There are a great many elements included in shamanic healing. The use of therapeutic and ritual creativity is one of the most powerful. The process of opening to inspiration and manifesting through various forms of art and music empowers individuals by including them as active participants in their own healing.

Modern cultures tend to focus on the aesthetics of creativity. Do you have a good voice? Is the painting good enough to sell? Do other people find the sculpture beautiful? When used in healing, it is the process, not the end result, that is most important. Spirit allies and our own higher selves do not care if we can carry a tune or if we are color blind. Opening the creative centers allows this healing, transformative energy to permeate our beings and effect beneficial change.

The Creative Voice
This is important to a culture that has largely lost its creative voice. Few of us today sing when we feel like it for the pure pleasure of expressing what is in our hearts. It is rare to see someone dance joyfully without considering that anyone may be watching. And very few engage in painting or sculpture unless they feel they are good at it. Our creative energies are being restricted and stagnated, creating blocks and limitations in our lives and our bodies.

The use of voice in shamanic healing is probably more common than even the use of the drum. Otherworldly music and shamanic power songs have been described in nearly all cultures around the world. Vocal sound is used to induce and carry the trance, to evoke power, to bind energies, to communicate Otherworldly experience, and to heal.

Many of us have lost the ability to naturally use the voice. We have been trained since childhood to communicate in acceptable ways geared to specific situations. To free your voice, begin by simply humming a tone to yourself while you are alone. Listen to the tone without judgment and allow it to find its own pitch. Feel your head and throat vibrate with the sound.

Once you are comfortable with humming, move on to simple chants, such as the Om sound, and feel your body vibrate with the tone. When you are ready, allow any combination of sounds you feel to flow through you. Allow your voice to take over as it will and give yourself freely to the sound, without judgment.

Once you have freed your voice, you can seek your power song. Shamans across the world have traditionally used special power songs. Power songs are used to induce trance, effect healing, commune with spirit guides, and raise the energy of sacred sites.

Seeking Your Power Song

• Find a place where you feel safe and are unlikely to be disturbed.
• Make an offering of thanks to the spirits of this place and to the Creator. Ask for their blessings and protection in this work that you are about to do.
• Enter shamanic or meditative trance by your usual method.
• Go deep within your Self. Find who you are at your core, beyond your identity and the roles you play in this world. Feel yourself embodying the True You as you are filled with the energy of the multiverse. You are open to healing energy and to communication with spirit guides.
• Begin to sing from this place of vitality, honesty, and power. Allow all you feel and all that you are to flow into your song. Be aware of any changes in your energy or body as the song becomes part of your being.
• When you feel you have experienced what you set out to do, or that your song is complete for now, give thanks to all those that walk with you, guide you, and enliven you. Sit in silence for a moment and take note of how you feel. Then return to normal consciousness.

A Comprehensive Manual
This is but one of the aspects of shamanic healing covered in The Book of Shamanic Healing. This comprehensive manual was written to assist the healer and empower all those involved in the healing process. Written by a healer that has been trained in healing modalities for nearly thirty years, this book is the result of decades of training, experimentation, discussions with other healers, and deep personal healing. Benefit from my firsthand experiences and those of other shamanic healers as you discover powerful ways to become a more effective healer and empower yourself on the path toward complete health.