It is an honour for me to introduce fellow shamanic practitioner Marc Wood. We have been part of a shamanic group for seven years and recently started working together with this beautiful medicine from the High Andes.
Below, I have asked Marc to talk a little bit about his own healing journey in becoming a shamanic practitioner.
Marc’s journey
So, where does the journey to becoming a shaman begin? For me it all began sitting in my friend Caz’s kitchen having a cup of coffee and a chat. Caz looked across the table and asked me what I would like to do in my life. My reply was that I wanted to become a shaman and her reply was that it would be the hardest journey that I could ever take!
I wanted to learn more about healing, so I trained in massage, reflexology and then sports massage. I got to learn about the body and how the ‘heal’ on a very physical level. I also signed up to learn metamorphic technique, then cranial sacral therapy and spinal touch. I used all these therapeutic techniques to help my clients. Most clients would ‘get better’ and recover but some would improve but not actually recover fully. I then studied reiki and trained as a reiki master and my list of therapies grew further.
One of my greatest challenges was that I was still looking for healing for myself. I carried a deep wound of being abandoned as a child, being left by both parents who were parting. I was carrying loneliness, a deep feeling of not being cared for and loved. I just wanted to be liked and loved and to get this I would sacrifice myself for others.
When I feel like a failure, I look at where it originates and send love to that disowned aspect of myself. (Sidane Buchet, 2012).
Then one day, during a phone interview with Chris Waters I started to discover my path. Chris is founder of The Spirit of the Inca; I was researching about sacred space and what happens when we open sacred space. Chris began to explain to me about ‘the organising principals’, and that when we opened sacred space, that we are bringing these together. Chris invited me to join her for the next Medicine Wheel, which I did.
A deep clearing process began, clearing out all that I needed to heal including the deepest wounds. Gradually peeling away the layers I began to discover myself, I understand that I’m not the sum total of my wounds!
What I have come to realise and know in my life is that the world is a beautiful highly polished mirror that reflects back to perfectly what I am putting out into it.
I now hold a different view; that I’m loved and cared for deeply. I’m now living in a world where I do not have to prove myself and sacrifice myself for others. I walk my path and follow my truth.
The shaman is told that we can dream a new world and new paradigms into being. Shamans have been dreaming this for thousands of years and my dream joins theirs.
Marc shares this medicine path through ceremony, workshops, talks and at festivals. He also runs a private healing practice and sports massage clinic in West Sussex.
Click the link to Marc Wood’s website
May you walk in beauty, for all our relations.
