The Cards Are Drawn, the Shaman Begins

Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Third Degree Ebb and Flow.

Almost  a    year ago,  Kelley  Harrell  of   http://www.soulintentarts.com made a  shamanic  journey  for me.  (And do check her out!)   I’d learned so much from her book, Gift of the Dreamtime and Kristin’s Madden’s The Shamanic Guide to Living and Dying, that  I  felt  I  needed more of this experience.  Something else for my spiritual toolbox, something new to put yet another spin on all the things I was learning.  So I asked Kelley to make a journey for me and check on a few things for me, and then later, after we’d discussed it and I’d let things settle a bit, I’d do a follow-up with her.

I  hadn’t read back over the results in several months—okay,  many months, since I’d misplaced it—but I’m doing a little bit of cleaning up and came across the initial “trip report” she’d  sent  me. There’s nothing like seeing how far you’ve come until you stop, turn around, and take a good look behind you.

I’ll share Kelley’s insights, as well as my initial impression            (including when the  reaction  was            “Holy  #!&@*#$&!” or “Huh?”) and what  I think  now,  given some time and distance.

Cards drawn:

Fire—Cartouche Deck (cycle of destruction, purging, creation) Tour Ship—Contact Cards (calm, smooth sailing, indicating a well-deserved vacation and the path of least resistance in undertakings)

My reaction then:

Omigods. A cycle of destruction?  Just what I need! But oh, look—I’m going to get a well-deserved  vacation. Oh, good.  That’s what I need!  I can rest soon!

My reaction now:

A cycle  of  destruction,   purging,  creation?  That’s death and rebirth, isn’t it?  Even though at the time of the journey I was a  year into my new independent life as a divorced woman, there was still more to be purged.  A lot more.  Seeds were planted, yes, but even more of my old life had to be destroyed to make room for the creation of the new.

As for the well-deserved vacation and the path of least resistance, it seems  that  many  things  took  the path of least   resistance   to  break  apart  and  form  something new.  The things that broke or burned away did so very quickly when they did break or spark. Very unlike my relationships in the past.   Always before, I’d  overstayed my welcome in relationships,  until the point where they were  out of balance, and it would have been best if I’d left long before instead of hanging on until the other person,  organization,   group,  project,   whatever  pointedly moved on without me.  What broke apart in the past year had no lingering whatsoever.  When it was done, it was done.