How Spiritual Guidance Brings Deep Meaning to Your Life

What is it about the Natural world that inspires connection? Why is it that most of us spend a day in the woods, at the beach, on a mountain, and feel renewed?

Well, when we step out of the noise of our world, there’s a chance we might once again be able to sense the timeless, universal conversation running beneath our material world. Think of that timeless conversation as the hum of interconnection between endless reciprocal relationships in the Universe; between the past, present, and future, time and space, between us and our Ancestors. And it’s the hum of interconnection that lives within everything, including us. It’s the Oneness!

Reconnecting and developing intimacy with the Oneness and how it manifests in its infinite forms is what Animism is all about, and it’s why I have been so passionate about this spiritual path for so long.

Animism moves us out of our human eco-chambers and teaches us that when we engage in relationships with the seen and unseen worlds around and within us, our sense of connection increases and so does our well-being. Just see what happens if you stop for a few minutes every day to greet and touch a tree where you live. And further: see what happens when you close your eyes, attune to the tree, and sense how it reciprocates. Try this for a month. It’s a 30-day experiment that’s well worth it.

Animism has been the spiritual path I have relied on through thick and thin. I have accessed its wisdom teachings, seasonal and cyclic living, journeying practices, and Earth Medicine rituals as a path of ongoing Soul Work. And in return, I have received healing and a deep sense of meaning and belonging that has carried me through life’s initiations like pregnancy and birth, grief and loss, Ancestral reconciliation, career change, and recovery . And what’s been so wonderful is that the deeper I have gone, the more passionate I have become.

The Art of Spirit Journeying

A key part of Animism is Spirit Journeying which is common amongst many animistic cultures. Using a sonic drive such as a drum or rattle, the journeyer can move into a trance and travel to other realms. Even though journeying with a drum is at the heart of Shamanism, the spiritual tradition amongst Siberian and Mongolian tribes, entering the unseen realms with singing, music, and entheogens is a near-universal practice around the world.

Learning to craft intention, then enter, navigate, and exit unseen realms within and around us can provide deep insights that lead to transformation, aid in decision-making, and help with healing Soul Loss and aiding integration after Soul Retrieval. It can also be a useful practice for integrating psychedelic ceremony with Plant Spirit medicines, and bringing a deeper mindfulness when microdosing, visioning and goal-setting.

I learned to journey three decades ago and it has been a steady practice in my life for everything from parenting to career change, relationship and health challenges, and dream interpretation. By grounding into a clear and steady intention, we can learn to enter and exit the Otherworlds and receive guidance and wisdom from trusted spiritual allies and Healing Spirits (Animal Allies, helping Ancestors, Spirit Guides.) Over time, we can learn to interpret the symbolic language of our journeys in order to apply it in a practical way to our lives.

Having a human teacher support our journeying practice is a key part of our spiritual growth and practice. The unseen realms are full of beauty, and still there are times when there is nothing beautiful about what we see as we may come across shadow realms, repressed fears, ego projections, and other potentially confusing material that can surface as we grow and heal. Having someone who also has teachers (lineage) and has navigated these realms before and learned to understand and transform them, can be really helpful in staying grounded and steady without our ego taking over.

The most common question I’m asked about journeying is “Am I making it up?” My response to this is with two questions. The first, “Is it helping?” If it’s helping, is it really that important to know whether you’re making it up or not? And the second, “Do you have a regular meditation practice?” If you do, it’s way easier to identify if you are making things up because you will be more familiar with the nature of your mind, and therefore it’s easier to tell if you’re making it up.

Learning to Journey is a wonderful way to develop spiritual intimacy with Helping Spirits and feel a sense of deep connection with life and the nature of the Universe. It enables us to access the deeper meaning of our lives, and allows us to stay connected to our Soul who not only remembers our connection to the Oneness, but also remembers the path of our destiny.

To learn Spirit Journeying and develop relationships with your Helping Spirits, check out my program Doorways to Animism. This is a foundational program I have been teaching for over 20 years and which has helped to spiritually empower hundreds of people around the world. It’s also the pre-requisite to the Quintessential Revolution Apprenticeship for Conscious Living.