Sharon Licata - The Shamanic Journey: Pathway to Knowledge and Power™

Explore the transformative power of shamanism with Sharon Licata as she shares her journey from illness to recovery with the support of shamanic healing, and her experience introducing new journeyers to The Shamanic Journey.

Guest: Sharon Collings Licata, MA
Guests Bio: https://www.shamanism.org/faculty/sharon-collings-licata/
Guest Website: https://shamanicwalk.com/

Host: Kerri Husman, MD
Bio: https://www.shamanism.org/faculty/kerri-husman/
Website: https://www.mammothhills.com/services/courses-in-core-shamanism/

Workshop: The Shamanic Journey: Pathway to Knowledge and Power™
https://www.shamanism.org/workshops/the-shamanic-journey/

Learn more about shamanism and shamanic workshops by visiting the website of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies: https://www.shamanism.org

Transcript

Sharon Licata's Journey into Shamanism

Speaker 0:07

You are listening to the Way of the Shaman Podcast with your host, Kerri Husman. The content shared in the Way of the Shaman Podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional or therapeutic advice. The views expressed by the host and interviewees reflect their personal experiences and opinions. Please consult with an appropriate licensed professional if you have any medical, psychological, or legal concerns.

Kerri 0:39

Hello, and welcome to the Way of the Shaman podcast. I'm your host, Kerri Husman, and today we have Sharon Licata joining us from South Carolina. Welcome, Sharon. Good morning. Thank you. So glad you could join us. And just launching right in, I would really like the listeners to hear your story, how shamanism found you, specifically Michael Harner's work.

Sharon 1:05

Okay. Um really, you know, I still kind of go, really, uh, in my own way, that um the spirits do come looking for you, or for a lot of us. Uh and I had ended up with an illness. Now I am a sculptor, taught for many years in the visiting artist program in the in South Carolina, the going into the schools, but also creating my own sculpture, both clay and stone and some other mediums. But for Michael Harner's work, it really came in kind of a backdoor. So I was struck with an illness, and that slowed me down enough that I started looking at things. And really, when the shamanism presented itself, I kind of pushed it aside for a little bit. But then finally it was kind of like, okay, all these other things seem to be springing from this. Let me go back and look at what this actually is. So I actually took from some folks that had been trained that were kind of doing a hybrid at one point in time, and then went, okay, this is for real. I need to go get the real stuff.

Kerri 2:23

And so,

The Impact of Shamanism on Illness Expression

Kerri 2:24

how did your experience with your illness change or evolve when the helping spirits started working with you?

Sharon 2:34

Well, in truth, to use a southern expression, the proof is in the pudding. Uh the illness, the diagnosis at least, was rheumatoid arthritis. And as someone, as an artist, who a 3D artist who worked with their hands, uh, yeah, that was a little rough uh for quite a for a while. But very honestly, the working with the healing spirits, I use the word literally, uh, I wouldn't say you know, those kind of autoimmune things don't go totally go away generally, but I mean that diagnosis was in November of 99. We're now quite a ways past that, many, many more than 25 years. And uh I'm still doing my art, still sculpting, and then also doing this work. So the helping spirits very much have been a part of that. The more I was willing to let them come in, as I knew, and agreed, because they you always have free will with this stuff. But you know, if if for whatever reason they come calling, it's it's generally a better idea to pick up, they're gonna keep the message is gonna keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Let's leave it at that. Uh but yeah, for me, the short answer would be uh I'm not even sure I would still be on this earth in a human body in a physical body if I had not started doing this work.

Kerri 4:14

Wow. Wow, that's so powerful, Sharon. And I'm so glad. And and show me your hands, you know. Someone who's had rheumatoid for this long, you know, they can see it a few places, but yeah. But but realistically, they have they have done very well for the decades. Really truly. Thank you for that. And so you had already been a sculptor. Then shamanism came into your life. How has shamanism influenced being a sculptor?

Sharon 4:51

Well, uh, I think uh many times it certainly influences the level that you work with your materials because the whole idea that everything is alive and has a consciousness or an essence, and you know, both sometimes negotiating with the materials. Hey, can we create something new? Um, but also the uh I tend to work very uh clean, not abstract but highly simplified forms, which most people don't actually realize are actually many times more difficult because if you know if something's got a lot of details in it and something's a little off, you're not necessarily gonna see that as much. If a line's off it at a single or one or two lines and the line is off or the proportion's wrong, it's gonna be real obvious. Yeah. But in truth, the spirits come in and you end up working pretty much at a deeper level with all of it, is my experience.

Kerri 6:07

So it's if anything deepened your practice, yes, ma'am.

Shamanism's Influence on Education and Teaching

Kerri 6:12

And then you've been an educator for a long time, and then you brought that education background to being a faculty member with the foundation. How has, and I don't know, have were you after becoming a faculty with the foundation, were you still teaching students with regard to artwork and sculpting and media? So how has that influenced being an educator?

Sharon 6:42

Well, my mother told a story of me standing up in the bed and teaching in my sleep in the eighth grade. But so I may have been a little bit hardwired for it. Um, but uh, in truth, uh, my master's degree is in audiovisual production, media arts, uh, was working at every hospital and realized I needed to design instructional materials for the patient and staff. So I did go and take an actual instructional design uh workshop early on uh at the doctorate level. But then so that was the first part of officially, I mean, I was a graduate assistant and helping in grad school, but uh that was officially when I was first, and that really has helped me understand how truly amazing these workshops are in terms of instructional design, how they're built, how they're put together, which is not something most people are gonna be aware of uh at all. And and then for me personally, though, again, when I wasn't when we moved back to South Carolina and I wasn't working in the hospital producing materials then, it helped design what I taught, went into the schools and taught, which was always a new thing. But for this work with the foundation, it was many of those years of literally every time you walked into a new school, it was going to be a slightly different situation. And you had to be able to flex to do that, and I feel like that experience has really, really helped when you're because our work these workshops are so interactive when people have questions. The organization, I can look beneath the surface and say, okay, here are several ways to approach what you're thinking about, questioning about, concerned about. And that's to me is very important because people do have, yeah, a lot of the questions repeat. A lot of people do come up with with different things, and you have to be able to think on your feet. That's for sure. Of course, the spirits help with that too. Thankfully, they do, yes. Yes, I mean I giggle sometimes, something will they'll be helping, and something will come out of my mouth, and I'm kind of halfway thinking, why did I say it that way? And almost invariably somebody will come up with why I said it that way. You know, one of the students will say something that and I kind of think, okay. Thank you for that. That's thank you, thank thank you, thank you, spirits, compassionate spirits. That's why we uh said it that way this time. And I think people need to understand that's that the workshops are always done fresh and live every single time to allow for that. Yes, that that those questions and that interaction.

Kerri 9:56

And those questions can be so unique, and you know what I remind students is the questions open doors. You know, we have a curriculum, and the questions open doors to new information that we can discuss. We're not obviously teaching uh techniques from other workshops, but we're helping people build their own foundational understanding because people come in with uh their meditative practice or maybe an energy healing modality or something else metaphysical that they've learned, which is all not shamanism, but uh some in some ways adjacent, they're recognizing that there are things outside of one's physical being that exist in some way, whether it be an energy field or something else, and helping them be able to contrast those two can be really, really valuable. So speaking of contrasting,

Navigating faith and Belief Systems when Teaching Shamanic Practices

Kerri 10:50

you teach in the Bible Belt. And while shamanism is not a religion, not a faith, not telling you to go change your religion or no religion or faith, you still teach in the Bible Belt. Tell us how you've navigated this as an instructor.

Sharon 11:10

Okay, uh, well, the students come from all over anyway, but they certainly when you're doing the in-person, uh uh, though this last one I actually taught this workshop last uh recently, and and they were up a lot of the southeast folks, but you navigate it one with the spirit's help to begin with, but it's also over time you learn the language. Uh you're not deliberately using something that is incorrect, but you're just more careful about what you say. Uh like in the South, divination can be a double-edged sword. Okay, can't so when I re when people reach out to me as potentially to for me to come help, for them to come for me help them, you know, uh shamanic session of some sort, I literally reply back to them, do I have your permission to consult with my uh team on your behalf, my spirit team, my compassionate spirit team on your behalf. I don't say, can I do a divination journey for you? Right. You know, again, I am, I only work with compassionate spirits. That's who I'm gonna go talk to, but I don't talk to them, I don't even ask them anything until you've given me permission. But that's a that's one of the very sub that's the best example and come up with quickly for you, that you just there's lots of lots of things that this is what is similar to what they're already familiar with. It's just a different language. And it's letting the spirits speak through you many times to find that language.

Kerri 13:05

That's right. And that's that's really a a great example, Sharon, because um, you know, in many uh faiths there is a bit of a an understanding that if you wish to pray, you can pray to God, pray to Jesus, or pray to goddesses or gods in other faiths that don't just have one. And that's all fine because everyone has their own belief system, and we appreciate that and respect that. And what's so interesting when people start meeting these helping spirits, they can be meeting helping spirits from a variety of faith backgrounds. So there can be a Hindu goddess who shows up to help, Jesus and Mother Mary, they're they were my first helpers that appeared in my very first journey to the upper world. And you know, they continue to provide support. And so being prepared for some very familiar and possibly very unfamiliar assistance from the compassionate realms is there to provide you support and answer questions, and simply that is what divination is. You're going to the helping spirits to answer a question for someone or possibly for yourself.

Sharon 14:19

Yeah.

Kerri 14:20

Beautiful stuff.

Sharon 14:22

And again, it's one of those that people, like I say, don't really understand the meaning of the word a lot of times. Right. It's gotten whatever culturally they've it's gotten stuck in or applied to, correct or not. Uh, you know, and you're right. I mean prayer, okay. You're talking to us, you're having a conversation with the spirit.

Kerri 14:52

And it's and it's different language because in shamanism, you know, one of the things that people are wrestling with understanding initially, and sometimes continuing to ask those questions and no one's telling you to stop asking, are the spirits real? And people have varying levels of proof of that when they've witnessed miracles, witnessed healings, gotten information that was exactly what someone needs, and that provides that sort of evidence. But if you are praying to uh Jesus or God or uh uh saint or someone like that at night, um you're also sort of acknowledging that spirits are real, otherwise, what would be the point of prayer? And so it's it's really uh just a different language. It's not necessarily saying right, wrong, it's just a different language.

Sharon 15:42

Yeah, and in truth, that's one of the things I've always loved about the foundation's work in people coming in as students. I mean, we don't even ask them to believe spirits exist, right? We just ask them if they're gonna come study with us to entertain the notion that spirits might exist and let us show them how to safely go find out. Yes. And then, you know, we as instructors to get to enjoy the a lot of many, many, many times the awe when they get back from those first few journeys, which is really what this workshop is all about, about learning how to safely go to the compassionate realms to meet these compassionate helping spirits.

The Shamanic Journey: Pathway to Knowledge and Power™ Workshop Overview

Kerri 16:31

So tell us a little bit about this the shamanic journey, pathway to knowledge and power. So the whole point of this workshop, can you tell us a little bit about what you, in your words, what you feel the point of this workshop is? Okay.

Sharon 16:50

Uh it is the beginning workshop in the online series. And very important in that regard. It lays the found work initially with how to work online and how to have a true interactive experience. We're presume at this point, uh, and we've may change platforms at some point in time, but uh the interaction with people, but the workshop itself is really truly about giving people, the students, an idea of what core shamanism is, and also to some degree what it's not. Not guided meditation, uh shamanic journey is not, and setting up where you're going and how to get there, and also how to use what we refer to as a sonic driver, how to go into trance, uh, because shamanic journeying is done with theta brain waves, it is done by shifting away from how our mind typically works during waking hours into the theta of trance and basically splitting so that we can travel. And the point is to be very deliberate about it, and the workshop itself is again giving you a basis of what's behind this, then setting up how it's done, and then turning you loose and letting you actually do it in real time in the workshop, coming back, sharing with each other about it, because really decompressing a little bit, talking about it after some of these things happen is a immediately is a really good time. And none of this is recorded. So there's absolute privacy of this not going anywhere afterwards, we do not record, and then getting back together in the as the whole group and taking questions and discussing, and then from there taking the building on what we've done so far and taking the next step, the next piece, which is we literally get to both of the what we refer to as the compassionate realms and give you several chances, and there's a number of journeys in these this first workshop.

Kerri 19:31

So thank you for that, Sharon. That was an excellent description. And so students are given instructions, very specific instructions, but they still are having their own independent experience, choosing a departure point, choosing um where they're beginning, something really established in ordinary reality that they feel safe or neutral, but certainly something that they can connect with as they begin their process. And as they follow the steps and possibly have success and possibly get stuck or get their conscious mind gets back in the way, we give our students so much support for how to allow that conscious mind to step aside as a silent witness, for example, and observe rather than have to be in the driver's seat. And you have so many gifts as far as how to help students support be supported in those first journeys, because for many people they have a practice of something else like meditation or they've had plant medicine experiences. And this is entirely different from that. Because you you know, you are beginning the process.

Validating Spiritual Experiences

Kerri 20:43

So when you think about um students who bring up the question, how can I tell that I'm not making this up? How do I know the spirits are real? How do you feel these sorts of questions?

Sharon 21:03

Basically, I pretty much giggle and say, okay, that's for that's pretty much something everybody starts with, or at least it passes through your mind at some point. And many times with the students, I've said I've part of what the support is is okay, ask. The spirits are gonna wait because you have free will, but ask for help. Ask for help with this. But with this particular thing, I mean, am I making this up? Then it becomes a okay, go to your spirit team and ask them to give you some sign that you're going to react to with the response there is no way in heck I'm making this up. And quite honestly, mine was incredibly small. My first helper uh that went at with this work was a salmon. My power animal was a salmon. And I had just started interacting with him. I was still in the is this what where am I with this? Uh uh and finally I set up that. Something made me do that. I guess it's back from my other my other religious life. A Gideon's fleece would be a way of of describing it. But uh the thing he did was told me his name when I asked his name. And I would not have come up with the name Carl for a salmon. It was just no way. I mean, at that point in time, like I say, this was a number of years ago now, but at that point in time, I only knew one Carl. And it was the uh professor that taught the iron pores, uh, an art professor at East Carolina University, because I was in uh the tri-state sculpture group here in the North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, you know, sculpture organization. So I knew sculptures all over the through the three-state area. And that was so I yeah, very small something, but it was like, uh-uh. All this, all the other things, strange things that had happened on the journeys at that point, by that point, I was kind of going, well, I can see the connection, I can see where I might could have created that in my head. Just no. Just no. So and it can be that little, but it's yes, it's but it's absolutely it happens to all of us, and you literally do say, Hey, I'm having trouble with this. Can you show me have something happen that's gonna tell me uh this is yeah, because

Exploring Non-Ordinary Reality

Sharon 24:07

we talk a lot in the workshops, and a couple of the phrases that we use a bunch are um ordinary reality and non-ordinary reality. And this, you know, give you some idea that this norm non-ordinary reality is real. Yeah, because really that's what we're that's the phrase that's important with both of them. Because to the shaman or the shamanic practitioner, they're both real. Yeah, both very real.

Kerri 24:43

And learning to move between the two is something that takes time and practice and guidance from the helping spirits, not something you're going to have mastered by the end of this seven-hour workshop. This is the taste to get you started. And, you

The Journey Process and Next Steps

Kerri 24:58

know, so what so what do you think? You know, students taking the shamanic journey, they've had experiences practicing, getting to the upper world and lower world. They will not be masters when they're done. They're encouraged to keep practicing. So the process, tell us a little bit about what happens in the process. So after this workshop, what's what is what do students take next?

Sharon 25:21

If they're going straight through the online uh series, the next workshop is shamanic divination in practice. And that is literally a workshop to expand the ability, your journey ability, your ability to interact with increasing number of spirits safely with working through your the ones that you have located in the compassionate realms that have agreed to work with you, those that continue to show up for you.

Kerri 25:56

So you get to practice working on making good questions. I mean, this is something this is a whole process because how we normally uh put together questions is a little bit different when we're asking divination questions. Also get to work with different types of spirits in this class too, because you learn how to work with um spirits in your space, which is pretty neat.

Sharon 26:23

Yeah. So and that second one is very also important for learning how a little bit more about how to call them here and work with them in what we call or uh middle world. So that's a very important part, and I'm very glad that that workshop is in place where it is.

Kerri 26:40

Yes, yes, me too. I think it's really important. And some students choose to repeat either of these workshops because they just feel like, did I make that all up? I think I need to take it again, just to be sure. And that's okay. This is this is all of us have taken, you know, as faculty, all of us take these courses multiple times and and grow and learn from them each time you take them, even if they're the most basic of workshops.

Sharon 27:06

Well, yeah, and people come in at so many different levels, right? Repeating the information is always an opportunity to go deeper. First off, and it's just incredibly important. The thing also, though, that people need to understand, and while we encourage people to take really good notes, is that yes, virtually every journey you do in a workshop, and it's not just the shamanic journey workshop, can be repeated on your own once you know the setup and everything. Uh, and it's a good idea. A lot of them are good because they spirits will take you deeper and give you more information as you're ready to understand it.

Kerri 27:57

Yes,

Utilizing Drumming Recordings for Practice

Kerri 27:58

and that that's a great point, Sharon, and that you can access the drumming recordings so you don't have to know how to drum and journey. So be you know, keeping with ordinary reality, keeping the speed while you're journeying. We learn how to do that with time and practice. We don't expect people to be able to do that day one, and so the recordings are available for free, they're on the foundation's YouTube page, and we have multiple types of recordings to listen to, all at about the same speed, to ensure supporting a trance state. So that's available right after you've taken this course to keep practicing.

Sharon 28:37

And I am so thrilled that we have done that within the last year. I mean, uh you know, actually a little bit, you know, now that that occurs, because during the pandemic, when we uh were first reformatting, taking the workshops online, making sure they stayed interactive uh as opposed to just a talking head, uh the I mean this wasn't available. This is this the this is so wonderful that we've gotten this taken care of now and is available because I did have somebody that had not didn't have a CD that they'd loaded up to their phone or whatever, and I was teaching soul the soul retrieval workshop online the first time, and she was bringing the soul portion back for somebody and had an ad pop up in the middle of the drumming. Like, not ideal. So that doesn't have to happen anymore, and that's wonderful. But like I said, yeah, but please make sure you do get to the foundation's website because the other stuff we were worked really hard to make sure they were enough plays that the ads came off of those drumming MP3s.

Kerri 29:45

That's right. Yeah, and students can also still purchase them the downloads, the MP3 downloads, if they'd like to have them not streaming in case they're concerned about their bandwidth if they're on a Zoom call and and having to stream as well. Or they can stream off their phone too if they need to. So it's it's nice to have options for sure. So

Common Questions from Students about The Shamanic Journey

Kerri 30:06

when students um seek you out or they reach out, I'm thinking about taking the shamanic journey. Can you think of questions that you've commonly heard students ask about it?

Sharon 30:26

The main one is you know the am I gonna be safe while I'm doing this? And that's an absolutely uh that's part of our job as instructors to hold help hold the circle. And we do very carefully set sacred space or set a circle as before we get started amongst all of us in participants in that particular meeting, and each time, every time, and we teach you how to do that in this workshop, or at least give you some examples and discuss it a little bit, how you end up all of us have different ways of calling the circle. But uh so safety's one of it, and letting them know that yes, you're gonna have a safe place to experiment with this. Go and do your journeys, we're gonna hold the space for you, and you could focus on what you're doing, not trying to focus on three things at once, yeah. Like you said, with the using the MP3s instead of doing your own drumming to begin with, certainly. But in truth, even you know, a lot of us still turn it on in the background, like when we're doing healing work and things like that, just one less thing to focus on, except when we're perhaps actually working with the spirit of the drum for something specific, you know. Yeah, appreciate that as part of the of the team that comes in. Um something else in terms of it. Sometimes it's off the wall questions like what I can I take one session with you and one session with somebody else. And uh the short answer to that is is no, because there's a there's very much a requirement that of respect that allow that group of students to interact with each other. Okay, and even if you're uh uh like get ill in the middle of a uh workshop uh and the you you retake it with that instructor, generally you're gonna be asked to retake the whole thing so that you are integrated into the group of students because you do work with each other, you share with each other, you give each other feedback, you journey for each other. And that perhaps is maybe the thing I enjoy most with the shamanic journey is the you know toward the end of the first day, you've learned how to get, you've made that first journey down to the lower world, compassionate realm, and now it's time to do it again. But this time you're gonna go down and find those animal spirits and ask them a question. But you're not asking a question for you, right? You're taking your partner's question because we pair everybody up, and in truth, yeah, everybody's a little nervous about that there, you know, the the all the adult, am I gonna get it right thing? Right among others.

Kerri 33:38

I don't want to let them down. I don't want to be them to be disappointed. I didn't get anything.

Sharon 33:42

And we we tell them no backstory, just give a question, give an open-ended question, kind of a hue, what, wire, why. We don't do wins because you're between time and space in the uh spirit realms. Uh but an open-ended question so the spirits can give you lots of information, not just a straight yes-no. And we send them down with a partner's question without much other information other than the partner giving them their name and the question.

Kerri 34:15

Why don't you want them to have much backstory, Sharon? Why is that?

Sharon 34:20

Uh that then we don't really want the their own mind to start trying to figure it out. To be absolutely honest.

Kerri 34:31

Yep. That conscious mind starts to want to fix the problem. We, you know, there's a lot of solvers and fixers who are drawn to this work. They want to heal the planet, they want to help others, they want to assist suffering beings. And so that conscious mind wants, oh, I know what she needs. Oh, nope, you don't. You're setting all of that aside.

Sharon 34:52

So, you know, we put them together, they exchange their uh questions. I literally have them, I saw, or at least I suggest they set up two pages in their notebook, you know, with their questions so they can get their answer from their partner and place for them to write their partner's question, place to take their notes from their journey and you know, come up with the answer for their partner. And we turn them loose. And it's just there's more details to it than that, but uh when they come back, they've recorded their journey, and they're not going to describe their journey to their partner, they're gonna answer the question that the spirits gave them as a result, and we turn them loose and send them back out into the breakout rooms to privately exchange the answers. And yeah, it's really, really fun when they come back to the classroom in terms of uh the valuable information that shows up.

Kerri 35:58

And sometimes people are just like, I I'm not sure I got there, but it felt good in my heart, and I got this answer. I was in a different space. And so sometimes there's just some reassurance needed. But for each person, this is non-consensual, you know. One person winds up in a meadow, one person winds up in an ocean, one person is sitting on a cloud, one person is in the middle of a tree, and they're all in the same realm, and it's okay.

Sharon 36:30

And there's lots of levels in both of them, so yeah, lots of different places, but yeah, just the whole idea that oh, I I did get what this person needed to hear and to see, or to whatever. And that is pretty powerful. It is.

Student Support After the Workshop

Kerri 36:54

So I I like I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of people who are drawn to this work and want to be of service in some way. Some people are drawn to work with plants, some people are drawn are are drawn to work with the deceased, some people want to be able to ease suffering in sometimes a specific context like hospice or palliative care. What do after this workshop is completed, this very first foundational fundamental workshop, and you certainly don't know all the skills and tools yet, it's just the very beginning. What can someone do to be of service after taking just this workshop?

Sharon 37:36

The uh actually the exercise we were just talking about. Helping uh a person uh phrase up uh if they have an information concern that they would like some uh compassionate spirit guidance on, you should be able to at this point go and ask the spirit that question for them. Now, there is going to be a learning curve with anything, uh, but when we and the spirits see it as us sacrificing, uh, when we invest our time being of service to someone else, and they have a tendency to come on a little stronger at that point. They'll certainly help us with our stuff, but if we're trying to be of assistance to someone else, they come on stronger. So we help the person coming to us. One, we get permission before we go asking the spirits anything about anybody, but if somebody's come with a question for us, we help them phrase it so that we can take it to the spirits in a way that it is about them, not about somebody that neither they or we have permission to be asking about. That's right. Okay, and that's a a classic one is a rate relationship question, okay? And it's more of uh what does Susie need to know about this as opposed to why is so-and-so her partner doing something? You know, right in terms of no, I don't have permission to go ask who why so-and-so is is doing something, because he he or she hasn't given me permission to do that. Uh so those those kind of things are things you learn in the workshop, some ethics behind this, but also very much, and it's actually good to practice doing this. And that is one thing that I do my very best to strongly encourage the new students and actually all the way through to do. And that's really one of the things that I found that the online has as an advantage. You know, you can get on Zoom or whatever. Uh almost all of them have a free version, not like the professional one we use to teach, and practice with each other. Doesn't matter, you got to figure out what it's not the middle of the night, one of or one or both of you, but unless that's when you're most alert. But you could be on other sides of the world and getting on Zoom or another uh program like these and practice with each other. Set space together, exchange questions, turn the the drumming on, and go get answers for each other and practice. Beautiful. Yeah. And I mean, like say, uh, you know, we it's a lot of privacy that very careful about with the foundation. I don't we don't give out email, we don't send out email addresses, but I always leave it where they can exchange, you know, I leave it up at the end of the program so they can uh send each other back and forth the email so they can stay in touch if they want to. And I I'll be honest, it's strictly voluntary, but I strongly encourage them to take advantage of practicing with each other, and then they could reach out to family, friends, whatever, and continue because there is gonna be a learning curve of how the language of the spirits works with you, right?

Kerri 41:21

Because it is unique to you for some people, they journey entire by entirely by smell, yeah, or pressure changes, and get information sometimes entirely in metaphor and sometimes words.

Sharon 41:34

Yeah, and I mean, and how the spirits show up for you can be that way too. I mean, you may energetically feel them at your shoulder, occasionally it's across the table, like you and I are talking now, yeah, but or that you could just kind of sense them somewhere near you, but they're showing you stuff, or as you said, smelling, or you're hearing, or you're feeling the pressure change. Or, you know, there's so many different ways. The main thing as you're just getting started that we focus on is making sure that at least to start, you are making sure you get into one of the compassionate realms to interact with the spirits. That's true, and ask for that information and ask the questions there and then come back first to you're comfortable with working with, and actually have those spirits that have spoken step forward and have agreed to work with you, and you're kind of getting where you recognize them, regardless of where you are.

Kerri 42:39

Thank you for that, Sharon. And another question I'd like to ask is about um

Opportunities for Continued Journey Practice

Kerri 42:46

essentially, what are the opportunities for asking faculty members questions after workshops or being able to attend uh drum circle, uh, you know, to practice journeying, to practice divination after the workshop. What do you have to say to that, Sharon?

Sharon 43:05

Okay. Well, a number of us have journey circles that are open journey circles. Now, on mine initially, if you go to my website, I'm set up with uh an event program and such, I do have a buck on it just because that way Facebook will send me a notice that uh yeah, yeah. It'll I mean not Facebook, if I PayPal, they'll send me a notice that somebody is is interested, but you do not have to do that and I doubt you because we don't charge, and it certainly doesn't charge going forward. Uh there's no charge for journey circles. I do mine on Zoom since the pandemic, they're open. I'll use mine as an example. Uh mine meet the second right now, the fourth and second and fourth Wednesdays of the month. But the what it is is a community group. It's not instruction. Okay, it's a come together, that's and but that's the Only requirement that you do know how to do shamanic journeying. Don't have to have taken it with me. It's not just my students, far from it. But community group, we get together, decide on the topics. Everybody journeys on that topic first, shares, then we do the second journey and also share. So it's a time to practice, get familiar, learn more about deepen your language with how your spirits communicate with you, all of those things. Now, back to student-teacher interaction after or even during a workshop. Some of us at various points in times have follow-up sessions, gathering together, then also, and those depend on how much the students want them a lot of times. Okay. You know, trying to get everybody back together after the after the fact, you know, depends on the group. But also all of us, you know, I emphasize innumerable times. You've got an issue or got a question, shoot me an email. It may take me a day or two to get back to you, but I will get back to you if we need to. We'll get on the phone or we'll get it back on Zoom and work through it. I mean, all of us. The goal here is to broaden the number of people who know again how to communicate with compassionate spirits wherever that takes us safely.

Kerri 45:38

Thank you for that, Sharon. And as we're wrapping up today, I'd just like to remind everyone that while this workshop is the first in the online series, we have the way of the shaman, which is a two-day workshop in person. That's another starting point. Either one is perfectly all right. But if you'd like to learn more about this workshop, there's links below. And if you'd like to learn more about Sharon's practice and Sharon's teaching, her links are going to be below there as well. But thank you for joining us today. We're so glad you could tune in to the Way of the Shaman Workshop to learn about the shamanic journey, a pathway to knowledge and power. And thank you, Sharon, for joining us. Glad to be here today. Thank you.