Awohali

My given Cherokee name, Awohali Aghya Gagi Nvda, is hard enough to say let alone live up to. It means Eagle Woman Who Rises to the Sun. I am trying though. I have always been fascinated with altered states of perception and drawn to shamanic realities. Eagle medicine teaches us to take on the responsibility and power of becoming so much more than we think we are. You learn to move between worlds and touch all of life with healing. From a karmic aspect it takes an individual lifetimes to reach a place where the repercussions of everything done or said ( or not done or said) will be strong and swift. It's a constant learning process. Here are some characteristics of Eagle that those with this totem will be working with.

- An increased ability and need to learn to work with emotions, psychisms and all aspects of spirituality with greater control.

- There must be involvement with creativity.

- A willingness to experience extremes, there will be tests of faith.

- And, a willingness to dig deep, to seek out the true emotional aspects of yourself , and by doing so to rediscover the lost child and awaken to a higher sense of purity, creativity, passion and healing.

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms... or books written in a foreign language. Don't search for answers which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the question now. Perhaps then, someday, far in the future, you will gradually without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. R Rilke

s

Since I was a child I have been drawn to Native American ure. It wasn't until recently I learned that a twig or two on my otherwise Italian/Scotch family tree was American Indian. That was all I needed to take up in earnest a long time passion to immerse myself in that world the best that I could. So, always a very spiritual person but very un-religious I found where my ideas of creation and spirituality best fit, and that's in shamanism. I've studied various lineages,Peruvian, Salishan, Nepalese, Cherokee, with some wonderful elders, and now my soul has come home. So...who am I? Well, a mother first, photographer, art teacher, Reiki practitioner and ic energy worker. The in me wants to share in writing various musings of my teachings and the photographer wants to share in pictures what captures my eye. I hope something here speaks to your soul and I may add another kindred spirit to my family.
Shamanism is the earliest spiritual practice known to mankind. Although the word "shaman" is actually a Siberian term for spiritual healer, ism has been practiced on every continent throughout history. s walk between the worlds of the seen and unseen. They interact directly with the spirit world to address the spiritual aspects of illness, perform community ceremony, divine information, perform soul retrievals, and help deceased people cross over. They wear many hats in the community..healers, psychotherapists, storytellers,mystics and priests.Shamans believe that everything that exists has a spirit and that we are all joined with the earth and all of life....a web of life that connects everything and all of us together. They can understand the cycles of nature and read the signs that come with these cycles of movement and change.
There are two types of helping spirits that s consult and work with: power animals, also known as guardian spirits, and teachers in human form. We all have a power animal that walks beside us (or flies overhead, slithers along, etc) that we can connect to for guidance and strength. I know that for many that have come to me an exciting part of the work we do together is discovering this ally. My hope is to create an online resource for those interested in knowing more about ism as a spiritual practice.