a Modern Practitioner for Today's World

THE Uncommon Shaman

Intuitive readings, the communication of messages from the spirit world to the living, also do not require the shaman to be physically present.  It is an exchange with our ancestors, Guides, and beloved dead that is a great honor in which to participate and is a staple of most Shamanic practice.  Oftentimes, death leaves in its wake unfinished business, hurt feelings, and unresolved conflict.  A reading has the ability to answer questions, resolve those conflicts, and oftentimes heal immediately and absolutely.  Whether you enlist the help of this shaman or another intuitive, you should never be doing all the talking in an intuitive reading.  There are many people out there who are studied experts at extracting information from you and then feeding it back to you in slightly different form.  They are shysters and frauds and do not deserve your money or attention. With no more information from you than your name (and oftentimes even less), a gifted intuitive will be able to tell you something within the first few minutes of your reading that they have no way of knowing.  It should be very specific.  It is how the intuitive connects the correct Guide, ancestor, or non-living relative to you and serves to build trust, both between the intuitive and the dead to whom she is speaking, as well as between the intuitive and the person seeking their service.  If they ask more of you than your name and are asking questions of you other than the occasional, "Does this make sense to you", walk away.

Assisting the dying.  A shaman is often called upon to help guide and counsel those who are dying. Death is, by far, the biggest transition we make on our journey on earth.  It can be wrought with fear and uncertainty.  Most societies today have lost the ability to support this natural part of life.  We put our elders in homes, away from our line of sight, so as not to be reminded of our own mortality.  This harms all of us:  The healthy and the dying.  Death is a certainty.  Yet none of us know for certain what comes next.  But it does not have to be a terrifying experience.  A shaman is honored to assist those who are preparing to cross over.  They may even be useful in instances of coma where the person is not reachable through normal methods of communication.

Energetic healing.  The human psyche is created from an accumulation of all of its experiences, good and bad, healthy and unhealthy, joyful and painful. All of these experiences have correlating energy that is associated:  When we're happy, we feel "up".  When we are grieving, we feel "low".  These highs and lows create imbalance within the human spirit that leads to imbalance in the physical body.  We begin to have pain in areas that have never experienced trauma.  We contract diseases such as lupus and fibromyalgia, even cancer.  Energetic healing is yet another big component of the shaman's work.  With the help of her Guides through journey and the assistance of the clients Guides, she is able to see inside the client's physical body, find those areas of built up toxicity, and then help it to regain the balance of health.  Again, the person not need not be physically present to reap the benefits of energetic healing.  See also Energy Work & Healing.

Working with Gifted Children.  Most young children under the age of 6 are intuitive. The complaints of 'monsters under the bed' or 'the man in my closet' aren't generally a child's imagination; in most cases, they are genuinely seeing the things they are describing.  Intuitive children are brilliant beacons of light in the spirit world and, like moths to flame, draw the dead and sometimes other unwanted entities to them. It is a fallacy that children are "protected"; oftentimes it the opposite:  They are easy targets.  This basically boils down to harassment and should not be tolerated.  This not only disrupts a child's life, it can create behavioral issues, feelings of isolation, loss of sleep, illnesses, and cause the child to experience  unnecessary  fear.   As  with hauntings,  this  can be   stopped   within minutes.  But it is the job of the shaman to work with the child putting the power in 

Shamanic journeying is a form of travel to the invisible world not seen in ordinary reality.  It is in this space that change in the physical world can be wrought.  Since the shaman does not have to be physically present to evoke change, this allows her to be unbound by time and space  with the ability to be equally effective in any location whether or not she is physically there.

In the case of hauntings, the shaman can visit the affected location in journey to communicate with the spirits causing the issue, determine the extent of the problem, how it was caused, and make the changes necessary to keep safe the living.

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Services

As a minister ordained by the Universal Life Church, Melissa is also honored to officiate at weddings, handfastings, and funerals, in addition to many other ceremonies that add to our joy in life.  Please contact her to make arrangements.

Helping the dead to move on.  In shamanism, this is called "psychopomp" and is a large part of the shaman's job. At death, we change form, but change very little in other ways. Our free will remains intact as does our capacity to grow and learn.  We don't know why the dead get stuck or confused.  Sometimes, it's the living who are not ready to let the dead move on, and so they stay with us in spirit, eventually seeming to forget they no longer belong here.  Just like those left to continue life without them, the dead mourn the loss of what they have left behind. Sometimes that grief causes the dead to refuse to move forward to whatever comes next.  Sometimes, unresolved issues keep the person tethered to the physical plane of which they are no longer a real part.  When sharing the space with the living, this often lead to problems.  Usually, the process of help begins with a reading for the living to have the opportunity to resolve their issues, and for the dead to tell their story, find comfort in being heard, and move on knowing that they've finished what they needed to say, can see the living they are leaving behind have alright with their departure, and that it's okay for them to go.

their hands to control their surroundings and learn to use their gift in a productive way and without fear.  

Power animals are with us from childhood. Everyone has them.  A power animal is a specific type of Guide walking alongside you similar to how our domesticated pets do but with very distinct differences.  These animals maintain their own special and unique abilities which they share with their charge.  If Owl is your guide, you will be better able to see when things are dark.  If Lion is your Guide, you will be fierce and strong.  If Bear is your guide, you are have the gift of powerful protection. When one has lost their power animal, they too can become lost, confused, and oftentimes ill.  Power animal retrieval is an important function of balance and whole-body healing.