The Shaman Tree Pt. 1

One goal of healing is to recognize your place in the world, to know that you are a part of all things and play a vital role in all creation. You may have grown up with a deep sense of unworthiness, insecurity, and lack reinforced by environmental conditions and circumstances that showcased your aloneness and separateness from others and the world. The aloneness is a manifestation of the ego, the game of comparison, and the striving to “win” in competition with others. From this perpective, you see others as completely seperate beings living completely separate lives and only your personal reality is what matters to you. Therefore, if you are not included by friends, called on by teachers, fawned over by romantic interests, or showered with love and appreciation by family you feel your reality is suffering. You feel left out, empty, or without purpose. However, the true nature of reality is that you are a part of all things. You are a manifestation of the very nature you perceive as separate. You ARE nature. There is a universal intelligence which flows through all things and the human species is one branch, one evolution of this intelligence. You are a branch of a larger tree, finding its way to expansion. You cannot possibility be apart, alone, or separate from this ever-growing tree of life.

When separateness arises, recognize that this is your mind’s conditioning, manifested by a belief system that says you must compete for resources to survive and to thrive. This is false. Your worthiness, your success, your productivity, and your love are not based on how much you do or accomplish externally. You simply are worthy and you can express this worth through recognition of your innate connection to others. The tree does not comtemplate its purpose, its service, or its role in the larger ecosystem. It simply stands tall, grows toward the light, and supports its community. It is naturally in alignment and, therefore, is naturally of highest service to itself and others. When your path is cleared to the Spirit within you, you are naturally in alignment and grow toward the betterment of all beings. The lineage and ancestry of your trauma, or your brain’s conditioning, is what creates blockages and limits you from seeing your light and your contribution. Trauma is your invitation to grow through these blockages, to learn from your shadows, and to recognize your true service. Trauma invites you to expand into your highest self. Prior to answering this call, you may feel small and see the world as a big, threatening place. You may feel lesser than others and wonder how you could ever make an impact in such an otherworldly place. Once you begin opening up to your trauma, your conditioning, and the beliefs that have shaped your personal reality until now, a clearer vision begins to take shape and you see your role, your strengths, and your calling more clearly. If you do not answer the call, Spirit will continue knocking and it may become more drastic and more uncomfortable until you decide to answer. However, many may decide not to answer and to live out a live of trauma-based constraints and limitations. The choice is yours. Without judgment or blame, we all choose a path based on our level of readiness.

The call to your highest self is a call to recognize that you are inherently worthy and play an integral role in the wide-weaving web of Spirit, or the universal intelligence unfolding. As more individuals come into alignment with Spirit and become the vessel for their spiritual contract, communication between one another simply represents Spirit communicating with itself, all branches of the same tree or trees of the same interconnected forest. Similar to the way trees naturally send resources to one another, you may find yourself naturally supporting others in a way that supports you as well. You begin to see all of life as an unfolding of this expanding source of creation. When you practice settling into that interconnected source, you relinquish the need to jump ahead or skip the ebbs and flows of the journey, and you recognize the value in all the trials and tribulations along the way. The messiness of your path and the time it takes you is not wasted or lesser than others, but is in greatest service to all. Your service becomes less about what you must “get” or "achieve” to be productive, and becomes more about how you allow it to flow through you with ease. The recognition of this connection to all is not the same as the virtue of empathy or the notion of taking on the burden of others’ suffering. Taking on others’ suffering only contributes to more suffering. Empathy is a powerful tool to recognize your connectedness, but the path toward healing is about growing toward the light and supporting your fellow beings by transmuting darkness into light. Just as trees and other plants use photosynthesis to transmute carbon dioxide into air, you serve as a powerful energetic source of transmutation. There is no competition, all have a part to play, and with a higher level of consciousness such as humans have, you have the capacity to recognize with increased awareness the collective unfolding and to align with it. Trauma is presented as your blockage to this alignment, but with courage you will see it as your invitation to grow.