THE PATH OF THE FEATHER

[bridget orman]

The Path of the Feather: A shamanic journey, medicine wheels and spirit animals

The Path of the Feather is about becoming a shaman through your own life as a vision quest.

The Path of the Feather as a teaching, is about becoming a contemporary shaman by seeing and hearing the voices of the living earth. It is about finding out who you are by making medicine wheels and listening to the voices of the spirit animals and ancient ones. It is about you living your ordinary life as your vision quest, as your shamanic journey. It is about you becoming one who sees and one who heals the earth with intent

This shamanic journey is your personal story of transformation, empowerment, and healing. The Path of the Feather is about your journey right now, embodying the sacred in the simplest ways. Here, the shaman's journey is not presented as something that is unusual or foreign, it is about seeing the earth as sacred, and living your life as sacred, from where you are now. It is about seeing yourself as a shaman, about seeing who you are on earth and what you are about to do. It is about personal transformation, about opening your eyes and awakening.

What is a shaman and how does the concept apply to art and healing ?The shaman in tribal cultures is the person who sees into the sacred world and shares the visions with the people. The shaman brings their sacred visions out as art, music, dance, and storytelling. By this ritual art process, the shaman heals themselves, others, and the earth. By having visions of healing and doing sacred ritual the shaman makes the visions come true. This is ancient magic, ancient healing. The shaman manifests reality in the outer world, from the visionary world. That is the someway the world was created from God's vision. We are all her vision on earth, we are.

The Path of the Feather is about you going inward to your source of power. It does not need a teacher, or a trip to India, it only needs you where you are now, and the earth around you. The Path of the Feather has three simple steps. The first step is the making of the shaman, which involves surrender to the earth. It involves your reframing your whole life as sacred and healing. The second step is seeing the earth as sacred, which involves hearing the ancient spirits sing, and seeing out of the eyes of the spirit animals in order to understand the earth's story. The third step is the healing, the making of the living medicine wheel, which involves doing rituals to heal yourself , others, and the earth. In the moments that you do this, you will be found, and know who you are, because the living earth gives you the gifts of who you are and what you are to do. This will lead you to the place on the earth where you will know that you are perfectly loved. It will bring out your inner artist and healer. It will let you be yourself. For all we are is her most beautiful aspect, her artist and healer, her visionary dreamer.

In our work with healing artists, we have found that they can work better if they see themselves as doing sacred or shamanic work. This is because the first artist and the first healer were one, the shaman, so the concept itself is deeply rooted in history.

We call this site The Path of the Feather because out of all the traces of the animals, feathers are the easiest to find. It takes a special moment, a sacred space, to see the beauty of the feather, and if you have paused long enough to notice, and stopped long enough to pick it up, you can be assured you are already on this path. If you have never stopped long enough to pick up a feather it is now time for you to begin. Birds leave their feathers as their traces all around us. You won't find other traces from animals around you as easily. Unless you are lucky enough to live in a wild place, bears or lions don't leave traces near your home except in your visions. But right in front of you in the parking lot of the market is a feather taking you on this journey. It will take you to the sacred sites, it will sing to you of the legends, it will make you alive. It will take you to the sacred places near you, and give you gifts to tell you who you are and what you are to do. Each time you pick up a feather it is a reminder that you are on the right path and that your life is sacred again.