Energy Imbalances and Wellbeing by S. Kelley Harrell, C.Ht.

Energy Imbalances and Wellbeing

By S. Kelley Harrell, C.Ht.

Recently, I've been receiving a lot of inquiries based on the same topics. I take this as further validation of collective transition, and over the next few months will be responding to many of these questions collectively. Please continue to submit questions about private matters, and I will be glad to feature, those, as well. To that end, I've had several inquiries of late that deal with physical and psychological conditions. Finding that each of them shares the common concern on how beliefs affect our health, I am choosing to address them in a single overview of how health conditions are viewed and approached in a shamanic context. This response is not a template for approaching every energetic imbalance. As there are often similarities in conditions, there are always unique differences.

There are some common beliefs around perceived poor health, the first being that the condition is "bad." Within the consciousness, of that life form and in the spiritual consciousness, itself, there is no concept of good or bad. The condition just is. Demonizing states of being is like saying "trees are bad," or "the sky is good." It is an attempt to create disjoint from something that is otherwise neutral. When we call something bad our body and mind have a reaction to that statement. Think about the terminology used to describe conditions and consider what feelings are evoked by words such as, "illness" or "sick." Do you feel supported when you say them? Does saying them make you feel better? Generally such wording only reinforces the compromised state of health, because that terminology leaves us feeling emotionally less. When our emotions engage, that determines how something influences us. If it makes us feel happy, we feel well. What makes us feel sad, angry, or depressed, leaves us feeling sore, tired, and weak. In that light, specifically, how we feel dictates our reality, feelings being the reaction to how we think. Casting life force into a good or bad polarity does not help the healing process. If anything, doing so hinders it. To that end, regarding such a condition as energy that is no longer functioning at its highest capacity in that location is more useful. In short, it's energy in the wrong place. Allowing it to move to a place where it can be functional or released back to All That Is, is the focus.

Another belief that we tend to hold toward our perception of health is that the illness knows that it is harmful and is willfully creating harm. There can be unique factors around this, but in most cases that I've worked with the condition did not realize that it was causing harm. In fact, it did not even realize that it was in a non-useful place. This isolated view of self also is frequently witnessed in depossession and in psychopomp work, and is resolved by having an open discourse with the life force on the current state of things, the effect it's having, and one hopes, by then facilitating its movement to a more useful place.

It's not easy to change our vocabulary or our beliefs for expressing how we feel about physical or psychological conditions. In some cases, elaborating on how poorly we feel is socially more accepted than celebrating how great we feel. The phrase 'misery loves company,' doesn't stir strong emotions for no reason. Creating discord is a lot easier than engendering harmony, and that is no more true than in matters of wellbeing. Regardless, allow yourself a head start in changing your unconscious perspective on health. During my recent pregnancy and postpartum I found Sandra Ingerman's How to Heal Toxic Thoughts: Simple Tools for Personal Transformation very useful in creating a way to speak how I felt in my mind and body that alleviate them, and I highly recommend it for that purpose. Putting new thought patterns and methods in place for how to create health will be more easily done in a state of calm. That is not to say that it is too late to address these when feeling compromised. We are always ready to begin, and we're always ready to feel well.

Coming Out Star Seed

Many of us are familiar with the phrase "Star Seed," meaning those creatures from other star systems who settled into the Earth realm with many of their etheric layers functioning at high levels not common to this plane. The original writings on such beings were linear, targeting specific timeframes for birth, particular skills and demeanors. Among my clients I have worked with many Star Seeds and most certainly identify as one, myself. Through the years that I've grown as such and interacted with others, I've gained gratitude for that pioneering information, as well as realized just how limited and confining it was. The bounds of people who identify as not being from here are limitless. My hope for this edition of Intentional Insights is that it expands that concept a bit, opens channels for other Star Seeds to reach out, and reminds us all of our infinite greatness.

It's not easy being the fringe of the fringe, and I say that from the depths of my freaky, non-conformist heart. I can't tell you exactly when, I can't tell you precisely where, but I can without hesitation tell you that as soon as I became aware of myself in this plane I knew I wasn't from here. Where else could I be from? That's not information readily available to a little girl growing up in 1970s rural North Carolina, or many other places at that time. We didn't have the plethora of information on Star Seeds, Indigo Children, Crystal Children, that we do now. That lack of tribe shaped my spiritual growth to this day, though I readily recognize that I would not be the mindful person that I am now without my life being exactly as it has been, and I'm at peace with that.

It seems mine is a quite common experience, with many variations. How do know Star Seeds know they aren't from here? Mostly, because Grandmother Earth never felt like home. Some people very much feel they are originally from this plane and move very well within its layers. Grandmother Earth is a complex creature, home to refugees from all corners of the Void, and a sister in a much bigger family system than we have dared explore. Star Seeds have memories of some other place, some other family–some of which are the birth family, some of which they've never encountered here. Star Seeds tend to be extremely intuitive and aware of that fact. Generally we are very impatient because we recall being able to manifest what we wanted with little or no effort either before we were in form, when we were in a different form, or when we were on Earth before. Yep, that's what I said. I personally don't buy into past lives, not because I don't believe we don't have many manifestations of ourselves, but because I don't experience that those manifestations are limited by the concept of time (I wasn't joking about being fringe of the fringe.). My soul growth and what I've seen in some others who identified other star systems as home includes a stratum of this plane when it was new, when it was actively being created. We might call it the time of the Gods and Goddesses of our mythology, but even that feels limiting to me. No, I can't say that I buy into the whole Atlantean/Lemurian thing, but I do without question know there have been many elevated manifestations of humanity that our science cannot or will not affirm. We didn't just come in a singular era. Some of us return time and again, some of us just got here. In any form, Star Seeds are manifestors, though generally frustrated unless or until we master the magick of the formed realm, of which therein lies the rub. We don't tend to get along well with the formed realm. It's heavy, it's dense, restrictive. The result is that a lot of us have keen body issues, if not flat out self-destructive tendencies when it comes to the form. Most Star Seeds have extremely active upper chakras and are aware of their transpersonal space (sometimes to the degree of what our society considers mental illness), but are equally lacking in their lower chakras. This energetic imbalance manifests in dissociation, being spacey, depression, and many other ways. Likewise, many Star Seeds are highly empathic, can read life force, talk with spirits, but can't give you directions to the drugstore around the corner. The formed realm can be very challenging for us to traverse, such that the rules don't make sense. We arrive at our conclusions using a different logic, not better, not worse (though often amusing), that isn't always easily communicated with language. That density challenge often leaves a lot of Star Seeds wanting out of this plane. They perpetually feel this need to go home. Key to their success here lies not in skipping this strata, but in mastering it. We can't get Out There without going through the center of Here. Remembering that we came here of choice is the first point of Earth grounding for many Star Seeds. Experiencing the lush lifescape this plane has to offer was chosen for a reason. Honing the life purpose can be a great reminder of that plan. The Star Seeds who function the highest here aren't the ones whose crown chakras are open and their third eyes are beaming into higher planes. The ones who do really well are very grounded into Earth energy. They are comfortable in this foreign home. Their chakra systems and etheric forms are fluid throughout. They are very anchored into the magick that this realm teaches so that they can allow the stellar life force within them to connect with the cosmic life force in the planet herself. After all, Source is our common ancestor.

From the first realization that I was having a different spiritual experience on Earth, I felt isolated by people and more at home with spirits. I really began to feel the disjoint in my existence here when I committed to a shamanic path. I gave my best to honoring the teachings of Earth shamanism, as it is so neatly packaged and readily offered in our modern cultural interpretation of shamanism. I talk with animals, plants, crystals, dead people, faeries, weather, structures inhabited by spirits, inanimate objects, the spiritual manifestations of physical and mental conditions, soul parts of the living… I've not done it all by any means, but I've given the all that I know a thorough exploration, and endeavor to do so still. I love it; I feel it. But there was something capping that experience for me. Something was missing, and all I needed to find what would complete that lack was to look up. Contemporary distillations of shamanism omit what the ancients and indigenous have always known–we are all stars, and as we Star Seeds have reconnected with that wisdom, intergalactic life force must be honored in our spiritual paths. I wholly marvel that there are others far better gifted than myself in the magick of this realm. They are powerful healers, teachers, shapeshifters, empaths and liaisons to a beautifully primal spiritual tradition. I celebrate our earth shaman and animists as wildly as I rejoice my own heavenly homecoming. When I honored that facet of myself, when I allowed myself conceive that my spiritual community was largely not of this place, my shamanic path gave way to a ferociously vast terrain of All. I found my path of celestial shamanism. I looked upon it and it was good.

Hi, my name is Kelley, and I'm a Star Seed.

Soul Twins, Soulmates, Twin Flames and Rigid Truth

"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new." ~Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving Kindness"

I recently featured Chödrön's quote as my Twitter update while I was penning a response to a client regarding soulmates. The two seemed so related that the quote is fitting to introduce this collective inquiry: What are soulmates and why do we seek them?

Most of us have been given some concept of soul connection by early childhood, a definition that sticks with us unless or until we explore the concept ourselves. When I first began working with others as a shaman a large number of my clients were dealing with some aspect of 'soulmate,' whether it was the search to find one or clarifying an existing relationship with a soul relation. The thing that I noticed most was how desperately many cling to the concept of 'soulmate' and to the people they believe to be such. I was curious about what led people to believe that soulmate = perfect union, that having a soul connection to someone would entail staying in a relationship that clearly did not meet needs. Equally, I was driven to understand the psychology that feels it's useless unless it is in a recognizable soul union.

Examining how the concept of 'soul relationship' is put out there one quickly bumps into Edgar Cayce's work around the topics of "soul twins" and "twin flames." Having been widely interpreted, the perspective largely perpetuated through his readings is that there is one and only one perfect soul complement. In this view the soul is a dual-faceted entity that splits itself in two equal masculine and feminine life forces in order to bridge a wider terrain of experience and learning in the earth plane. These two come together in formed life to complete the Oversoul's (or High Self's) earthly work. I'm comfortable that Cayce knew things that I don't, though within the framework of my experience is a truth that souls are limitless. Not only are they infinite, they are collectives spanning distance and time, perhaps even dimensions, doing acrobatic energetic feats, splitting into many manifestations and rejoining so cleverly we can't begin to hold them in linear understanding. This is the beauty of our transpersonal. It isn't just metaphor that we are all connected regardless of the era we were born, the location in which we reside, the biological sex we wear, or the species we inhabit. We are connected, period.

I've had many clients come to me who realized they were in a soul-connected relationship only to find that interpersonal issues weren't resolved by virtue of this spirit union. Most couldn't understand how a precious soulmate could inflict harm on its Other. The reality is being connected at very high levels to someone doesn't automatically impart that the earth consciousness is well adjusted. In fact, it doesn't imply anything. Unfulfilled expectations are the result of earthly filters we have applied to a spiritual state of being. In that state several of my clients expressed that they felt they had been given a divine gift and to walk away from it would be a dismissal of their Higher Power. More harrowing for some was the idea that in leaving this soulmate they would karmically forfeit finding another. Changing this belief isn't just leaving a lover or spouse but is a crisis of faith much the same as realizing one's chosen religion no longer suffices. For many to turn away from a soulmate, even in extremely abusive situations, it feels like going against Nature because we have been programmed to view soul connections through a limited earthly lens. In some cases we have been indoctrinated to put our interpretation of those filters above our own welfare and needs. That inclination is as harmful in unhealthy soulmate relationships as it is insidious in those who feel they have no self-worth without one.

In that light it isn't the soul connection that is damaging; rather, the way we have been taught to perceive it is. Soul connection at its most basic isn't about how many we have or how long they last. The soul doesn't know male or female, or loving one versus loving five, or romantic versus platonic love. It doesn't even differentiate cat from tree, or son from place. The soul does not know time. All it knows is fluid, expanding compassion and unconditional love for All Things. When we start applying linear constructs to soul connections and spiritual experiences, the experiences become stagnant. Any thriving wisdom they imparted ceases to evolve and grow.

The Celtic concept of "anam cara" is the most fluid understanding of soul bonding that I've learned, the "soul friend," one who simply by being in form reminds us of infinite connection and moves us in the way of growth when we won't move ourselves. For that reason soulful bonds often create more challenges for us, rather than fewer. What I see in that dynamic is our power to create ourselves exactly as we want to be in as many ways as we can comprehend. Within that open comprehension and bond with All That Is, would it not be possible to see anyone as a soulmate, if we allowed it?

We live at a time that the rules for how we come into this plane are changing, if they ever were truly static. Perhaps it is our ability to widen our comprehension of the rules that has changed. Years ago a friend said to me, "When you find truth, pick it up. Inspect it carefully, then put it down and walk away." Truth, like souls, cannot be held. My outlook has been more fluid since I learned this. I have become my metaphor, and in doing so recognize you more freely.

The Power of Moving On

Hi Kelley, My husband and I have been apart since 2004 and I still have no resolution. We have not talked other than him telling me that he will make my life a living hell, and he has done so. He is planning on marrying the woman he left me for in 2010. I still see him on the highway on my way to work. That man was my heart. What happened to make him hate me so? Thanks ~L

Thanks for your note, L. I can't get core insight about your husband without his permission. I can tell you that from the imagery I see he felt for a long time like a starving, impoverished person, though the circumstances of his despair were self-induced. He is on his own path of creating conflict for himself as a means of learning self-reliance and empowerment. As he treats himself without care, it is no surprise that he would treat you with even less. Consider it beneficial not to be with him any longer, in that regard. How he cares for himself is his choice and his process for this time.

What concerns me is your process. There is great danger in staying locked in a victim mindset over circumstances you can't change, instead of focusing on the things you can change that will benefit from your attention. It seems that you are steadily giving away your power to many others, leaving little for yourself. Put yourself first. You need to care for and raise your life force now more than ever. If you do not have a regular meditative practice, even if it is visualizing random colors of light moving through and around your body, such will improve your health and your outlook. Finding an energy worker to help you raise your life force a Reiki master, shaman, holotropic breathwork practitioner… will vastly help you heal your life force, your body, and your heart.

The Renegade's Guide to Dreamwalking

Kelley–I don't know if this is particularly shamanic, but I'm an avid dreamer, though rarely can I figure out what my dreams mean. Can you recommend a good guide to dream analysis? Thanks! Compass-less.

Thanks for your note, C. One of my first clues that I was on a different path was in the depths of my dream world. I've always been a vivid and lucid dreamer. Recommend a good guide? Sort of. There are two excellent resources for interpreting dreams. The first lies in cultivating the bridge between your conscious and unconscious minds. Dreams can be many things–a mirror of yourself, messages from your unconscious, messages from your body, travels out to/memories of other planes/experiences of yourself, messages from other beings, or visits from other beings. Sometimes a dream is a combination of these. My general approach to decoding my dreams and those of my clients falls mostly in that order. First I determine if the dream was coming from me or another consciousness. (Yes, I know, ultimately we're all one consciousness, but in order to comprehend metaphors and symbols they must be filtered through a coherent legend, which resides in your unique unconscious/conscious mind connection.) Most people who dream prolifically seem to have their own measure for determining the origin of the dream. Myself, I just know. Dreams that don't come from me feel foreign, to put it simply. The quickest test I can suggest for this determination is to ask your High Self to step into your conscious mind and pose the question, "Did this dream originate from me or from a separate consciousness?" Go with the immediate answer you get, whatever fashion that answer comes in. Depending on that response I go in different directions. If it was my unconscious communicating with me, I consider how the personalities and symbols in the dream are a mirror of me. By that I mean, I assume that everything in the dream was really me, even if the figures in the dream are other people that I know. From there I break down the archetypes by gender, age, emotional state, physical condition, etc. Even the setting I examine archetypally to decode any message it may need to convey. Probably 80% of my dreams are facets of myself expressing needs or hurts that need to be addressed, or beliefs, habits, relationships, or thought patterns that are no longer functional in my life. By considering that everything in the dream is mirroring some aspect of myself I intercept messages from my unconscious mind or body (which has its own symbolic communication system), not only do I cognate the message, but I "write in" what that symbolism meant so that if it comes up again I have direction right off the bat. Retaining this personal meaning is where keeping a journal is invaluable. Most of the time once I unravel the meaning of a symbol, I don't dream about it again; thus, recurrent dreams are resolved. Remember, as with all truths, what was meaningful in a certain way one time may be meaningful in a different way subsequently. Even though the symbolism may have been sound at one point in your life, allow yourself the freedom for it to mean new things later. As you grow your consciousness expands. So does how you carry and interpret archetypes.

Frequently I wander off in a dreamstate, which arguably isn't a dream at all, but perhaps the classic "vision." Nonetheless, it's a particular kind of spirit journey that only occurs when I'm sleeping, so I still consider it a form of dream. In these visions, I experience going out of my body, or perhaps I experience a different manifestation of myself. This could be some simultaneous life, some experience of myself from a past, or perhaps an entirely different plane of existence that I know isn't Earth. Sometimes I visit someone in this type of dream, or I see things from an animal's perspective. Again, distinguishing this type of dream for me is typically easy, as I am consciously aware that I'm dreaming. Some consider these journeys "lucid dreams," in which the dreamer is observing the dream from a detached perspective while also participating in the dream, and directing its progression to some degree. If you're not sure if you are wandering out, the same "High Self" test as above is appropriate to do to determine if you are astrally traveling in your sleep.

Another type of dream that I think falls under the category of "vision" involves messages and visits from other consciousnesses. Once you determine that a dream did not originate from your own consciousness the task becomes one of clarifying the message. Perhaps that requires a little research and a bit more skill, very much of the shamanic sort. I find that dictionaries for dreams are one dimensional, at best. Without question I support the collective influence that archetypes and symbols have, and encourage becoming familiar with those across various cultures. However, I feel that stopping there is missing a vital reason for why the symbol visited us. In addition to collective relationships to symbols we experience personal relationships to them, and those meanings are only culled out when we consider the symbol is its own consciousness that has intelligent insight to deliver specifically to us, as individuals. While brown bear may mean protection and confidence as an archetype, to me, specifically it may also carry a message of hope and the ability to sustain through hard times. The way to create those personal bonds with symbols is through meditation and shamanic soul travel.

The second key to understanding your dreams lies in connecting with the feelings they evoke. Feelings are precisely the bridge that connects the dream to your waking life. When you can clarify the way a dream left you feeling and see how that feeling manifests in current circumstances you have decoded the symbols of that dream. In that brilliant inner light you can't get lost.

Be well, C!

~*~*~*~

Kelley is an author and shaman in North Carolina. Her shamanic practice is Soul Intent Arts. To schedule a private session with Kelley or learn her teaching schedule visit www.soulintentarts.com. Updates for her practice can be found at:

http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Fuquay-Varina-NC/Soul-Intent-Arts/1280...

Find her publications at www.kelleyharrell.com. The full archive of Intentional insights is available at www.intentionalinsights.com. Kelley can be reached at Twitter via http://twitter.com/SKelleyH , and on Facebook at: http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/S-Kelley-Harrell/45224242576?ref=ts

Intentional Insights is a Q&A column inviting you to look inside yourself. If you have a question that you would like to have addressed regarding a brief Soul Reading or questions about spiritual healing and shamanism, please send them to Kelley at soulintentarts dot com.