RESPONDER ACTIONS

We have been in Texas for several days doing ceremonies and included some major focus on Haiti, a process that was inspiring and expansive. Spirit showed us that at the deepest of levels this was no accident and those souls participating in this drama are offering a teaching for the planet to pay attention and realize that neglect will never do. Because it was a mass
agreement, there were waiting for them a vast mobilized army of beings to help midwife them to the other side. As a result there are very few who are wandering about confused and they are getting good help. So shamans without borders is already a reality and working from both sides of the veil. That is the way it showed up for me. —Jose Stevens

The suffering in Haiti draws responses from shamanic people in all parts of the world, working in different traditions.  Truly a global shamanic effort is underway. There is much indigenous wisdom and healing occurring on the planet right now, even though most of what we see on television is grief, loss, and suffering.
 
Practitioners who work in the Celtic traditions can use the Wheel of Sovereignty—the Irish Medicine Wheel—as a place of healing.
 
Drum and journey to a place where you draw power or to a place in Haiti.  Honor the four directions and the center where you stand.
 
Begin facing East in that place.  Drum up the power of abundance, praying that food, water, shelter, medical equipment, and rescue workers will find their ways to the suffering people who need this most.  Work from a place of deep gratitude for your own life, and drum that gratitude to Haiti as a reserve for those who are having difficulty being grateful for their lives.
 
Face South.  Let your drumming be a conscious participation in the Great Song of life.  Call upon the Gods of the Harp who play the music of sorrow, joy, and peace to comfort those who are filled with sorrow, looking for something to be joyful about, or in need of peace.  Sing your own healing songs, conscious of how they harmonize (are an sith) with the Great Song.
 
Face West.  Let your drumming call up the wisdom and inspiration that so many people need in Haiti to continue with the rescue and healing work, to continue with their lives.  Especially pray that those who are facing their deaths will understand the meaning of their lives within the Great Mystery.
 
Face North.  Drum up courage, boldness, and strength for the “rough places,” the conflicts, the fear, the struggle and frustration that pervades the island of Haiti.  Pray that those who need courage will find it to face their fears, their losses, and their frustrations.
 
Stand firmly in the center.  Drum from the place of sovereignty, asking the Great Mother of Life to be present for those who need her presence most.  Pray that even in the direst situations, people will take responsibility for their lives and realize that sovereignty means caring for others as well as for themselves, for the entire Wheel of Life.  Be in harmony with the Wheel, and using the music of your drum, send to Haiti the harmony and rejuvenation that the island and its people need so much.
 
Lastly, give thanks for your life.  — Tom Cowan

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This morning Carin and I opened a Circle for our Center of the Circle community, which anyone is invited to join at any time to offer help for the situation in Haiti.  

The space we have opened for our collective work is merged with the compassionate energies of many shamanic practitioners who are engaged in healing work right now.  We saw, as Carol Proudfoot Edgar describes, a hazy cloud over the land of Haiti.  As we called our circle we saw a ring of light surrounding the area and gradually saw many Teachers, Animals and other healing beings surround the work as souls began to cross over.  We believe this description as well as Carol’s imagery will make it possible for you to tune in and find our Circle in NOR.

Please ask to be shown how your efforts should meet this work and allow yourself to be guided to participate as feels safe and wise for you.  There are so many souls who need help crossing over, but there are also survivors, rescue workers, animals both living and dead and plants on the ground that need assistance.  There are, no doubt, countless other ways of helping only some of which have even been imagined.  We trust you will find, as we do, that this helps our hearts bear the devastating suffering engendered by this tragedy. — Ed and Carin for Center of the Circle

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I am writing from Mongolia on behalf of Mrs. Sarandavaa, the Shamanic Practitioner as her translator. I translated and read your mail to my teacher Sarandavaa. She told that all the practitioners gathered at her center and she blessed for them chanting the Arvan Khangal pujas. Arvan khangal are the biggest ten gods. Many people are kindly offering lamps at the Gandan Monastery, the biggest Buddha Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, in order to light the path for souls. And we all are together spiritually and emotionally with the people in Haiti. Om maani pad me hum.

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FYI...I've sent my helping spirits and activated my crystal matrix to assist with healing in Haiti — Marsha Scarbrough

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The evening before I received this email I was facilitating an open healing and journey circle with 6 participants. Earlier, I had journeyed to ask what we should work on that evening and the Spirit of Water came to me. I was guided to lead the group in merging with water to learn from its wisdom (something I learned at training for Medicine for the Earth). The water had wisdom to pass onto us about our own healing and the healing for Haiti. That evening, we drummed, rattled and sang for about 30 minutes following a river to our ancestors and meeting an ancestor who would provide us with healing. Much of the wisdom received was about slowing down, being in flow, and letting go, and how Earth is not comfortable with our pace.
 
Our second journey was a journey to merge with water and gather sacred knowledge and wisdom to help with Haiti. So many incredibly beautiful images came with these journeys. For example: one of the participants merged with kelp and gently floated to Haiti and then became made of seaweed. She traveled into the people providing them with sustenance from the seaweed. Another merged with the ocean who was able to receive all the tears of the sorrow from the people and the land spirits in Haiti. Waterfalls and rivers in Haiti were visited and intentions heard about bringing this fresh water to those without water to sustain them through this. Another received wisdom that in the long term forecast for Haiti this was part of her lifetime, this is her descent and rebalancing. Although it is drastic and sorrowful for the people, as an island, this is part of Her personal evolution. Just as we have our lives fall apart as part of initiation, this is Her falling apart. It is our job to love Her through it, and hold a vision of Her beauty as she ascends.
 
When we had completed the journeys, we spoke the wisdom and healing stories into some sunflower seeds and each participant took them with them that evening to plant them on the way home. Our intention is that the Earth’s energy lines will carry this healing to Haiti in the ordinary realms. We also spoke the same wisdom and healing stories into some birch water and anointed our hands and feet, committing to walk out into the world carrying this knowledge and passing it on. — Angela

 
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I have 6 grad students who were in Haiti doing research at the time of the earthquake. So far I haven't heard at all from five of them or from their families. I have heard from one from Buffalo, NY whose father says she texted him on horseback that she's okay and taking care of other college students on various exchange programs who were doing ecological assessment and repair work in small villages along the coast. At Buffalo, we're doing vigils and fund raisers for all of them. — Barbara Tedlock

I asked my spirit allies to accompany me on a Middle World journey to Haiti to see what healing work we might be able to do. What we saw was an endless view of broken concrete and stone, so it seems we were in the midst of the urban rubble. There was a feeling of time having stopped. Immediately we encountered several small children. We held them and comforted them and took them to a hospital where they were received. Then we comforted a young man. The message my allies gave him was that he could rise to a higher level, above the suffering, and figure out how to survive, what to do to take care of himself. He seemed receptive to the message and was relatively calm. We then went under the rubble and found the soul of a man who had been killed. The soul was ready to move on and we carried it to the Upper World.

Interestingly, this morning I heard on NPR a man from the NGO "Save the Children" describing exactly the kind of rescues of lost children that I had experienced in my journey. This indicates to me that healing work can occur simultaneously on different levels. — Ramona Gault

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Sunday night, January 17th 2010, The Spirit Moon Shamanic Community in Dallas did a group journey to Haiti and connected with the Spirits of Place to ask what we might do for the people there. We saw hundreds of other circles of healers, shamans and shamanic practitioners, individuals, and monastics from all over the world there in spirit, helping. We were instructed to assist the dead in crossing over and we saw an enormous light that had been put in place for those who needed to cross. The streets were lined with helping spirits. Hands up, like lanterns, we, and so many other groups, lit the streets so that the dead could find their way. We searched the cities and country side to find them and guide them along the lighted path.

We were instructed to send energy to the doctors helpers there to give them strength and hope. The sick and injured were to be wrapped in blue light so that they might be found. We saw that there will be an ongoing need to help on a spirit level, as well as physical. In our monthly journey circle we will journey to Haiti to assist in what ever way we are guided.  — Lyn Birmingham

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Besides sending much needed donations we can work together using light to help those in need. I wanted to share with you an email I received from Julie who is a wonderful shamanic teacher and practitioner on www.shamanicteachers.com. For her work really sums up how we can continue to work in behalf of the people and the land of Haiti. And it is work we can do when there are future issues coming up in other places of the planet. — Sandra Ingerman

Here is what Julie wrote:

"I just wanted to share what I've suggested to my students based on some journeys I've done around the earthquake in Haiti.In my first journey on Wednesday, I saw a huge circle of light beings (like us) already there transfigured as we do in Medicine the Earth, and I joined hands with them. I saw the amazing amount of light being generated, surrounding Haiti and weaving a web of light that stretched out to touch everyone in the world who has loved ones there. I also saw an enormous light column in the center of the circle, and many souls were rising up into the light through this portal. It was amazing and beautiful and a great learning experience for me.

So I suggested that everyone journey to Haiti whenever possible, even for just seconds at a time, and join hands with the circle of light beings who are already there holding a vibration of peace, harmony and compassion. I stressed that they not focus on the suffering, but to simply drop their form and become pure, divine light, and to tone if practical.

In my journey on Thursday (yesterday) I saw a haze of light forming over Haiti, and within it the city of Port au Prince was already being rebuilt on the spiritual plane. And so we have the opportunity to join in the rebuilding by dreaming a new dream for Haiti. I have asked my students to hold a vision of a Haiti in which there is no poverty, where everyone has a home, safety, food, education, healthcare and stability. I also saw that in the new Haiti, the old ways were being reclaimed, and people were learning to live in harmony and balance with the elements and with the land, so they were no longer so vulnerable to hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis etc.

For the aid workers who are physically there trying to help, there is no way to escape the devastation of what has happened. But as light workers and dreamers, when we focus on the suffering, we feed the vision of a Haiti that continues to be devastated, poor, hungry, uneducated and unstable. Instead, we can use oru powers of imagination and visualization to feed the dream of a new Haiti, one of where everyone has a home, food, jobs, healthcare, education and hope for the future.

So I just wanted to share this with all of you as another way we can help."

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I too journeyed and encountered the swirling foggy mass. My spirit helpers showed me it was a mix of souls of the dead trying to continue on and soul parts of the living driven out by shock, pain and grief. Our circle is meeting on Tuesday to drum and call on all our helping spirits to assist in sorting them - helping the dead move on and returning the others to their bodies so they can begin to heal. — Lorraine Beaton

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In the classes I teach at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, I begin with a meditation using my rattle. After establishing Sacred Space, I ask the students to take some time to contact Silence, then to send light and prayers to all those suffering in Haiti.  This simple, 5-minute "opening" for every class has been much appreciated by the students, many of whom are feeling deeply their connection to the Haitian people.

Last night, I lay awake for quite a long time.  It came to me to journey on behalf of those who had experienced sudden death during the quake.  Those souls seemed to be calling out for help to cross over.  I intend to continue journeying on their behalf.  Finally, as I have been gifted with a Lakota ceremonial pipe and taught by a Lakota medicine person how to use it, I have begun making prayers for those who have died, those who are injured, and those Haitians well enough to help their communities. I am also keenly aware that the land itself in and around Haiti is calling for assistance, due not only to the current crisis but also because of out-of-balance and traumatic historical events. I intend to journey more on this, and what might help.  I encourage all who feel called, to follow their guidance as to what will be most useful in terms of spiritual support for Haiti. — Carol Parker

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Last night as I lay in bed I had a profound calling. It started with a searchlight eyeball looking around in the darkness  until it spotted me. I was a little frightened as I was thinking I was in ordinary reality!  Three big cats appeared to me in full color: a Bengal tiger then a lion and lastly my cougar. I understood that something big was about to happen.

I saw a large area, like a battlefield with bodies. This was in various  shades of black with very light yellow/gray outline of the spirits as  they slowly moved about. I knew that it was the devastation in Haiti  and these were souls that were out of their dead bodies and unsure of  what to do. I tried to see a route either up or down for them but could  see nothing. There was an intense focus directed at me with the questions of what they should do.

Naively I told them to go to the light. There was an immense and intense energy as some rushed toward me. I instantaneously remembered a story from a class that I had taken. One of my teachers, a nurse, had several spirits that had attached themselves to her thinking she was the light to go to. She did not know this for herself. She found that out when she went for a healing and felt tremendously better after these spirits were helped to move on properly and were not attached to her. So I strongly told them NO and held my hand up to keep them back.

I observed carefully for a bit and was able to see movement upward. It was like ribbons spiraling gently upward. Again this was all in shades of black. As I watched the movement flashes of color, sparkly blue and green, like in  opal, appeared in the ribbons. When the flashes of color started I saw many dark hands stretching toward the flow. They became incorporated into the flow and streamed upward as they became part of the spiraling dark ribbons. I held the space for some time and was getting very tired. I asked that it be allowed to continue as long as it was needed.

This morning I felt a very strong calling to drum. I did this softly at first, reverently, mournfully. A prayer came to me and I spoke it to the souls that were there. Again there were many. Then I was inspired to sing my song loudly again and again to give them strength. I am grateful for the training that I have had in shamanic practice. I am also honored to be able to help in this way. — Patti Robbins

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Today, I taught my year-long class.  We did transfiguration work and the instruction I gave was that for some time before we began, that we would hold Haiti in our thoughts and connect with the people and the land there. Then we would transfigure.  I told my class that, as there is o separation, as we experienced our own divinity, we would also be acting in proxie for the people there.  It was a powerful experience.

Tomorrow, a group is gathering at my home and we will journey to Haiti, offering what assistance the helping spirits ask each of us to do.

Thank you for this call from the Society.  I know many of us who have been doing work, and continue to do so.  — Karen Furr

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Three days before the Haiti earthquake, I was in the most intense ceremony of my life. Grandfather Mushum came to my home to adopt me and pass on the Seven Sacred Rites of the Lakota through a spiritual/physical/mental/emotional transmission. Sitting in the Sweat Lodge, suffering because a rib of the Lodge was poking me in the back, I began to feel dizzy. We were so packed into the Lodge, I couldn’t move an inch. Energy started flowing through my body, and all I could do was sit there. At the time, I didn’t associate the energy that was flowing through with a potential earthquake, rather, with Grandfather’s transmission. And while I’m certain some of the energy was from Grandfather and the Spirit Beings, I now understand that much of it also was a precursor to the Haitian earthquake that happened the following Tuesday.

Since I had not been trained as a psychopomp, I basically had to find my own way through the maze. I’m sure there are many others like me, so I’d like to share a bit of what I’ve learned.

First, the energy comes through, then the disaster is reported. Usually by that time, I’m in overwhelming grief without any understanding of what is happening in the outside world. Once I receive information about a world catastrophe, everything begins to make sense. Then, originally in dreams, and now in conscious ceremony, I find myself astral traveling to the location of the disaster. There, I connect with one or more discarnate spirits, who have left their body but are wandering lost, often looking for their families. Many times, I can ‘see’ the family, and bring the lost soul to them. Once they are together, I do a ceremony to allow them all to say their goodbyes, to forgive any past wrongs on either side, and to tell them that they will not ‘lose’ their loved one, that this soul will become a guardian for them on the other side. I ask the soul of the deceased to give their loved ones a way to know when they are present and assisting from the other side. Often, it’s something like a lamp that suddenly flickers, a feather that drops from nowhere, etc.
Once the family has agreed to release the departed one, and once the deceased soul has accepted their death, I close the circle with the family, then journey up a ramp of light (often a rainbow) to the portal into the upper worlds. I call the person’s ancestors, who come to welcome the individual’s soul. Once the lost soul sees his/her ancestors, there is always a sense of happiness and peace. When the departed soul has made a connection with the ancestors and Great Mystery, my job is done, and I release them into the care of the Beyond.

Initially, this all happened in the dreamtime, and I found I was getting little real sleep for nights and sometimes weeks on end. So once I understood the basic procedures and protocols, I decided to bring it all into the conscious state and work on it through daytime journeys. This seems to make it much easier on me.

As a shamanic practitioner, I’m very grateful for the gifts we’ve all been given. They aren’t given to us for ourselves, however, but for The People. Some psychopomps will help the animal nations, some the plant nations and stone people, some the two-legged humans. The best thing we can do, of course, is to assist all who are alive to live in balance and beauty. And yet, there will be tragedies, and there are those of us who will always be called to assist in many and various ways. Pilamaya  — Rev. Robin Tekwelus Youngblood

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A shamanic circle gathered on Thursday, January 21st at the home of Gail Gorelick in Trumbull, CT.  There were 16 women in attendance and at least nine or so are SSP members including Gail, myself, Lucy Walker, Gail Kellstrom and Maria Gharakhanian.

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Gail led us in a spirit canoe formation.  Singing and drumming carried us to Haiti. Most of the work that was done fell into the categories of psychopomp, healing the land, and supporting the aid workers.  One woman also did work around lost limbs and body parts. The element of water (and water animals) played a significant role in every journey.  It was clear that the water should be invoked to cleanse, heal and restore the island. 

A number of people were told that there are survivors who are still waiting to be rescued.  Work was done to remove any obstacles preventing their rescue. (There have been a small number of live rescues recently.)

Many reported observing layers of psychopomp work in progress and that the ancestors had come down to a place above the island to assist in the passing over of souls.  We also saw souls being given death rites by spirit workers and observed help from the star people as well. There was a sense that the past as well as the present was being healed through this work of the ancestors, "ancient stories erupting and passing," as one woman put it.  Ancient symbols figured in a number of journeys. One woman was told of a connection between this event and the destruction of Atlantis.

Restorative energy work was also done with the land itself and the dissonance between the land and the people that has been caused by the quake.  — Jane Burns