Have Faith

When I was young and in my teens, I was a kid with a lot of weight on his shoulders. It is not easy being a peace keeper in a dysfunctional family. I spent a lot of time escaping into alternate realities so that I could just cope with the stress of it all. For the longest time I thought that these alternate realities were just fantasy. Turns out....they weren't.

If I had not opened my mind to these alternate realities I would not have connected with Spirit, with my Totem Animals, with my ability to journey and to dream walk. These abilities later in life have become something that has allowed me to assist people and to help them to heal. What once felt like a weight on my shoulders has now become something that is liberating not just for myself but for many of my people. Now people have faith in me. They know that I will keep it real and that I will help them to heal. I try every day to live up to that. I don't see it as an expectation because I don't do it for them as much as I help them to do it for themselves. Those who want someone to just come in and "fix it" are disappointed and some of them learn to utilize my expertize to learn to do it themselves. Others fade away because I am not the one for them. I won't allow them to give up their personal responsibility in their healing and I won't allow them to put me on a pedestal. Healing is work. Have faith that, with a little assistance here and there, you can do it. But the point is that it is you that is doing it. Not anyone else. Have faith.

Blessed Be
Trent
http://www.youtube.com/trentdeerhorn
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Helping Hands, Healing Hands

I always find it amazing how well things go when we lend a hand. Helping others and performing acts of kindness warms my heart. But I also find it sad how many people lack physical human contact. The healing touch that is transmitted through the hands is amazing. I am not sure when we, as a race or culture, got so hung up about touching each other, but we really did ourselves and everyone around us a disservice.

The healing energy that transfers from one to another through touch is free! It is not something that we always have to pay someone to do for us. All we have to do is volunteer. And we don't even have to touch anyone anywhere that they or we would not be comfortable with. Simply touching a hand does so much for the endorphins in the body that it is like taking a happy pill. Then with the energy of intent combined, we can move energy to anywhere throughout the body.

The Medicine Wheel teachings tell us that the body is the temple. It is the place where we learn to properly hold. By "holding" I mean that we learn how to hold our temple in the highest regard, keeping it well so that it, in turn can hold our soul energies intact for this earth walk. It is also important for us to recognize, however, how important it is for everyone to be held, from the time of birth to the time of death (no matter how long a period of time in between those two events).

This is something that hospitals are finally catching on to. Even in ICU there is space provided to touch the person who is unwell. In Neonatal ICU people are encouraged to touch and, sometimes, to hold the infants who are at risk.

So when my Love tells me how incredible it is when I touch her as I caress her back, I take it as an ultimate compliment and know that, no matter what, this is something that I will always do for her. Loving touch does not always have to be a sexual thing. It always is, however, sensual in that it stimulates the body's senses to receive the healing that is involved.

From here on in, I invite anyone who reads this to reconsider their views on touch and look at it as a form of healing in and of itself. Go ahead....reach out and touch someone! ;-)

Blessed Be

Trent

www.deerhornshamanic.com

Tummy Chuckles

Laughter is healing. It is a very important part of life and living well. When we laugh endorphins are released in our brains and the serotonin activates, which alleviates depression. And when we laugh we exercise our abdominal muscles. This can, over time, contribute to a fine six pack! Then there is the factor of extra oxygen being fed into the blood stream. That can only be a good thing.

I have at times been criticized for how much I laugh in sessions. Only those who are completely devoid of humour can criticize such a thing. I make sure that laughter is a key ingredient in each session. My coworkers have commented to me now and then about how lovely it is to hear uproarious laughter come from my office. They can't hear anything else, well, other than when I get banging on the drums, but they certainly enjoy hearing the laughter. I enjoy being able to work in a place where people appreciate such things.

So here is the thing...

Find the most twisted way to express yourself with humour. I don't care if it is light humour, dark humour, morbid humour, just use humour. Allow yourself to be a fly on the wall and see the amazing ripple effect that laughter has around you. Laughter is part of the water element. The water element is not meant to be blocked off. It is meant to flow. That is why tears can stream down the face and laughter can ripple, and sometimes simultaneously. The water element is the emotional element and emotion = e (energy) in motion!

Blessed Be

Trent

www.deerhornshamanic.com

The Rhythm is Gonna Get You!

We just got back from the Community Drumming Circle led by Cathy Chicoine at the Oshun Centre in Saskatoon. This is a beautiful location for the circle to be held. The hexagon shaped environment with a vaulted ceiling is ideal for acoustics and energy flow. We had an excellent time.

I always find it amazing how the rhythm in a circle is so organic. The sound itself is very healing but the tempo will change and the subrhythms will flow in and out like ocean waves. It is quite beautiful.

I am looking forward to the next drumming cirlce that I will be leading as well. This will be on Tuesday the7th at the Aquamarine Healing Centre. This is going to be a Waxing Moon ceremony, with a Waning Moon ceremony to follow on the 14th.

I find the moons this month to be particularly powerful. The last 2 weeks have also had the "Disturbance in the Force" feel to them. Interesting and powerful shifts energetically, coupled with Mercury in retrograde, has made for a roller coaster ride for many. The good news is that we are now on the other side of it all.

May the Force be with you!

Blessed Be

Trent

www.deerhornshamanic.com

A Rash of Events

There are times in every one's life when we are forced to just sit and collect ourselves. This is what is currently happening to me. You see, I have a rash. It is not just a little collection of a few bumps in a specific location on the body. It is a full blown all out rash that is spreading. It started (this time) in the crook of the elbow. Now it is spreading to the wrists, has already spread to the armpits, and is across the chest and moving up the throat.

My homeopathic doctor says it is strep related. I am taking the remedy. Conventional doctors say it is an allergy to nettle. Although I do use some nettle in my work, I haven't had a rash every time I have used it, or I would be covered always.

No, this is a different kind of rash. Hot, itchy, burning and miserable to deal with. However, I am learning a lot about myself as this happens. There are times in my life when I don't want to be touched. This is one of those times because it just hurts, and the more gentle the touch, the more irritated it gets. It is like insects crawling on the skin if even the slightest breeze moves hair on my body. Energy healing makes it hot, which makes it feel worse.

So in talking to my rash it has explained that it is there because of a rash of events. My separation from my marriage, my new relationship, the selling of my acreage, moving into my new location at work, just to name a few. All of these things are very positive, yet the stress has finally caught up with me. And so, I now wear even looser and more comfortable clothing, take cold showers to cool everything off, have my homeopathic remedy, and have even resorted to using an antihistamine in order to get this under control. And I am learning to slow it all down for a bit as well. Something I tell my clients to do every day. Shaman, heal thyself! I can hear it now.

Blessed Be

Trent

The Will of God

A new friend of mine emailed me last week. She enclosed in her email two beautiful quotations. I am not sure of the source to the quotations, but this one really stood out to me:

"The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you."

So often people are afraid to make a move in their lives. They think that the risk is that they will be left all alone in total devastation. I know that fear well. I have experienced it frequently in my life. In fact, just recently I have worked through that one yet again. And I have, each time, experienced the rediscovery of the simple truth that we are never given more than we can handle and that when we think that there is just one set of footprints in the sand, they are not our own, but God's as we are being carried.

Taking a risk is sometimes exactly the leap of faith we need to make. It will always turn out well, if we just give it a chance. That doesn't mean that we deny our fears. We need to acknowledge them and work through them. We need to be able to break down in tears and let ourselves sob out our fears and our sorrows. That way we do our healing. It is also important to breathe and to pray. That way we connect with Spirit and access Spirit's grace. And it is important to walk as well. As we walk, it is solved. The act of walking helps to ground us as well as bring us back to ourselves in times of crisis. Then all that healing we are doing sinks in and anchors into the cells of our bodies.

The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you. It was worth writing that one out a second time!

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Giving and Receiving

Lau-Tzu said,"If you would take, you must first give." This is a very basic law of the universe, yet one that eludes many. I remember being bullied in Junior High and then, later, taking up martial arts. My instructor, also an accomplished acupuncturist and practitioner of Chinese Medicine, asked me why I wanted to learn how to hurt and possibly kill. My response was that I no longer wanted to feel weak and vulnerable around those who would bully me about and possibly beat the bejeebers out of me as they had in the past. He said two things that really stuck. The first thing that he said was,"If you embark on a journey of revenge, you must remember to dig two graves." The second was, "before you can learn to kill, you must learn to heal."

Having been raised with pagan thought systems, the idea of giving before receiving was something that I understood. I was told by my grandmother to always send prayers of gratitude before I received what I desired. Thus, the Goddess would understand that I already have within me that which I desire, and would then respond by bringing more of the same to me. But when it was put into the context of learning to heal before learning how to kill, it quite frankly floored me. Suddenly it all made sense. Had the bullies in my life learned how to heal before they learned how to torment and possibly kill, they would not have even embarked upon the path of bullying! Thus began my training in martial arts. Yes, I had a natural talent because I learned as a young person how to "street fight" and that made me exceptionally resourceful. But my interest soon became an obsession with the healing aspect. I learned many methods and avenues of helping people to heal. Energetically, there is so much that can be influenced in the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual bodies that the results are often profound. At the same time, you cannot learn how to simulate, say, the liver meridian without also learning how to hinder it, causing great pain and illness. Knowledge is the accumulation of information. Wisdom is the appropriate usage thereof.

So I learned how to protect myself. But what was most important was that I learned how to heal myself. I was able to let go of all those aspects of my personal history that no longer served my well-being and embrace aspects that do. I became an energetic adaptogen and in doing so I opened myself to becoming a shaman. That was a title that I resisted for years. It is one that I now wear with great honor. In an age when there are a lot of popcorn elders and shamans emerging from the woodwork, it is important to know that there are some, like myself, who work with honor and integrity. Those who are like myself I embrace with great love and appreciation. Those who are not don't last long enough to worry about.

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

What Can't Be Seen

A Zen way of being says, “A wise man hears what makes no sound and sees what has no form.” It is amazing to me how much of the natural and spirit world goes unnoticed by the majority of people. Those of us who do notice are often told we must be nuts for thinking that we see or hear whatever it is we are perceiving at the time.

It is important to acknowledge to ourselves that we are gifted with the sight. Without it the world would have no one to help it along the way of discovery. Imagine what it would have been like in the world if we continued to assume that the Earth was the center of the universe and that everything else around it revolves around this chunk of rock on which we live. It is not as though mankind isn’t egocentric enough already, but to have that view still unchallenged would make us tip the scales completely!

So how important it must be to acknowledge those around us who perceive what has no sound or form. Let’s use earthbound spirits as an example. Some of them could very easily be eased into the Light if they had help addressing their issues. Granted, some don’t want the help. But those who do are in dire need to cross over. Those of us who see and hear them and can communicate with them can help them in a multitude of ways, both big and small, to make that journey.

So what use is that to the rest of the world? Well, just to mention a few, some folks might find that they sleep better at night without all the commotion either in their dreams or in their living spaces. Some may find that they begin to feel healthier more quickly. Some might find that they can finally move on from the death of a loved one. But without the assistance, many are left with unresolved issues, both in the physical world and in the spirit world. This then can ripple down the line for seven generations or so.

I am giving a workshop on the 3rd of May called Spirit Beings. In this workshop I hope to help participants to open their consciousness to the communication that awaits them on the spirit plane. I look forward to this experience because any time I have assisted in this with individuals, the healing has been profound.
Blessed Be

Trent

Past Lives

If we meditate enough, for enough lifetimes, and if we allow ourselves to let go of fear through meditation and trust ourselves as we step into the Void from the Light, then we are able to remember ourselves in many past lives. We may even advance to the point of being able to connect with the mass consciousness and "remember" others' past lives for them.

This is one of the many things that I do as a shaman. I help people to remember. I don't just help them to remember all their past lives. In fact with some there are way too many to remember them all. I help them to remember who they are. We all come to a time in our lives when that memory is essential for our progress from that point onward. I have recently begun remembering some things about myself as well. Yes, the shaman also does his own healing work, as we all must do from time to time. With all of the remembering, I have also rediscovered that it is very important to stay in the moment and honor this life. If we constantly search for ourselves in the past we rob ourselves of our present and our future. So I really don't care if someone was Marie Antoinette in a past life. What I do care about is who that person is now. When I look into that person's eyes, I want to see them for their true divine nature within.

I feel such honor that I have been gifted the opportunity to get to know myself on a deeper level. And I am honored that I have the gift of helping others to do the same. I think that if we help each other to honor our personal divinity, we will elevate ourselves in vibration and, through that elevated vibration, we will be able to heal the world, one person at a time, or by the millions. And why stop at just the world we know? Why not create a whole new world? Or a new universe for that matter? What do you say to taking chances? What could we possibly lose? And how does that really compare to what we could gain?

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com

Praying Rain

The other day I was watching the DVD You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay. In it there was a story about a Pueblo Indian man who "prayed rain". He would not pray for rain, he would simply pray rain. This meant feeling in his heart the rain falling upon his body and soaking the earth under his bare feet. My wife asked me if this made sense and, of course, the answer was yes.

This is the way of the shaman. We tend to live in the present moment. So if the earth needs rain, we bring the rain into a very real feeling within us and this is the prayer that the Spirits hear, so this is what they provide. When we think about this it makes total sense. the Spirit world is very literal in many ways. So if we are constantly affirming that we want more money, then the Spirit world supports that we want more money. And so we go on wanting and not achieving that goal and wondering why it isn't working. If, however, we completely bring into our hearts the feeling of having total abundance and having all our financial needs met and more, then this is what the Spirit world honors and, lo and behold, our financial needs are met and more.

When I do healing work for someone, in person or long distance, I pray wellness. I don't focus on what the "problem" is within their bodies, emotions, minds or spirits. I focus my energy on their wellness. This might look one way to me and another way to them, but Spirit hears my prayer and understands that the blueprint for their wellness is divinely ingrained in their DNA and that it is now activated. This is why people get well. This really is the only way people get well. We can have as much intervention as we can possibly get from modern medicine and healers, but until we personally work on our insides we will only know the fear that is involved in that illness. As we pray wellness for ourselves and others, wellness occurs. As we pray joy for ourselves and others, joy occurs. As we pray peace and love for ourselves and others, peace and love occurs. It really is that simple. What will you pray today?

Blessed Be

Trent
www.deerhornshamanic.com