Looking Back 3 Years At My SELF... How *Indigenous*

Written by: Shamanic Winds © 2010
Composed and Updated on: Wednesday, May 26, 2010

An Introduction About Me ~ Shamanic Winds' Musings & My Studies Through "Animá"

Blessings, everyone, who comes here!!! I am Shamanic Winds.
I just thought I'd introduce myself -- I am an Practicing Eclectic
Solitary Native Celtic Shaman Witch. I research, study, experience, and
practice in all of these fields of the Craft, and have done so now for
over the past 12 years of my life, my major research done in Native
American and Core Shamanism for the past few years on the web.

Many years back in my studies, I used to buy almost every issue of Sage Woman

magazine, and had run into a Wild Woman girl who posted articles in it that really

interested me. Later over a year ago when we first gotten our computers, I found her

website and found it much of an interest in
what I would love learning more about on my Path.

It's based on the concept of 'Anima' -- which on
their site, they discover, teach, and share many experiences with
others who go on retreats and take courses, and have a website packed
full of many lovely articles, blogs, and their sharings of experiences
in their lives.

For me on my many Journeys I have taken down the roads on my Path and

have run into many 'forks in the roads' -- which I refer to as the Crossroads
-- began last year in the beginning of May. I was truly into Witchcraft
and learning as much as I possibly could from the Old Religion, the Old
Ways, and the Ancient Ones -- and out of the blue, I was sitting at my
fiance's computer by our back window that overlooks the small woods
behind our apartment building. I did no ritual, no spell, just sat here
in his chair looking out the window in simple contemplation, went into
a Natural meditation, and just 'listened'. I was non-judgmental; I did not analyze

my thoughts...I just breathed in what the Divine had to share with me.

And this time, it was not that of my Patron Celtic Goddess, Brigid's,
words that I heard. It was that of the Great Spirit, calling me 'Home'.

The thoughts of the old arrow-shaped stone my mom and I once found in
the woods where I used to play during my entire childhood kept haunting
me. This place was in the way back woods, a mile or so away from my
parents' home and away from civilization, in Nature -- my favorite
place to either go by myself or play with my friends without any adults
around to watch over and guide us. In my mind, I kept seeing the
hallowed-out hill that we used to play on, in which we called it our 'Throne'.

This eventually led me back to when I once read in some of my
Witchcraft studies about learning about the place that you lived at,
its location, who and what passed through the lands there in
history...many like to read and learn and practice other cultural Pantheons -- which I still
love the Celtic lores, spiritualities, and mythologies as well as
incorporating some of their ancient practices when I experience my Path
-- but my suggestions, and others I have discreetly read between the
lines from articles, postings, journals, etc. say to start with
learning as much as you can about where you are at in your own
environment at this time.

This makes simple sense to me, I mean, it's like when you begin
learning and exploring about a new spirituality -- like I had in
Witchcraft at one time, and still am: learn and know and love yourself
before others; learn and acknowledge where the lands you live on before
exploring other places where you have less connection than that of on
where you live and what spirits reside in and around it!

So as I listened, the song of Brooke Medicine Eagle's also hit home. It is

called "Spirit of the Wind Carry Me Home to Myself" -- The Winds of Change,

the Spirit of the Wind, in the Native American spirituality, were calling me to embark on a Vision Quest
at home. My home, in the woods, where I grew up and played on, and have
many memories of my entire life there -- and also, where I remember,
that as a child I had always felt in connection with the Native
American Indians, though I do not know my true ancestry, I had always
had a close relation to the Earth like they had -- and it threw me for
a loop somewhat, since many of my studies had been that of in
Witchcraft, then something new had come my way on my Path. I had a new
mission to take.

And it wasn't that of a Witch, like at one time, I had thought. A Witch was only

a label one or others put on themselves. One doesn't become a Witch by reading about it;

one IS a Witch by living their life as themselves. Who they are. What they learn
through the many experiences in life of trials and errors, challenges
and consequences faced truthfully. Just as one isn't a Native American
just because they research about it; they are born into whom they are.
And as with any religious cultural spiritual teachings, just because we
are of one thing does not make us that one thing because we are born
into it. We are our own individual beings, special, unique, and only
when one is aware of what they expect of themselves to be the best
person they can possibly be without judgment of others, without having
to prove themselves to others, and without feeling unhealthy humility,
do we become what we are meant to be. The Soul of our 'Self'.

I still have to do this Vision Quest I was called upon, even though now
I am back in my Witchcraft studies -- but after finding this Animá site
and reading into it, it is going to become a part of my studies as well
as blending my Native American, Celtic, Witchcraft, and Core Shamanism
practices into, learning from what they teach and how I can apply it to
my own learnings at 'Home'

on the Indigenous Land in the Woods that I live on and what I can
prepare for myself in the future for what I want to do as I experience
the lifetime commitment I have made for myself on my Path -- and learn
the Mysteries of the Divine Spirits of all cultures and natures around
and within me.

I am also researching extensively on Herbs, Wildcrafting, and anything
and everything on Green Witchery also, mostly from Susun Weed's site
and many other informative offerings on the web.

I will be logging here some of my
Daily experiences from what I learn from my current experiences and practices, and
from Animá when inspired. Blessings!

)O( Shamanic Winds xoxo

Animá: n. (an-i-mah)

1) [Latin] Breath, Spirit, Courage; the “collective conscious”; the vital force connecting, enlivening and animating all things.

2) A contemporary, nature informed Lifeways and Herbal School,
correspondence course, practice and way of life... helping to deepen
awareness, authenticity, self-knowledge, sense of place,
response-ability, sense of purpose, integrity, sentience and bliss.

3) A wilderness Learning Center, Retreat Center, Women’s
Sanctuary, Botanical and Wildlife Refuge, and ancient “Place of Power”
– located in a remote river canyon in the enchanted mountains of S.W.
New Mexico.