Solstice Blessings to you all and a big thank you to everyone who had attended events, workshops, classes or retreats this year. What an amazing year it has been, and much gratitude to all of you I’ve had the pleasure to spend time with! I have gone from not enjoying this time of year in the past because of its forced consumerism and commercialism to relishing the space it gives nowadays. The shortest day, the Winter Solstice gives us an opportunity to slow down and retreat, much like our ancestors would have done. Although here in the West we tend to go against the natural cycle of the wheel of the year and make it a busy time, I personally try and slow down and go with the flow of the energy.
I am looking forward with anticipation again to what 2019 will bring. I am continuing to run all levels of Reiki, Reiki Drumming, Gong Training, Sound Healing immersions and the Peruvian Shamanic Training, the Munay-Ki as well as several new offerings in the forms of non residential day and weekend retreats. It’s going to be another busy year here at Reiki Drum & Sacred Sound Inspirations and I look forward to seeing many of you throughout the year.
I enjoy the eclectic mix of healing modalities incorporated into my work and view it very much as a healing shamanic path. When I come across something I feel is powerful and will help others, I try and include it in my work as do most of my peers and colleagues. This may be energy healing, sacred ceremony, sound healing, plant spirit medicine, spiritual connection through meditation and a variety of other things. Shamans traditionally had an eclectic toolbag of healing offerings to assist their communities. At this auspicious time of the Winter Solstice it led me to consider the concept of Santa being a Shaman which has been contemplated by many over the years.
Although some stories lead to St Nicholas being the more accepted link to Santa Claus, there is a school of thought that Santa originates from the Siberian Shaman. Shamans from these northern areas were said to collect and distribute the hallucinatory dried Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric) mushrooms at the time of the Winter Solstice as gifts to their community. Fly agaric was held with much reverence as a sacred plant, used for spiritual purpose in ceremony. These brightly coloured red and white mushrooms which grow beneath pines and other conifers in northern areas were eaten by both humans and reindeers alike causing them to have profound hallucinatory experiences. It may be that these hallucinatory effects created the illusion of reindeers flying which we associate with the Santa Claus story. When the mushrooms were collected and laid out in the drying process they would be placed on the branches of the trees and would create a fine sight with their deep red and white colouring contrasting against the greens of the trees of the forest, a more natural version perhaps of a Christmas tree! Once dried, the mushrooms would be collected by the shaman in his sack and distributed to the community. They would continue the drying process which removed a large part of the toxins from this particular plant by hanging them in a sock near the fire (similar to hanging stockings for gifts from Santa in this day and age).
In these frozen climes the entry points to many homes would be blocked by snow around the time of the Solstice and home dwellers would need to access their residences through an opening in the roof, very similar to how Santa is thought to access properties by sliding down the chimney! It was also common for indigenous people to place pine trees in the centre of their residences to symbolise the World Tree, the Axis Mundi, the bridge between heaven and earth. During shamanic journeys they would travel thought the smoke hole in the centre of their residences and use the same entry point on their return from their metaphysical travels. They would bring guidance and spiritual gifts from the spirit world, and this can be very much likened to Santa bringing his gifts as he enters again through the chimney.
In our Reiki, shamanic and metaphysical viewpoints we appreciate that time is an illusion of the earth plane and that it is possible to transcend time and space by entering non-ordinary reality through meditation and journeying. Santa too appears to have the gift of transcending time and certainly space as he travels to every home around the globe on Christmas Eve – no mean feat in the physical world, and really only attainable in non-ordinary reality! So food for thought, especially to those of you who share your gifts of healing, wisdom and compassion with many in your role as healers, therapists and holistic practitioners, was Santa originally a Shaman?
It just remains for me to wish you all the most wonderful of Winter Solstice and Christmas periods, rest up, have fun, share the love, reflect and prepare for the expansion that 2019 will no doubt bring. Looking forward to seeing many of you in 2019.
With love and sonic blessings, Sarah x
