Another Quick Word on Victimhood...

I have STILL not figured out how to get comments viewed on the main page (though you can see it on each individual article page when you click on the article title), despite re-doing the layout to include a comments field. Any suggestions are welcomed.

In the meantime, a fellow shamanic practitioner posted this great article on victimhood by Lynne Forrest, who goes much further in depth on this topic.

As practitioners, it's really important to root out all the ways we play Victim, Rescuer or Persecutor--or at least stay aware of our own tendencies so we know when we've started down that slippery-slope and catch ourselves. Being practitioners, it's all too easy to (consciously or not) start as a Rescuer and feel trapped in an unhealthy series of roles with our client. We all feel when this happens: we feel a dip in our energies and suddenly don't want to work with a client anymore (even if we don't show it). It's a good vulnerability to plug up.

And if all that's not enough, it makes us better practitioners because we can recognize when our clients start making the rounds of this diabolical triangle. Being firmly rooted in our own understandings (and having resolved, or at least being aware of, our own tendencies), we can help them pull out (which may mean sending them to therapy) of it instead of tagging along and also getting caught in this disempowering merry-go-round.

Who Are the Clients?

As I was preparing for a session today, which was arranged through a serendipitous series of moments by the Spirits, I realized that my main clients are the Spirits. I'm their mediator, their advocate, etc. And that during the honing phase of being a practitioner (which I now realize doesn't actually end), I had to get enough guts to do some of the things that they were asking me to do: "Really? That's what I have to tell them?","You want me to go WHERE for to retrieve a soul part?," "You want me to start researching WHAT?" etc.

Initially, I freely exercised my right to refuse and had plenty of excuses in my pocket that I would pull out like Get-Out-of-Jail cards. But as time went on, I realized that HAD I followed their advice from the get-go, things would have flowed a lot easier for me, for my human clients, and thusly for the world, the Universe, etc.

So, I go along with them more because I've tired myself out trying to pick up the pieces of refusing the first time.

Part of this had to do with not knowing what my role was EXACTLY as a shamanic practitioner. Obviously, the Spirits are the ones that do the work on the soul. But it's not accurate to portray me as just the chopped liver of a healing session. Nor is it accurate (or advisable) to get maniacally He-Man-like and think, "I have the Power!" and act like it's all me. On my drive to the session, I realized that what I am is more like a boat-builder. I get together the parts and make the vessels (which includes the sessions, the practitioner, the clients, the setting space, setting intention, etc.) that allow for the Spirits to do their thing, to get to their destination (which is chosen between them and the clients).

So that's where I'm at today.