Welcome Home: Following Your Soul's Journey Home
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Sandra Ingerman's deeply moveing debut, Soul Retrieval, captivated readers with its introduction of shamanic journeying, an ancient tradition of healig. With the characteristic warmth, passion, and authenticcity that have earned her worldwide recognition, Ingerman now continues to share her lifework with Welcome Home, an empowering action plan for creating a more positive future by truly letting go of blame and guilt.
Sandra Ingerman
Sandra Ingerman is today's leading practitioner of soul retrieval and conducts workshops around the world. In the course of her career she has created an international alliance of shamanic practitioners and teachers. Sandra has an MA in counseling psychology and is a licensed therapist. She is the author of other books on shamanism and healing the environment.
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Reviews for Welcome Home
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I don't know, this really didn't do a lot for me. It reminds me of "Spirit Song" another book I wasn't too keen on although it was structured differently. There were some exercises at the end of each chapter which could be used with some spiritual counseling clients. Although according to this book, I should undergo a soul retrieval as it's possible that a part of my spirit was taken when I left medical school which is entirely possible although I think a part of me left when I arrived in Augusta.
Book preview
Welcome Home - Sandra Ingerman
INTRODUCTION
Welcome Home: Following Your Soul’s Journey Home is for all people who are ready to move away from their past woundedness and refocus their energy on creating a positive present and future.
If you have been on a healing journey for a while—whether through traditional or alternative counseling, spiritual methods, or traditional or alternative physical healing—this book is for you. Do you know that there is life after healing? Do you know how to shift out of an illness model to create your life differently than you have in the past?
Welcome Home addresses the issues that we need to examine as we change the direction of our lives—it is a guide for shifting our focus to the present and the future. Each chapter includes step-by-step exercises that will help you tap into your own creative potential. This is a book that you should read at your own pace, taking the actions appropriate for you at the end of each chapter.
Welcome Home is about taking responsibility for creating a better future. No one is going to do it for you—not the government, not organized religion, not science, and certainly not a mothership from outer space. You must be personally responsible for creating a positive future for yourself and this planet. This means clarifying who you are and what your gifts, strengths, and belief systems are and then making changes in your life. It means becoming your own authority and taking action—now!
This book allows no place for guilt, judgment, or blame, which are all associated with the illness model. We are looking at a life in which energy is directed toward healthy ways of being that allow us to make choices and to grow. You have made the choice to read this book. When you don’t agree with me or you don’t understand what I am saying, you can simply recognize that. You can embrace the information that makes sense and serves you in your growth process, and you can ignore any information that is not part of your journey now.
Healing is in many ways a lifelong process, and those of us who have been in the therapy loop and in a healing process for some time must decide whether it is time to redirect our energy. This book is for people who have already done much of their healing work; it is not for those who have not yet begun. We can’t deny that there are wounds in our past; but at a certain point, each of us must stand up and say, I have different tools available to me now. I have done enough work on what went wrong, and it’s time to focus on making life right.
Welcome Home: Following Your Soul’s Journey Home addresses several themes:
Envisioning a future by redirecting our creative energies away from the illness of the past to the healthy needs of the present and future
Receiving healing energy from the Universe
Having passion for life
Raising our awareness of how we communicate and treat others on an energy level
Setting boundaries between ourselves and others as we tap into our creativity and vision
Letting go of limiting beliefs from the past, thus freeing our creativity
Staying centered in times of change by developing a strong identity
Creating a positive future by knowing ourselves and remembering the gifts and talents we brought into this world
Understanding our own creative power and not expecting an outside force to make things better for us
Expressing our own soul
Leaving human law to return to nature and its cycles
Moving from self-focus to a more global focus
Bringing honesty, integrity, and compassion back into our personal relationships and business communities
Healing some of the scars we have left on the earth.
This is not a book about shamanism, although I will share some shamanic practices with you. This book comes from what I have learned in my own shamanic journeys, in working with clients, and in teaching workshops. What you need to know about shamanism to understand what I am talking about here is included in the chapters that follow. For readers who want a deeper understanding of shamanism, the appendix provides an explanation of some of the basic principles.
This book is written for people who have been on various healing paths. Because my own background is in shamanic counseling and healing, many of my case studies will include shamanic experiences. The individuals who appear in the case studies are composites created from real situations; they do not represent specific individuals. But please realize that all healing paths bring us to the same place. This book starts where healing practices leave off: how to continue with our own lives and spiritual paths after the healing has occurred, whatever method was used.
The system of shamanism is a path to accessing spiritual information, and I share some of the teachings that come to me from my spiritual teacher, Isis. I originally met Isis a few years ago when I felt the need to go on a vision quest. Although my own shamanic journeying gives me much of the guidance I need, I wanted some time alone to allow a vision of where my path was heading.
I began to work with a Native American man who was going to facilitate my vision quest. He asked me to fast on only fruit for thirty days before I went out for my vision. Because of the fast, I found myself entering into a semi-altered state even before the vision quest began. About a week before the time for my quest, he called to say he had broken his foot and would not be able to facilitate my work.
I was already on my vision quest, so canceling was out of the question. I finally found a woman who would take over and went out to her home in the country, ready to do my vision quest in a strict way. I was planning on being out and awake in nature for four days and three nights. The woman asked me to stay flexible and not to have such rigid rules about how to be during this time. When I told her that I wanted to work in a traditional way, she assured me that there was no rigid traditional way. To teach me about flexibility, she marked my sitting circle with blue corn for one acre around. (In a typical vision quest the circle is just big enough to include the person’s sitting body.)
In July in northern New Mexico, the weather is quite hot. Between fasting on fruit for one month and now having no food or water, I was entering a very altered state. I sat quietly and patiently waiting for something to happen. By midday I had been stung by an insect, though I never saw what stung me, and I had a huge welt on my arm. A few hours later, still in the heat of the day, I saw a vision of a very old Native American grandmother walking toward me. She said, If you want a vision, go into the sweat lodge on this land and go to sleep. Your vision will come in a dream.
I struggled for a while with this information. I still had such a rigid idea about how my vision was supposed to come—sleep was not part of my plan. I finally decided to give in to the instructions I had received, and I entered the sweat lodge that was within my one-acre circle. It was so wonderful to get out of the heat and lie down on the cool dirt floor beneath me. I stayed there until nightfall, when I went to sleep. Isis appeared to me in a dream and said, I am returning to the planet at this time to restore peace, harmony, and balance.
Throughout the next few days she began to give me instructions in my dreams. From that day forth, she has given me a great wealth of information, including the clear instruction to shift my focus to working with the future: The world is looking so bleak. Provide a bright spot, be a window of light that people can look into.
I realize that now I sometimes go to the extreme in being future-oriented; however, I feel strongly that we need more balance in our lives; we have become too directed toward dealing with the past.
I challenge you to focus on creating a brighter future. I honor your process and who you are, and I trust that you will use only that information which is helpful to you now.
My power animal also had a message about Welcome Home: Following Your Soul’s Journey Home. When I went to meet him in the Lower World, the territory of the parallel universe I enter to speak with him, I found him waiting for me with tears in his eyes. He said, Please bring joy into the world.
How to Use This Book
I wrote this book to help individuals move out of the healing process and into following their soul’s journey. It is also meant for helping professionals who are looking for ways to facilitate their clients’ shift to a focus on the present and the future. Readers can use the information in the book and do the exercises in each chapter individually. These exercises can also be done by a group of people who share a similar focus. If you have been studying shamanism and shamanic journeying, you can do the exercises in a group where the participants journey to access the information requested. If you have not been involved in shamanic journeying, you can still do the exercises with other people with whom you can share your process.
If you are a helping professional, try the exercises with your clients and patients who are ready to move away from the past. You will find useful information on setting boundaries in your work with others. Setting boundaries effectively can prevent the common problem of burnout in the helping professions.
I ask only that all exercises be done from a place of self-love and compassion for all living beings on the planet.
CHAPTER 1
PLANT A SEED AND IT WILL GROW
Siempre awakens with a start. What does she hear? What are those words? What are they trying to tell her? She gets up. She is very groggy. In the darkness she opens her closet and finds her drum.
She tiptoes back to her bed. Why is she being so quiet? There is no one here to wake. She moves slowly and quietly so she won’t break the spell of the dream state she has entered.
She climbs into bed and begins to drum. A light swirls around her, and invisible shapes dance before her. She dives downward into the invisible world, leaving her ordinary consciousness behind. The veil between the worlds falls. What was once dark is now light. Her teacher stands before her.
You’ve been putting out a call to the spirits for help, for an understanding of how to heal the earth. Your call has been heard. The question is, How committed are you to this path?
Siempre stands before a teacher who embraces the energy of timelessness. Her beauty is awe-inspiring. Her gaze burns away all lies and illusion; it demands truth. She is Isis.
Siempre looks into her dark eyes. She knows her soul has been seen, and only an answer of pure honesty will be accepted. Siempre clears her throat, raises her chin, and straightens her posture, trying to embody the power and presence of the Goddess who stands before her. She answers, Yes, I give my life to follow this path. I am devoted to the healing of the earth.
Two years ago I felt a call to write this book, Welcome Home: Following Your Soul’s Journey Home, and the story I’ve just told was given
to me. Since the planting of that seed, the story has been growing inside me. So I now continue with my story as Siempre’s journey becomes my own.
What kind of future are you creating if you are stuck in the woundedness of the past?
In a deep sleep I heard these words resound. This question from a voice without any identity disturbed my rest. As I drifted in and out of the sleep state, I repeated it to myself: What kind of future are you creating if you are stuck in the woundedness of the past?
These words were a powerful message for me, but I also found myself disturbed by them. I suddenly realized that as a community—as a society—we as human beings are not creating a future for this planet. What most of the people in the world around me are doing is re-creating the same abuses that they say they want to heal. We might re-create dysfunctional relationships with our friends and partners, in our workplaces, or in our communities that remind us of those who wounded us in the past. We might also find ourselves re-creating abusive behavior toward ourselves and others that reminds us of what we had to endure as children. The earth has been providing a stage for the dramas of our individual histories to be played out again.
As I thought about this, I came totally awake. There was just a hint of light, letting me know that morning would come soon. What a magical time! It is so still outside. There is no noise of traffic to disturb me. There are no other voices to invade my thoughts. Even the psychic airwaves are quiet as the people who live nearby are still lost to their dreams. The lack of visible and invisible noise and activity allows me to sink down and travel to the places inside myself where no one can intrude. I feel almost as if I alone inhabit the earth. I can be alone with my thoughts, with no voices to judge me. Even my critical mind has not yet awakened.
In my work as a shamanic practitioner and teacher of shamanism, I listen again and again to stories of hurt and abuse. It is hard to imagine what people have endured in their lives, and I find myself continually honoring people’s courage as they confront the past abuse in their lives in order to heal. But I often become frustrated when I hear clients repeat stories