Integration is about returning to wholeness. When we decide to have a deep conversation with a visionary medicine, the integration process has begun. The steps we take to ensure a smooth entry make all the difference during and after ceremony. It is widely known in the medicine community that “every day is ceremony.” When we begin to integrate, we begin to anchor ceremony into our daily experience.
I have learned from numerous shamans through the years, from the Shipibo and the European/Indigenous of Peru as well as from tribes in Brazil, the ways of medicine work and the art of shamanism. My main teachers are the Q’ero tribe of the Andes. They have initiated me and given me the blessing to work with and teach their medicine wheel. I have used this medicine wheel to process everything from shadows to trauma to the need for answers and it has become my dharmic path and main tool in life. In my work as an Integration Coach, I have found the medicine wheel to be an exceptional model for integration.
After ceremony, we enter the Serpent phase. In this phase, we are shedding old skins and forming new ones. Due to the neuroplasticity of our brains, we are in the delicate phase of rewiring our nervous system. As the serpent wraps its coils of light around each strand of DNA, we are shedding old stories and old programs and downloading new programs. Earth medicine is essential as we begin to ground the experience from ceremony into this human reality. Clean organic food, high vibration water, plant allies like rapeh and herbal teas, spending time in Nature, and being gentle with our selves are of importance in this phase.
As we begin to ground our experience into this reality, we enter into the phase of Jaguar. Entheogens in part are here to illuminate our shadows. They are here to show us what we need to let go of so we can be free and completely healed. Jaguar teaches us to turn toward our shadows and to embrace them without fear. Water element reminds us this is a time of deep reflection and contemplation. This is a time for quiet and deep listening as we begin to fully understand the messages and experience of ceremony. Writing, painting and drawing, mantra, and meditation are useful tools. For those who have encountered deep shadows, shadow work and trauma resolution with an experienced professional is the best and most efficient way to move through this phase.
Hummingbird phase is where we take action. We begin to develop a plan for implementing new practices and we receive new tools. The rewiring is not yet complete, and it is often in this phase where begin to slip back into old patterns if we do not actively work our process. This is where we begin to use Fire element to aid in our transformation and transmutation. Fire ceremony is a powerful ritual in this phase as we offer all we ready to burn. Receiving support and guidance from someone who can help you create a toolbelt of new tools and develop a plan of action is extremely helpful in this phase as we learn how to sip the sweet nectar of life and remain in the quiet center of our hearts even as we flutter our wings.
If we actively work our process, we will soon enough find ourselves with Condor, flying wing to wing with Great Spirit. We have begun to receive the fruits of our work as we soar above with our third eye vision, having integrated into our human experience a higher vibration of our Self… the Self that we were shown in ceremony. The lessons have been learned, our upgraded programs are running smoothly, and our new practices and Way of Being are as easy as every breath we take. We are having a deeper relationship with Spirit with every moment as we learn to be more Present and Equanimous. We complete the circle… the whole.
Having a solid framework for the integration process is essential if we wish to optimize our journey with the visionary medicines. I speak from personal experience after spending many years going from ceremony to ceremony, often finding myself more lost and confused. When I learned to humbly receive help and take the hands of those reaching out to me, my true healing began. When I began to meet the medicine and Spirit halfway, my healing process accelerated. When I learned to deeply listen and work my integration process, I reached the end of my path of suffering and returned to wholeness, having healed all the timelines that were keeping me in darkness and longing. I began to experience true Freedom and Joy as a Sovereign Being.
May we as a community learn that it’s not just the Medicine that’s medicine…it’s everything and everyone around us. May we learn what the Medicine came to teach us… that ultimately, we are our own medicine, and everything we need is already inside of us, waiting for us to awaken to our own inner healer… our own inner shaman… our own inner guru…. and to get here, we need to remember that we are One.
We all need one another to walk each other Home.
Viva Medicina. Jai Maa!
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