At times, the shelf-elf seems to guide us to a book, whether in a shop, or from our own bookshelves. If we allow ourselves to be led by such synchronicities or spiritual inclinations, well then, the magic happens!
In my most recent experience of this phenomenon, a book came via lines given me by a blonde woman who appeared in a night-dream. Without going into great detail, she revealed to me very specific information in regards to how to prepare and ingest a mushroom for use in spiritual evolution.
The dream was vivid and I went to my computer to inquire and investigate further and found only one source with the information I’d received from the dream visitor; an excerpt from The Woman in the Shaman’s Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine, by Barbara Tedlock. Needless to say, I ordered the book which more than anything for me, has proven a confirming pat and push towards accepting my full power as a wise woman and healer—not an easy feat for me as I grew up within a strongly, patriarchal-focused religion, state and family.
Tedlock’s book is written dissertation-style, clearly she has compiled years of primary and secondary source material and the book is chockfull of exciting evidence, stories and account’s in relation to gender with relevancy pointed specifically towards the complete world of shamanic healing.
What Tedlock brings to the forefront in regards to the importance of equality of gender is that those who practice shamanism—in its many forms—must learn, as has always been the case, to embrace both their feminine and masculine sides, that being a healer, seer, warrior, visionary requires a balance and employment of both within the true practitioner.
What has taken me many years to grasp and seems simple once written or mentioned, (what has always been there if only I’d looked, heard, realized), but has taken me so many years, possibly even lifetimes to really get, is that just because I’ve become more balanced within myself, doesn’t mean other’s, especially the non-bodies within ruling institutions, will stop in their dispelling of my (and your) knowing. In fact, this attempt at submerging personal power has been around for eons too. So what is the purpose of my writing this brief review of dream and book? Only to say, your greatest expansion happens when you follow those hunches of holy visage known only to you!