I ‘officially’ started my shamanic path
when I was 27, back in 1985. I say
‘officially’, because in all truth the spirits
had been calling me for a long time
before that, but I had little ability to
understand them, in the pre-workshop,
pre-new age, pre-internet days of the early 1970s.
But during those early days, I was still being taught by the spirits,
taught to do ceremonies facing the four directions and the above and
below. No human was there to teach me, I didnt read it anywhere, I
just knew somehow, and stumbled along the best I could.
In my 20s I tried to put all this spiritual nonsense behind me - as
it was a surely a folly of my youth. I trained as a clinical
psychotherapist, and as a social worker; but then, through a
series of events, I ended up being the warden of a Quaker
Meeting House, and in my first night in the warden’s cottage,
someone pushed a flyer for a workshop - led by Leo Rutherford
about Medicine Wheel teachings - through my door. The
workshop was the next weekend, which happened to be my 27th
birthday, so Faith, my partner, gave it me as a birthday gift, and I
went, and I came home again, and I said to her; “My life has just
changed.” And it had.
Since then, Faith and I have followed the spirits on an amazing
adventure - one I could never have dreamed was possible when I
was a teenager in the 1970’s, in all those times when I was
trying to find my way, and stumbling so very badly.
When I first began to work with Leo and other human teachers,
there were perhaps three or four teachers in the whole of Britain
- and only a few handfuls in the USA. Now shamanism seems to
be everywhere, and yet I see so much misinformation about it,
and also see so many people asking questions about it as a path.
Faith and I have been editing and publishing Sacred Hoop
Magazine since 1993, and during that time we’ve have lots of
wonderful articles, about different aspects of shamanism and
animism, written by some really knowledgable people.
So, it seemed to me it might be a very good idea to take a selection of
these, and put them together as a special issue, of Sacred Hoop,
which, I very much hope, you will enjoy. I hope it informs you, and other
people, about some of the basic aspects of shamanism. May it help
many people find out what shamanism is - and what it is not.
I hope it helps people grow in their own practice, helps people to
listen to the spirits, both as a benefit to themselves, and more
importantly as to benefit to their community.
This special issue of Sacred Hoop is a give away, please feel free
to share it widely, wherever you think it would be well received.
However, we are not a rich magazine, we work on a shoestring
budget and have no mighty magazine backers to help us. So I
would ask you - if you feel so moved - to please take out a
subscription to Sacred Hoop, if you don’t already have one.
Or perhaps consider making a donation to Sacred Hoop.
PayPal is the easiest, simply send a donation to our email
address -
donation@sacredhoop.org - it would help us greatly