Rock'n Animal Guidance: Wisdom from the Spider

Spider shared some wisdom with me, saying it's important for us all right now.

As a shamanic practitioner, I am in communication with the plants, animals and trees who live around me and share space with me. They are my neighbors. They also have a lot of wisdom and guidance to share when we take the time to really listen.

Spiny Orb Weaver Spider on her beautiful, large web in my back yard

As I went to do the watering in my back yard the other day, I came across this beautiful orb weaver spider on her beautiful and huge web. I felt a connection with her, she had a message for me. She began telling me about her web and how essential it is for her survival and her wellbeing. It is her support network. She showed me how it corresponds with community for us humans, and how important that is for our well being. It was clear this message was for more than just me, I was to share it widely.

This spider gave me some good tips on building community, our web of support. She gave me simple guidelines that we can use, to make life more comfortable and fulfilling without feeling overwhelming.

Spider's Guidelines for Building Community Support

Spider began showing me the steps of building her web. She showed me how proper planning sets her up for success before she begins a single thread. She first determines the purpose of her web. What does she want to accomplish with it? And that leads her to placement, which includes several different factors. Once she has the placement decided, only then does she begin actually building her web. Once built, there is monitoring and maintenance. All of these same steps apply in building our community support network.

Purpose: What do you want to accomplish?

Placement and supports: The cornerstones of your support network

Weaving the Strands of Support

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Purpose: What do you want to accomplish?

What are the main goals of your support network? Our spider friend was looking to build her web to catch food for herself and make a home. What are you looking for? Maybe you're just looking for a group to game with, or garden with. Or maybe, you're looking to build an entire network of community support to look out for each other when times are tough.

Placement and Supports: The cornerstones of your support network

Our spider friend gave me the advice that we should be building community support networks that will help each other survive and thrive in difficult times. With the political situation being what it is globally, and with climate change increasing, this feels like a very good idea and so that is what I'll be writing more about. But if you have a different goal in mind, the steps are the same.

This is where you identify all the areas of your life you might one day need support for. We need to get less dependent of major corporations and get more local. Think about your daily life, what needs to happen to keep you going? Do you have young children? If so, you'll want to include people who could provide child care. We all need to think about food and water. What would happen if the grocery store shuts down? Those of us who live where there are hurricanes know that we need to stock up before a storm because stores won't be open for a day or two. Think about things like shortages, natural disasters etc. These are becoming more common, and that will continue due to climate change.

Then, think about things like household repair, health considerations etc. What services do we use regularly like hair cutting, childcare, mechanics. What are the things that support our lives? What needs do we need to ensure continue to get met?

Now, what skills do you have to offer? Are you really handy around the house? Do you have a green thumb? Can you keep children occupied and entertained? What are you willing to offer to your community in support? A community support network relies on everyone contributing in their own way. Maybe you need help painting your house, and in exchange you can feed your neighbors nutritious and delicious dinner?

Weaving the Strands of Support

Now for the fun part! Keeping your supports in mind, look for ways to fulfill those support needs for yourself and those around you. Look for ways to share your skills and the supports you have with others. Look for ways we can care for each other. Maybe start a neighborhood garden sharing project, or a childcare share for the neighborhood. Be creative, look for win - win solutions. Everyone is a strand in the web. How many strands can you connect? A good support network will connect many people, and support all.

Then monitoring and maintenance come in. We need to keep checking in on all our strands. Are they doing okay? Do they need anything? How can we help? If we care for each other, we can weather any storm together. When times are good, we have a block party and share the bounty. When times are hard, many hands working together lighten the load.

We have gotten so disconnected, from nature and each other. We were not meant to be so alone. We need to be in connection, in community. We need to support each other. Life is better together! Together we are strong.

Saminchukuy - Energy Clearing

How to clear and maintain your personal energy

Saminchukuy is a method of personal energy clearing from the Q'ero, the native people of the Peruvian Andes. The Peruvian people are very down to Earth, their techniques tend to be simple but highly effective and this one is a perfect example. It is a method of clearing energy that is weighing you down, keeping you feeling stuck.

This energy is called hucha. What is hucha? It's energy that is incompatible with you. It's not negative, or bad, but incompatible with your energy. It tends to feel heavy, it can make you feel weighed down or irritable. It can also get stuck in your body and can cause health problems if it isn't cleared.

We pick up heavy energy all the time, it's everywhere. It's created by fear, anger, trauma. It's literally flying through the airwaves on the news, it's created in traffic when people get road rage. When people think a judgmental negative thought about you, they can send heavy energy to you along with that thought.

When we get weighed down with this energy, it can cause us to get irritable, or feel overwhelmed, or depressed. It can cause emotional distress, and over time physical issues as well. So what do we do about it? Well, this simple technique can work wonders. Regularly clearing your energy helps you maintain emotional equilibrium throughout stressful days, helps you feel lighter and see life more clearly. The Q'ero say anyone who practices saminchukuy daily is on the path to enlightenment. Note that they do not say how long the path is!

To begin, sit comfortably. Picture, feel or intend for a root to grow from the base of your spine down into the Earth. Let it grow deeper and deeper, far down into the Earth. Then, allow any heavy or incompatible energy that is not serving you to flow down towards this root, and then down the root into the Earth. As the heavy energy is flowing out, picture, feel or intend a beam of light coming from the heavens, from the source of all life down toward you. Open your crown chakra - the energy center at the top of your head - and feel this energy begin to flow into your body and fill you up. This is important as you are releasing energy, you don't want to leave a vacuum - an empty space where the heavy energy was because it would fill again with heavy energy. This energy from source is life force energy, healing and light.

Continue the flow of heavy energy down and out, and the flow of light energy in. When you feel the heavy energy is gone, stop the flow down the root and pull the root back into your body. That root is your energy too, you want to keep it. Close your energy field at the base of your spine. All that's required is the intention, your energy will do as you intend. Once you feel full of light energy, then stop the flow into your body and close your crown chakra. You should feel lighter, calm and clear.

It is recommended to do this twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening for 5 minutes each. This allows you to begin your day clear, on the right foot so to speak. Then, you clear all the energy picked up throughout the day before bed. This allows you to sleep more peacefully and rest more fully. But you can do this whenever you feel you need it. If you're in a stressful situation, you may want to clear your energy during lunch, and you absolutely can. It may take some time to clear all the heavy energy built up around traumas that have been stuck for a while, it doesn't all come out at once and that's ok. You will see benefits to this practice immediately, but the benefits will increase over time with regular practice.

When you begin this practice, you might find it easier to do with your eyes closed, but you don't need to. In fact, as you get familiar with it, it's best to be able to do it eyes open. This is intended to be an invisible practice, meaning you could be out to lunch with family in the middle of the mall and be doing your energy clearing while eating a hamburger and nobody would know except you.

If you are someone who picks up other people's emotions or gets overwhelmed by the energy around you, this practice is truly life changing. It has helped me immensely, and I hope it does the same for you.

Grounding

What is it, why and how to do it

You may have heard the term "Grounding" before, but what is it? Why would you want to do it? and if you do want to do it, how?

Bears are naturally very grounded

Grounding is a reference to grounding your energy, or connecting to the Earth. This helps to bring you back "down to Earth" when you're feeling spaced out or disconnected from your body or from what's going on around you. This can happen easily if you're feeling overwhelmed or if you're feeling pulled in multiple directions at once. It is also quite common for people who are highly empathetic and feel the emotions and energy of people around them. Grounding is a way of centering yourself back into your own body and your own energy, in this moment in time and the place where you are. To bring your focus back into your own body in the here and now.

Grounding is an energetic practice, so it can be done any time, any place as it is not something that is visible to anyone else. It has great effect on your mental and emotional state but is not a physical practice that others will see. This means it is available when you most need it, whenever you're feeling stressed no matter where you are or who you're with.

To ground, imagine roots growing from the bottoms of your feet, or from the base of your spine down deep into the ground. Send them far down, towards the center of the Earth. You may visualize this in your imagination, or you may feel it, or just intend for it to happen. Everyone is different, experience it however feels most natural to you. Try it different ways and see what you like. It doesn't matter much where you are or if you have shoes on. Just imagine the roots going through the floor, concrete, whatever is in between you and the ground. The only time you would have trouble is in an airplane, or on a boat over deep water. I would not recommend trying to ground in those two instances. Then, once your roots are down deep into the ground, you can send any excess energy you have in your body down the roots into the ground. Any energy or emotions you may have picked up from people around you that isn't yours. Any energy that feels heavy or incompatible to you, let that flow down the roots as well. We can pick up heavy energy from our environment, it happens when people are angry or fearful and this is quite common. Just let all the heavy or excess energy flow down and out.

Once all the heavy or excess energy is gone from your body, you should feel more focused, more present, less overwhelmed. If you are feeling tired, in pain, or just need to recharge, you can now pull fresh energy from the Earth to replenish your own energy. This energy is revitalizing, and pain relieving. Draw in energy until you feel full. Once you're done, you can pull your roots back up into your body.

Since this is all energy work and invisible from the outside, you can do this any time you feel like it. You could be having a family gathering over the holidays and do grounding to let go of all the expectations and excess energy that can otherwise be overwhelming, and nobody will know but you.

This is an energy practice to help you keep peace within yourself, and by extension keep peace with those around you. It pulls your focus and your energy back into your own body, and removes excess energy that causes overwhelm. This is one of the most important techniques in personal energy maintenance, and yet it is very easy to do. Anyone can do it, any time. I hope that you find it helpful!