If you practice medicine work or any shamanic tradition that comes from a different region than where you live, you’re probably overlooking this vitally important foundation of your practice.
In the modern, western world, it is likely that people learning shamanism take courses online or travel to meet with teachers. Or, if you are working with a local teacher, it is possible that the lineage or the medicine you are studying came from a different part of the Earth.
Shamanism is relational. Shamanism is contextual. Since shamanism is rooted in connection with the natural world, every shamanic tradition is going to work with different energies according to its context. If you live and practice your shamanic healing work in the Southwest high desert, you would call on nature spirit allies like the juniper tree, coyote and vulture. If you live and practice your shamanic healing work in the Amazon, you would collaborate with nature spirits like chacruna, frog and snake.
Most online shamanic courses focus on techniques. They will teach you how to journey, how to make a rattle, how to do particular shamanic healing practices. But they skip the most important part: creating a foundational relationship with your local ecosystem, forming allyships with local nature spirits and receiving consent from the land where you live to practice your work. They skip this because it is difficult to "teach" this online. The only way to form these relationships is through direct experience and intimacy with your local ecosystem.
Similarly, when we travel to study with teachers, we are entering their context. We are stepping into their local ecosystem, where they have working relationships with the land and nature spirits. We get to "borrow" the power of these spirits because we step into the agreement that those teachers have with the land to do their work. That consent does not transfer when we go home. That context is unique to that specific ecosystem.
The same is true when we work with specific medicine lineages that have their own agreements with local land and nature spirits. The nature spirits of that lineage exist in that context. If you go study with ayahuasqueros in the Amazon and then take those teachings back home to New York, you are decontextualizing the medicine and removing that work from its original, most powerful land and nature spirit allyships. If you are initiated into a medicine lineage, it’s important to honor the context the medicine comes from and its nature spirit allies, but it’s also important to anchor that medicine work into your local land and nature spirit ecosystem.
What happens when we work with nature spirits out of context?
Working with nature spirits out of context removes them from their zone of power. They are certainly still powerful and beneficial allies, but their medicine may not be as effective in your ecosystem as working with a local nature spirit.
If you work with certain nature spirits because your teachers worked with those spirits, you cannot bypass forming an actual relationship with them. You must receive the specific consent and initiation from those spirits, which they may or may not give you.
If you are inviting non-local nature spirits to work with you without anchoring into the local ecosystem energy, they may not integrate smoothly. The living temples and guardian spirits of the land where you live may disrupt your work or there might be disharmonious alignment in your practice.
Here are some ways to gracefully integrate local and non-local nature spirit allies from different lineages:
Always start with the local nature spirits and living temples on the land where you reside or practice. If you do not have the consent and collaboration of the local ecosystem, it will disrupt your life and your work.
If you are studying or receiving initiations from non-local lineages, make sure to form direct relationships with the nature spirits of those lineages. Make offerings, ask for their consent and permission to work with them, and don’t assume that their allyship comes bundled in with the teachings. Consent does not transfer.
If you are integrating local and non-local nature spirits into your practice, make sure that the non-local spirits are welcome with the local ecosystem before you invite them in to collaborate. Ask all of your allies to stay within their zone of genius, and don’t invoke them for things that aren’t appropriate. For example, call upon the local guardians for safety, protection and anchoring the temple grid because they live and thrive in that environment. Call upon your local nature spirit allies to support the general experience of your work. Call upon the non-local nature spirit allies to support the specifics of the medicine work or healing practice that comes directly from the related lineage.
Do you want to gracefully integrate your local and non-local nature spirit allies?
Sacred Ecology begins July 26.
This course includes:
7 live online classes, each including training, hands-on exercises and integration prompts.
Ceremonial initiation with your new nature spirit ally.
Private online community for resources and connection.
Upgrade option: Add three discounted 1:1 sessions with Michelle for personalized support and mentorship.
Register now!
