How to Work with Shamanic Journeys
- Jan 7
- 8 min read
Ash Miner's passions for music and animals resulted in 2 bachelor's degrees and 3 master's degrees before she applied that knowledge to shamanic healing and teaching. A self-published author of the book The Answer to Everything: Earth Wisdom & Beauty, Ash hopes to one day found a healing sanctuary for people and animals who have survived trauma.
Welcome, dear readers, to my seventh article, part six of my series on the ancient spiritual practice called shamanism. If you haven’t read my first article, I encourage you to do so, and preferably start from the beginning of my published writings. Each of my 11 articles for Brainz Magazine builds upon the others as teaching stories. This is the old way of sharing wisdom that my helping spirits have instructed me to follow. I will continue the story, then share its universal teachings afterward for clarity.
Where we left off, Raven had just returned after grounding herself in the forest. Raven was sitting in shamanic practitioner and teacher Mel’s cabin, writing notes about the journey she had just experienced to meet her new power animal and returned soul part. This was a few days after Mel had performed a soul retrieval for Raven.
Teaching stories, part 6
Raven sat and fully wrote out her journey in her journal. It read: I began in my favorite place in nature, which presented me with a cave to descend into so I could reach the Lower World of the Spirit World. The cave led me to a dark tunnel, but then I emerged into a beautiful forest beside a river, a lake, and an ocean not too far away. Every manner of animal was present, but Squirrel was the one who came to meet me. I was excited to meet my power animal, and he danced around my feet, climbed up my pants, darted playfully through my hair, then leapt onto a tree branch so we could speak eye-to-eye. I say speak, but it was telepathic. I heard his words, but his little rodent mouth did not move. He said, “Welcome, Raven! Finally, I get to meet you now. It is truly a pleasure to see you whole again. I have looked after your soul essence for quite a while. I understand you would like to meet her and speak with her yourself, is that right?” I nodded, dumbfounded by Squirrel’s energy and immediate helpfulness. “Go and sit on that fallen tree over there. I will take care of the rest,” Squirrel told me.
I went and sat on the fallen tree. Within just a few seconds, younger me emerged from around the bend on the trail and sat next to me. I’ll say “she,” even though she is me – this is a bit challenging to write about. She waved hello, happily, and I returned her wave, wanting to be friendly. I asked, “How can we live well together now that you’re back?” She said, “Oh, I have been dying to dance! Let’s dance with everything and everyone, the wind, the trees, the bushes, even other animals! Let’s get another dog someday, promise?” I nodded my agreement with a smile at the dancing, though I think she could sense my hesitation about the dog part. “Do you like humming?” I asked her. “Perhaps we could dance even to our own songs?” She nodded up and down faster than seemed humanly possible, and said, “Yes! I miss humming! Why did we ever stop? We could dance to infinite songs with infinite dances.” I answered, “Great, sounds like a plan to me!” She agreed, then asked, “And when can we get another dog?” My smile faded, I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to disappoint her, but I wasn’t ready for another dog yet. So, I looked down at my feet, kicking them gently off the giant tree trunk a few times to stall. Finally, I worked up the courage and said, “I’m not ready for another dog, but as soon as I am, we can get one then. Okay?” She seemed perfectly content with this answer, nodded in agreement with a smile, pushed herself off the tree trunk, and began dancing in the little clearing before us. She waved me over to dance with her. I pushed myself off as well, though I didn’t have as far to slide down to the ground, and rushed over to her. As soon as we clasped hands, we both turned into sparkly, golden light. Our bodies disappeared, and any separation we could have discerned between us before vanished.
Suddenly, I was back, listening to Mel’s drumming. She could tell, because the callback drumbeat began, but I was already here.
Mel had asked Raven to let her know when she had finished, so Raven announced the completion of her write-up. “Now,” instructed Mel, “I want you to take this yellow highlighter. Underline anywhere that felt particularly powerful; we call these the power points. Highlight anything your power animal or other spirit, including your soul, said to you. When you’ve done that, I want you to extract those into two separate poems at the bottom. The power points, then the quotes. Go ahead.”
So the write-up got transformed into this, I began in my favorite place in nature, which presented me with a cave to descend into so I could reach the Lower World of the Spirit World. The cave led me to a dark tunnel, but then I emerged into a beautiful forest beside a river, a lake, and an ocean not too far away. Every manner of animal was here, but Squirrel was the one who came to meet me. I was excited to meet my power animal, and he danced around my feet, climbed up my pants, darted playfully through my hair, then leapt off onto a tree branch so we could speak eye-to-eye. I say "speak," but it was telepathic. I heard his words, but his little rodent mouth did not move. He said, “Welcome, Raven! Finally, I get to meet you now. It is truly a pleasure to see you whole again. I have looked after your soul essence for quite a while. I understand you would like to meet her, speak with her yourself, is that right?” I nodded, dumbfounded by Squirrel’s energy and immediate helpfulness. “Go and sit on that fallen tree over there. I will take care of the rest,” Squirrel told me.
I went and sat on the fallen tree. Within just a few seconds, younger me emerged from around the bend on the trail and sat next to me. I’m going to say “she,” even though she is me – this is a bit challenging to write about. She waved hello happily, and I returned her wave, wanting to be friendly. I asked, “How can we live well together… now that you’re back?” She said, “Oh, I have been dying to dance! Let’s dance with everything and everyone – the wind, the trees, the bushes, even other animals! Let’s get another dog someday, promise?” I nodded my agreement with a smile at the dancing, though I think she could sense my trepidation about the dog part. “Do you like humming?” I asked her. “Perhaps we could dance even to our own songs?” She nodded up and down faster than seemed humanly possible, and said, “Yes! I miss humming! Why did we ever stop? We could dance to infinite songs with infinite dances.” I answered, “Great, sounds like a plan to me!” She agreed, then asked, “And when can we get another dog?” My smile faded; I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to disappoint her, but I wasn’t ready for another dog yet. So, I looked down at my feet, kicking them gently off the giant tree trunk a few times to stall. Finally, I worked up the courage and said, “I’m not ready for another dog, but as soon as I am, we can get one then. Okay?” She seemed perfectly content with this answer, nodded in agreement with a smile, pushed herself off the tree trunk, and began dancing and humming in the little clearing before us. She waved me over to dance with her. I pushed myself off as well, though I didn’t have as far to slide down to the ground, and rushed over to her. As soon as we clasped hands, we both turned into sparkly, golden light. Our bodies disappeared, and any separation we could have discerned between us before vanished.
Suddenly, I was back, listening to Mel’s drumming. She could tell because the callback drumbeat began, but I was already here.
The poems, then, were:
Points of power
The cave brought me to a dark tunnel,
but then I emerged in a beautiful forest.
Squirrel is the one who came to meet me.
Speak eye-to-eye;
it was telepathic.
Dumbfounded by Squirrel’s energy and immediate helpfulness,
she waved hello happily,
and I returned her wave, wanting to be friendly.
I think she could sense my trepidation about the dog.
I didn’t want to disappoint her,
but I wasn’t ready for another dog yet.
I looked down at my feet,
kicking them off the giant tree trunk gently a few times to stall.
Finally, I worked up the courage and said,
“I’m not ready for another dog,
but as soon as I am, we can get one then.”
She seemed perfectly content with this answer,
began dancing and humming in the little clearing.
As soon as we clasped hands,
we both turned into sparkly, golden light.
Our bodies disappeared,
and any separation we could have discerned between us before vanished.
Quotes
Squirrel:
“Welcome, Raven! Finally, I get to meet you. It is truly a pleasure to see you whole again. I have looked after your soul essence for quite a while. I understand you would like to meet her and speak with her yourself, is that right?”
“Go and sit on that fallen tree over there; I will take care of the rest.”
Soul part:
“Oh, I have been dying to dance! Let’s dance with everything and everyone, the wind, the trees, the bushes, even other animals! Let’s get another dog someday, promise?”
“Yes! I miss humming! Why did we ever stop? We could dance to infinite songs with infinite dances.”
“And when can we get another dog?”
Mel asked Raven to read her poems aloud, and then they reflected on what Raven saw with each poem individually, as well as both poems together. Mel then asked Raven to write her answer in one sentence to the question, How can we, my soul and I, live well together?
Raven’s answer was written, My soul and I can live well together by dancing, voicing our own songs, and bringing new love in when we’re ready.
Story teachings
In this article, we can see the power of the journeys themselves, the deepening practice that writing them out and making a poem of the power points and quotes brings, as well as the clarity this whole process provides. Done properly, it’s best to allow about two hours for one journey, and then to work with what comes up for about a week before doing another journey, at a minimum.
It is recommended to journey for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes and to stay in the journey for an entire track. You can choose from these options on YouTube:
Now, if you had experienced Raven’s journey, what would you have underlined? What poems would you have made? We can all learn from each other’s spirits, and we can even learn from past journeys. The help is always there, evolving and growing alongside us.
Read more from Ash Miner
Ash Miner, MS, MM, Shamanic Practitioner & Teacher
Ash Miner's personal journey of healing PTSD led her to shamanism. Despite being a total skeptic, she knew in 1 session this was her path, and had been since she was a very little girl. Ash has spent years studying extensively, completing US training by Sandra Ingerman, as well as with Jonathan Horwitz and Zara Waldebäck in Sweden. She has found her true calling in teaching and offering shamanic healing to human beings, animals, and the Earth. Her extensive background in music education and performance, as well as animal behavior, provides a scientific framework for her soul work. She specializes in healing song and healing story. Her mission is to demystify shamanism to make it an approachable healing modality for all of humanity.
