My First Spirit Guide: "The Father"

When we start out in Shamanism, one of the first things we do is learn about Journeywork. Our initial journeys are done to retrieve power animals, ancestors and/or guides who want to work with us. They are done to tap to into an unused support network that is available. Shamanic Journeying can be guided by a professional, performed on your behalf by a professional, or done on your own. Which one you choose would depend on your individual skill set and where you are in the process of walking the Shamanic path.

I recommend having all of these options as a part of your practice.

My favorite self-guided/pre-recorded journey can be found here for anyone interested in giving it a try on their own. I do also highly recommend this book by Sandra Ingerman if you are interested in fully immersing in a Shamanic practice. We also host group Shamanic Journeying on our Meetup where you can practice journeying for yourself and others.

Here I will go over a very general (and surface level) overview of Shamanic Journeying, but know that there is a lot more information available if this resonates with you. Journeywork is a very beautiful and deep practice that will take you as deep as you allow it to go!

Since a Shamanic practice is very much integrated into your day-to-day, both your Shamanic practice and your daily life will benefit greatly from cultivating partnerships with the beings you meet in your journeys. These guides help us by bringing knowledge, gifts, support, understanding or perspective. Each one you work with will have its own unique essence and abilities, directing you to call on them when you have specific needs that match those abilities. They also each have a unique perspective and energy, which we are attuned to in the process of working with them. Guides may also come and go throughout your practice and this is totally normal!

One of our Facilitators, Henry Fields, specializes in guiding these types of journeys both in and out of Sacred Ceremony, as well as remotely! I highly recommend his work and he can be found on our website, but also here if you want to work outside of Sacred Ceremony: https://inwarddive.com/

When we journey, we are leaving ordinary reality and entering into what is known as non-ordinary reality. There are several places we can go in non-ordinary reality, including the Upper World, Middle World and Lower World. These are the three we will discuss today. The specifics of these worlds are a whole separate conversation we will talk about at some other point! Here I want to share a few examples of what journeywork can look like in each world. All of these are personal stories, as I do not feel comfortable sharing the experiences of others.

Lower World

When I travel to the Lower World, I work with many types of guides, animals, "mythical creatures" such as dragons, and inner child parts. The Lower World is also known to represent the personal subconscious and collective unconscious. At this point in my practice, I have only discovered two versions (or two levels?) of the Lower World. Both are vast and I suspect there is more to uncover!

When I first started journeying on a regular basis, I was introduced to a guide that became someone I worked with daily for almost two years. This guide is an ancestor and therefor he can be found in the Lower World. He called himself "The Father” and he appeared as a beautiful and wise Native American man in his 50s, but he never gave me any additional information about himself in the early days of our work together. He worked with me in my journeys, my meditations, and also made appearances in a few of my Plant Medicine Ceremonies, where he conducted healing on my womb space and solar plexus. He loved to fill those places with light for me! I connected with The Father frequently to touch in with his subtle wisdom about whatever challenges I was facing. His presence was calming and insightful, something I did not have in ordinary reality and felt I needed in my life. It wasn’t until one of my Ayahuasca Ceremonies, one year after we started working together, that I learned that he was actually the spirit of my dad. He shared with me that he was no longer inhabiting my dad’s body and instead had to work with me in the astral space. He helped me grieve the loss of my daddy (as in the version of my dad who was present when I was a child) and taught me about receiving love and support from the man in my life today.

Interesting note: my father in ordinary reality is still alive, though he is largely uninhabited in his human form due to his physical body being compromised. I stopped working with The Father daily about a year and a half ago when other guides came in, but he recently made an appearance to teach me how to do a specific Power Dance! This guide has truly been a blessing in my life and he was the inspiration for writing this blog entry.