When the Soul Comes Home – The Beauty of Integrating Shamanic Healing
- Brainz Magazine
- 2 days ago
- 7 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, my wonderful readers, to my fourth article, part two of my articles on this ancient healing technique called soul retrieval. If you haven’t read the first article about soul retrieval, I encourage you to do that, preferably from the beginning. Each of my 11 articles builds on the previous one as teaching stories. This is the old way of sharing wisdom that my helping spirits have guided me to follow here at Brainz Magazine.
Where we left off, Raven had just received a soul retrieval from Mel, the shamanic practitioner. The essence of Raven’s soul that was returned brought back the gift of loving life so that Raven could recover from the grief of losing her best friend, her dog. Along with this soul essence, a power animal had come to help. This helping spirit appeared in the form of a squirrel and had been keeping the soul of Raven’s dog company ever since she passed. Squirrel felt called to help Raven do the integration work required to live well with this returned soul part.
Always when we do a soul retrieval, our first words are to welcome the soul in its newly whole state home to life, as per my training with Sandra Ingerman, who literally wrote the book and pioneered this healing modality in the West. Now that the cure had happened, the soul part that had left during trauma was returned. It was time for the healing to begin.
Teaching stories, Part 3
“Welcome home, Raven,” Mel said. “How do you feel?” Raven slowly opened her eyes, the whirlwind of effects beginning to stabilise. She had felt sad, then warm and fuzzy, then absolutely calm toward the end of Mel’s lovely singing. How did she feel now?
“I was feeling sad, but then warm and fuzzy, and now I feel so much lighter. And brighter. Is the sun out or something?” Raven answered.
Mel chuckled under her breath before responding. “Everything seems brighter and easier when there’s more of you back home in life. Would you like help to sit up, or do you want to listen to what happened while lying down?”
Raven considered briefly before replying, “Actually, I want to stay just like this for a little while, if that’s okay. It’s so relaxing and comfortable. I promise I won’t fall asleep or anything.” Mel nodded her approval.
And so, Mel recounted her experience to Raven. Rather than say everything verbatim, Mel ensured this was a healing story that Raven would hear. Mel made judgment calls about what to leave out, such as the soul part saying she didn’t come here to lose life, referring to the impending grief process from the death of her dog. That was part of the wound Raven had been feeling anyway, so there was no new insight there.
Mel emphasised instead the gift the soul part was returning with, the power to love life so much she couldn’t imagine living without loving it. Mel also shared about the power animal, Squirrel, who came and why, what special connections it had to Raven and her dog, and how Raven could perform a shamanic journey to Squirrel for her homework. It was important for Raven to have her own experience of this returned soul essence, the drops of this new gift and power she now held united in her oceanic body, to help make any needed changes to ensure she would now live a life where this soul part wanted to stay.
Mel then offered a lesson to Raven. “So if you like, I will teach you how to journey. You can meet Squirrel and ask, ‘What changes do I need to make in my life so my newly returned soul essence and I can live well together?’ This way, the integration process will have a feeling of direct revelation, something you discover for yourself with the help of your spirits. This is the core of shamanic work. Everything is done with the spirits, not with your mind, and not with someone else telling you what is true or not. How does that sound to you?”
Raven didn’t need to pause. She practically choked on her quick inbreath to say, “Sign me up.”
Mel snorted unapologetically and said, “Alright then. In a couple of days, after this has had a chance to settle in, come back and we will teach you how to journey. I will guide you to get started, and then you can take it from there, and we will discuss next steps.”
Raven smiled widely, excited by this opportunity and comforted to know she wasn’t losing her connection to Mel after all of this deeply healing work.
“Are you ready to stand up now, or do you need a minute?” Mel asked Raven, who was still lying on the healing nest she had made on her floor.
“I can stand up now. I’m actually sort of feeling like dancing. I feel so joyful and a bit silly.”
Mel helped Raven up and spontaneously began to dance beside her, grabbing her drum and providing a beat for them to dance to.
“When the soul’s essence returns, we often feel its zest for life in many ways,” Mel explained. “Some want to dance, some to sing, some to eat foods they haven’t had in years, speak to someone they haven’t been around in a while, or walk in a place they haven’t visited in ages. I encourage you to really listen to these cravings, these urges, and when or where appropriate, try to honour them. You may need to negotiate, and we can talk about how to do that when I see you in a couple of days. For now, just enjoy this love for life you’re feeling and let it move you.”
The dancing didn’t stop for quite a while until both women, younger and older, burst into giggles and collapsed to the floor.
“Here, drink this before you go,” Mel offered. She had a glass of water ready and waiting since before the soul retrieval ceremony started so that Raven could drink up the healing at the end. “I’ll see you soon.”
Story teachings of the soul
There are several important aftercare elements here, and they apply to more than just soul retrievals. The part of the mind that speaks and uses language shuts down during trauma. No amount of talking afterward is going to be therapeutic in the way clients hope for. What we really need when recovering from trauma is to come back into our bodies, so a healer’s first question after a healing ceremony should always be about how the client feels.
We don’t launch into the story of our healing journey right away. First, we see how the client is feeling so they can pair and associate that bodily experience with the healing. Then we tell them a healing story that excludes anything they already know. We share new information that provides a healing perspective to empower the new healing rather than the old wound. Not to discredit the wound, but to not spotlight it either.
We then allow time for the swirling-together process to complete, at least a couple of days, before encouraging the client to have their own experience. How I am shown things and how I explain them is guided by the spirits and can be invaluable to the client’s healing process. However, having this direct revelation, as Sandra Ingerman calls it, is incredibly healing and empowering for the client. It also creates the, often first, open line of communication between the client and their helping spirits.
Soul retrievals, in particular, are active for a long time, between six months and a year. Giving the client a constant companion in spirit form during that time provides consistent support and insights no human could possibly provide. This often means a client needs to learn how to do a shamanic journey, but not always. It can also be done through journaling, meditation, or walking in nature for clients who are not interested in learning to journey, but the experience is often less potent and less visceral than a journey.
We see the roller coaster of feelings that Raven went through, from sad to warm and fuzzy to calm. The sadness can mean many things, and notice Mel did not interpret. We don’t determine a client’s experience for them, we simply allow them to have it fully. We witness, we hold space, we don’t define.
The sadness could be remnants of grief, or it could signal fear of an ending of life as Raven knew it, or it could be something else entirely. We don’t know, and it’s not our business to diagnose unless the client asks for help to clarify their experience.
We also see the side effects of lightness and brightness, which are incredibly common physical responses to soul healing. Those side effects vary widely, including feeling tired, energised, woozy, or stable for the first time. The list goes on and changes from person to person, healing to healing.
Next time, we’ll see how someone can learn how to journey and what further aftercare looks like. Stay tuned for November’s article.
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.
