I’d like to thank Dr. Mihalas and the Center for Well-Being for the healing work they do in the community, and for providing me this opportunity to contribute to that healing vision.
The purpose of this blog post is to share a shamanic/animist point of view on chronic illness. First, I’ll introduce myself to place my perspective which is academic, multidisciplinary, eco-spiritual, political, and influenced by the lived experiences of myself and others.
My name is Faith Carol Newton, I am an animist energy healer, coach, artist, writer, alchemist, and witch, who was raised in the suburbs of NYC, on Lenape land. I now live in Madison, WI, which I acknowledge as Ho-Chunk land. I have lived with chronic illness since I was about 7 years old. My primary training has been in core shamanism, I also have a masters in depth psychology and somatics. I refer to myself as an animist practitioner, as the term shaman is fraught with complex cultural, political, and appropriative dynamics.
Animism assumes the world is living, conscious, and filled with beings who are valued as fellow persons. I am not an Indigenous practitioner and do not claim to represent the kind of practice or perspective they would have. My practice springs from my own ancestral traditions of Druidry and Celtic shamanism, which I integrate with new animism, archetypal perspectives, astrology, decolonial activism, feminism, somatics, mindfulness, and eclectic witchcraft to create a healing practice with an emphasis on spiritual liberation. I specialize in working with folks who have chronic illness, and who are empathic and/or highly sensitive.
From an animist/shamanic point of view, all illness or imbalance is caused by the phenomena of soul loss. Soul loss is the process whereby parts of your energy system, or soul, become unavailable to your conscious, embodied self. It can be understood in relation to trauma, though it’s not directly correlative. Soul loss diminishes personal vitality as well as increases an individual’s vulnerability to energetic harms; for example, curses, possessing spirits, soul theft, negative thought forms, and disruption to the energy centers. It’s like becoming a fishing net; You pick up all kinds of energetic matter, and there is so filter. The longer the soul piece is missing, the more significant the effects become. Symptoms which first exist only on the energetic plane, go deeper to the spiritual, psychological, emotional, and finally the physical plane. Soul pieces can be lost accidentally, in moments of struggle, fear, pain, trauma, or they can be stolen. They can also be purposely set aside by the higher self, or ‘Self’ in a Jungian sense.
The higher self, which I will also refer to as the True Self, is the core and container of the psyche, and it holds the true energetic vibration of who we are. This basic vibrational truth of who we are cannot be lost, and in healing we are moving closer towards holding the same energetic vibration of the true self. This is similar to the Jungian notion of Individuation, in which growth brings us deeper to our individual identity, so that we may then enter the collective from a place of wholeness. In order to maintain the high vibration of the soul piece, the higher self will separate out the part of the soul, or psyche, that is threatened, and keep it somewhere out of reach, to be retrieved when the individual is ready. The goal is to prevent a fragmentation of the soul. In this sense, soul loss is similar to the psychological dynamics of disassociation and repression. It is adaptive in the moment, but can become problematic in the future, when the loss of that part of the self prevents growth or healing. Soul pieces can also be stolen by other practitioners, sorcerers, families, partners, cultures, or spirits, and it can happen consciously or unconsciously. For example, in Celtic shamanism, it is common for soul pieces to be stolen by the spirits of nature (AKA faeries) in an attempt to create a balance for all that humans take from the earth. A parent may unintentionally steal soul pieces from a child in their attempt heal their own wounds from childhood. A child may steal from the parent, as they struggle to learn to rely on themselves. Whatever the cause, the solution is for the practitioner to retrieve or free from bondage the clients lost soul piece through a spiritual journey with the aid of allies and guides and return it to their energy system.
My own practice also takes into account an understanding of the unique realities of our world, and the histories of what we are practicing. My clients are dealing with bodies that attack themselves, shattered nervous systems, massive soul loss and energetic imbalance due to trauma, chronic stress, and generations of exposure to toxins. They come from complicated stories of cultural and personal abuse, and all of them have ancestral lineages which have been disrupted, where their relationship to the land of their ancestors and those spirit guides has been interrupted. My clients deal not only with chronic and often debilitating symptoms, but the situations which are at the energetic roots of their symptoms are also chronic, often re-occurring and sometimes inescapable. This type of issue, related to the concept of complex trauma, is very prevalent in the political atmosphere of the day. Examples are constantly being brought up by the Black Lives Matter, Native water protector, and #MeToo movements: How can people heal from a trauma when they are still in fear for their own and loved one’s lives and wellbeing, when the cause of their trauma is ongoing? How can their nervous systems relax, and their souls return home when the threat of mental and psychic fragmentation is prevalent?
Very few of my clients deal with sorcerers or angry neighbors who purposely curse them (though it’s not as infrequent as you may think). Instead, the modern sorcerers who steal my clients’ souls are systemic patterns of abuse and power, like sexism, racism, the desecration of the earth, and cis/heteronormativity. They also deal with inherited soul loss due to the harms of imperialism, dictatorships, colonialism, and genocide. The sorcerers are also their loved one; Complexly traumatized individuals who perpetuate the abuse and oppression experienced in their own life, such as bosses, parents, partners, and co-workers. My clients are surrounded by people who unconsciously and un-intentionally steal energy from them. As I mentioned, I generally deal with folks who are highly sensitive and intuitive. They have suffered a lot in their lives and have incredible capacities for empathy. Despite their struggles, they shine brightly and tend to attract those whose own endless source of energy (their true self) is unavailable to them.
So, what to do for clients seeking to have their very real suffering abetted? I mean, how many soul retrievals could possibly be enough to make up just for 2020? In line with a more traditional animist goal, that of mediation between the world of humans and spirits, it is my intention to find the places that my clients have become energetically disconnected from the spiritual world and return them to right relationship. This is done through focusing on reconnecting them to three distinct groups of spirits: The living Earth, the Ancestors (which can be blood or cultural, the earth and its inhabitants are also our ancestors), and their True Self. The goal here is to both put them in right relationship to the larger spiritual world, provide sustainable sources of energy and support as they navigate an imbalanced world (and a culture struggling with systemic, pervasive soul loss), and give them the tools and soul pieces necessary to cultivate a healthy energetic eco-system. Also called “building resilience”, a healthy energetic eco-system helps you to stay whole when exposed to harms. In addition, I provide spiritual coaching to clients, where we focus on self-awareness— the foundation of spiritual health—and adapting mindfulness tools to ‘remember’ how to listen to the voice of the intuition, and to support free, unimpeded flow of energy.
One of the gifts of the human psyche is free will. We get to make our own decisions (sometimes), outside of the limits of instinct. But when folks come to me, they’ve often lost their capacity to choose due to personal and systemic harms. They are living out cultural and family karma or curses, their energy has been locked into thought forms of stress, lack and self-doubt. They struggle to feel a sense of belonging and a place in the larger spiritual world. They find themselves in the same relational, social, physical, mental patterns over and over again.
Soul retrieval and spiritual/energetic healing is helpful for those dealing with chronic illness because it dismantles many of the unconscious and invisible factors which prevent us from healing. It frees energy from those patterns and helps realign the individual with the vibration of their highest selves. I know I have succeeded with a client, not because their autoimmune disease is gone (though it may go into recession), but because their relationship to it has transformed. They no longer feel limited by it in the same way. They are able to simultaneously practice radical acceptance of reality, while using their tools to create it.
I believe we can influence and create our realities through our beliefs and actions, whether by taking medicine or praying, protesting or casting spells. When your energy is liberated, you have the vitality necessary to heal yourself, and to transform the world around you. Even as you are still dealing with systemic oppression and violence, you can have more agency in how you respond to those systems. You have more opportunities to create a life that serves your highest good. This includes the highest good of your community— helping to abet and transform those systems which oppress and abuse by no longer feeding the places it’s been internalized. Chronic illness has become increasingly common due to complex, multilayered issues, effecting every part of life. Its healing requires a similarly multi-faceted approach. Animist energy healing, especially when combined with other modalities like bodywork and therapy, has the capacity to greatly abet, alchemize, and ease the burden of chronic illness and transform the daily experience of those living with it.
Faith Carol Newton, MA is an animist energy healer, spiritual coach, artist, and writer. She’s a Leo sun with Taurus rising, and spends her down time watching classic films, dancing, and obsessing about personality typing. More about her healing, teaching, and sacred arts practice can be found at Faithcarol.com or on Instagram @Star_Fox_Sacred