Ohki Forest; Ohki Simine Forest

"The primary teaching of the medicine wheel resides in the learning and integration of the spiritual rainbow warrior. This knowledge teaches a way to self-respect,
inner dignity, and loyalty to the spirit
of the community beyond
personal concerns
and ego."

DREAMING THE COUNCIL WAYS:
True Native Teachings from the Red Lodge
(From the Introduction, pages xv to xxii.)

I can only initiate this book by acknowledging my mysterious journey, the path that led me to my sacred vision. I can only embark on this voyage with you along these pages, as days blowing and whispering the strong wind of the past, by recalling and rediscovering my Red Path. Here I am, sitting in my round medicine center, with a fire burning in the middle, looking over the enigmatic mist rising from the skirt of the ancient, extinguished volcano that inspired the final journey to this book. I am writing from the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, where I have been living since 1986. My pen here is my talking stick. Please receive my talk as my truth and my integrity, as my life.

These pages-old birch bark relating ancient memories; these words-tiny signs of mystery beyond myself. My voice is the voice of those who have shed blood to preserve their infinite knowledge in the time of the great conquests. This is the reminiscence of their journey, a journey that became mine, a pilgrimage to retrace their remembrance. My Mohawk ancestors are calling through my blood. They are guiding me through the resonance of these words. I am the voice of my ancestors and, with their permission, I will speak of their love for life. I will voice the dreams with which they have imbued my nights. It seems eons ago that they impregnated me with the seed of their devotion and their knowledge. I became pregnant with this book in March 1996, with the powerful compulsion to write it down at last, in reverence for their vision. This long gestation is now over now. It is time to deliver their wondrous wisdom and impart their message.

At this point, you might ask me: "But what is your vision?" For the occidental mind a vision must be something definite, systematic and rational-something you can describe in a single paragraph or a brief outline. For us, those who carry the Red heart, a sacred vision is that of which we are created-our original spirit flesh. A vision manifests as fire and thunderclaps in our being, revealing the existence of a superior power.A sacred vision is mysterious in essence, unknowable to the mind at first, unattainable by the reason, but, nevertheless, authentically infinite and real for the soul. It is a striking flash of essence made true in spirit, with sounds, colors and signs from the external world reflecting the Great Spirit's design for us. Being and becoming one fragment of the great lost dream of the universe, a vision expands in ways that are often amazing, yet not surprising for the eyes that witness it.A vision unfolds unexpectedly, at times, as we " kill our vision" into this reality to make it come true.

This book is my genuine canoe to illustrate this sacred vision. This gratifying voyage was initiated the day I opened my tiny eyes to see this world of inconceivable mystery.What I glimpsed then will forever be impressed upon my perception of the world.

When I was a very young baby a fireball struck a huge centenary oak by our house in the dead of the night. My mother was watching the scene with me in her arms. We looked together through the window at the mightiest electric storm she had ever seen. She told me later that her intention had been for me to watch this tremendous storm so I would not grow fearful of lightning. A sacred fireball falling from the sky flashed with great power, cleaving the ancient oak in two. One half fell on our roof, the other half stood straight. I do not remember this consciously for I was just a baby, but during my entire childhood I dreamed this scene at least once a week. This went on for ten years until I finally asked my mother what the significance of this obsessive dream was.

I grew up with an inner knowing that I would never be able to adapt to the Western world. My heart was different. But as the years went by, I became immersed in the predominant white culture. In my teens, I fell into the trap of denial that many colored people have experienced. I felt shame for the color of my skin, wishing to be born blond and a man. It would have made life so much simpler!

But in the midst of this terrible refusal to accept who I was, however, there were ancient voices that would not leave me in peace. In those days of my adolescence, I dreamed almost every week of ancient drums thundering and resonating in my ears. They awakened me, sweating, from these dreams. I was discovering then that there was something greater out there in the great mystery, something that whispered so loudly in my ears that I was becoming deaf and dead, spiraling outward from my true roots. My ancestors were urging me not to forget, and inspiring me to recall. It is then that I was unlocked into trusting that my path was guided by powerful forces beyond me-the ancient drumming of my ancestors. I knew that they had made powerful ceremonies in the last centuries, so that the next seven generations, their children, would never forget, even in times of great confusion. And, admittedly, I was confused.

At this point, the painful but rewarding journey to my hidden roots began, mostly as an instinctual journey. The spirits were always arranging for me to meet the powereful people who would instruct me, and give me at every step the spiritual food for which my restless soul was cried out. The universe was definitively training me.

In these long nights of my youth, my ancestors were crying into my blood and bones. Although they are still crying for a hundred years of desecration of Etonoha, the Earth Mother, they are also rejoicing as they witness the changes of these times and their return. Now, they request that I share the seeds of their dreams with you. For I know I am they. I was there when they flourished tall on this great continent. I truly remember. Their spirit is back. They wish to help Indian and Western people to heal. They have no shame, no anger, only an infinite love. These are the times. We have suffered from the terrible ignorance that has been imposed on Mother Earth. But now we are emerging again. I cannot stay silent. My blood is ignited by their presence, by the Mohawk inheritance I received.

In the sharing of this journey I have no more to say about me personally. I will leave room for these voices of ancient visions to come through me, hoping to be a perfect and humble vessel for the emergence of their power and beauty. My talk is me and I am their talk. This book is theirs. I am consumed by the task of bringing back their messages, emanating now from the sacred Earth. As a warrioress of life and death, I am, and will always be, in constant spiritual resistance against ignorance, striving to bring back the great laws of the Earth.

In these pages, filled with words of ancient ashes being rekindled to life, I am only a pathfinder in this vast hunting territory of spirit. I can only take you by the hand as your humble guide and show you how to hunt and share what our Red vision means, its awesome purpose. I can only guide you through the preeminent dangers and ambushes in this spiritual quest, to a place where the good game named spirit is. I can only tell you what a good spiritual stalker may or may not do. Whether or not you become a good vision hunter depends on you. I can only invite you to discover your own trails through my words, through my sharing of this ancient wisdom of ages, and to dream these words circling in this book.

I can only offer you my Red hand , inviting you to sit with me in the sacred Red Lodge of a warm winter teepee, with a steady fire burning, to hear an ancient council of chiefs within, dreaming of the Sun and Moon, and to meet at the circle of mind that sees what is alike. With me, you will agree with the eloquent talk of Tadodaho, Chief Leon Shenandoah of the Iroquois Nations: "We must recognize our enemies, the forces of darkness that now march across all lands of the Four Sacred Directions, throwing the shadow of Death and destruction even in the seventh generation to come, we must stand together, the four sacred colors of humankind, as the one family that we are in the interest of peace, to be one Body, one Heart and one Mind."

Words spoken by Tadodaho, Chief Leon Shenandoah, at the 40th anniversary celebration of the UN, published in Akwasasne Notes, New Series (Jack Wardell, "Demonizing the Big Glass," Fall 95, vol. 1, pp. 118-120).

Dreaming the Council Ways:
True Native Teachings from the Red Lodge
(From Chapter 2 - Pages 40 to 45)

I must express an important caveat about some of the workshops given on power animals in the Western world. I have found some of these teachings to be extremely incomplete and not well taught in regard to our ancient ways. Unfortunately, these techniques are among the most popular on the international scene of shamanic interest. One of my major aims in writing this book is to assist people in discerning between what is false and what is true, between fake and real shamans, between good practices and hazardous ones. There is so much shamanic "stuff" out there. Some of it makes my hair stand on end each time I hear stories of people receiving inadequate practices improperly imparted. Just the fact that these ancient practices are announced as power animal "techniques" is a good sign of a lack of true appreciation, divesting these noble traditions of their sacredness. The Spirit Animal teaching is one of the most sacred matters for us and is, by all means, a way of living and of finding our soul. Describing our very soul as a "technique" is, therefore, aberrant and totally out of place. I often meet people who have attended such seminars and workshops, and I always hear the same story. The teaching material of the so-called shamanic practitioners imparting these seminars consists of an "Americanized" or Western technique of power animals and spiritual journeys, probably copied from ancient knowledge, but which has, without a doubt, suffered a process of serious "injury."

Dozens of people who have participated in these workshops have told me that these instructors incite everybody to journey, a form of inner meditation with drumbeat, teaching that whatever animal the student finds in visualizing a tunnel, is their power animal. Apparently, no one is verifying any of the participant's findings to ensure that they have the proper animal. Deplorably, sincere and innocent aspirants may believe whatever they hear in these seminars. This is critical to me. I have led numerous private meetings with people in order to "replace" the spirit animal for people who were genuinely convinced they had found the correct guardian animal by themselves.

One of the most serious examples I recall is that of a lady who joined a teaching circle I offered a few years ago. This woman was silent in the circle, and everyone was asking me what was wrong with her, as her energy was so heavily "off" and depressing. I was glad when the lady asked to speak privately with me. She then shared that she had participated in one of these "famous" workshops eight years ago and found a bear in her journeying tunnel. Having been told that the animal they would meet in the tunnel would be their own spirit animal, she adopted the bear she saw as her animal and started a process of intimate identification with it. This error was causing her major problems. I expressed to her that we need not talk more, that the spirit animal I was seeing as she was talking was one of a completely different nature. I told her then that her animal guardian was a red hawk and not a bear. For a long minute she did not say a word, seemingly puzzled. Then her face simply illuminated. She told me she remembered in her adolescence that she had a most striking dream of a red hawk flying directly at her face, looking straight into her eyes. There was no more to say on the subject. A year later, I saw this lady. She was very radiant and her depression had lifted. It is no wonder! How could a hawk needing to fly live happily in a bear's cave for eight years?

I have countless examples similar to this lady's misfortune. To surrender to an erroneous spirit animal as your essence and call its attention to you on a daily basis may bring deranging consequences for the rest of your life, if not amended promptly. This can become quite dangerous.

In traditional ways, the medicine people always point out the animal spirit to you, depending on their own vision or your own visions. Even if you receive a vision of a certain animal, this may not necessarily signify that you have encountered your true spirit animal. Often an animal may come as a strong sign in your life, but that doesn't mean in any way that this is your own animal. Even when you dream about a particular animal, however lucid the dream, you must confirm your findings with the shaman guide or a competent medicine person. Moreover, the power to determine or "catch" spirit animals for others is not given even to all shamans or medicine people. Traditionally, this capacity belongs to certain shamans gifted in this art. Permission for a future shaman to recognize spirit animals for others is only entrusted to them by the main shaman teacher when the time is ripe. Furthermore, each medicine person possesses his or her own gift or medicine specialty, as we will see in the next chapter, and not everyone is dedicated to the same shamanic occupations.

In addition, some of these practitioners have established what they call "shamanic institutions" that offer instruction in these supposed "techniques." I ask myself, how can people institutionalize shamanic ways? If the spirit animal teachings are a sacred way into life, how can life be institutionalized? Life is a wondrous reality of transient qualities, and there exists no way to retain it in a cage like a bird or in a "building" as a captive. From ancient times, shamanic ways could never be contained in any societal or religious classifications, for they reflect the great ways of Earth and nature.
Furthermore, anyone who lacks the maturity of these ways may experience all sorts of animals in the journey's tunnel. The inexperienced may even encounter the animals of other persons present in the room with them, all trying to undertake their first journey. A beginner is as a child, fresh and open, not always possessing the aptitude to discern what is real. Many animal guides may surface in the tunnel. Your own fears may be disguised as spiders, rabbits, or snakes, reflecting your own psychological complexes. Angry animals may represent your emotional traumas and ravens, among others, may appear if you are pursuing a healing at some level. But these do not signify in any way that you have unearthed your true power spirit animal, the one that will dwell with you for the rest of your life.

In these questionable seminars, a "technique" of Soul Retrieval is also taught. The instructors have people work in pairs, and one of the two partners must journey to find the power animal, as well as their partner's soul in the Underworlds. This is done simultaneously, as the other pairs also attempt to accomplish the exercise in the room. These students, hardly knowing each other, are assisting one another in retrieving their Souls. They are not taught to discern the significance of an animal or entity encountered in the tunnel, yet the novices are expected to bring it back and blow it into the body and chest of the partner. For instance, if someone finds an illness in the form of a spider or, by chance, the animal of someone else in the room, whatever animal is found in the journey is then blown into the partner's chest as if it were the power animal of that person. When I hear these stories I do not know if I should laugh or cry!

It is important to understand the magnitude of the emotional damage such "methods" may produce for someone inexperienced in these practices. First, not everyone possesses the natural gift of soul retrieval. It is given to specific types of shamans or healers who indubitably must undergo years of hard training. As I have experienced myself, soul retrieval ceremonies performed by native shamans generally last a few hours, during which the shaman, in a deep trance state, suffers and endures the anguishes of the ill person. Upon his return, he is sweating, considerably exhausted.

Second, not everyone suffers a loss of soul. This practice is the latest vogue, poorly divulged by all sorts of false shamans. Many are led to believe that their souls are lost. Regularly, people ask me in their healing to retrieve their souls, when, in reality, there is nothing wrong with them at that level. These doubtful seminars announce: "Let's have everybody retrieve their souls, now!" Why do people allow an unfamiliar and inexperienced person to blow anything into their chest, their heart center, the seat of their spirit, and one of the most delicate and subtle organs of their emotional lives?

This flimsy emulation of native ways exhibits no respect or discrimination. I can only urge people to be careful. These supposed practices are imparted with the assumption that whatever emotional blockages or past traumas we have suffered have caused a soul loss. A true native perspective of soul loss would be more discerning and not so generalized. Consistently, all the Maya, Mongolian and Native American shamans and healers I have met, have taught me that when someone suffers a complete loss of soul, he or she usually lingers sick in bed, physically depleted as the days go by. They would, therefore, certainly be physically unable to attend any seminars! In the case of , a partial loss of soul, the patient is commonly quite emotionally disturbed, seeming far away and totally incapable of functioning properly on a daily basis. I frankly doubt that everyone who attends these seminars finds themselves in such a state.

Of course all humans have, at some point, suffered a strong trauma, the reality of their emotional blockages and past ordeals. Who has not? But this in no way implies that your soul is kept captive by a spirit, is missing, or must be retrieved. Time reveals itself to be the best healer for these emotional problems. And for this, you must find an appropriate internal path to liberate you from them through the course of your life. But the soul generally remains fixed in the body. Though it may be wounded, it is nonetheless there. Often, life situations may create a catharsis, allowing us to purge past hurts, injuries or sentimental bruises, much the same way that our bodies will create an ailment such as a high fever. With the majority of people, it is not retrieval that the soul needs, but to be freed. This naturally involves an entirely different type of healing and spiritual practice. So it is important to place your emotional and spiritual life in the hands of competent healers or shamans when you seek guidance to uncover your inner puzzles and understand your illnesses.

The worst and most critical fact is that all sorts of people "graduate" from these seminars after only a few of these classes, claiming to be shamans, when, in reality, they have no real gift, no true vocation and no veracity, nor any real understanding of these ways. In turn, they may only create more ungroundedness and imbalance within those they instruct or heal. The universe has not chosen everyone to be an enduring shaman, one who must strive along the road to obtain these special ways and develop medicine powers. Even among natives, the medicine people develop their own distinctive field. There are the prayer people, the healers of all sorts, the retrievers, the removers, the blowers, the transformers, the shakers, the shape-shifters, those who pulse, those who perform limpias, the seers of the spirit world, sweat lodge leaders, and the vision makers. In actuality, there are not many true retrievers. This skill is only mastered after many, intensive years of self-healing, through various arduous initiations which corroborate whether someone possesses an authentic spiritual tenacity and vocation.

So it is absolutely essential that ancient power animal teachings be taught properly, with sound guidance, to enable the true and serious seeker to reach, through animal integration, the true gifts of their essence.

CLICK HERE for an excerpt from Ohki's book on:
Manifesting the Ancient Council Ways.

CLICK HERE for a link to an interview with Ohki:
ANCIENT EARTH WISDOM:
A Path of Healing for the Present,
published in the "El Dorado Sun" October, 2004. This interview also appeared in "Sacred Pathways Magazine" April/May 2005.

Home Vision Teachings Publishings Events Contact Ohki Siminé Forest P.O Box 8 Maynard, MA 01754-0008 council@ohkisimineforest.com	Ohki's Teachings
	"The primary teaching of the medicine wheel resides in the learning and integration of the spiritual rainbow warrior. This knowledge teaches a way to self-respect, inner dignity, and loyalty to the spirit of the community beyond personal concerns and ego." Ohki's Sacred Quest Excerpted from... DREAMING THE COUNCIL WAYS: True Native Teachings from the Red Lodge (From the Introduction, pages xv to xxii.) I can only initiate this book by acknowledging my mysterious journey, the path that led me to my sacred vision. I can only embark on this voyage with you along these pages, as days blowing and whispering the strong wind of the past, by recalling and rediscovering my Red Path. Here I am, sitting in my round medicine center, with a fire burning in the middle, looking over the enigmatic mist rising from the skirt of the ancient, extinguished volcano that inspired the final journey to this book. I am writing from the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, where I have been living since 1986. My pen here is my talking stick. Please receive my talk as my truth and my integrity, as my life. These pages-old birch bark relating ancient memories; these words-tiny signs of mystery beyond myself. My voice is the voice of those who have shed blood to preserve their infinite knowledge in the time of the great conquests. This is the reminiscence of their journey, a journey that became mine, a pilgrimage to retrace their remembrance. My Mohawk ancestors are calling through my blood. They are guiding me through the resonance of these words. I am the voice of my ancestors and, with their permission, I will speak of their love for life. I will voice the dreams with which they have imbued my nights. It seems eons ago that they impregnated me with the seed of their devotion and their knowledge. I became pregnant with this book in March 1996, with the powerful compulsion to write it down at last, in reverence for their vision. This long gestation is now over now. It is time to deliver their wondrous wisdom and impart their message. At this point, you might ask me: "But what is your vision?" For the occidental mind a vision must be something definite, systematic and rational-something you can describe in a single paragraph or a brief outline. For us, those who carry the Red heart, a sacred vision is that of which we are created-our original spirit flesh. A vision manifests as fire and thunderclaps in our being, revealing the existence of a superior power.A sacred vision is mysterious in essence, unknowable to the mind at first, unattainable by the reason, but, nevertheless, authentically infinite and real for the soul. It is a striking flash of essence made true in spirit, with sounds, colors and signs from the external world reflecting the Great Spirit's design for us. Being and becoming one fragment of the great lost dream of the universe, a vision expands in ways that are often amazing, yet not surprising for the eyes that witness it.A vision unfolds unexpectedly, at times, as we " kill our vision" into this reality to make it come true. The Red Lodge Beyond the Veils This book is my genuine canoe to illustrate this sacred vision. This gratifying voyage was initiated the day I opened my tiny eyes to see this world of inconceivable mystery.What I glimpsed then will forever be impressed upon my perception of the world. When I was a very young baby a fireball struck a huge centenary oak by our house in the dead of the night. My mother was watching the scene with me in her arms. We looked together through the window at the mightiest electric storm she had ever seen. She told me later that her intention had been for me to watch this tremendous storm so I would not grow fearful of lightning. A sacred fireball falling from the sky flashed with great power, cleaving the ancient oak in two. One half fell on our roof, the other half stood straight. I do not remember this consciously for I was just a baby, but during my entire childhood I dreamed this scene at least once a week. This went on for ten years until I finally asked my mother what the significance of this obsessive dream was. I grew up with an inner knowing that I would never be able to adapt to the Western world. My heart was different. But as the years went by, I became immersed in the predominant white culture. In my teens, I fell into the trap of denial that many colored people have experienced. I felt shame for the color of my skin, wishing to be born blond and a man. It would have made life so much simpler! But in the midst of this terrible refusal to accept who I was, however, there were ancient voices that would not leave me in peace. In those days of my adolescence, I dreamed almost every week of ancient drums thundering and resonating in my ears. They awakened me, sweating, from these dreams. I was discovering then that there was something greater out there in the great mystery, something that whispered so loudly in my ears that I was becoming deaf and dead, spiraling outward from my true roots. My ancestors were urging me not to forget, and inspiring me to recall. It is then that I was unlocked into trusting that my path was guided by powerful forces beyond me-the ancient drumming of my ancestors. I knew that they had made powerful ceremonies in the last centuries, so that the next seven generations, their children, would never forget, even in times of great confusion. And, admittedly, I was confused. At this point, the painful but rewarding journey to my hidden roots began, mostly as an instinctual journey. The spirits were always arranging for me to meet the powereful people who would instruct me, and give me at every step the spiritual food for which my restless soul was cried out. The universe was definitively training me. In these long nights of my youth, my ancestors were crying into my blood and bones. Although they are still crying for a hundred years of desecration of Etonoha, the Earth Mother, they are also rejoicing as they witness the changes of these times and their return. Now, they request that I share the seeds of their dreams with you. For I know I am they. I was there when they flourished tall on this great continent. I truly remember. Their spirit is back. They wish to help Indian and Western people to heal. They have no shame, no anger, only an infinite love. These are the times. We have suffered from the terrible ignorance that has been imposed on Mother Earth. But now we are emerging again. I cannot stay silent. My blood is ignited by their presence, by the Mohawk inheritance I received. In the sharing of this journey I have no more to say about me personally. I will leave room for these voices of ancient visions to come through me, hoping to be a perfect and humble vessel for the emergence of their power and beauty. My talk is me and I am their talk. This book is theirs. I am consumed by the task of bringing back their messages, emanating now from the sacred Earth. As a warrioress of life and death, I am, and will always be, in constant spiritual resistance against ignorance, striving to bring back the great laws of the Earth. In these pages, filled with words of ancient ashes being rekindled to life, I am only a pathfinder in this vast hunting territory of spirit. I can only take you by the hand as your humble guide and show you how to hunt and share what our Red vision means, its awesome purpose. I can only guide you through the preeminent dangers and ambushes in this spiritual quest, to a place where the good game named spirit is. I can only tell you what a good spiritual stalker may or may not do. Whether or not you become a good vision hunter depends on you. I can only invite you to discover your own trails through my words, through my sharing of this ancient wisdom of ages, and to dream these words circling in this book. I can only offer you my Red hand , inviting you to sit with me in the sacred Red Lodge of a warm winter teepee, with a steady fire burning, to hear an ancient council of chiefs within, dreaming of the Sun and Moon, and to meet at the circle of mind that sees what is alike. With me, you will agree with the eloquent talk of Tadodaho, Chief Leon Shenandoah of the Iroquois Nations: "We must recognize our enemies, the forces of darkness that now march across all lands of the Four Sacred Directions, throwing the shadow of Death and destruction even in the seventh generation to come, we must stand together, the four sacred colors of humankind, as the one family that we are in the interest of peace, to be one Body, one Heart and one Mind." Words spoken by Tadodaho, Chief Leon Shenandoah, at the 40th anniversary celebration of the UN, published in Akwasasne Notes, New Series (Jack Wardell, "Demonizing the Big Glass," Fall 95, vol. 1, pp. 118-120). Top Fake Shamanism or Sacred Initiations? Excerpted from... Dreaming the Council Ways: True Native Teachings from the Red Lodge (From Chapter 2 - Pages 40 to 45) The Spirit Animal Behind the Soul I must express an important caveat about some of the workshops given on power animals in the Western world. I have found some of these teachings to be extremely incomplete and not well taught in regard to our ancient ways. Unfortunately, these techniques are among the most popular on the international scene of shamanic interest. One of my major aims in writing this book is to assist people in discerning between what is false and what is true, between fake and real shamans, between good practices and hazardous ones. There is so much shamanic "stuff" out there. Some of it makes my hair stand on end each time I hear stories of people receiving inadequate practices improperly imparted. Just the fact that these ancient practices are announced as power animal "techniques" is a good sign of a lack of true appreciation, divesting these noble traditions of their sacredness. The Spirit Animal teaching is one of the most sacred matters for us and is, by all means, a way of living and of finding our soul. Describing our very soul as a "technique" is, therefore, aberrant and totally out of place. I often meet people who have attended such seminars and workshops, and I always hear the same story. The teaching material of the so-called shamanic practitioners imparting these seminars consists of an "Americanized" or Western technique of power animals and spiritual journeys, probably copied from ancient knowledge, but which has, without a doubt, suffered a process of serious "injury." Dozens of people who have participated in these workshops have told me that these instructors incite everybody to journey, a form of inner meditation with drumbeat, teaching that whatever animal the student finds in visualizing a tunnel, is their power animal. Apparently, no one is verifying any of the participant's findings to ensure that they have the proper animal. Deplorably, sincere and innocent aspirants may believe whatever they hear in these seminars. This is critical to me. I have led numerous private meetings with people in order to "replace" the spirit animal for people who were genuinely convinced they had found the correct guardian animal by themselves. One of the most serious examples I recall is that of a lady who joined a teaching circle I offered a few years ago. This woman was silent in the circle, and everyone was asking me what was wrong with her, as her energy was so heavily "off" and depressing. I was glad when the lady asked to speak privately with me. She then shared that she had participated in one of these "famous" workshops eight years ago and found a bear in her journeying tunnel. Having been told that the animal they would meet in the tunnel would be their own spirit animal, she adopted the bear she saw as her animal and started a process of intimate identification with it. This error was causing her major problems. I expressed to her that we need not talk more, that the spirit animal I was seeing as she was talking was one of a completely different nature. I told her then that her animal guardian was a red hawk and not a bear. For a long minute she did not say a word, seemingly puzzled. Then her face simply illuminated. She told me she remembered in her adolescence that she had a most striking dream of a red hawk flying directly at her face, looking straight into her eyes. There was no more to say on the subject. A year later, I saw this lady. She was very radiant and her depression had lifted. It is no wonder! How could a hawk needing to fly live happily in a bear's cave for eight years? I have countless examples similar to this lady's misfortune. To surrender to an erroneous spirit animal as your essence and call its attention to you on a daily basis may bring deranging consequences for the rest of your life, if not amended promptly. This can become quite dangerous. In traditional ways, the medicine people always point out the animal spirit to you, depending on their own vision or your own visions. Even if you receive a vision of a certain animal, this may not necessarily signify that you have encountered your true spirit animal. Often an animal may come as a strong sign in your life, but that doesn't mean in any way that this is your own animal. Even when you dream about a particular animal, however lucid the dream, you must confirm your findings with the shaman guide or a competent medicine person. Moreover, the power to determine or "catch" spirit animals for others is not given even to all shamans or medicine people. Traditionally, this capacity belongs to certain shamans gifted in this art. Permission for a future shaman to recognize spirit animals for others is only entrusted to them by the main shaman teacher when the time is ripe. Furthermore, each medicine person possesses his or her own gift or medicine specialty, as we will see in the next chapter, and not everyone is dedicated to the same shamanic occupations. In addition, some of these practitioners have established what they call "shamanic institutions" that offer instruction in these supposed "techniques." I ask myself, how can people institutionalize shamanic ways? If the spirit animal teachings are a sacred way into life, how can life be institutionalized? Life is a wondrous reality of transient qualities, and there exists no way to retain it in a cage like a bird or in a "building" as a captive. From ancient times, shamanic ways could never be contained in any societal or religious classifications, for they reflect the great ways of Earth and nature. Furthermore, anyone who lacks the maturity of these ways may experience all sorts of animals in the journey's tunnel. The inexperienced may even encounter the animals of other persons present in the room with them, all trying to undertake their first journey. A beginner is as a child, fresh and open, not always possessing the aptitude to discern what is real. Many animal guides may surface in the tunnel. Your own fears may be disguised as spiders, rabbits, or snakes, reflecting your own psychological complexes. Angry animals may represent your emotional traumas and ravens, among others, may appear if you are pursuing a healing at some level. But these do not signify in any way that you have unearthed your true power spirit animal, the one that will dwell with you for the rest of your life. In these questionable seminars, a "technique" of Soul Retrieval is also taught. The instructors have people work in pairs, and one of the two partners must journey to find the power animal, as well as their partner's soul in the Underworlds. This is done simultaneously, as the other pairs also attempt to accomplish the exercise in the room. These students, hardly knowing each other, are assisting one another in retrieving their Souls. They are not taught to discern the significance of an animal or entity encountered in the tunnel, yet the novices are expected to bring it back and blow it into the body and chest of the partner. For instance, if someone finds an illness in the form of a spider or, by chance, the animal of someone else in the room, whatever animal is found in the journey is then blown into the partner's chest as if it were the power animal of that person. When I hear these stories I do not know if I should laugh or cry! It is important to understand the magnitude of the emotional damage such "methods" may produce for someone inexperienced in these practices. First, not everyone possesses the natural gift of soul retrieval. It is given to specific types of shamans or healers who indubitably must undergo years of hard training. As I have experienced myself, soul retrieval ceremonies performed by native shamans generally last a few hours, during which the shaman, in a deep trance state, suffers and endures the anguishes of the ill person. Upon his return, he is sweating, considerably exhausted. Second, not everyone suffers a loss of soul. This practice is the latest vogue, poorly divulged by all sorts of false shamans. Many are led to believe that their souls are lost. Regularly, people ask me in their healing to retrieve their souls, when, in reality, there is nothing wrong with them at that level. These doubtful seminars announce: "Let's have everybody retrieve their souls, now!" Why do people allow an unfamiliar and inexperienced person to blow anything into their chest, their heart center, the seat of their spirit, and one of the most delicate and subtle organs of their emotional lives? This flimsy emulation of native ways exhibits no respect or discrimination. I can only urge people to be careful. These supposed practices are imparted with the assumption that whatever emotional blockages or past traumas we have suffered have caused a soul loss. A true native perspective of soul loss would be more discerning and not so generalized. Consistently, all the Maya, Mongolian and Native American shamans and healers I have met, have taught me that when someone suffers a complete loss of soul, he or she usually lingers sick in bed, physically depleted as the days go by. They would, therefore, certainly be physically unable to attend any seminars! In the case of , a partial loss of soul, the patient is commonly quite emotionally disturbed, seeming far away and totally incapable of functioning properly on a daily basis. I frankly doubt that everyone who attends these seminars finds themselves in such a state. Of course all humans have, at some point, suffered a strong trauma, the reality of their emotional blockages and past ordeals. Who has not? But this in no way implies that your soul is kept captive by a spirit, is missing, or must be retrieved. Time reveals itself to be the best healer for these emotional problems. And for this, you must find an appropriate internal path to liberate you from them through the course of your life. But the soul generally remains fixed in the body. Though it may be wounded, it is nonetheless there. Often, life situations may create a catharsis, allowing us to purge past hurts, injuries or sentimental bruises, much the same way that our bodies will create an ailment such as a high fever. With the majority of people, it is not retrieval that the soul needs, but to be freed. This naturally involves an entirely different type of healing and spiritual practice. So it is important to place your emotional and spiritual life in the hands of competent healers or shamans when you seek guidance to uncover your inner puzzles and understand your illnesses. The worst and most critical fact is that all sorts of people "graduate" from these seminars after only a few of these classes, claiming to be shamans, when, in reality, they have no real gift, no true vocation and no veracity, nor any real understanding of these ways. In turn, they may only create more ungroundedness and imbalance within those they instruct or heal. The universe has not chosen everyone to be an enduring shaman, one who must strive along the road to obtain these special ways and develop medicine powers. Even among natives, the medicine people develop their own distinctive field. There are the prayer people, the healers of all sorts, the retrievers, the removers, the blowers, the transformers, the shakers, the shape-shifters, those who pulse, those who perform limpias, the seers of the spirit world, sweat lodge leaders, and the vision makers. In actuality, there are not many true retrievers. This skill is only mastered after many, intensive years of self-healing, through various arduous initiations which corroborate whether someone possesses an authentic spiritual tenacity and vocation. So it is absolutely essential that ancient power animal teachings be taught properly, with sound guidance, to enable the true and serious seeker to reach, through animal integration, the true gifts of their essence. Connecting the World Medicine Wheels CLICK HERE for an excerpt from Ohki's book on: Manifesting the Ancient Council Ways. CLICK HERE for an excerpt from Ohki's Bioneers talk on: When Women Lead. CLICK HERE for a link to an interview with Ohki: ANCIENT EARTH WISDOM: A Path of Healing for the Present, published in the "El Dorado Sun" October, 2004. This interview also appeared in "Sacred Pathways Magazine" April/May 2005. Top

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