Shamanic lessons from a child

Last weekend I received shamanic lessons from a child when I attended Cortes Days, our annual community picnic here on Cortes Island. Even though I am a drum maker and creator of oracle cards, and do shamanic mentoring, I believe that my shamanic path is fully a part of my daily life, and not something I do only in a separate or special way. So while sitting on the beach I noticed this boy and asked to be shown some shamanic lessons.

#1: Have the courage to appear different.

A shamanic path requires a lack of concern for how we appear to others. Our choices of how we look and what we do becomes directed by our relationship with the other-than-human world, and not by social pressure or current style.

#2: Be willing to follow your own vision.

A shamanic path often directs us away from where the group is looking. Our teachers become the stones and plants and natural forces that surround us. Our willingness to turn toward nature opens the way for the spirit world to enchant us.
#3: Learn to go where no one else is going .

When we explore deeply into what surrounds and sustains us, we discover that everything is full of life force, and that each thing, even as small as a grain of sand, has its own story and purpose. We discover our story and purpose, not by beating our own drum, but by listening to spirit's drum.