With Raidho, we begin to understand how our choices affect all things, and how our ability to gently hold focus while changing coordinates on the fly informs the story we tell of ourselves, of our lives.

This week, gently consider where soul sustenance has become rote. This is a bold undertaking from inside the comfort zone.

Normalization of the journey experience isn't failure. It's natural, it's progress, integration. The act of journeying is a relationship, not just the connections we make from it.

Take time to reflect on your healing story. Write it down, if it helps, or draw it, paint it. Express all of the feelings wrapped into your experience of the healing process, and know that in doing so, we all heal. We all move closer to wellness.

"Rivers know this; there is no hurry, we shall get there some day." -- Winnie the Pooh "Too many times we confuse motion with progress." -- Albert Ei...

In all, I took the off-road adventure, self-creating my own shamanic path without the guideposts and maps we are used to finding on spiritual quests, a feat common to many modern seekers on broken paths in this cultural melting pot.

"Bouncing is what Tiggers do best. -- Tigger, from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh Since the birth of our twins a little over three years ago, I've de...

As you decorate for this season, think about the totems that are important to you and the reason that they move you. Are they traditional to your family or religion? Have you discovered new totems as you explore personal meanings of the season?

Traditional shamanism is neither exclusive nor inclusive. Such limits do not need to be placed. Drawing on the same neurological processes, both accomplish healing outcomes different ways.

The path of shamanism in the West is a curious thing. The dogmatic world religions of our ancestors are crumbling as institutions no longer meet the needs of the modern spiritual seeker.