In 1997, I took a couple of days off from my job in La Paz, Bolivia, and bought a bus ticket to the village of Uyuni so that I could visit the Salar de Uyuni. The Salar is the largest salt flat, 11,000 square km or about 4,400 square miles (see the image of Bolivia below), in the world. After a long, long bus ride that included getting off of the bus with the rest of passengers, slinging on my backpack (I learned years earlier to travel in Bolivia with a backpack and not a suitcase), and slogging across a swollen river that was too deep for the bus to cross to a waiting flat-bed truck that took the villagers and me the rest of the way to Uyuni. I spent the night in my sleeping bag behind the Catholic church in Uyuni and then caught a ride out onto the Salar the next morning where I booked a room for a couple of nights at a small hotel on the salt flat. The hotel itself was fascinating. The walls, floor, tables and chairs, and even beds were all constructed out of salt blocks. After a simple dinner I walked outside at sunset and then made the decision to take a real journey. I walked for about thirty minutes, watched the sunset in the West, and then turned around in the twilight and picked out a constellation that was just visible over the hotel. I turned my back on the hotel and picked out a star that was just visible about three finger widths above the Western horizon and walked towards it for the next hour or so in the dark. When I finally turned around I couldn't even see the flickering lights of the candles in the salt-palace hotel. No problem, the constellation was still there. I laid down on the salt bed of the Salar and looked up into the night sky. I had never seen the night sky so vibrant, it seemed to be alive. The Milky Way was full of colors. As I laid on the salt tears streamed down my cheeks as I absorbed the beauty and majesty of the night sky . . . something our ancestors knew but something that most of us will never see. After enjoying my time stargazing I turned around, found the constellation that I had picked out as my guide in the East and started walking towards it. About 70 minutes later I could see the lights of the salt hotel in the distance. The constellation wasn't right over top the hotel any more but a slight course correction got me back on track. The sky, the stars and planets, are like that. They can be our guides if we let them. To learn more about how the celestial forces influence us click here.
Sometime this Spring get out of the city, away from light pollution, and into nature. Check the weather forecast to make sure that your destination will have a clear sky. Get away, or at least away as possible, from all ambient light and then lay down on Pachamama and dive into the sky where Inti Tayta lives. See the sky as your ancestors saw it. Feel the energy of the planets and stars. Wonder at their influence on your life, they too have energy.
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Have you ever been headed towards a conference room for a business meeting and felt the energy emanating from the room before you arrived. Does it feel positive and uplifting, exciting? Or does the energy drain you, leave you worried, upset, depressed, For example, if you feel negative energy emanating from the conference room you might do like I do and pause in the hall and spend a moment or two generating a silver protective energy egg around me, one that will reflect negative energy back to its source and insulate me from it.
I asked that question to start this blog post because we all have the ability to sense energy. I think that it is an ability that is deeply embedded in our genetics. Our ancestors needed to know when they were the prey and not the hunter. Can you "feel" a stare? They needed to sense if the silhouette that they saw on the ridge line in the distance was friend or foe. We have the same abilities, we just don't use them much and so they lie dormant within us. The first part of learning to sense other people's energy fields is to realize that you are surrounded by your own energy field, and so is everyone else. When those energy come into contact and interference pattern is generated. Visualize throwing a pebble into a small pond and watch the waves move outwards in an ever expanding circle. That is your energy field. Now imaging (or do it for real the next time to are in nature) throwing two pebbles into the still pond. At first each wave circle is separate but eventually they will come into contact and when they do you will see the interference pattern generate. Practice feeling the contact point between your energy field and those of others for a few minutes every day. Here is an exercise you can try with a partner. Stand straight and tall and well grounded with your eyes closed. Have your partner start walking very slowly towards you from about three meters or ten feet away. Say "Stop" when you feel the presence of your partner in your energy field. Take turns working on this exercise. With time and practice you will sense your partner from farther and farther away. There are several ways to sense the auric fields of others when you are doing energy work. Ask the client or your partner to lay on a massage table (this works better if they are not laying on the floor). Move towards your client or partner with (1) your palms facing their body, (2) holding a pendulum, (3) holding divining rods, or (4) with a vibrating tuning fork. I'll describe my experience with each of these so you know what to expect, but don't take my word for it, practice and practice. When I move my palms towards another person I feel one of two sensations. First I feel a slight tingling sensation in my palms when my palms touch the boundary of one of the energetic bodies. Each body seems to vibrate at a different speed and so the tingling sensation changes when I cross boundaries. I "feel" energy blockages as a pressure wave in the energy field; this is a spot where I feel a bit of resistance the the movement of my hands towards the body. I use a wooden pendulum because it is lighter and responds more easily to the subtle energies of the human body than does a metal or crystal pendulum. One way to use a pendulum is to hold it still and then slowly move it towards a client or partner's body. It will deflect slightly as it crosses and energy boundary. It will deflect more strongly when an energy blockage is encountered. A more common use of pendulums is to test chakras. Place a still pendulum over a chakra. Within seconds, and usually less time, it will start to spin with the energy of the chakra. Remember that chakras are energy vorticies, whirlwinds, and so they move objects within their spinning field. The size and speed of the spin will give you an indication of the health or strength of the chakra. A chakra that spins clockwise, as seen from above, is unblocked. A chakra that spins counterclockwise is dysfunctional, it is dissipating energy rather than pulling it into the body. If your pendulum moves back and forth rather than spinning then the chakra is blocked. And finally, if the pendulum spins but in an oval shape rather than a in a circle the chakra is out of balance. Divining rods can be used to find the boundaries of the different energy fields around a body. Hold the divining rods so that they both point straight ahead. I have found that they cross at the boundary between two energy bodies. Tuning forks seem to be very good tools to help find energy blockages or stagnant energy. Set a tuning fork vibrating and then move it slowly towards your client or partner's body. You may sense resistance or a change in pitch when you encounter an energy blockage. The blockage changes the vibration rate of the tuning fork and thus affects its tone. Tuning forks, because a vibrating tuning fork emanates energy, can be used to shatter energy blockages and also to influence chakras. Each chakra has a corresponding tone working up the musical scale from C with the root chakra. Play with energy, learn to use it to heal. |
AuthorI'm Dr. Dave, an eclectic shaman. I lived and worked in Bolivia and Peru for over six years, where I and was trained by Andean Shamans, and today practice eclectic shamanism. Archives
June 2020
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