Transmutation News September 2008

An important announcement:
Over the years many students have suggested I start an email list where I can send announcements. I have finally decided to move forward with this suggestion.

I am exploring adding some on-line courses and teleconferencing to help assist in the teaching of Medicine for the Earth practices and also the practices of healing toxic thoughts. I think there are ways I can work with connecting our global community without all of us traveling. And I am exploring ways to do this.

I have scheduled a few of my regular workshops for 2009 which will appear on my 2009 calendar which will be up later this fall. But if you want to know about new classes I add during the year you might want to sign up on my email list. Also some of you have asked for an email to let you know when the monthly Transmutation News has been posted.

To sign up for my email list please visit www.sandraingerman.com. There is a box you can check if you want an email to let you know the Transmutation News is up. Please know your privacy will be protected and you will only receive announcements about workshops and events I have added to my schedule and if you have asked for it an announcement about the Transmutation News.

Oftentimes I find a theme presenting itself in the conversations that students and people who write me want to discuss. Whenever I start to hear the same issue coming up again and again I pay attention.

A topic came up in a workshop I taught in August and also in some of the letters I received from people looking for shamanic healing help. As we have brought shamanism into a Western modern day culture it is starting to get watered down. Some teachers who teach alternative forms of healing seem to emphasize technique instead of finding individual and unique ways to help clients. And shamanic practitioners tend to give their power away to human teachers they study with instead of relying on the guidance of their helping spirits.

This is an important issue that I stress in my workshops and in my books. Techniques do not heal, but creating a sacred and loving space does heal. Treating people as individuals versus as a label given to them by the medical establishment whether it is a physical or emotional issue is not what people need right now. And in shamanic healing the spirits are who can really bring through unique and powerful healings for the client.

In our culture we keep putting our clients in a box by giving them labels and devise treatment plans for the labels. We should be looking at each person as an individual. And as practitioners we often put ourselves in a box by following method protocols rather than relying on our unique spiritual guidance.

As I have written in the past, I have never seen two traditional shamans in any culture work in the same way. Yet in our culture we all try to work within certain methods taught. And as we continue to do this the power of old traditions are being watered down and we are not coming up with creative and unique solutions to truly be in service to others and the planet.

Doctors are telling many people that they have symptoms that don’t really fit into traditional diagnoses. The severity of post traumatic stress disorders and other emotional issues stump psychologists and therapists. Environmental issues on the planet today also are beyond the control of scientific methods.

This means that it is crucial for us as we keep looking at how we can be of service to think and work outside of the box. Working with divine light and perceiving the divinity in clients and the planet has been taught for thousands of years. And this is a vital way we can go beyond the physical and truly work on the spiritual levels. Remember everything starts on the spiritual level before manifesting on the physical.

Use meditation and shamanic journeying to look for original solutions to different problems that are being presented to you. Allow yourself to be inspired and go beyond what you have been taught. Keep looking at how you can take your work to deeper levels. Being part of a factory of workers devoted to form versus direct revelation is not what any of us need right now. Follow your own spiritual guidance.

On this note I had an interesting dream in August that I am still sitting with. In the dream I was told that the purpose of life on earth was learning about differentiation. And that it is our destiny to manifest our own creative ways of working. We are part of source and as source differentiated when we were born into the world. The word “differentiate” was repeated over and over in the dream.

When I woke up from the dream I thought about this. When life begins to form at conception the cells differentiate into different organs and parts of the body. And in this way if we experience ourselves as one with the earth and part of the earth we are all cells that have differentiated for a particular purpose. We are all part of the earth.

On a spiritual level we are source. And we contain source in every cell of our being. On a physical level we all have differentiated to manifest an aspect of source on the planet.

We must tap into our own uniqueness and gifts of what we are bringing to the world. We need this for our emotional and physical health and well being. Unless we are living a life of joy and passion we move into a place of despair. Unless we are living our destiny and recognize we are not separate from source we are not tapping into our full health.

Please ponder whether you have become complacent with the work you are doing. Keep looking at how you can keep going deeper. Even if your main way of working is through transfiguration ask yourself if you have become complacent with your mode of the practice. Are you exploring ways to deepen the process?

Last year I wrote in one of the Transmutation News that I was receiving spiritual guidance on how important it is to hold the space right now. We tend to focus on things we can do in the outer world. And I just want to encourage you to keep working with the invisible ways of working that create a loving and sacred space for the planet and all of life. This is one way we are being called to tend our earth garden.

For my own personal healing and evolution I have been working with practitioners who have trained in Brain Dynamics. This is a highly technological form of working where first your brain is mapped. With the brain mapping the practitioner can see what parts of the brain are overactive and need to be quieted and what parts of are underactive and need to be stimulated. Then there are protocols used with visualization and music to help stimulate parts of the brain and calm down other parts.

I learned something important while doing this work that I wanted to share with you. We have different brain waves and I have written about them in some of my books. Basically beta is our ordinary thinking mind, alpha is a meditative state, theta is the state of the brain that allows up to journey into invisible realms, and delta is the state we go into when we dream.

What was new to me is that it is the alpha state that rules our immune system. So to improve our immune system we need to learn how to create more alpha waves. The quickest way to get your alpha waves moving is through gratitude. It is interesting to me that spiritual practices for thousands of years have been teaching the power of gratitude. And now with science we can see how those gratitude practices stimulate the part of the brain responsible for our immune system.

I have written about gratitude practices throughout the year. So you might want to look at some of the previous Transmutation News for 2008. The Transmutation News you might want to take a look at are February 2008, April 2008, May 2008. Also you might wish to review the August 2008 Transmutation News for more inspiration.

During a transfiguration practice I found myself seeing myself unzipping my body and stepping out of it as pure spiritual divine light. It worked great for me and I have shared this way of transfiguring with others throughout the month of August. Give it a try for yourself and it might be a simple way to describe the practice to those you introduce the work to.

Another practice that has been calming and healing for me is to hold the intention to go back before life began, back to source, back to the void. When there I see myself floating in that wonderful state of pure consciousness while I state the decree, “I am in perfect harmony and unity with the one”. It has been a wonderful practice I have brought into my own personal work. You might want to try it.

I love to share great books I have read. I recently read a book titled Coyote Cowgirl by Kim Antieau. It is a great fiction book that is light, fast moving, filled with imaginative characters and situations. It also has some great spiritual teachings and there are even some food recipes that I have tried out. One of the spiritual teachings in the book is how food can be empowered with the thoughts we have. If you are looking for a good book that is a just a great story I recommend Coyote Cowgirl. The book is available on Amazon if you can’t find it at your local bookstore.