We are all on a sacred journey in life – sometimes it can take the prescribed path for us dictated by society this is where we go to school, go to college and then onward to work or university and then into our careers. It all seems so clean cut, we plan which way to go and we head in that direction.

However life often has other plans for us, its seldom a straight line of plan goal reach goal, next plan goal reach goal that we anticipate – things happens to us in life – we have relationship troubles, sicknesses, money worries and even existential crisis’s which take us off track, we make poor choices and sometimes we are victimised by others.

Sometimes we may wonder often around midlife what are we doing all this for – or we decide we need to rest and would happily wish not to do anything or we settle into a daily grind were we give up in our lives and just do what we have to stay afloat.

In old anglo saxon lore there is the concept of the wyrd – the wyrd is the personal fate or destiny of every human on the planet. Its shaped at birth and its like a rope, or thread which is flexible and winding. The peoples of old never tried to make a straight path out of life, they knew life had many twists or turns and this thread which we follow is a web of life connected to every other human being on the planet, also all the birds and animals and the environment too.

In times past they honoured the journey by walking the labyrinth – the labyrinth goes round and round but not in a spiral it often doubles back on itself before going round till we meet the centre and from there go back out into the world.

The christians also adopted this practise to illustrate the journey back to the heart of God and then once we have found this to go back out into the world in service. So shamans too journey as part of their practise, they go within themselves along the great royal road of the unconscious and meet the spiritual beings and archetypes we find in our psyche.

The inner journey we make helps us to complete our outer journeys in the external world. Maybe we meet an animal, or go to an exotic location and receive a gift, these are all pointers from our unconscious mind to help us with our winding path in life.

Its the inner guidance which we are so often lacking when we follow or wyrd or personal destiny – we may find ourselves sick or lost and not be sure where to go for guidance – we may receive a teacher or mentor or helps us but often we may be alone on our road, we may have guidance from a Great Teacher like Master Jesus – we may receiving a guiding Spirit such as the Holy Spirit as a helper – but ultimately its our life and our choice how we live it, through the winding wyrd road.

In quero shamanism they say we are all on the medicine wheel, in different stages of consciousness which I have outlined in my previous post on Christs Journey – so here too we may receive a map of the actual journey which is not at all linear. We may through art work make a vision of our lives, with vision boards each year, trying to take matters of the web of life into our own hands to shape wyrd as we see fit making the best out of whatever circumstances we are in.

However we choose to live our lives, know that the road is long and winding – the meaning of Journey means so much both the shamanic journey and the journeys we take through life – I wish you all a good journey where you complete life, silver haired and wise – reaching the heart of the labyrinth and then out again in service to our world. Our world needs everyone to have completed good journeys and to have shared their wisdom and insight which they learnt along the road.

The PATH

Our path is a winding one with no end in sight
It takes many passages round and round like soul flight
Its a labryrinth really that runs through our heart
We try to express it in poetry and our art
Sometimes we are in solitude all alone
and sometimes with friends who can sometimes moan
about our precarious ways as we journey
There are no locked doors always only keys
Journey on through the darkness as we find the light
Here or there in a teacher or in a book we cannot fight
The meandering way that is our wyrd
Inside we find and image or a guiding word
That spurs us on in service to ourselves and our world
We received congratulations for the things done well hurled
Up in a ball with insults too when disaster strikes for me and you
But this serves us well to reach our goal on the wheel into
Which we all dance where we are all one in unity
Alone with us or them life is beautiful in its simplicity
We serve our roles well in archetypal symmmetry of the divine
Mirrored in us all, I wish “you” well because you are mine
The path is ever winding its certainly not a straight line

I have been recently studying the Quero Medicine Wheel of Peru and relating it to Christs Journey – and I feel this wheel really is wisdom and it also illustrated humanities journey through life through the 4 stages of Consciousness where we too can one day embody Christ Consciousness and be of real service to humanity.

The stages of consciousness is an universal shamanic path that should also be found in Christianity but sadly seems to be neglected in the current church as they follow churchianity rather than Christs teachings first and foremost. The cross of the wheel is an universal symbol which is also found in christianity as the cross christ was crucified on

So the universal shamanic path which is found in Christianity too

is STEP ONE – the serpents way (eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil) entering the wheel of life  duality us and them thinking good and evil or even good versus evil. I am good you are evil. God is good we are evil and all the variations therin. Persecutors and victims, toil, suffering wisdom by bitter experience – life and death We learn empathy by suffering – we are squinted with grief and the sufferings of mankind. In Christian terms this has been mankinds way since the Fall –  we are shocked and horrified by everything in the world – we shed limiting beliefs and our ego but on the plus side we can also shed diseases and our bodies when we die – The victim archetype requires a saviour archetype to “save” them – the task here is to integrate the victim – this can be done by seeing ourselves in the “other” what is evil in the “other” is the shadow of ourselves – you who condemn your brother do the same things – forgive as you want to be forgiven – I am you – you are me – Ill understand this better once ive completed the training for the south medicine wheel – but regardless of whether we do the training or not – we are ALL on the wheel somewhere and serpent consciousness is where most people are at Life is happening TO ME –

Step Two – the Jaguar Illuminate our shadows – in the church they do this by confessing our “sins” or the things we are ashamed of to GOD/Jesus – all the things we would rather not be we bring to the LIGHT of God to be healed by Him – but this is also continued in the christian walk by NOT CONDEMNING our neighbour but by understanding him or her – I already covered this but the things we condemn our brother or sister for we ourselves do in a different way – like condemning tarot card readers when we prophesise the future using the pages of the bible. Condemning witches when we do charasmatic witchcraft in the church and so on – this is their shadow but they CANT see it – they can only see it in the OTHER – scapegoating etc

This needs to be illuminated – once we do – life is created by me

Step three – The Hummingbird – JOY and flow of life – flowing with SPIRIT – this is when spirit really works through us – we are in a flow state – if your an artist your creating works of beauty  love and truth – or a poet or whatever it is you do well – athletes are often in flow states abundance – life is created through me

Step four – Eagle Condor – I and the Father are One – unity of all things – Oneness – we consciousness – All beings are in me and I am in all beings – No judgement acceptance of all

So this illustrates Christs journey also – Christ was in eagle consiousness in a world full of people in snake consciousness- Christs teachings show the WAY through the medicine wheel so we too can reach eagle consiousness – its not just the victim in me needs a saviour to be saved – thats how it starts – but then they need to follow His teachings to go through all the stages of the medicine wheel.- the religion of the church doesnt do that – they stay as victim archetype clinging to a saviour archetype – Christ IS the saviour but they get saved by following his teachings that is the way – but the quero also teach this way. GOD is known by many names to all cultures and is yet unknown to us all – God created this world and everything in it – including all the other religions traditions and associated beings – if christians loved their neighbour as themselves instead of demonising (serpent consciousness – I am good you are evil) they would know and understand that Gods has taught us the way

  Eagle Consciousness AND Christ Consciousness are one and the same thing

To be HONEST – i didnt cover integrating the victim very well (ill understand it better once I travel the wheel by studying Quero shamanism) –

My new Year 2023 life path is now laid before me for this year – I wasnt clear on what it would be in January – but in recent weeks its become apparent what I must do, so I am laying it here as a comittment to the world

I must finish my degree in Surface Pattern Design – the arts is a great subject to study as within the design discipline which is positive and solution focused – I can study art making, designing as discipline including designing for the Anthropocene and redesigning systems and paradigms, religion, soul art, archetypal psychology, myths, shamanism, the natural world, environment etc as well as making great designs for clothing and wall paper from my findings. (ok finish the 3rd year part time)

I must continue to study Carl Jungs work and become really familiar with it as hes really where Im at, there are other mentors but I really resonate mostly with Jungs work and how this relates to the mind, the soul and other religions and traditions.

I must really explore my inner world through art poetry dance and mandala making – keep up my chakradance practise till I really embody the positive archetypes of chakradance as opposed to some of the less positive expressions of these archetypes such as victim or saboteur. Bring forth material from these realms either in the form of mandalas art or poetry or other expression

Live mostly according to God of the Bibles laws (as I open myself up to cursings of blessings from this Deity and its the cultural norms/laws of the country I live in)

Live a productive life of service, not just doing my degree and volunteering but working in the mental health field for the NHS and aiding those deemed to have a mental health condition by modern psychiatry

Once I have finished my arts degree continue my therapeutic studies (I have a higher education certificate in counselling skills) and work as a chakradance facillitator with my business Swan on the Sea Wellness and my design business Shelly Smith Designs and maybe do a Masters in Art Therapy at Welsh University

Continue to heal and care for myself and share my findings on this blog – JOURNEY the soul realms.

In healing myself of a complex mental health condition which I consider to be a spiritual crisis and the plight of the soul/ I have been through many avenues of healing. The modern materialistic psychiatric system and medical model views these issues as simply a “chemical imbalance” to be treated with drugs alone and big pharma makes billions from this industry. BUT does it work? On the one hand I am sure there are many people who could say they couldnt live without their psychiatric drugs and even that these drugs saved their lives – but equally there are MANY people who are dissatisfied by the way they have been treated by the mental health system which is often heavy handed in the way it deals with human beings who are made to feel ashamed for being in crisis which is a very human calamity. I have so far healed myself to a good degree so that im in university and working part time.

One reason I think the mental health system is failing is because it lacks SOUL – the root of the word psychology is psyche and ology – so psychology was originally the study of the psyche or soul. We know that only a tiny proportion of the mind is conscious which is mainly the ego and persona, the rest is hidden in the depths but nethertheless drives our life, behaviour and purposes. FEW people in the modern world really study their own mind psyche and soul, not even those of a religious disposition. However one such pioneer who did study the soul was Carl Jung. Carl Jung had what he called a confrontation with his unconscious at mid life which as someone of a scientific mind he documented through art and poetry and journals in his red and black books. What he discovered in the depths of his own soul is incredible and know that EVERY human is the same, on the outside there is a body and a seen persona or personality and ego but in the depths of each human being alive there is a chasm of uncharted archetypal material which beggars belief. It can be explored when we dream but some people with mental health conditions such as schizophrenia dream when they are awake. This is because the unconsious is bursting forth into the conscious in response to some individual or collective crisis

As I have documented in my previous blog posts its our DUTY to ourselves to explore this material which can influence the collective and the world around us and plunge the depths of our own soul to bring forth whats within us – this may have been what Christians in the past were doing influenced by the Holy Spirit and what we can still do today for personal and collective soul healing. This doesnt mean there wont be outer mentors and that we disengage with our outer lives, no we continue to live productive and functional outer lives to remain faithful to the spirit of the times, but also in our spare time we explore our dream material, and shamanic journeying material to see what it has to tell us. If you are an artist like me this is perfect to create soul art or even to just keep an interesting journal of your rich inner life.

Im currently studying a great course called Journey into the World of Soul by Craig Chalquist of the Jung Platform https://jungplatform.com/store/journey-into-the-world-of-soul to help do this as my own process of individuation. It looks at Jungs black books to help us with our own soul journies.This archetypal realm within is what I believe Jesus meant when He said the Kingdom of God is within you – sometimes it means breaking out of our social and cultural conditioning through a crisis to be able to behold and converse with it – but I believe its now my life path along with living a productive outer life to plunge its depths both for my own and collective healing in humanity

I also practise chakradance and mandala making for healing my inner wounds and humanities collective crisis as we are all connected nobody is an island and as one heals, we all heal together.

Bring forth whats within us

The gods live within us, please see
within you and me in the unconscious sea
There in the wonders of our soul and psyche
It mirrors reflects the spiritual world above
Its not just the spirit of God as a dove
God Almighty can strengthen us with His right hand
As our bodily lives are but written in sand
But the archetypes live on in our mind and depths
Under the iceburg sea where they rise in steps
We can talk with them and bring them forth
To bring to lights whats within is the course
To save us from all traps and snares
In our inner life we reveal and bare
A healing for the outer world without
So to journey we must give a shout
To the greats who came before like Carl Jung
Then our lives will be worthwhile and sung
By poets of renknown great and small
And living a creative life shall be a ball