![\"\"](\"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/TrueNorth.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
“The person we choose to be … automatically creates a dark double<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong> \n \n I was the presenter for the Super Blue Blood Moon on Year of Ceremony with Sounds True recently. One of my missions for years has been creating opportunities for the voices and visions of young people to be heard by the world. On the Big Night I was joined by a “surprise co-presenter”: my 13-year old son Brendan,\u00a0who took the global audience on a journey to a very special place on the The Dark Side of the Moon! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Right now the theme of young people speaking up for themselves and for the world they are going to be Earth Keepers for – long after we older ones leave the planet – is looming very large. I am proud of young people all over the world speaking out against all that is imbalanced or hurting in our world. May we all listen to the wisdom of young voices and bright visions!!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n For me personally this winter has truly been a period of sacred Darkness. What I mean by this is that I faced a potentially serious health issue and some dark nights of the soul – in an entirely good way. For me it proved that “the illness IS the soul medicine”, as some authors claim, because\u00a0the pickings (learnings) have been rich beyond measure.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n \n T<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>RUE NORTH is the North according to the Earth’s axis<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong> \n I had the incredible privilege of doing powerful work with two groups in Philadelphia recently. One group came together to study the Anatomy of Soul through the lens of ancient Norse cosmology. They were a dream group\u00a0and it was a thought-provoking day!\u00a0I was obviously asked\u00a0questions about how Norse shamanism is different from core shamanism. Answering those questions it dawned on me\u00a0that core shamanism presents simplified models for\u00a0certain things. (One obvious example is\u00a0the claim\u00a0that “there is no underworld, only a lower world”. Many of us will know that this is not true: when we move through dark nights of the soul, initiations and periods of dismemberment we make the pilgrimage to the\u00a0<\/span><\/span>underworld (and the underbelly of our own consciousness).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>We spend\u00a0time there – just as\u00a0the Sumerian goddess Inanna made her Descent to The Great Below!)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In Philadelphia I took my sacred art students through an enactment of this ancient Sumerian\u00a0myth. You could say that we all participated in a mystery play. It was challenging but it was also eye-opening and life-changing. My own life changes every time I do this work with a committed group!! (And the same thing is true for ancestral healing work, which I taught in London last week, with another dream group: my current Circle of shamanic practitioners).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Another issue\u00a0that came up in our\u00a0“Soul” group was the question of black magic and all things dark. Some people translate the word “seidr” as “sorcery”. I do not agree with that translation as I feel the original\u00a0meaning relates to both the old customs (<\/span><\/span>sed\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>in contemporary Swedish)\u00a0\u00a0and spinning the lines of Destiny\u00a0(here think of the figure of the V<\/span><\/span><\/span>?lva<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0or V<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00f6lva<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and the Norns).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I look around me today and it is very clear to me that for all of us to truly and effectively\u00a0counter the shadows being enacted on the world stage – we can no longer study spiritual material without studying its darker applications and manifestations. Not to practice it, NO!! – But to understand its workings and deepest recesses –\u00a0\u00a0in order top\u00a0formulate an adequate response to it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n If we do not personally and collectively embrace the need to do this much-needed shadow work, it seems possible that our shadow taking physical manifestations (in corrupt politicians, greedy corporations, terrorists and so forth) will decide the future of The Human Family on Earth. That cannot be right –\u00a0\u00a0let’s wake up, step into our power and dream (co-create)\u00a0a different outcome together!!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I said to my shamanic practitioner students in London\u00a0last week: I am not really a “Love and Light teacher”, I teach from a place of profound willingness to find the treasure in darkness: the dark time of the year, my personal darkness, our collective darkness. That is where the treasure is hidden.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u201c<\/span><\/strong>One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong> \n In Norse shamanism the forces of Chaos are often linked to the Giants. The god Thor is always busy in the East fighting the Giants and keeping them at bay. Yet the ancient texts also inform us that the giants walked the Earth long\u00a0before human beings did.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>That makes them our ancestors, especially the primordial giant Ymir from whose body our world was created!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \n For more information I invite you to watch my brand\u00a0 new art video,<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Ymir and Orion, First Ancestor, First Shaman<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span>— the person we choose not to be.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>–\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>Thomas Moore in\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>The Care of the Soul<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nWhen the spirits call us, we embark on a spiritual quest. The one thing that is for sure about the journey that unfolds is that there are no end destinations – just the journey. The spirits will always ask us to take the next step (usually “the thing that frightens us most” or\u00a0 “the thing that forces us to leave the comfort zone”).\u00a0\u00a0Some people call this finding our True North. For me my True North\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>is literally found in the North.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>as opposed to the Magnetic North (when you use a compass)<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMy own recent journey has been about owning and recalling many parts of myself that had been pushed away. To find the essence of those things I had to walk “the shadow lands”. I had to own the fact that I cannot discount (for instance) my Roman Catholic upbringing – the saints literally “came marching in”! I had to acknowledge how years of training in core shamanism have only awakened an urge to follow my true (and first) calling: Norse shamanism and the Norse gods. For that reason the focus of my courses is changing: I will continue to teach courses in sacred art and specialist courses (such as shamanic work with children – the Natural Born Shamans material described in my first book – and advanced ancestral healing work), but my main focus will shift to offering courses\u00a0in Norse shamanism.\u00a0Courses that reflect the indigenous ancestral path of Northern Europe.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>but by making the\u00a0darkness\u00a0conscious.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>– C. G. Jung<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n