Sandra Ingerman's deeply moveing debut, Soul Retrieval, captivated readers with its introduction of shamanic journeying, an ancient tradition of healig. With the characteristic warmth, passion, and authenticcity that have earned her worldwide recognition, Ingerman now continues to share her lifework with Welcome Home, an empowering action plan for creating a more positive future by truly letting go of blame and guilt.

Today, practicing shamanism doesn't mean you have to live in a rain forest or a desert. Thanks to a modern renaissance of shamanic spirituality, practitioners from all walks of life now use powerful indigenous techniques for healing, insight, and spiritual growth. With Awakening to the Spirit World, teachers Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman bring together a circle of renowned Western shamanic elders to present a comprehensive manual for making these practices accessible and available in our daily lives, including:
How the original practice of shamanism shaped the world's spiritual traditions and why it is still relevant today
The art of the shamanic journey--a time-tested meditative method for experiencing important spiritual lessons and truths
Guidance for avoiding common pitfalls of shamanic practice
Instruction for working with your dreams, connecting to your spirit guides, healing yourself and your environment

The core of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation-- to communicate firsthand with your spiritual allies and discover your own power. Awakening to the Spirit World takes you through each step of developing a personal connection with your helping spirits to receive wisdom, insight, and healing energy. From an overview of shamanism, to your first journeys and encounters with your power animals, to expanding your skills and insight through long-term practice, here is an in-depth resource for the shamanic arts that includes:

Creating rituals and ceremonies for healing and transformation
Reconnecting with nature to heal ourselves and the planet
Working with your dreams, songs, and artistic vision to strengthen your practice
Traditional wisdom for children-- healthy rites of passage for each phase of a child's journey to adulthood
Honoring the cycle of life and death-- shamanic practices to prepare for and celebrate our final transition in this life

Table of Contents

1 What is Shamanism?
2 The Shamanic Journey
3 Reconnecting with Nature
4 Visionary Work with Weather and Environmental Changes
5 The Power of Ceremony and Ritual
6 Dreams
7 Creative Art as a Bridge
8 Working with Sound and Light
9 Death As a Rite of Passage
10 Experiential Work with Death and Dying
11 All Changes Involve Death
12 Our Children Are Our Future
13 Working in Community
14 The Transformational Community
15 The Return of the Shaman

Excerpt

Shamanism is the most ancient spiritual practice known to humankind and is the ancestor of all our modern religions. As a method, it is a form of meditation combined with a focused intention to accomplish various things, as well become apparent in this book. As a spiritual practice, shamanism can become a way of life that may utterly transform the one who practices it.

The word shaman comes from the language of the Evenki peoples, a Tungusic tribe in Siberia. This is a word whose meaning has to do with esoteric knowledge and extraordinary spiritual abilities and as such a shaman is often defined as an intermediary between the human and spirit worlds. In shamanic cultures, the word shaman has come to mean the one who sees in the dark or the one who knows.

There are certain commonalities in a shaman s worldview and practice across the world that allow us to make certain broad generalizations about shamanism. In the majority of indigenous cultures, the universe is viewed as being made up of two distinct realms: a world of things seen and a world of things hidden, yet that these two worlds present themselves together as two halves of a whole. The shaman is the inspired visionary, a man or a woman who learns through practice how to enter into this world of things hidden, and once there, he or she typically encounters extra-mundane personalities or archetypal forces that the indigenous peoples refer to as spirits, ancestors, or even gods.

This volume teaches readers how to root out the beliefs that are limiting them, how to heal their inner lives and become their best selves and how to utilise ancient shamanic principles of manifestation to help shape the world they want to live in.

Rysdyk shares powerful stories of shamans from a variety of cultures such as Nepal, Tuva, the Ulchi from Siberia and from Peru. She brings a fresh perspective to the work by showing how the latest findings in quantum physics are verifying that we are all connected in an intricate web of energy and spirit.

Shamanic journeying is the inner art of traveling to the invisible worlds beyond ordinary reality to retrieve information for change in every area of our lives from spirituality and health to work and relationships. With Shamanic Journeying, readers join world-renowned teacher Sandra Ingerman to learn the core teachings of this ancient practice and apply these skills in their own journey. Includes drumming for three shamanic journeys.

We may not realize it, but negative feelings can be as toxic to our health as physical poisons, wearing on us and causing depression, illness, and burnout.

In this updated edition of her classic How to Heal Toxic Thoughts, shaman and psychologist Sandra Ingerman reveals the secrets of the ancient alchemists and offers strategies for processing harmful thoughts and emotions and turning spiritual lead into gold.

Her methods are simple…but they can change you, others, and the world.

With warmth and compassion, Sandra Ingerman describes the dramatic results of combining soul retrieval with contemporary psychological concepts in this visionary work that revives the ancient shamanic tradition of soul retrieval for healing emotional and physical illness. This revised and updated edition includes a new afterword by the author.

A shaman can serve as a healer, storyteller, and a keeper of wisdom-but most of all, teaches Sandra Ingerman, "Shamans radiate a light that uplifts everybody. In our culture, we tend to focus on methods and forget that the greatest way we can offer healing to the world is to become a vessel of love." With Walking in Light, this renowned teacher offers a complete guide for living in a shamanic way-empowered by purpose, focus, and a deep connection to the spiritual dimensions. "Shamanism remains so relevant because it continues to evolve to meet the needs of the times and culture," teaches Sandra. Here you are invited to participate in the modern evolution of this ancient and powerful form of spirituality, featuring: * Foundational practices-lucid instruction on the shamanic journey, ceremonies, and other techniques for accessing the hidden realms of spirit * Compassionate spirits, allies, and ancestors-how to contact and build a relationship with your power animals and spiritual helpers * Healing from a shamanic perspective-practices that can integrate with and enhance any healing modality * Guidance for deepening your connection with the environment and the rhythms of the natural world * Ways to cultivate a rich inner landscape that empowers your intentions and actions in every aspect of your life, and much more Walking in Light is a comprehensive resource filled with practical techniques, indigenous wisdom, and invaluable guidance for both new and experienced shamanic practitioners. Most importantly, Sandra Ingerman illuminates the meaning behind the practices-revealing our universe as a place where spirit is the ultimate reality, where our intentions shape our world, and where unseen allies support us on every step of our journey.

Were those people in Isaiah's dream the same people from school? Popular soccer star Magda? George, who he'd never heard speak because he always left classes for special services help? Angry Rose, the Chinese girl who was always in trouble for fighting? And why were there dead birds and fish everywhere? When the four encounter one another the next day by the same pond from the dream, they realize they've shared a dream and there really are dead birds and fish covering the ground! This leads to real-life adventures and more dreams as they discover a toxic waste plant disposing of poisons illegally. Not friends in the beginning, romance blossoms as they work together with their Power Animals to close down the plant.

The role of a visionary is to help dream the future into life. Throughout the ages, shamans have played the role of visionary within their communities. Yet how does one open to visions and allow the messages we need to hear to come through? Exploring how to access your creative potential to shape and hold a strong vision for yourself and others, visionary teacher Carol Day shares hands-on tools and step-by-step shamanic practices to become more visionary and connected to the world around. She explains how to prepare for shamanic visioning and details Earth Whispering practices to expand the senses, set intentions, and connect deeply with intuition and spirit helpers. Detailing the visionary quest, the author offers exercises to open up to different dimensions and initiate a conscious relationship with the elements through the creativity wheel. Introducing animal and archetype support systems, she shares advice on working with guides and soul protectors, such as elemental spirits, birds, trees, and the fae. She presents visionary practices to help you connect, acknowledge, and honor the past, present, and future--each of which is connected with an element, a spirit animal, and a plant spirit. She shares a sacred time-travel journey in the symbolic form of a loop, taking you first through the present, then opening to an exploration of the realm of the past and the ancestors, continuing into the vision of the future ones, and ultimately back to the beginning of time. Taking you through the three pathways of time, this guide presents shamanic tools to help you prepare to receive visions, release the burdens of the past to heal your ancestral line, and bring clarity to your visions of the future.

An experiential guide to the shamanic spiritual practices of the Himalayas shared by a 27th-generation Nepalese shaman There are few areas of our world where shamanic traditions have been preserved in their original context and form. Nepal is one of these rare and special places. In the shadow of the Himalayas Nepalese shamans, known as dhamis or jhankris, are still consulted for healing and divination, as well as for providing comfort and maintaining harmony. Following the devastating earthquake in Nepal in 2015, shamanic teacher Evelyn Rysdyk and 27th-generation dhami Bhola Nath Banstola decided it was time to safeguard Nepalese shamanic knowledge for future generations by recording the practices in a book. With this comprehensive, experiential guide to the ancient spiritual traditions of Nepal, Rysdyk and Banstola present step-by-step instructions for authentic Himalayan shamanic practices, including techniques for physical and spiritual healing, shamanic journeys, and advanced ceremonies, such as the Kalchakra Katne, a shamanic ritual for removing toxic energies from an individual. They include exercises to help you meet the ancestors in your shamanic lineage, techniques to use your voice as a shamanic tool, and practices for negotiating the spirit world safely. Illustrated with photos and Rysdyk's artwork, the book also explores the history of Nepal, its culture and myths, and the different ways Nepalese shamans serve their communities. Written specifically to share the traditional Himalayan shamanic method with the Western world, this guide not only preserves these ancient teachings but also reveals how they are still relevant in the modern world.

From cross-cultural legends recounting shamanic cures to the biblical accounts of the parting of the Red Sea and Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes, many spiritual traditions are rich in stories about seemingly inexplicable transformations of the natural world. The ancient healing art of transmutation, in which toxic substances are transformed into "safe" substances, is mentioned in all the world's great spiritual traditions, including Hinduism and Taoism. And while many have tapped this body of work to heal the self, it has yet to be used to heal our  environment.

For twenty years, Sandra Ingerman has studied alternative ways to reverse environmental pollution. In this book, Ingerman takes us on a remarkable journey through the history of transmutation, teaching us how we can use this forgotten technique to change ourselves and our environment. She provides us with creative visualizations, ceremonies, rituals, and chants derived from ancient healing practices that produce miraculous, scientifically proven results. In one dramatic illustration of what can be accomplished when consciousness and awareness fuel our actions, Ingerman describes her own success in transforming the nature of chemically polluted water.

Nature and the Earth are conscious. They speak to us through our dreams, intuition, and deep longings. By opening our minds, hearts, and senses we can consciously awaken to the magic of the wild, the rhythms of nature, and the profound feminine wisdom of the Earth. We can connect with nature spirits who have deep compassion and love for us, offering their guidance and support as we each make our journey through life. Renowned shamanic teachers Sandra Ingerman and Llyn Roberts explain how anyone can access the spirit of nature whether through animals, plants, trees, or insects, or through other nature beings such as Mist or Sand. They share transformative wisdom teachings from their own conversations with nature spirits, such as Snowy Owl, Snake, Blackberry, Mushroom, and Glacial Silt, revealing powerful lessons about the feminine qualities of nature and about the reader's role in the healing of the Earth. They provide a wealth of experiential practices that allow each of us to connect with the creative power of nature. Full of rich imagery, these approaches can be used in a backyard, in the wilderness, in a city park, or even purely through imagination, allowing anyone to communicate with and seek guidance from nature beings no matter where you live.

We perform ceremonies to mark important events and celebrate holidays-yet our modern approach to ceremony only scratches the surface of its true potential. With The Book of Ceremony, shamanic teacher Sandra Ingerman presents a rich and practical resource for creating ceremonies filled with joy, purpose, and magic. "We are hungry to connect with more than what we experience with our ordinary senses in the material world," writes Sandra. "By performing ceremonies, you will find yourself stepping into a beautiful and creative power you might never have imagined." Weaving shamanic teachings together with stories, examples, and guiding insights, The Book of Ceremony explores: * The elements of a powerful ceremony-including setting strong intentions, choosing your space, preparing ceremonial items, and dealing gracefully with the unexpected * Stepping into the sacred-key practices for leaving behind your everyday concerns and creating a space where magic can happen * Guidance for working alone, in community, and across distances with virtual ceremonies * Invoking spiritual allies-the power of working with the elements, the natural world, ancestor spirits, and the creative energy of the divine * Sacred transitions-including ceremonies for weddings, births, rites of passage to adulthood, funerals, honorable closure, and new beginnings * Ceremonies for energetic balance-healing and blessing, resolving sacred contracts, getting rid of limiting beliefs, creating Prayer Trees, and more * Life as a ceremony-how to infuse your entire life with ceremonial practice, from planting a garden to revitalizing your home or office to helping heal our planet The Book of Ceremony is more than a "how-to" guide-it will inspire you to create original ceremonies tailored to your own needs and the needs of your community. When you invoke the sacred power of ceremony, you tap into one of the oldest and most effective tools for transforming both yourself and the world. As Sandra writes, "If you perform one powerful and successful ceremony for yourself, the principle of oneness ensures that all of life heals and evolves."