| Shamans believe that we are all born with an | | | | abuse, or childhood neglect, are a few of the |
| amount of energy or power, which is enough to | | | | more common reasons for visiting a soul retrieval |
| sustain us through life. But we can become | | | | practitioner. The soul part, faced with this hurt, |
| attached to events or relationships and can give | | | | takes flight. In itself, this is an action of positive |
| part of our energy away. Once this energy leaves | | | | healing and self-protection. It is only when the loss |
| us, it creates a 'hole' in our energy field through | | | | of this energy begins to have detrimental effects |
| which our power can 'leak away', a situation | | | | that the soul part needs to be returned. |
| known as soul loss. | | | | Then, the task of the shaman in all cultures has |
| The trick to maintaining health or recovering from | | | | been to search the otherworlds to find these |
| illness is therefore to recover the power (energy) | | | | fragments, or to guide the client so that she may |
| we have lost. This is the process of soul retrieval. | | | | enter this space to find them for herself, and |
| WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT WORKS | | | | bring them back. It is the return of these soul |
| Despite its name, soul retrieval is an intensely | | | | parts which explains the new feeling of wholeness |
| practical, 'down to earth', approach, which can | | | | on the part of the client. |
| produce surprisingly immediate and powerful | | | | There is another aspect of healing here too. The |
| results. Debbie's case is fairly typical of the | | | | shaman's journey is an archetypal, one, the quest |
| reasons for seeking soul retrieval, and also | | | | of the hero to find lost treasure, which, by its |
| illustrates the difference between retrieval and | | | | very nature, places the client at the centre of this |
| therapy, as well as the speed with which progress | | | | drama, in a position of tremendous value. Just a |
| can sometimes be made. | | | | few minutes into a typical soul retrieval |
| Debbie's husband left her a few years before she | | | | consultation, the client - perhaps for the first time |
| came to see me for a healing. Her depression and | | | | ever - has been listened to impartially, had their |
| feelings of loss had improved over the years, but | | | | story believed and had a difficult and dangerous |
| she still felt herself to be "incomplete". Therapy | | | | journey taken on their behalf by someone acting |
| consisted of a guided shamanic journey. To the | | | | expressly in their interests. Perhaps they have |
| client, this feels somewhat like a visualisation but, | | | | also shared in the journey, an act of personal |
| through the shaman's intervention with the spiritual | | | | empowerment which automatically signals that |
| world, is actually a way of bringing spiritual energy | | | | they can change for the better and do have the |
| back to the client. | | | | strength and resources to do so. |
| "For the first time in a long, long time, I felt that I | | | | TRAINING FOR SOUL RETRIEVAL WORK |
| could go on", she said. "I feel like I have emerged | | | | In order to do this kind of work, a soul retrieval |
| from a long dark tunnel into a bright, warm light. I | | | | practitioner must have developed considerable |
| have a future now". | | | | skills at journeying. Contemporary shamanic |
| Part of the reason for the success of soul | | | | practitioners can now develop these skills at |
| retrieval is its direct focus on the client in a totally | | | | workshops, where they will undertake supervised |
| holistic way. Soul retrieval supports the whole | | | | journeying and seek objects or energies which |
| person and caters for their spiritual, mythic, and | | | | have been deliberately hidden. |
| emotional needs, not just those of the body - the | | | | One person may journey, for example, and then |
| focus for conventional medicine - or the mind - | | | | hide something, such as a personal symbol, in the |
| the territory of the analyst. | | | | otherworlds. Their partner must then enter that |
| Whatever happens to the client during retrieval, it | | | | world and find it. Such 'spiritual hide and seek' is |
| seems plain that they enter some other realm of | | | | powerfully affirmative when something or |
| understanding where their concerns are set in | | | | someone hidden in this way is found by another |
| context against a bigger, deeper picture of reality. | | | | with no prior knowledge of the person who is |
| Here, for the first time, they see their true role | | | | hiding, of their memories, the landscape of their |
| and their unique place in the universe. | | | | personal world, or their interests. Far from being a |
| The shaman's explanation is simple. Whenever we | | | | land of imagination, a mental landscape, the |
| are traumatised, abused, hurt or neglected, parts | | | | otherworlds prove to be something much more - |
| of our soul split off and take refuge or become | | | | a transpersonal world which exists outside of us |
| lost or trapped in what shamans call the | | | | where our soul parts can find a home until it is |
| 'otherworlds'. Physical accidents, emotional trauma, | | | | safe for them to return. |