Raise your Vibration for 2013

A short Shamanic Practice to raise your 2013 energetic vibration and shift your consciousness! 

Click to watch the video our shamanic lecturer Louise made for us at Awareness Institute

Pilgrimage to the Heart of Australia

‘Be Safe and Well

Peace, Love, Courage’ – Egyptian blessing for those leaving on a pilgrimage.

Many spiritual traditions throughout the world link meditation and pilgrimage. For over a thousand years, Tibetan Buddhists have tried to make at least one pilgrimage to the Johkang Temple in Lhasa, often on foot, in a journey that can take many months.

There are Christian pilgrimage paths throughout Europe, some of which, like the Camino de Santiago in Spain have become more widely popular in recent years. And of course there is the largest pilgrimage in the world, the annual Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim strives to make.

Individuals also make their own pilgrimages to places of personal significance to support their spiritual and meditational practices.

The goal of meditation and of pilgrimage is the same. As in deep meditation, the intention to undertake a journey as a pilgrim can bring us to a state of transformation in which the old self is stripped away and we can approach liberation through a new sense of unity.

The Dalai Lama said that the purpose of a pilgrimage is to engage in transformation; if we come home the same as we left, it was not worth the time or money.

The most powerful pilgrimage destinations combine unusual or beautiful natural features and the devotional energy of people who have meditated or prayed in that place, often over centuries. The journey itself can be an extended meditation and those that involve walking the land with reverence bring the energy and patterns of love back to the Earth.

For the last few years, it’s been my practice to take an annual pilgrimage. These have been journeys of the heart, to places such as Tibet, India, Orkney and Peru. This year I went to Uluru, the heart of Australia.

In the ancient tradition of pilgrimage, the journey of spiritually inspired travel is as important as the destination. They’ve all offered me challenges, difficulties, insights and ‘opportunities for growth’.

The path to Uluru

On my journey in September 2012, there were daily challenges of camping in weather that varied from below freezing to +37 degrees, a blown tyre, damaged shock absorber as well as coming across a serious road accident that closed the highway for hours.

All these things led us to our first glimpse of Uluru, which the explorer Ernest Giles, the first European to see it, called ‘ancient and sublime’.

It is a place of mystery, story and ceremony for the traditional custodians, the Yankuntjatjara  and Pitjantjatjara people, known collectively as Anangu – simply ‘people’.

‘The Rock’, a massive sandstone inselberg, is believed to extend six kilometers into the earth, surrounded by low sandhills covered in spinifex and mulga, is a breathtaking presence that draws you close and invites meditation. No matter whether you are walking under it’s huge curves and channels or gazing from a distance, its energy demands your attention and contemplation.

The pilgrimage is a metaphor for life and when we hold the attitude of a pilgrim, we learn that the way we approach the challenges and joys of the journey tells us a great deal about the way we live our lives.

Uluru invites every Australian to come to the harsh desert centre and experience living in this country in a different way.

Eagle Women

Lately I've been hanging out (and dancing up a flight of eagles) with these Eagle Women.

Orbs Come to the Party

Try as we may we couldn't keep those pesky little orbs away from our shamanic ceremony

Transmissions of Power

Our shamanic retreat was held at Earth Spirit Yoga in Byron Bay http://earthspirityoga.com.au

The tepee was the heart of our ceremonial space. Over five intense days we received eight 'karpays' - direct transmissions of power to build energy for our evolution and capacity to hold new consciousness.
First, Mosok Karpay, the 'new rite' that aligns the healing lineage of the Inca with the new times in which we live.

Don Basilio built a despacho or 'medicine wheel' and called on the support of the natural world. Don David cleared our energy, using the most powerful and sacred tool of Peruvian shamanism, a condor feather. Whooooooo! And so our hearts and hands were aligned and all the chakras were worked.


During the next few days we travelled together through ceremonies of connection and reciprocity with Pachamama, rites of healing, expanding the divine feminine in each of us, and later, calling the high mountains for support, linking with our inner masculine energy.

Peruvian shamanism regards the balance of masculine and feminine energy to be central to the evolution of each individual and of the world.

When we participated in similar ceremonies in Peru, at Inca power sites and energetic portals in the Andes, the environment responded with thunderstorms, lightning displays, rainbows, mists, writhing cloud patterns and sweeping wind swirls.

In the watery world of Byron Bay, wind and the sea danced a powerful duet off the Lighthouse. rainbows came and went and cleansing rains poured down.

Another ceremony connected us with the plains and valleys of the Altiplano and empowered our Mesas or 'medicine bundles' containing the precious shamanic objects that each of us brought to the retreat.


Kurak Akullek Karpay linked us to to the sun, moon and stars and to the lineage of elders who can 'masticate' the old wisdom and turn it into nourishment  for the young ones who follow. Completing our cosmic journey, the God Rite joined us directly with the universe and with Wiracocha, the Creator.

At each ceremony, our hopes, dreams and intentions were energetically incorporated in the despacho and our blocks, barriers and inhibitions were swept away and destroyed by fire.

The effects of these powerful ceremonies have continued. Many thanks for the generosity of Don Basilio, Don David and our hosts, Gerard and Tanya

Giving Back

Once, on a vision quest, I sat and watched a tree being blown back and forth by a strong wind. The tree’s shadow seemed to stroke the ground but more than that, there was powerful energy in the space between the crown of the tree and the earth, brought into awareness by the shadow.

In that moment I understood that just as the earth nourishes the tree, the tree sends even more subtle energies back to earth. The smoothing motion of the shadow told the story.

How often do we ground ourselves by drawing energy from the earth? We know how good it feels to have this connection as we perform energy work or ‘hold our ground’ in a difficult situation.

We are connecting with the energy of love: the prime power of creation that is held by our mother, the earth.

Love is not just an emotion. It is a pure substance with tangible qualities. When we are filled with love, miracles can happen because the substance or essence of love within, draws the same core quality to us and it is from this field that we can do our work of healing, shining, connecting.

We can continue to take energy from the earth and she will continue to give or we can learn from the tree. Sometimes it feels even better to turn the connection on its head, gather our energies and offer them to earth.

Stand barefoot on the earth, reflect on all the gifts she give us, connect with your heart and hold the intention to nurture her with that loving energy. Hold your hands parallel to the ground and feel the energy flow down.

Do a little dance and feel the joy. Acknowledge any trees that are watching. Listen and you will hear the earth whisper a reply.

When the Mountains Come to the Ocean

Don't you love it when dimensions collide and events in shamanic consciousness play out unexpectedly in our ordinary world?

While I was leading a group in a shamanic journey recently, I spontaneously went into a brief journey of my own (usually I make a point of staying present in the room in case I'm needed).

In the journey, my power animal danced and raced joyously around a field where the huachuma (San Pedro) cactus, used for healing on all levels, grew alongside pink mulla mulla, the central Australian plant that is renowned for healing of the spirit.

What a perfect symbol for the way in which my experiences in Peru last year are blending with my life as a Western shamanic teacher and healer in Sydney.

Spirit had plans for this energetic connection to become my reality - I learned that Don Basilio, my teacher in Peru and his shamanic assistant, David, were coming on their first  visit here.

At Byron Bay, where the continent meets the ocean, they conducted eight powerful ceremonies of cleansing, blessing and initiation. 

despacho

Each ceremony included the creation of a despacho; a sacred mandala into which we placed our hopes and wishes, for blessing, as well as our difficulties, for purification.

At the end of each ceremony, the despacho is carefully folded, tied up and burnt, far away where we can't reabsorb our negativities.

Don Basilio is a Q'ero shaman, the son and grandson of shamans, known in Peru as Paqo. He is a Pampamesayok or Earthkeeper, with special, powerful connections to the land in the high Andes. He is also a recognised descendant of the Inca and a holder of the famous prophecies that this time is a portal offering the opportunity for a new humanity to rise.


The mountain ceremonies have been performed here for the first time. Dimensions merge with a gift of grace for our times.


more to come ...