'The Way of Animal Powers workshop with the Sacred Trust, UK

Our ancestors were privy to a great knowing – that from nature – from the glorious beasts and birds of this beautiful Earth, came profound teachings to guide their lives both in the actions of everyday survival and in primal communion with the animal powers. This way was integral to the fabric of their lives and, because of this, their presence on the planet was melodic - walking in time to the Earth’s rhythm. Shamanic cultures today still know animals as ardent tutors and mentors, wise and holy beings who are guardians of our souls and who offer us entrance to the pathways to power and give us keys to the greater human journeys.

Animal Spirit Medicine is based on a sacred trust that exists between the human and the animal kingdom, residing in the meeting point between the two. The training focuses on the richness of this ancient wisdom and engages with the power of the pack and the pride, and with the heart of the herd and the hive. It allows us to re-align ourselves with nature ‘raw in tooth and claw’ and know once more a wild peace on the journey home. We will move through the most vital areas of this work: Initiation, Foundation, Transformation, Healing, Exploration, Celebration and Liberation, deepening into the following areas:

Learn the twilight language of Shamanic Animal Communication. These proto-historical techniques of inter-species communication remind us that ‘speaking with the animals’ is something that is innate, but that we have forgotten. It is a gift that encourages us to listen rather than impose.

Learn the art of the shape-shifter. The art of moving from one species awareness to another, including little-known practices of merging and communing with animal spirit powers. Here we will shed the cerebral and intellectual skins for a corporeal transformation and spiritual communion, allowing the body itself to absorb wisdom in the form of mystical union with the animal powers.

Learn animal healing ways. Including classical shamanic practices such as Animal Soul Retrieval, Animal Extraction Medicine, Animal Power Retrieval and Animal Psychopomp methodologies. We will also explore rarer and more unusual forms of animal-human healing including the Bone Ritual and the Ceremony of the Talking Tails.

Learn methods of human healing through animals. This work concerns the remarkable ability of the animal kingdom to reflect our interior states, enabling us to observe ourselves in a non-judgmental fashion, for the healing of our own, and others, psyches.

From our intuitive core we will become ‘Living Myths’ moving into the hidden mytho-poetic landscape that all animals naturally inhabit. Through the creation and activation of Animal Spirit Tools we re-ignite our primal sensing powers in order to truly ‘see’ - experiencing the world and ourselves from the place of primeval truth.

This training is being led by Naomi Lewis and Catriona Macdonald. It consists of two five-day residential components at The Sacred Trust Centre, Dorset, and two four day non-residential components taking place in Bath.

This training is not being offered in 2010.
For information regarding the next opportunity to undertake this training please email The Sacred Trust.

PRE-REQUISITE: The Way of the Shaman workshop or equivalent. A telephone interview will be required of all applicants.

For many people the animal world is something separate and distant from their daily lives, with a domestic animal being the only form of interaction with their kingdoms. However, to shamanic peoples across the world, animals are considered to be peers and allies, and there has always been a sacred relationship between the hunter and the hunted.

The masquerading of animal-headed deities, the wearing of pelts, horns and skins was undertaken with the intention of assimilating the superhuman powers possessed by certain animals. Humanity evolved from the beasts, and because of this we hold – deeply buried within the subconscious – the memories of superhuman powers that we once possessed. These are known as the Animal Powers. Each animal is seen as typifying one or more such powers: stealth and cunning for the wolf; seeing or sensing in darkness for the cat, the owl, and the bat; death-dealing power for the snake. The archaic art of accessing the powers of the animal pantheon is also deemed to enable one to embrace an embodied interconnectedness with life that brings forth previously unexplored levels of communion with our animal kin.

This weekend workshop is a practical exploration of the Way of Animal Powers and how they may be accessed, this being the corner-stone to the art of animal shamanism, a path which traditionally demands tests of courage followed by the opportunity for magical transformation. We will investigate the authentic totemic relationship and its application and relevance in modern daily life, and we shall explore the tradition of adopting of an animal ‘familiar’ which has strong roots upon the British Isles. We will engage with the theme of the Wild Hunt, where the boundaries between the human and animal nations become blurred and indistinct, and within which a third locale is revealed, where the Lord and Lady of the Animals reside and where their are teachings imparted.

This workshop is not being offered in 2010.
For information regarding the next opportunity to undertake this training please email The Sacred Trust.