How did I come to shamanism?
The principles underlying the Shamanic Approach to Therapy and life itself have been presented and taught to me along my life's journey in an orderly fashion through each encounter, each suffering I went through and its resolution. So, if I describe certain personal experiences, it's because they are the lived proof of the foundations of the therapeutic approach presented here.
The First Callings of the Living
It all started before i was three, the day I first saw Magic. I was standing by the pond behind the farmhouse where we lived, and saw the Light reflected in the water, illuminating the air and all nature around it with a golden flow. At that moment, I had the profound sensation of perceiving a marvellous Intelligence that connects all things. I was deeply marked by this experience and the search for this magic has been a common thread in my life.
At the age of ten, on one of my walks through our large garden, I saw the earth open up before me, showing me how she was holding humanity and their pain. This vision made a deep impression on me, and I wanted to find ways to take care of this suffering too. I chose to go into medicine.
When Separation Cuts Us Off from Life
A few years later, I myself experienced the pain of separating from my parents and being uprooted myself from nature and the country of my birth. We moved to the Netherlands, first to a village hostile to foreigners, then to a city with little of the wilderness I'd always known, and far from my family and friends back in France. These different separations made me feel more and more alienated from my environment, the land, the culture and the teaching at school.
More and more cut off from life and from myself, I became somatized to the point of not being able to go to school. Then a friend invited me to learn transcendental meditation. Thanks to this practice, I began to perceive anew the connection to life of which I was a part, and this living field that infuses and connects everything, the magic I had known as a child...
When Medicine Forgets the Soul
I began studying classical medicine, but I was soon disappointed, as this teaching taught me to look at the human being in terms of physical elements, dissociated from his deepest nature and life force. This was not going to heal the suffering of humanity, which I had touched in part through my own experience.
I felt that I was gradually losing something essential within myself and that depression was threatening. I was close to what is called soul loss in shamanic terms. It was no longer enough for me to be connected to the life around me, I also needed to be in tune with my own nature, to follow my heart's impulse, and to find a more holistic way of healing...
Encountering Shamanism and the Spirits
Following my intuition, I went to the United States to discover other natural healing methods. It was there that I met Michael Harner. This professor of anthropology has studied shamanism around the world, extracting its core to pass it on to modern man. Through the method of shamanic journeying he taught, I discovered the reality of other worlds and how to communicate with the Intelligence that animates the Living.
Right from the start of my shamanic journeys, I was greeted by spirits who seemed to have been waiting for me, showing me all sorts of medicines they wanted to share. Some of them were teaching me the hidden virtues of plants and recipes for various ailments and states of mind that were previously unknown to me.
During another workshop with Michael Harner, the spirits told me to extract certain things from one participant's memory, and for another that it was important to infuse some resource. Then they showed me precise healing techniques to perform on the physical body. Michael Harner recognized my shamanic healing abilities and gave me the privilege of asking me to become his apprentice. I'm still grateful to him for this, as it was a decisive encounter for me. I'm still connected to his teachings, even though I've been called to follow a different path.
Returning to My Homeland to Reclaim My Path
During a shamanic journey, the Spirits urged me to go to Arizona to visit the Hopi Indians. There I met a venerable Elder, who led me through sacred and secret ceremonies. He also took me to a medicine woman who told me that to follow my path as a healer, I had to return to live in the land of my birth. So I went back to live in the South of France... It was here that I began to develop the medicine of listening to the body and the soul’s language, and its connection to the world.
The Spirits of the Living as Teachers
To continue my shamanic apprenticeship, I was urged by my Spirit Allies to travel to England, then Ireland and Peru, to meet the Plant Spirits and their Medicine. They are powerful guides to our evolution, with infinite wisdom for reweaving forgotten ties and for healing wounds.
More and more, I felt other peoples, other plants, other places and ancient knowledge tugging at me, because they too wanted to be heard again. That's why it seemed essential to me that every human being should learn to communicate directly with the Living, to listen to its messages... I started to develop courses to transmit this.
Along the way, I've discovered that families, places, companies and society itself, through their symptoms, want us to find back their Spirits so that we can work together. Our soul, our invisible part, also deeply needs to be listened to, to inspire us on our daily path.
Relearning How to Dialogue with the Living
To take care of humanity, we need to relearn how to connect with the universe to receive the resources and teachings of the Intelligence of the Living.