down into that lowest, darkest time of my life. Ahh, now this is getting very interesting.

As I’m heading south on the interstate, I’m thinking about the timing of revisiting so many places I used to live. And I’m thinking about all the times and places in my life where I have lost or given away power. I realize that I need to do a journey to reclaim and gather back that power. Right after that thought, a semi-trailer comes into view, and painted on the side is a green lightning bolt and the word SKY. Power, Sky. I laughed out loud. Sometimes Spirit wants to make sure I really get the message!

The day after I got home from my trip, I sat before my altar and went into journey. My helping spirits took me to the places in non-ordinary reality where my lost power was waiting for me. We visited five places. In each case my lost power was being looked after by guardian spirits who were glad to return it, and told me about the gifts that were returning with it.

This kind of work is profoundly personal, but my helping spirits want me to share a little of what I experienced to help others understand this kind of healing. In one part of my journey a gray-green swirling water whirlpool appeared. There was a tunnel going down through the middle of it. Suddenly from out of this tunnel rises a big beautiful dragonfly, iridescent with water droplets. It flies around me sprinkling water on me, its presence full of joy which rains down on me. I feel the joyful iridescence infusing my energy field and into my cells, and especially my eyes. I was shown that this related to a time thirty years ago when the water company shut off our water for non-payment. I remember the feeling of helplessness and anger as I was pleading with the water company employee that there had been some mistake as my husband had told me he had paid the bill (he hadn’t). The gift in this power return was primarily joy, but also the ability to see through illusion.

I have had plenty of joy in my life since then. This gift was related to the power of joy and trust that I had lost in this one incident. Its loss in effect was a small hole in my energetic make-up, that is now filled in and repaired. It was apparently a nexus point of some kind for me that required this attention. Not every power loss is going to require this kind of specific healing.

Being open to the messages that our spirit helpers send our way will help us track what kind of work needs to be done to return us to wholeness. The more we can achieve wholeness, the more inner power we can hold. That makes it easier for us to do our work, to help others, and to shine our light in the world.

I am passionate about bringing community together. I know that there is power in shared intentions. A few well-known writers and scholars have integrated science and spirituality to prove that point; Lynne McTaggart has demonstrated that with research outlined in her books The Field and The Power of Eight.  But the best way to experience it is to participate in a group that comes together for a shared purpose, like a healing circle.

When community comes together to support one another on their spiritual paths, a solid container is formed for the work.  It is etheric in its essence, but that container holds the energy and amplifies its focus.  When the group consciously calls in the spirits of the directions and the helping spirits of each person present, we can feel them coming in, standing around the circle. We can feel the energy in the space change. Sometimes it’s like an electrical charge waiting to happen. Sometimes it feels like a comforting light blanket that a loved one drapes over our shoulders.

As is the case with our local healing circle, we settle into our seats in the sacred space we created, and each person gets an opportunity to request healing or to offer to facilitate healing for another. Often the people facilitating the healing energy for someone else find that in itself to be a healing catalyst for themselves as well. If we are a conduit for energy, we receive the benefit of the energy as it flows through us. There is also plenty of space for people to be there in a supporting role; drumming, rattling, grounding what needs to be grounded, joining in the intention for the best possible outcome for the highest good. Everyone supports, everyone benefits.

Three summers ago my friend Lawrence brought me along to a shamanic healing circle in Eugene facilitated by shamanic friends of his, Alida Birch and Reid Hart. I felt the power and grace in both the healing that was happening and in their service to the community.

 Afterwards Lawrence and I found we both received nudges from Spirit to facilitate this kind of circle in Corvallis. We teamed up and invited all the people we knew who we thought might be interested and we started meeting once a month. Corvallis is not a large city, with a population just under 60,000, it has a diverse spiritual community with the shamanic portion of that mostly under the radar.  We had no idea how it would go, or if anyone would attend. Now it is with a little awe and a lot of gratitude that I realize that that the Corvallis Shamanic Healing Circle just had its second birthday.

In the two years since we started it, the circle has become a dynamic process. It has changed location several times, and its format flexes to fit the energy of the moment and as Spirit directs. We opened it to the public, and not only do we get shamanic practitioners, but now Reiki, Pranic, Attunement and sound healers attend to be in service.  I feel like we have been able to evolve and grow our practice to become that solid container for healing to happen in our community.

In these chaotic times, we are all being called to shine our light and step into our authentic selves.  When we hear the call that its time to offer our talents and gifts in service to others, we must take that courageous step and answer it, whether we feel ready for it or not. Trust Spirit to know when you, and your community, are ready.