Book Review

Shamanism for Every Day

365 Journeys

by Mara Bishop

Publisher: Citadel

464 Pages

Publication Date 3/20/21

 

 

Shamanic practitioner and intuitive consultant Mara Bishop’s Shamanism for Everyday: 365 Journeys is a book of daily meditations which present opportunities to connect with inner wisdom and helping spirits in the midst of our busy lives. The Introduction is titled “Coming Home” and sitting down with this book indeed feels like settling in, calming down and having a break from the intense outward focused activity and distraction we experience in the 21^st century. The main content of the book is the 365 daily entries referenced in the title. Each daily entry has a topic title and a quote on that topic from an eminent person. Bishop herself then reflects on the framework of the topic and finally, suggests a journey the reader can use to explore and to gather personal experience. There is a detailed index to the daily entries, so they are easy to find. For readers with no experience in shamanism or journeying, there are chapters that provide clear, simple and thorough explanations. There is an FAQ section that responds to the questions that typically arise for new journeyers. There are also suggestions
(and journey ideas) for invoking spirits and setting sacred space, creating ritual and ceremony, and working with the moon and the wheel of the year. The journey suggestions refer back to the relevant daily quotations and discussion entries for in-depth inquiry. There are also brief sections that touch on exploration of deeper experiences, like finding calm in chaos and working with energetic boundaries.

I really like Shamanism for Everyday: 365 Journeys! There is a sense of ease and calm about it and about the way Bishop invites the reader to take daily time for a “journey break,” to take a few minutes out of the busyness of life to reconnect to our deeper selves. She lets us know that it’s okay to miss a day – there’s no rigidity or dogma here. It’s also okay to work with the book in any order the reader chooses – working with topics of interest, going day by day or opening the book to a random page as a divination for what wants to be explored in the moment. We can journey on a topic, we can meditate with it, or we can simply sit and reflect on it. The idea is to “come home” to ourselves and our connection to our inner resources, ancestors and helping spirits, so we benefit from their wisdom and restore our sense of flow and connection in our everyday lives. Bishop points out how modern life can drain us of vitality, health and joy. She invites us to enter the gateway of daily practice as a step towards greater transformation, to experience a sense of connection to spirit as a way of life. Her journey suggestions are clear and straightforward, ideal for clear communication with our helping spirits. Here’s one journey suggestion I really liked, on the topic of “when things fall apart:” Journey and ask for a way to stay calm when things appear to be falling apart. Simple, right? It’s also a brilliant open-ended journey question that invites helping spirits to provide a tool we can use every day. I have been a shamanic practitioner and teacher for over twenty years and find Shamanism for Everyday: 365 Journeys a rich resource that I plan to use regularly.

Mara Bishop is a shamanic practitioner, intuitive consultant, teacher, author, and artist. She provides spiritual healing, personal growth, and emotional well-being counseling to clients and trains practitioners in Personal Evolution Counseling(TM), a method she developed. She has written several books and lives in Durham, NC with a beloved family of people, animals, and plants. Mara’s website is https://www.wholespirit.com/

 

Shamanism for Every Day: 365 Journeys on Amazon

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About the Author:

Susan Rossi is a Practitioner and Teacher of Shamanic Arts. She is a long-time explorer of The Mysteries – the connections between mind, body, spirit and how to live in right relationship to all of the energies streaming through the cosmos. She works with clients as an astrologer, coach, ceremonialist and guide to the wisdom that each of us has the capacity to access. Her focus is on guiding clients to unblock and rediscover their inner wisdom. Art, exploration of the birth chart, ceremony, legacy writing, hypnotherapy, energetic healing practice and creation of sacred tools are integral pieces of her practice.

 

Susan trained in Soul Level Astrology with master astrologer Mark Borax. She delights in exploring with individuals the planetary pattern under which their soul choose to incarnate.

Susan Rossi

Open Channel Astrology www.openchannelastrology.com

Flying to the Heart www.flyingtotheheart.com