Shamanism and power animals

Have you ever been called into ancient practices?

Has your spiritual awakening led you to contact spirit animals?

That can happen in your dreams, objects you find, drawings, sensing a presence… Has it ever happened to you?

And more than once and with a particular animal?

That can certainly make you think that there is some deeper meaning about this animal, or even know that it has something to tell you. 

Also, the animal’s way of living in the world could suggest some way of adapting and solving a problem that you have: like, watch something like a hawk!

It’s funny that in today’s interview, Kristina revealed that she had a strong connection with the wolf at different points in her life! 

She wanted to know more about how you can give a different meaning to the connection because she could not fully grasp the meaning though she knew that this animal appeared in different forms!

Our guest today, Alyson Charles, is the creator of the book called 100 Animals to Energize Your Life and Awaken Your Soul. She is an internationally renowned shaman after going through a traumatic event. She is a Host of the Ceremony Circle podcast. Her previous accomplishments include being a national champion athlete, top-rated radio host, and national daytime television talk show host.

In this book, she brings up the callings of the old shamanic paths in the everyday life of the modern person who is called to contact these practices. 

How does she do that? The book includes 100 interviews about how each animal was the guide to 100 different people!

She also covers these deep meanings with enlightening illustrations for those of you who are conscious of the appearance of what is usually called “spirit animals” in shamanism and are looking for a deeper meaning.

After that, a question might pop into your head; what is the scope of spirit animals in modern cities? Kristina asks this question with special relevance in the interview! 

Thinking about her relationship with the wolf, Kristina also wondered; a wolf in our busy, modern city lives? How useful, meaningful, or real can that even be?

Or, even, is it possible to be a shaman in the modern world with some degree of authenticity?

Alyson is certain that shamanism can still be deeply felt in cities using different elements that connect you to the source, even though you still don’t live near a forest or a desert. 

According to her, life as a shaman is about balancing the ancient and modern worlds. 

How can you connect with the ancient world living in the middle of New York?

Well, Alyson did it for years. Feathers and drums made with natural materials can be examples of objects that help you connect with the most ancient healing in an urban environment.

You might wonder if getting those elements is going to be enough!

I guess taking the Shaman path takes a little bit more than that! 

That is why Kristina wanted to know Alyson’s path to being a shaman.

Because there is a difference between approaching shamanism to find a deeper meaning in your life and actually being a shaman!

Taking “the path,” as Alyson labels it, is more about becoming embodied with it as a routine practice and eliminating the barriers between your natural gifts and all the noise of conditionings and modern life experiences.

It gets deeply personal here. Alyson tells us how this happened early in her life and dives deep into the meaning of her dad’s spiritual conditioners for her to develop her skills as a shaman. 

She dives deep into the healing she had to make to get into this path, essentially speaking how her dad was, on one side, her “distance running coach” on one level. Still, she is strongly conditioned by other emotional and spiritual issues.

Healing dysfunctional chords and getting in alignment with the divine was the first part of the path that she had to take. 

The healing journey was necessary for her to lift the veil that prevented her from contacting her abilities as a shaman and accessing these ancient worlds.

All this healing journey created a routine for her, which is asking for alignment within the chakras, soul, and body to assist in this healing and to find deeper meanings about the animals and the ancient world. 

For her, being a shaman is a permanent, fulfilling path. Connecting with the drums and asking for alignment and resonance to find deeper meaning has become her life after a lot of healing!

Kristina and our listeners in the interview dive into a relevant and difficult question when you dive into this world. Given the lack of information in our history books, how do you tell the difference between an authentic practice and a real one?

We also don’t have a shaman title that tells us that you are certified somehow, so how to tell the difference? How to know that your practice is going to get me somewhere?

Here Alyson dives deeper into the concept of resonance and tells us that you need to be clear on why you want to contact or find deeper meaning and how it resonates with your body, mind, and spirit to be able to tell the difference.

In other words, dive deeper into your inner wisdom aligned with the divine to know what is helpful or not for you and get deep into what could potentially be your path if you already started finding this deeper meaning, coming from animals or other spiritual awakening experiences.

She also insists on the difference between a permanent connection to the animals and a connection that gets deep into a particular moment due to a spiritual awakening.

The knowledge is there for everyone anyway, I guess it’s just about how deep and often you access those realms. And we can decide that and know that when we are in alignment.

To learn more about Alyson, her book, and all her work, you can visit her page www.alysoncharles.com, and see how she’s extended Shamanism in the most vibrant cities!