
Jaime's Deep Shamanic Training
Donation protected
Greetings dear walkers on the path of wonder,
I'm asking for your support to help get me to a series of "next level" shamanic trainings this October and November. One part of it is in New Mexico with the teachers I met three years ago who have deepened my skills in indescribably powerful ways. The other training is with a family of shamans in Peru who are my teachers' teachers. I've been to Peru twice so far and I have at least four more trips to make in the next two years to take on a certain set of skills.
In effect, I'm now asking my village (you) to help me get this next level of training so that I can bring it back and offer it to you through teaching, writing and direct healing. Any amount you choose to give will be greeted by me with a heartily grateful "Wahoo!" and I'll make ecstatic prayers of thanks for you with tobacco and song while I'm in Peru.
I do have one special reward to offer: for any gift of $250 or more I'll bring you an exquisite art piece made by women in the village in Peru. These radiantly colorful embroidered prayer cloths have patterns sewn on them that look random, geometric, or slightly pictorial, but the patterns are actually a form of musical notation - they are prayers, sewn in a cloth, and they are mouth -wateringly beautiful.
About my current work
I have tried my best to create a place of safety and inspiration for people who are exploring their delicate (and often wounded) spiritual heart. I try my best to walk the delicate balance between making a living as a shamanic healer, and "being all about the money." I offer as many free or "pay what you can" services as I am able to. I don't turn away people needing healing who simply cannot pay. I offer drumming circles that welcome everyone, workshops for those who want to step in deeper, and an ongoing apprenticeship program for those who are committed to becoming healers. I've conducted approximately 150 healing sessions for individuals this year so far. I'm telling you honestly that after every client or student leaves my house, I feel like dropping to my knees and weeping with gratitude over this weird, fiery blessing that was injected into me by Spirit - the call to do this work no matter what - and by the fact that the work has touched so many people. It's a meager living measured by money and a glorious life measured by beauty.
How was I called to this work?
Thirty years ago I was an eager young playwright with some success. One night I had a powerful dream in which a spirit animal – what I came to call the Lion/Goat/Dog - came to breathe blue fire into the top of my head. It hurt and made me convulse. That started me on a seven-year journey of spending a truly unbelievable amount of time alone in my three-room apartment near Chicago and Lake Streets drumming, singing, dancing the Lion/Goat/Dog dance, weeping, dreaming, flying out of my body at night, and doing healings on my ancestors. All of this, I found out years later, is known in the world of shamanism as "being trained by the spirits." Truthfully, it was a long initiation on the threshold between sane and crazy. I'm forever indebted to Ed and Velma Fancher, who must have wondered many times what kind of nutcase they had rented their upstairs to. (May they be well-fed and healthy in the spirit world.) I did have a few human teachers during this time, including a two-year study of Celtic Shamanism, and that probably kept me sane. I also, for some reason, got a Master's Degree in Theology from a Seminary, where I was the charmingly weird one in every class. They sorta liked that my 110 page thesis didn’t mention Jesus even once but "goat" was in it fifteen times.
During the next stretch of years I became a father and the family breadwinner, and within these narrow, demanding boundaries I needed to find the way that the spirits could keep working with me (and on me). I established ceremonial drumming circles that welcomed drummers at any experience level. Thousands of people have moved in and out of these joy and wonder-filled circles over 17 years, including the large and wild Winter Solstice Blessing ceremony which, this year, will be #14. The drumming circles became steadily more ceremonial as the spirits continually pushed me out of my comfort zone and into new skills.
Six years ago I had a "cardiac event." It was mild but frightening. A few weeks later, during a drum circle, a new spirit teacher appeared to me and began teaching me strange new skills, like seeing people's energy body clearly, and being able to sing energies into people. Then he began eight months of work on me in which every other night I twitched in bed for an hour before going downstairs to weep, cleanse, dream, pray and wake up at dawn with my face glued to the carpet by dried spit and snot.
At the end of this period, he guided me to conduct an initiatory ceremony in the wilderness. Three friends came along to help. During that experience, he laid on me some new responsibilities. He told me it was time to stop making so many self-deprecating jokes during drum circles and in my writing. He also said it was time to start doing healing work on individuals. I fought this mightily – I absolutely did not want that much responsibility. Like always, Spirit's response was, "Too bad. Do what I'm telling you to do." Seriously, sometimes I don't know why we call them "helping" spirits.
At that same time, my wife's 15-year chronic illness lifted suddenly, the marriage evaporated, and I found myself in a life in which I had only two daily tasks: try to take care of my kids and try to survive in the urban world as a shamanic healer. However, I also had more freedom to travel to seek the advanced training that I could not get while in that "ordinary" work-family life. I have been committing myself like a madman for the these last three years, and intend to continue for the next two years, to get training from human teachers, including the incredible indigenous healers in Peru whose sweetness and openness continually humble and inspire me. I am in a fairly constant state of amazement, seriously.
If you are wondering: yes, I do believe Spirit crashed and shredded my life in order to open me and set me on a deeper path of shamanic training, so I could become more effective for my village (that's you) and so I could do what the spirits want me to do in this world.
How your donation will be used
The money I'm raising through this site will go directly to pay my costs of continued deeper shamanic training in October and November 2016, which I can then bring back and integrate into all the teaching, writing and direct healing work I do locally. I go to New Mexico in October for special training in shamanic healing, and to Peru in November to be with the shamans there, which includes eight days of fasting, ceremony, and study.
Air fare and expenses to New Mexico in October: $725.
Air fare and expenses to Peru in November: $3300. ($900 air fare, the rest goes to some in-country travel like a small plane ride to the jungle, boats up the river, and cash to all of the teachers. It also includes some purchases of art work done by women in the village, and astounding visual art by a couple of the shamans in the village. This is another way to infuse some money more widely into the village.)
I'd like to make clear that the shamans we are working with in Peru are not in the "Shamanism Tourism" business. We are the only North Americans they teach, and their entire family is involved. It's not a "shamanism retreat center." It's a ceremonial hut in the jungle, built specifically for our group. All of us are concerned with creating a healthy relationship that supports the village but doesn’t damage it.
I thank you so much for considering helping me and, by extension all who I touch through teaching, ceremony, writing and direct healing. As my Celtic shamanic ancestors might have said:
Blessings of the love the stars be yours
Blessings of the love the the green earth
Blessings of the love of the great sea be be yours
Blessings of the creator of love
Blessings of the creator of love.
Thank you!
Jaime
I'm asking for your support to help get me to a series of "next level" shamanic trainings this October and November. One part of it is in New Mexico with the teachers I met three years ago who have deepened my skills in indescribably powerful ways. The other training is with a family of shamans in Peru who are my teachers' teachers. I've been to Peru twice so far and I have at least four more trips to make in the next two years to take on a certain set of skills.
In effect, I'm now asking my village (you) to help me get this next level of training so that I can bring it back and offer it to you through teaching, writing and direct healing. Any amount you choose to give will be greeted by me with a heartily grateful "Wahoo!" and I'll make ecstatic prayers of thanks for you with tobacco and song while I'm in Peru.
I do have one special reward to offer: for any gift of $250 or more I'll bring you an exquisite art piece made by women in the village in Peru. These radiantly colorful embroidered prayer cloths have patterns sewn on them that look random, geometric, or slightly pictorial, but the patterns are actually a form of musical notation - they are prayers, sewn in a cloth, and they are mouth -wateringly beautiful.
About my current work
I have tried my best to create a place of safety and inspiration for people who are exploring their delicate (and often wounded) spiritual heart. I try my best to walk the delicate balance between making a living as a shamanic healer, and "being all about the money." I offer as many free or "pay what you can" services as I am able to. I don't turn away people needing healing who simply cannot pay. I offer drumming circles that welcome everyone, workshops for those who want to step in deeper, and an ongoing apprenticeship program for those who are committed to becoming healers. I've conducted approximately 150 healing sessions for individuals this year so far. I'm telling you honestly that after every client or student leaves my house, I feel like dropping to my knees and weeping with gratitude over this weird, fiery blessing that was injected into me by Spirit - the call to do this work no matter what - and by the fact that the work has touched so many people. It's a meager living measured by money and a glorious life measured by beauty.
How was I called to this work?
Thirty years ago I was an eager young playwright with some success. One night I had a powerful dream in which a spirit animal – what I came to call the Lion/Goat/Dog - came to breathe blue fire into the top of my head. It hurt and made me convulse. That started me on a seven-year journey of spending a truly unbelievable amount of time alone in my three-room apartment near Chicago and Lake Streets drumming, singing, dancing the Lion/Goat/Dog dance, weeping, dreaming, flying out of my body at night, and doing healings on my ancestors. All of this, I found out years later, is known in the world of shamanism as "being trained by the spirits." Truthfully, it was a long initiation on the threshold between sane and crazy. I'm forever indebted to Ed and Velma Fancher, who must have wondered many times what kind of nutcase they had rented their upstairs to. (May they be well-fed and healthy in the spirit world.) I did have a few human teachers during this time, including a two-year study of Celtic Shamanism, and that probably kept me sane. I also, for some reason, got a Master's Degree in Theology from a Seminary, where I was the charmingly weird one in every class. They sorta liked that my 110 page thesis didn’t mention Jesus even once but "goat" was in it fifteen times.
During the next stretch of years I became a father and the family breadwinner, and within these narrow, demanding boundaries I needed to find the way that the spirits could keep working with me (and on me). I established ceremonial drumming circles that welcomed drummers at any experience level. Thousands of people have moved in and out of these joy and wonder-filled circles over 17 years, including the large and wild Winter Solstice Blessing ceremony which, this year, will be #14. The drumming circles became steadily more ceremonial as the spirits continually pushed me out of my comfort zone and into new skills.
Six years ago I had a "cardiac event." It was mild but frightening. A few weeks later, during a drum circle, a new spirit teacher appeared to me and began teaching me strange new skills, like seeing people's energy body clearly, and being able to sing energies into people. Then he began eight months of work on me in which every other night I twitched in bed for an hour before going downstairs to weep, cleanse, dream, pray and wake up at dawn with my face glued to the carpet by dried spit and snot.
At the end of this period, he guided me to conduct an initiatory ceremony in the wilderness. Three friends came along to help. During that experience, he laid on me some new responsibilities. He told me it was time to stop making so many self-deprecating jokes during drum circles and in my writing. He also said it was time to start doing healing work on individuals. I fought this mightily – I absolutely did not want that much responsibility. Like always, Spirit's response was, "Too bad. Do what I'm telling you to do." Seriously, sometimes I don't know why we call them "helping" spirits.
At that same time, my wife's 15-year chronic illness lifted suddenly, the marriage evaporated, and I found myself in a life in which I had only two daily tasks: try to take care of my kids and try to survive in the urban world as a shamanic healer. However, I also had more freedom to travel to seek the advanced training that I could not get while in that "ordinary" work-family life. I have been committing myself like a madman for the these last three years, and intend to continue for the next two years, to get training from human teachers, including the incredible indigenous healers in Peru whose sweetness and openness continually humble and inspire me. I am in a fairly constant state of amazement, seriously.
If you are wondering: yes, I do believe Spirit crashed and shredded my life in order to open me and set me on a deeper path of shamanic training, so I could become more effective for my village (that's you) and so I could do what the spirits want me to do in this world.
How your donation will be used
The money I'm raising through this site will go directly to pay my costs of continued deeper shamanic training in October and November 2016, which I can then bring back and integrate into all the teaching, writing and direct healing work I do locally. I go to New Mexico in October for special training in shamanic healing, and to Peru in November to be with the shamans there, which includes eight days of fasting, ceremony, and study.
Air fare and expenses to New Mexico in October: $725.
Air fare and expenses to Peru in November: $3300. ($900 air fare, the rest goes to some in-country travel like a small plane ride to the jungle, boats up the river, and cash to all of the teachers. It also includes some purchases of art work done by women in the village, and astounding visual art by a couple of the shamans in the village. This is another way to infuse some money more widely into the village.)
I'd like to make clear that the shamans we are working with in Peru are not in the "Shamanism Tourism" business. We are the only North Americans they teach, and their entire family is involved. It's not a "shamanism retreat center." It's a ceremonial hut in the jungle, built specifically for our group. All of us are concerned with creating a healthy relationship that supports the village but doesn’t damage it.
I thank you so much for considering helping me and, by extension all who I touch through teaching, ceremony, writing and direct healing. As my Celtic shamanic ancestors might have said:
Blessings of the love the stars be yours
Blessings of the love the the green earth
Blessings of the love of the great sea be be yours
Blessings of the creator of love
Blessings of the creator of love.
Thank you!
Jaime
Organizer
Jaime Meyer
Organizer
Minneapolis, MN