About Roots
There is a crucial
awareness in all spiritual paths of the need to share experience whatever
the depth of understanding. Collective insight, encouragement and enthusiasm
promotes a healthy, creative environment for enquiry and personal growth. It
is upon this principle that ROOTS, a School of Mystery Medicine, is based.
Although we read, study and practice on our own, it is a simple truth in all
education that we need others to act as catalysts and sounding boards in the
process. Confusion can arise from solitary work when it is neither witnessed
nor shared; our commitment can falter when our enthusiasm flags. While the
true guides are our spiritual contacts, allies, and helpers, as we walk this
path we need others to walk aside us, fellow travelers with whom we can
share ourselves. ROOTS provides the foundation for a spiritual community for
those who practice the ancient ways of shamanism.
ROOTS draws upon ancestral
knowledge and the wisdom of the ‘Unseen’, with its instinctive respect for
the earth and all our relations upon this earth. The teachings of the
school are rooted in both realities – our everyday consciousness and that
unseen but no less real Otherworld inhabited by the spirits. The one cannot
exist without the other, just as the roots and branches of a tree
cannot exist without each other.
ROOTS stresses the importance of been
firmly grounded in both realities, as it is easy to become out of balance by
seeking elevation to spirit. If we neglect the roots of the tree in order to
reach for the fruit of the branches, we may find that the fruit has not set
because the roots have not been nourished. Working in non-ordinary reality
will involve practices such as retrieving healing methods from our
Ancestors, retrieving information and guidance on how we can improve our
relationship with the earth, creating sacred rituals to honor the seasons
and to mark rites of passages. Working within ordinary reality will include
Ancient Arts and Crafts, knowledge on herbs and wild foods, exploring and
familiarizing ourselves with the practicalities of daily life of our
Ancestors, deepening our understanding of our environment, the making of
sacred objects and ceremonial items.
ROOTS also explores the issues of
human interaction, receiving guidance through both our spirit allies and
modern methods with the aim of fostering a keener sense of harmony and
balance within our communities, relationships and ourselves.
Over the past few decades, Shamanism
is re-awakening in our Western Society and we are witnessing an ever growing
population of initiated shamanic practitioners. ROOTS has been established,
not only to provide a network for practitioners, but to act as a storehouse
of knowledge compiled by members through direct experience.
As always within the works of the Shaman, the main mentors and
supervisors are the spirits and nature all around; every member of the
School has responsibilities to discover areas of their choice within a wide
remit of shamanic studies. Working in strong
partnership with the spirit allies, every member of the school
has the opportunity to
become a mentor to the other members of the school.
