Sky Yeager
Shamanic Practitioner - Usui Reiki Master - MariEL Reiki Medicine
You can now listen to a podcast recording of my latest article below And find more episodes on Spotify |
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You can now listen to a podcast recording of my latest article below And find more episodes on Spotify |
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The urge for change this year was strong. After living in an apartment complex for eight and half years, I was ready to move. I missed having a yard, and I felt that was something I needed to have in my life again. It didn’t matter what size as long as I could put my bare feet on the earth and give my plants more room to open to the sunshine. Decent rentals are hard to come by in Corvallis, due in part to the University student market and demand for them, and the overall affordable housing issues in Oregon. I had a conversation with the faeries and nature spirits in and around my apartment. I let them know how much I appreciated the care they gave to the place and to me, but I needed to move on and I would appreciate any help they could give. For three months I looked at many rentals, none of them felt right, but I kept getting the feeling that something was about to happen. I looked at a duplex in the next little town over in Philomath, and as soon as I pulled up next to it, I felt faeries. It was big wild faerie energy. The duplex was on a corner lot and in the corner was a wild place that had been fenced off by the public works. The fence is fairly low key black chain link. I don’t really know why it is fenced off, but there is some kind of water drainage there, a little gully sunken below the level of the surrounding land. It is full of wild green life, shrubs, small ash trees, cedar, blackberries and wildflowers. And faeries. I could feel them, that electric sensing in my energy field that they were there and they ruled the area. Because of that, I wanted to live there. I didn’t even know what kind of yard or anything else the place had. I just knew that my apartment fae friends put the call out to their friends and they called me in to this place. I applied and got the place and found it had everything I wanted, including a yard. I knew the first thing I had to do when I got there was to make an offering space for the faeries in the lovely spacious back yard near their wild area. Then moving weekend came and I was overwhelmed. I ran up and down my second floor split level apartment stairs so many times my hamstrings burned. Luckily I had a lot of help, but had to manage so many details and I was exhausted by the end of day. We moved all my twenty-ish pots of plants over, and the little side porch became full of herbs, ferns and flowers. I had a planter box with rosemary and geraniums that had a cut out bottom so it would sit on a railing or fence. I was out of room on the porch so set it on the wooden fence that ran along the yard. The next morning I got up and went out in the yard to greet the plants and faeries. I saw that my big heavy potted lemon tree had been knocked off the little back deck and lay on it side. I picked it up, it was okay. I wondered briefly about that, it was breezy the night before but not real gusty. It’s always chaotic unpacking and finding things but I also felt an odd pressure as the day went on. It was unsettled, ruffled energy that was beginning to feel uncomfortable in my body. When I went out to water the plants I realized my planter box on the fence was missing. I looked over the fence and saw it sitting right side up at the bottom of a deep wild area between our back yard fence and the neighbors fence. This narrow strip about three feet wide ran the length of our fences and connected to the wild faerie corner fenced area. I immediately got the message that I had overstepped a boundary. The faeries let me know that this wild strip between the fences was theirs as well. But that I could have my planter back. My brother kindly got the step stool and climbed over the fence and down into the blackberries to retrieve it for me. I then realized with chagrin that in the flurry and exhaustion of moving the day before, I had forgotten my promise to set up a space and make an offering to my new faerie neighbors. That was the ruffled uncomfortable energy I was feeling now. They were letting me know that they were annoyed that I hadn’t followed through on my promise. I remedied that right away. In the back corner of the yard is a big rock and some ivy and sweetness that felt right, so I offered dried herbs and flowers and honey water there. I formally introduced myself and promised to honor their wild spaces and to be a good neighbor. They let me know they liked crystals and I promised to set some there as soon as I unpacked them. After that, the energy lightened in the house and yard and flowed smoothly. There are many reasons to set up an area for acknowledgment and offerings for the local nature spirits, faeries, spirits of the place. It makes a space where we can meet that feels like a threshold, common ground. In this liminal area we consciously recognize unseen dimensions of the nature spirit world and how they overlap with our perception of the physical world as we usually see it. And it also helps keep us mindful to tend our relationship with consistency and respect. But more importantly, it seems to delight them. That is the best reason of all!
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Having relationships with plants and especially herbs has always resonated with me. This started in my childhood in our yard and wildflower fields and forests around it, and the chamomile tea my mom made for me to help me sleep. It grew over time to pots of plants, overflowing tea cabinets and a whole cabinet in my kitchen full of dried herbs and jars of homemade tinctures and oils.
I am fortunate that I have been able to learn from some excellent teachers, but the most relevant lessons come directly from the plants themselves. In shamanic and other anamistic work, we engage directly with the spirit of all beings, be they plant, animal, stone, elements, places, and objects both natural and human-made. We also use our second attention to track what is going on around us, always noticing and taking in information with our felt sense (felt sense is everything we notice inside as well as outside of our bodies). And in the noticing come the lessons. All of my spiritual herbalist teachers have said that what is growing right around us is the medicine we need at the time. This applies to us personally but also to the collective as a whole. This summer lemon balm started growing in almost all of my potted plants. Living in an apartment, I feel fortunate to have 2 large balconies, one upstairs and one downstairs. I had one lemon balm plant on the downstairs balcony. Yet, most of my plant pots on the upstairs balcony have sprouted lemon balm. I pluck it out, I harvest it and dry it for tea and it comes right back. It’s in the oak tree seedling in the bucket, the mini-rose I’m trying to keep alive, coming up from the thicket of thyme. It finally occurred to me the other day that there is a message it is trying to give me. So I sat down with my drum and tuned in. Almost immediately a feeling of cool green comfort wrapped around me. Calming the outer layer of my energy field, buffering any disturbance or chaos that may be going on around me. I heard them speak to me. We help one to lose interest in the collective drama. We do this by bringing be-ing not do-ing. But when you must do, you can also be. I was shown that bringing myself back to feeling the cool green window in my center that lemon balm creates for me helps me be present in what I am doing. It instills a sense of calm presence in the action. And I got the feeling that lemon balm is also about fresh starts and new beginnings, the vibration of spring no matter what the season. The message of lemon balm was simple and something that I felt so much in my body. I thanked them for the message and the medicine and decided I would just let it grow wherever it wants for now. After all they are sharing their energy and vibration with all the other beings in the neighborhood as well. Lemon balm Melissa officinalis is in the mint family and has wonderful medicinal properties as well as the energetic properties they described. For a lovely dive into that, check out evolutionary herbalist Sajah Popham’s plant profile here. We acquire power objects in many different ways, but most often the spirits of the objects reach out and specifically choose us.
Many of my friends and colleagues tell stories about a drum calling to them across a crowded room of vendors. Or passing by it and feeling pulled to it, connecting to that spirit right away. The stories usually start with, “I hadn’t planned to get a new drum, but then this one spoke to me and wanted to come home with me.” Many times power objects will be gifted to us by our teachers. Releasing them is part of their learning path and receiving them is part of ours. Usually they come with no instructions or information at all. It is part of our learning experience to engage directly with the spirit and find out what powers they hold. Sometimes we are not ready to engage with that power. We have to go through initiations and learn to raise our energy to the frequency where we can work with the power. If that is the case, and if it takes us a while to go through our initiations, the spirit of the object may go to sleep. When the timing is right, we may get a nudge from our team of helping spirits about what we need to do to wake up the spirit of the object. And then sometimes the spirit just leaves. Many years ago when I was very new to my shamanic path, my first shamanic teacher, Lone Dove, met me for lunch at a restaurant. A couple other students who were in our study group joined us. When Lone Dove walked in, the entire energy of the place amped up a level. She sat down and placed a paper bag she was carrying next to her chair. I felt ripples of energy coming from that bag. After a time she handed it to me. By this time I felt like I had had three cups of coffee and my hair on my neck was standing on end. I opened the bag to find a turtle shell rattle which felt warm and alive in my hand. It was exquisitely crafted with a handle wrapped in snakeskin and beads. I was stunned. She didn’t tell me much about it, except that she was passing it on to me now, and that I would receive what I needed to know from the rattle itself. I gave it a protected place on my altar, welcomed it with ceremony and danced with it in my medicine circle in the backyard. I journeyed with it asking for guidance from it. I didn’t get any then, but kept trying. Over the next few months I worked with it on and off but I was distressed to feel the power ebb from it. And Lone Dove had moved and gone on to other things, my studying with her had ended. At that time, I was not up for the initiation that the rattle brought with it. I did not have the wisdom or the strong relationship with my spirit team then that was necessary to work with the rattle and the power it held. The overlighting Spirit that came with it that had a relationship with Lone Dove left the rattle. Perhaps it went back to her, I do not know. But the spirits of the parts of the rattle were still there and I did connect with turtle and snake spirit over the years. I learned much from the rattle since then. In many cases the spirit of the object remains with the object and can teach us when we are ready. We may just need to reach the level of consciousness that resonates with it, or in some cases wake up the spirit within who may be sleeping. We will get nudges or even detailed instructions when ready. When we are ready to pass power objects on, the spirit of the object can direct us to who they would like to go next. That is also something to think about before we leave this plane. I know of powerful shamans who have after their death contacted other shamans to retrieve power from objects they left behind. Ceremony can be done for the original owner so they can take the power with them in the Spirit realm they are inhabiting now. When we have relationships with Spirits who are embodied in power objects, we have a responsibility to caretake them and the power they hold. If we are getting into our elder years we may begin to pass on power objects to family members, students or colleagues. We may think about leaving detailed instructions with our wills and trusts about our power objects. That way power can be passed on, retrieved or even freed to go where it will. I like to think that the Spirits who power these objects can have infinite experiences in many realms, just like our own soul essences. It’s just possible that we partner with one another again and expand our relationship in new ways. |
MissionTo help you tend to soul issues that may manifest in physical, emotional, mental or spiritual aspects of your life, and to give you tools to empower your path to harmony and well-being. Categories
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Links-There are so many kindred spirits doing the work out there. I include these links to help our community connect with one another.
FAIRY CONGRESS - Offers a summer weekend gathering in person with workshops, circles and of course faeries and nature beings! They also offer a winter virtual weekend with amazing guest speakers like Orion Foxwood, David Spangler and R.J. Stewart. I highly recommend joining the online network to participate in monthly workshops, circles, and book clubs. https://fairycongress.com/ SACRED HOOP Magazine Guide to Shamanism Compilation- http://www.sacredhoop.org/Pages/FreeGuide.html Owner Valeria Pearson lovingly created SOLE TO SOUL YOGA studio with a community focus. There are classes for all levels and events that lift the spirit. I am grateful to be able to hold circles and events in her studio. https://www.soletosoulyogaoregon.com/ My friend and herbalist mentor, LAWRENCE BIRCH is a Certified Clinical Herbalist, plant whisperer and shamanic practitioner. If you need custom tincture blends or are interested in a wildcrafting apprenticeship, he is the teacher extraordinaire: http://givingtreefarm.com/ ROGER WHEELOCK and GAYLE RUTH are shamanic practitioners and teachers in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition. https://www.rainmother.com/ I am grateful to be able to take part in ceremony with them, and to support their love for the Peruvian people through the World Ayni Association. Roger has a practice in Asheville, NC https://www.communityshaman.com/ NEW WORLD KIRTAN = Kitzie's podcasts include interviews with artists and kirtan music. I love attending her weekly Satsang group and the New World Kirtan Band concerts - newworldkirtan.com/ |
Want to keep in touch? Every month I send an email with my latest article. I also have updates about workshop offerings and community events. I never sell or share your information and I will never abuse the privilege of being allowed into your mailbox.
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