Part Three: Feminine Rage and Dancing with Power
Combining a West Visualization with a West Affirmation
Feminine Rage & The Shamanic West, continued…
This post is a continuation and the final installment of a free three part teaching about feminist shamanic ways for dealing with feminine rage, which arises in the shamanic West. The affirmation also introduces you to some of the other aspects of being a woman that one encounters and develops in one's visits to the West landscape in the course of feminist shamanic training and practice.
The Role of Directional Affirmations in Feminist Shamanic Practice
Feminist shamanic practice consists of much more than engaging in shamanic journeying. It also involves consciously aligning ourselves with the teachings and gifts offered us by each of the four seasonal directions within the Middle level of the feminist shamanic Medicine Wheel Mandala. There are many ways this is done. One very simple and fun way that you can safely begin doing so is to consciously align yourself with the four cardinal directions within physical reality, for shamanic reality is not as far from physical reality as we may think. It exists on the other side of the psychic veils that exist between physical and shamanic reality, which shield the uninitiated from unknowingly wandering into its archetypal realities. To begin this fun practice, simply carry a compass with you, and learn what adjustments need to be made when using it, given your location on earth. For example, in my location, true north is actually 21 degrees east of where the compass needle indicates it is. If your car has a compass feature, you can also do this while driving.
If not driving, simply try to sense where North is, and turn to face that direction, then check your choice on your compass. If driving, without checking your car's compass, try to sense what direction your driving towards, then check it. Over time, this simple practice will help you to better orient yourself on earth, and that orientation will carry over into your visualization and affirmation practices.
Doing directional visualizations and complementary affirmations in the sequence suggested will also strengthen your ability to know where you are on the earth as well as in shamanic reality.
A Feminist Shamanic West Affirmation
Introduction
If you haven't yet read the first and second posts in this teaching, I recommended that you do so before attempting this visualization. The first post, Feminine Rage and Dancing with Power, will introduce you to the wild healing power of the shamanic West, and the second post, Part Two: Feminine Rage and Dancing with Power, will introduce you to the visualization that should always precede this affirmation. The visualization offered in Part Two is done facing west. In that practice, you visualize the landscape of the shamanic West from a distance, gazing towards a vast desert plain and the Dark Mountains that run north to south through its center.
Once you have completed the visualization, imagine yourself standing atop those Dark Mountains, facing East. From this vantage point, you see that between you and the shamanic East lies the vast desert plain of the shamanic West, then the Black Sea of the West, beyond which a vast Green Sea stretches out before you, and that at the Center of the Green Sea floats the same Sea Turtle who carried me into the shamanic West in the journey described in the first installment of this teaching. This is what you're visualizing as you speak the affirmation aloud.
While the visualization orients us to the landscape of the shamanic West, and introduces us to She Who Dances with Power, the West affirmation chant connects us to our feminine ancestry, and makes us aware of several additional gifts that we can earn as we work with the shamanic West: sensuality and psychic power, sexual confidence, freedom from illusion, and freedom from inhibition and the development of shamanic "heart."
When you've visualized yourself standing atop the Dark Mountains gazing towards Sea Turtle at the Center of the Green Sea, you're ready to begin the affirmation.
The West Affirmation Chant
In the place of the Setting Sun
In the place of eternal Autumn
In the place of Thunder and Lightning
Where Bear roams,
I stand atop the Dark Mountains at its heart,
Gazing towards the Center, where Sea Turtle abides.
As sensuality and psychic power embrace me,
I am freed from emotional and sexual inhibitions.
I stand upon the collective sexual and psychic power
Of my feminine ancestry.
My arms reach for the sky,
Calling down unto myself that which is needed
To realize my soul's purpose.
Before me is heart. May I walk with heart.
Behind me is sexual confidence. May I walk in sexual confidence.
To my left is freedom from illusion. May I honor it.
To my right is freedom from inhibition. May I discover it.
I set my intent to honor, embrace, and fully express
These, the gifts of the shamanic West.
I have spoken.
When you've spoken the affirmation, visualizing the things about which you're speaking, gradually return your attention to the everyday world around you.
To derive the most benefit from this feminist shamanic West visualization and affirmation, do it every day as sunset fades and twilight rises during the time beginning with the Autumn Equinox and ending with the Winter Solstice, for this is the time of the shamanic West, when you will be able to connect best with its energies.
Please comment on your experiences of attempting the West visualization and affirmation offered in these posts. For more information about feminist shamanism, you can visit my web site: