Transmutation News – December 2003

I am writing this month’s Transmutation News mid November after returning from a wonderful teaching time in Europe. Although the trip was mostly work related it felt like I really had a chance to regenerate while I was there.

I have been teaching in Europe since the 1980’s in Austria and Switzerland. But this is the first time I taught in Germany. I felt so nurtured by the land there and it truly was a healing experience for me.

I also worked with two extraordinary groups. So many people told me how much they relied on the monthly Transmutation News for inspiration. It was really good to get this feedback and of course it inspires me to keep writing.

It also touched me deeply to hear about the ceremonies people performed on October 18 when we were all working on behalf of the Rio Grande. There really is a strong network and community that has formed working together. It is important for all of us to remember that as we do our ceremonies that we are connecting with a world community.

One of the things I have also noticed this fall is how much easier people are “getting” the spiritual work I present. In October I taught a beginning workshop on shamanic journeying to over 100 people at Omega Institute. I am used to quite a bit of confusion coming from people who are first learning to journey. I found this group to be extraordinary in how easily they all journeyed and experienced a shamanic state of consciousness.

Then when I went to Europe I taught a 5-day Medicine for the Earth Gathering and also continued working with my group in a Three Year Training. Both groups also experienced all the work I shared in a smoother, easier fashion than I can remember.

There were of course still left-brain questions that came from the conditioned mind. But people seemed to experience the work faster and in a very deep way.

I talked to another teacher in Europe about this. It almost feels that a morphic resonance field has now been created where the work is now more natural. This is exciting to think about. I will be curious to see if this trend continues.

When I was in Germany I did hear about the fires in Southern California. When I returned home there were some letters waiting for me asking me to “share my wisdom” about fire.

It is not an easy issue to speak to, as we need to look at what is happening with the planet today on many different levels. On a material level there is a lot of destruction going on through different natural events – fires, hurricanes, earthquakes etc.

As you know I have been living with the danger of fire changing my material world for many years now. So I am not going to say that we only need to look at all this on a higher spiritual level. There is trauma in losing precious things you own and watching your outer environment be destroyed at the same time. There is grief and loss on a personal level when these events occur in our lives. There is also the grief over the loss and death in the plant and animal kingdoms.

On a spiritual level we learn that there is more to life than what we have in the outer material levels. It is always interesting to watch interviews with people after they have lost everything during a natural event. Some people take the stance of victim and bitterness. Some people take the stance of gratefulness that their own lives and the lives of their families were not lost and that is what is important.

There are many events that happen throughout our lives where we are all asked to get clear on what is truly important and we have to find peace with the challenges that life brings us.

On another level we live in a world out of balance. Are we seeing more natural occurrences of earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, fires, etc.? Or is it that because of media coverage we are more aware of what is occurring around the world?

We are part of nature. Nature is always looking for harmony. Nature has ways of cleansing itself. Nature has ways that create regeneration that might seem to us as destructive.

The land needs fires to regenerate itself. I remember months ago in the newspaper articles about the importance of fire in New Mexico as the land needs the regenerative ability of fire and the new growth that occurs after fire.

There is always a bigger picture going on. When our lives are being turned upside down by the what is needed in the bigger picture we cannot see all the deeper levels that are being touched in our lives and for the planet. This is natural and of course there is a natural process of grieving and even “why me” questions that will occur.

There are times when we as a community can “hold the space” for others as they grieve what has been lost. For if we are doing our work we grieve and then look at the regeneration and new opportunities and growth that are being created for us. Death is not an end, it is a transition. Losing what we have in the material world is not an end to our lives. It is a transition into something new. With all death whether it be the death at the end of our lives or the little deaths that occur along the way there is an initiation that occurs. All initiations bring us to a new place in our lives.

We cannot stop the earth from regenerating. We cannot stop evolution. But we can work on our reactions to what is occurring. The elements are not “evil” for coming through the land changing the landscapes of our lives. We need to honor our feelings about the loss we observe. If it happens on a personal level these feelings of loss will be deeper. The process sculpts us into different beings. But we must all learn how to band together as community and support one another on a physical level as well as a spiritual level. Change is part of life, we must not fear it.

Over the years of writing the Transmutation News I have been emphasizing the importance of transfiguring and experiencing a state of source, divinity, light and oneness. I have also on and off spoken about the spirits in the Middle World as important to establish a partnership with in creating miracles.

For those who only journey to the Upper and Lower Worlds a split between the non-ordinary and ordinary realms is created. As I mentioned in Medicine for the Earth, this split did not occur in former times. The gods and goddesses and helping spirits danced on this earth with us.

In our hearts we all want to heal this split of keeping the non-ordinary worlds and our ordinary world separate. We once again want to experience the magic of life and wake up from the trance that society has put on us that either the non-ordinary does not exist or that we are separate from it.

In the Middle World the spirit of the plants, trees rocks, animals, insects, fish, reptiles birds, and other life forms exist here with us. They are sentient beings who we can relate with. There is the spirit of air, water, earth, and fire, which is alive and we can establish a relationship with. There are helping ancestral spirits that love the earth as we do who can help us in healing ourselves and our environment. And there is the devic realms and the spirit people who we share the planet with: the elves, fairies, forest angels, etc.

I do believe that the devic realms hold a real key for us in our work. I no longer call these beings “the little people” as some of the elves and angels are quite tall. So I prefer to use the term the spirit people.

We all knew of their existence when we were children. We actually thought everyone saw them when we were young. Then we fell into a trance and closed the veils to this realm of being. We have been asleep and living in a very dense dimension. I think those of us reading this page are striving toward waking up and experiencing a higher and lighter dimension. There are many “demons at the gate” who try to stop us from waking up. For most of us the “demon” is our own conditioned mind who keeps telling us to “get real” and stop doing this crazy spiritual work. We keep forging ahead as the voices of society try to distract us. And we keep moving ahead with the knowing that a wealthier world exists for us.

Part of this experiencing a richer life is feeling as if we are communicating and relating with the spirit that lives in all things. We have been doing journeys and meditations over the years together to help deepen this connection.

This month let’s turn our attention to the spirit people. The spirit people and the devic realms do exist. In Medicine for the Earth I wrote about how the government in Iceland has a representative for the little people. You might be familiar with the extraordinary gardens in Findhorn, Scotland that were created by working in partnership with the spirit people. You also might be familiar with the work of Michelle Small-Wright and Perelandra and what has come out of the collaboration with the devic realms.

The spirit people are also caretakers of this earth. As we continue to explore together how we can heal ourselves and our environment it is time for us to establish a strong and deep relationship with the elves, fairies, and forest angels who are already working to restore harmony in the natural world.

As part of your spiritual practice this month journey or meditate and ask to meet the spirit people who live where you live. Don’t get trapped into having to “see” them outside to believe in their existence. Reach out to them with your heart. Let them know you are aware of their existence and that you wish to communicate with them. Experience what comes from setting this intention.

They are strong partners for us in our work to restore harmony and balance in our environment. Let’s meet them and establish a relationship first and then see how we can work together.

We are moving into the wonderful season of winter. I would suggest that during this month you perform a series of journeys or meditations to merge with an aspect of earth, air, water and fire where you live. Learn about the energy of vibration of these elements during this time. Learn especially how you might wish to rebalance the fire within during this time.

After you have experienced the elements during this season ask your higher consciousness to help you balance to be in harmony with the vibration of these elements. Do this purely by setting an intention. Remember that setting an intention is experienced as action taking place by the brain. When we ask our higher consciousness to create balance this is done through setting an intention, which happens on more of an unconscious than conscious level.

Depending on where you live in the world the winter solstice is either December 21 or December 22. The times vary depending on where you live. I journeyed on what we can all focus on during this time.

I received the information that it is important for all of us to create a strong network of dreamers that can work together in this dreamy time to dream into being the planet we wish to live on.

The first step is with your imagination or in your journey or meditation really experience yourself as being a part of a solid network of people who are dreaming on behalf of the world.

Next journey or meditate so that you are in the void, the place of unlimited possibilities before things are created and manifested on earth. If you are not familiar with the void experience yourself in a nice dark nurturing place. Light was born out of the darkness. In the void or this dark nurturing place begin to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the world you wish to live in. Experience a world in harmony where all life is respected, honored, and considered precious. Experience a world of unity with the great web of life. Experience a world of love.

Experience this world as if it already exists now. Don’t experience it in the future or it will never manifest. Call it into being as if it is happening now. Feel the love for this world with your heart. We know that love and the heart fuels the energy needed for manifestation to occur.

On the solstice let’s establish our dreaming network together. Throughout this dreamy internal time of winter keep up the work on your own. Let’s gestate and manifest our dreams together.

The full moon in the U.S. is December 8. Due to time differences the full moon is on a different day depending on where you live in the world. I was reminded when I taught in Europe that I only post the U.S. day for the full moon creating some confusion for people in other countries. Please consult with a moon calendar and the sky for the time of the full moon where you live.

During this wonderfully powerful time let’s continue to weave a brilliant, radiant web of light around our beautiful planet.

May the time of winter be a joyful and rich time in your life.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – June 2003

Using the metaphor of breathing in and out, I feel as is for the last year or so I have been doing a long exhale.

I have been writing long web pages for the Transmutation News. A few months ago I sent my agent a book proposal on bringing spiritual practices and ceremonies to children (which is circulating among some publishers right now). I have been teaching more workshops than usual and lecturing at a variety of conferences.

In May I cleaned every inch of my house physically and spiritually and cleaned out my closets and gave a lot away.

I have learned from experience that when I go on such intense cleaning missions some change is getting ready to take place in my life. It feels like a time for me to prepare for what is the next step with the Medicine for the Earth work and pause and move into the process of inhalation and inspiration.

I still believe that the key to the work is transfiguration and that continual practice with shapeshifting into our divine nature is needed to transform our lives and the world we live in. But I am a person who is always exploring how to go deeper with what I have been given and what I am sharing in the world.

I do hope that you did the work I suggested last month. We need to get to a place where we are really making a difference in our own lives and the lives of others through transfiguration. When we transfigure into our divine self we end up transmuting what needs to be transformed around us.

I know I have heard from many of you that bringing in the process of transfiguration on a regular basis has completely transformed your health as well as your relationships to work, people, money, the earth, etc. in a positive way. What has been described in the letters I have received is that practicing transfiguration on a regular basis is getting people back in flow with the river of life and creating a state of harmony.

As we keep up the practice I know we will continue to see positive effects.

When we look at the ancient and modern day mystics who have shown the immense power of being in a divine state these mystics have no question about their ability to shift. We need to keep doing the work that we started to do last month. By looking at the blocks and beliefs that keep us from fully embracing our divinity creates a path to truly being a vehicle for the divine. We need to be able to access this state of being with no hesitation or question.

Please keep up your exploration of what might be keeping you from bringing forth the spiritual light of your own divinity.

You might also explore the following questions:
When you drink water are you focusing on taking in pure spiritual light that nurtures and heals you?
When you eat your food do you receive the light that the earth and sun is sharing with you?
When you go outside do you feel and receive the energy of the sun which gives you life?
When you breathe do you fully take in the sacredness of each breath and share your light on the exhale?
When you are around other people, as in the grocery store, do you notice that you lift the spirit of people you meet by sharing your spiritual light?

As we move so fast in our lives we seem to move through the world in an unconscious fashion. Along with doing the meditative practice of transfiguration we must move the practice into a place of living this state of being.

Keep up your meditative practices but please start looking at bridging your meditations with how you walk through the world.

We also need to try to find ways to educate people to the basic fact that earth, air, water, and the sun gives us life and that we must honor these life giving elements.

Have you noticed that the elements are trying to get our attention in the floods, tornadoes, drought, fires, earthquakes, and high winds being experienced throughout the world?

I saw a headline in the news that it could be the air we breathe that is effecting women’s ability to get pregnant.

As I have been stating for the last few months the public is not “connecting the dots” that when you pollute the elements that give life there will be an effect on your health.

We need to find a way to communicate this while at the same time sharing that there is a way to clean up what we have created. It is obvious to me and others that the reason people are keeping the blindfold on their eyes about the effects of environmental pollution is because it all feels to overwhelming to them. And of course it is easier to believe that technology will fix everything.

What environmentalists are finding is that the best technology is not being effective in cleaning up the pollution we have created.

I have been hearing from many sources that people who are active in the environmental organizations are moving into a place of burn out and despair. They realize that the technology is not being effective in dealing with the toxins being poured into our environment. And at the same time they watch the Bush administration pass laws that keep the destruction of our environment going.

As we move into a place of despair it is a rich time for new ideas and ways of working to be created. I think that we might begin to see an opening in receiving information on spiritual ways of working that others and I have been presenting. There might finally be an opening for people closed off to the spiritual worlds being willing to give this work a try.

Dr. Larry Dossey has written many books on the power of prayer. He has shared enough research that through the use of double blind studies the power of prayer has been successful in healing.

Masuro Emoto in his brilliant work Messages from Water Vol. 1 & 2 shows how water responds to words and feelings. I have written about his work over the last two years in some of the Transmutation News.

There are countless stories of mystics who have been able to create miraculous healings by transfiguring into their divinity.

I do believe the time has come for those working in environment organizations to embrace the possibility that we can bridge spiritual methods with technology to heal our environment. And of course to add to bringing in spiritual methods we must teach the public how to care for and honor our environment.

I do believe we will begin to see the doors opening to the Medicine for the Earth work as well as other spiritual work that is being taught by a variety of teachers.

Last month I asked everyone to have the experience of merging with the earth this rich and fertile time of spring.

This month I would like to introduce a new way of working with the elements. If you are new to this work please continue the work of merging with the elements that I described last month as well as in Medicine for the Earth.

For those of you who work with the process of transfiguration I wold like you to try and transfigure into an element.


What is the difference, you might ask?


To answer this question we must go back to the principle of as above, so below: as within, so without.


When we merge with an element we perceive ourselves going into some element outside of us and asking for permission to merge with it to learn about it by becoming it. So last month I suggested you go to a plot of earth where you live and ask to learn about earth by becoming it through the merging process.


This month for those of you who already have done a lot of merging work as well as are trained in the process of transfiguration you will shapeshift into an element.


I suggest we work with water this month.


For those of you new to this work merge with an aspect of water whether it be a tear drop, a river, an ocean, a rain drop, mist a dew drop, or a body of water where you live. You want to learn about water by merging with it.


For the rest of us we want to meditate or take a shamanic journey and ask to transfigure into water. If you are up to it see what happens.


As I have described last month, whichever process you use, at the end of your experience remember to disengage.

Many of you might be aware of a worldwide ceremony that will take place on June 21, the summer equinox.


Timothy O’Donoghue, Executive Director of the Foundation of Ecology and Harmony of Spirit, has had a vision. Frank MacEowen, author of The Mist-Filled Path has been helping Tim create his vision.


The vision is for June 21, 2003 to be set aside as World Soul Retrieval Day for the shamanic community to have the day be a day where individuals and groups would gather energies together for the sake of doing journeywork on behalf of the Soul of the World.


The invitation is for people to meditate, pray, and do journeywork, specifically to harness a collective energy, and to connect with the wider matrix of energy that informs the Anima Mundi through two journeys: one that takes an assessment of any energies that need to be extracted or purified, i.e., fear, anger, or conflict, which might be dealt with through some kind of grief ritual, and then another journey to explore through a re-balancing process that we are calling a World Soul Retrieval.


For more information on this please go to www.worldsoulretrieval.org. I have written something in this page as well as have other teachers. I wrote about the need to keep this work ongoing and bring spiritual practices into daily life to care for the world’s soul so that we are not performing an empty ritual.

If you want to be a part of this ceremony you can let yourself be inspired of how to work.
But I would like to suggest that we work with transfiguration. In the July 2002 Transmutation News I wrote how to use the transfiguration guided visualization for the purpose of a ceremony to transmute negative states of consciousness. Please refer back to that page so that I don’t have to repeat it again here.


You could do one ceremony where you put in the center the negative states of consciousness you would like to see transmuted in the world today. Perform a transfiguration ceremony with toning as you see, feel, hear, taste and smell these states of consciousness being transformed into love and light now. Then you can burn those papers.


Next you can put in positive states of consciousness you would like to see embraced in the world today. Perform the same transfiguration ceremony with toning to magnify these energies while seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling these states of consciousness being embraced by all now.


If you do this ceremony alone, please remember you are hooked into a greater circle of thousands of people around the world doing this together.


If you are working in a group, please remember as I wrote about last month that there are people working alone. Please remember to include all the people in your circle that are working around the world. Even though you might be physically working alone you are not working alone spiritually.

One June 14, the full moon, let’s gather our spiritual energies together to continue to weave a worldwide web of light as well as lend spiritual support to those who our environment no longer supports.
I want to wish you all a joyous summer solstice.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – May 2003

Over the years I have been sharing with you the practice of transfiguring into your divinity to heal yourself and the planet. We have been performing ceremonies together to focus spiritual light on creating a new dream of a world that embraces unity and love.


I have shared the stories of many mystics who were born with an obvious core way of being that embraces union, love and light.


Some of us get pushed to the edge into finding the power of working with union with the power of the universe, sources, oneness. I have written many times over the years about Jack Schwarz and his ability to heal himself and his attempts to teach others to do the same.


I just returned from teaching in Austria and Switzerland. A friend of mine shared a story with me about a man who survived being in a concentration camp during the war. When the American soldiers went into the camp to free the prisoners they found him to be in great health. He didn’t look like the rest of the people who had been deprived of food and water and who had been put through all kinds of physical trials. The soldiers asked him how he survived so well. He said that when he was placed in the concentration camp he knew he had a choice. He could either hate his captors or he could see their divinity. He chose to see only their divinity and in doing so did not suffer in any way.


This is an amazing example of how we change who we are and how we perceive the world around us as a way to change the world we live in.


When I talk about perceiving the divinity in others as I did last month and in past Transmutation News I am not talking about excusing the behavior and actions of others. But I am talking about recognizing the spirit and light in all life and thereby lifting the frequency and vibration in the world in which we live.


The mystics who lived and healed by being in union with the divine were born with this gift to teach others. We are all born with this gift, it is more we have forgotten the truth of who we are. So some people remember by being pushed to their limits like Jack Schwarz and the survivor of the concentration camp. I just described.


For those of us who prefer not to be pushed to such an extreme edge to wake us we need to make the choice to do the step by step process of traveling within ourselves to make contact with our own divine nature. We cannot see the divinity in others until we can see it in ourselves.


The rewards for this journey are greater than any material wealth can bring us. As you continue your process of unveiling the gold within you discover the true wealth the old alchemists describe


In working with transfiguration for healing and manifesting our dreams and visions it is important for each of us to continue to explore the attitudes, beliefs and emotions that block us from fully experiencing our divine nature.


It is important for us to keep exploring our inner states and not become static around our practices otherwise there is no growth. Growth is required to keep life in the practices we do.


When I taught the process of transfiguration in Medicine for the Earth I spoke about the need to dismember what physically keeps us separate from that source. We also need to work through and dismember the emotional states and beliefs that keep us separate from our true nature.


It is natural for many of us to get blocked with such beliefs that we are not worthy to experience ourselves as divine. Or we might feel that this is fine for others to do, but I don’t have the power to do it myself. There might be feelings of fear that arise as you tap into such an expanded state of consciousness and state of spiritual power. The list goes on as we each are burdened by different emotions and beliefs which end up supporting the energy of separation versus unity.


As we have been doing transfiguration practices together for years now, it is time to examine how we are really doing with our practice. How deep are you going? What is blocking you from reaching a true state of union?

If we want to truly tap into the full potential of the practice of transfiguration for healing and manifestation we must continue to explore our blocks and obstacles to the process.
I would suggest that you begin this month with either the practice of shamanic journeying or meditating on what is blocking you from going deeper with this work. You might also try some automatic writing as I describe on page 32 of Medicine for the Earth. I find that automatic writing is a great process for getting in touch with unconscious beliefs and emotions that are driving us. Begin by writing a question such as, “What unconscious beliefs are blocking me from experiencing my divine nature?” Then just let you pen or pencil move. At first it might feel forced, but if you stay with it the writing will begin to flow. You can keep your eyes part open and part closed. Or you can close your eyes while you write. This can help you move the process out of your intellect.
Once we begin to learn about the beliefs and emotions that are pulling back on our transfiguration process we want to start to work them through.


For ways to do this I need to refer you back to some of the practices in Medicine for the Earth. For example, you can use the process of observation that I describe in Chapter five.


You might want to look at Part VI on Ceremonies. I find that we can work in partnership with the elements to help us release beliefs and emotions that block our creative potential. I wrote about fire ceremonies but you can develop a ceremony using any of the elements. You can create a ceremony where you let water wash away what you are trying to let go. You can ask air to carry away your blocks. You can ask earth to take and transmute your emotions and beliefs. Most important you want to make sure to remember to build into your ceremony the intention to transmute the energy behind your emotions and beliefs into love and light so that you are not dumping them into the earth, air, water and fire.


You can perform your ceremony in ordinary reality which creates a certain power when you have to get physically involved in the process. But you can also perform your ceremony of releasing and transmuting in a meditation or shamanic journey.

I had a request from a reader that we do some merging with the elements again. It is important to keep up the work by learning about the elements by becoming them. I have learned so much over the years by keeping up the practice and not just thinking one experience gives me all the information I will ever need.


This is such a potent time for the element earth. This month let’s merge with earth. I suggest that you merge with the earth where you are living. This will give you a real sense of the energy and power of where you are living.
You can look at pages 152-153 of Medicine for the Earth for how to work with merging.


If you are trained in shamanic journeying you would set you intention to want to merge with the earth where you live. Or you can put on some music and allow yourself to get into an expanded state of consciousness and do a meditation as earth. Notice the movement and heat as earth during this season. It’s really interesting to do this journey during each season.


At the end of your journey or meditation, through intention, disengage from being earth and ground yourself back into your body. Intention is always key with disengaging and grounding. As you know taking a walk outside or doing some exercise is good for grounding also. As you ground yourself to your land you just merged with you continue to deepen your relationship to the land where you live. We are always trying to deepen our connections and relationships as we continue our work.

I have had a big year for traveling and teaching. I have met so many people who told me how much they liked reading Medicine for the Earth. I always hear the same comment however about how many exercises there are to do as if they are a burden.

As I am preparing to do a lecture for a CD for Sounds True on Medicine for the Earth I am rereading the book. In the introduction I explained that the exercises are suggestions of how you can work with bringing the material into your daily life. I can’t find anywhere that I wrote you have to do all the exercises.


I think some of us get into a place of feeling as if you have been given homework. I want to remind all of you of the Haitian proverb I also quote:
“The gods won’t appear, the magic won’t happen, if we are not living our real life. Studying life is not living life and therefore has no magic.”


There are so many inspirational books available and so many workshops taught around the world on spiritual practices. I see the shadow side of such an abundance of material that people end up studying spirituality as if it was an academic course in school.


Books and courses should inspire you to change how you live your life. Your practices should sculpt you into a person that goes beyond the projections placed on you and who society told you you should be.


Please don’t see the exercises I have given in Medicine for the Earth as “homework”. Please allow yourself to read the book and suggestions of practices to bring into your daily life to bring you to living your life in a way that contains magic.


It’s all about how we end up living our life that makes a difference not how much knowledge we accumulate.

I taught workshops over in Switzerland and Austria during the month of April. Some of you shared with me that you wanted to participate in the ceremonies that I have been sharing in the Transmutation News but you have felt so isolated as you have no one in your life to perform them with.
I have been attempting to help us feel connected to a larger circle. I know this is harder to experience when we are home alone trying to do our ceremonies when you know others have circles where they are done in community.


I thought this month we could focus our energies on expanding our circle outside of our home and smaller communities we work in so we can embrace all of us around the world who feel isolated in our practices.

I suggest that on the full moon we continue to weave a planetary web of light. But let’s also all get into a transfigured state and in that state feel yourself connecting to all the people in the world who are working together on this day. Feel yourself connected to one circle of love and support.
Those of you who do work in groups focus your energies in expanding out and reaching your light and love to those working alone. We are never alone spiritually, yet we can feel alone when we are physically working in isolation.


Let’s focus our energies to really create a world community coming together to create a web of light for the planet. Open your heart and feel the connection. There is great power in this as we remember we are a field of energy that none of us are separate from.


And let’s remember to embrace those women and children around the world for whom our environment no longer supports life.

The full moon is May 15.

Pythagoras urged humankind “to prefer the treasures of the mind and soul to accumulations of earthly goods.” On the Golden Verses of Pythagoras he says that if we transcend our lower material nature, we will once again unite with the gods and partake of their immortality.


Ancient writers, mystics, healers and teachers have been trying to share with us the great wealth that we can gain from doing the alchemical work in and through the dense darkness inside.


Think of the practices we are doing together as a great adventure instead of one more thing you have to add to your busy schedule. We are all looking for freedom. Freedom lies in you.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – July 2002

The key to the Medicine for the Earth work is the process of transfiguration. This process has unlimited and untapped potential today. Participants who have completed a Medicine for the Earth Gathering continue to amaze me with stories of how the continued practice of transfiguration has changed their lives.

In the March 2002 Transmutation News I explain in a simpler fashion what I wrote in Medicine for the Earth about transfiguration. If you are new to this web page and need some further explanation please check back to this page.

Here are a few stories to inspire you to do the practice yourself. One of my friends has been hosting a circle where they continue to work with the process of transmutation through transfiguration. She has noticed how the whole energy of her land has changed and that her garden is more vibrant than ever.

When we transfigure on a regular basis into a divine force a veil between the worlds opens. The sacredness of other realms enters into our realm and changes the vibration of our bodies and the places where we live forever. This is why I feel it is so important for us to transfigure on a regular basis as it truly has the potential of changing the vibration of our planet. The more we create a sacred vibration here the easier it is to transform the darkness and the negative states of consciousness we are surrounded with today.

At one of my trainings the group performed a transmutation ceremony for water contaminated with ammonium hydroxide that was in our circle as well as some people in the middle of the circle to be healed. The group transfigured into a divine force and worked on the water as well as the participants in the middle. One of the participants had debilitating lupus and could barely walk. A few days after the ceremony she was hiking!

I recently talked to one of my students and she told me an amazing story. She was at a business meeting with a group of people she works with. One of the members said that he had prostate cancer and was requesting a healing ceremony. She had the group form a circle and asked him to go into the middle and lie down. She asked everyone in the circle to stand and go inside themselves and find a place where the divine lives, or God, or whatever fit in each person’s belief system. From that place of divinity she asked everyone to tone. She had also told people that if during the toning anyone felt called to go into the center and put their hands near the friend they were healing to do so.

A few days after the ceremony the man called and reported that he had gone for a medical test and that the cancer was gone.

In this instance my student brought people into a transfigured state in an immediate and simple way. She did not need to explain the process. What she did was say go inside yourself and find your own divinity. I was very impressed with how she worked.
So you can see there are many ways to work. And the reports I am getting are that transfiguration changes lives in a positive way whether it is performed in a group or by a person alone.

Based on the positive feedback I am getting I want to encourage you to begin a practice of transfiguration this month. The work you do this month will lead up to a powerful healing ceremony I would like to lead us on for the fall equinox. The first step will be to experience being transfigured into a divine force. And next month I will give you the next step.

Begin by reading the chapters on Embodying the Divine, Dismemberment and also Transfiguration in Medicine for the Earth. You will find these chapters on pages 169-198.

After you have read these chapters there are different ways to proceed. If you have been trained in shamanic journeying you might want to perform a journey. The intention of this journey would be to go to a power animal or teacher and tell them that you want to be dismembered and then transfigured into a divine force. Come back from the journey in a state of divinity and begin toning to keep up this state. When you feel done go back into the journey and do a regular return where you return fully into your body. You can also just try experiencing that state of divinity in a journey and when the return beat comes disengage from that state and return fully to your body.

The reason I suggest coming back and toning is that when you return to ordinary reality in this state and tone this is what changes the vibration in your life and world. Changes don’t happen in a journey alone. There needs to be work done in ordinary reality to change the vibration in yourself and the space where you are living. But you do want to disengage from this state. So it is important to go back into the journey and return completely.


If you are not trained in shamanic journeying I suggest you work with the visualization on page 184-187. I have worked with this visualization in a few groups with powerful results. I tried this visualization with some people very experienced in shamanic journeying and some of them had the most profound experience of their lives.

There are a couple of ways you can work. If you want to try this alone you can record the visualization. I would suggest finding one or more persons that you can do this with. You can either play the tape in the group or one person can read it.

One day I hope to make a tape of this visualization but as I haven’t yet, you need to make one for yourself.

There is a place in the visualization where you need to stop to do the toning. If you finish the visualization completely you will end up coming back too far.

Here is what I do in groups:
I stop after the second paragraph on page 186. So I end with the sentence, “And your heartbeat is in harmony with the one.”

Then I improvise a bit and add something like this:
“You are one with the source.
You are source. You are divine.
There is only one source, and it is you.
Remember you are pure light and love.
It is only love that heals.
The universe has a song. This song is you. Listen to the song and stand up toning your love and light.”


When I do this in a group I ask that people sit in a chair that is comfortable or you can sit on the floor. You can also lie down and get up when it is time to tone.

I instruct groups beforehand that the toning will come to a natural end. Some people stop toning before the end. I ask people if they are done to just keep praying for healing and hold a sacred space. This is an important point.


If you choose to try this in a group you might wish to put someone in the middle who is in need of healing. If you are doing this alone just notice how your own energy and body shifts when you are done.

Make sure you are truly back when you are done. If you need to feel more grounded take a walk outside and sit with a tree, plant, or rock. Or you can imagine yourself sitting with a tree and moving your deep roots into the earth as a tree does.

Please do not drive or do anything that needs your full ordinary reality attention until you feel fully back.


Please feel free to improvise your own visualization. You don’t have to use the one 1 have written.

You can also try just going inside and find a divine place inside of you and tone from this place.

As I have written in Medicine for the Earth the reason I have people tone is I have found that it is the easiest way to hold a transfigured, divine state. If you have never done any toning you just let your own voice produce sounds that match up with the divine state, the light and the love you are experiencing.


The more you practice transfiguring the faster the process becomes. And I hope you will experience the same positive results as others have.

Again, please practice transfiguring so you will be ready to perform a healing ceremony for the planet on the fall equinox.


As an author who has published four books, one of them self-published, I watch what is going on in the publishing world. Today the major publishers, like other businesses, are only concerned with the bottom line. Smaller publishers who care more about providing service are having a hard time staying alive, as they can’t always get bookshelf space in the major bookstores. Many wonderful books never get published or are being yanked off shelves and put out of print because they don’t have a wide enough audience. The only books that will ultimately make it out into the larger public are books that will sell big numbers.

There are some brilliant books I have seen that are never published because they speak to a smaller audience. Many books today are being put out of print for the same reason.

As I watch what is happening in the publishing world I do start to worry about Medicine for the Earth. Due to a series of “coincidences” I was led to publish with Three Rivers Press which is a division of Random House. I trust that the spirits I work with did not lead me astray. But my nature is to worry. And yes I do my work to transmute my tendency toward worry. At this point the spiritual work I have been working with in some ways is grass roots. I know it will take off when more people realize that we really have an environmental problem and that many health problems today are caused by environmental pollution. But for now I am trying to get us all organized in a way so that we can easily slip this work into a larger public when the ground work has been laid.

I know that even if Medicine for the Earth would go out of print I could get it republished. But there would be a six month to a year lag time. This could be damaging to the work. I can only share a certain amount of Medicine for the Earth with you on this web page. In my trainings and lectures I only have time to share a piece of the work. Having a book which includes all the information the spirits want people to get is essential.

If you feel that it is in your heart to let the publishing world know that books like Medicine for the Earth are wanted and needed I hope you will help spread the word to people you know.

I meet many people as I travel who tell me that they love my web page, but they have not bought Medicine for the Earth yet. If you are one of these people I hope you will consider buying the book now. Or maybe there is a friend you might want to gift with a copy of the book. Or maybe there is an organization you might want to gift the book to.

Remember the key to our work is working in cooperation and collaboration with the spirits. They will not do it all for us. I am moving into a more active role myself of trying to get Medicine for the Earth to a broader audience who is interested in environmental work. I hope if this work speaks to your heart that you will help in whatever small way you can.


If you have questions about the transfiguration process or if you have any ideas on organizations I should contact about the work, please drop me a note at:
Sandra Ingerman, P.O. Box 4757, Santa Fe, NM 87502.


Thanks for your commitment to being in service to the planet in whatever way destiny leads you to. I do feel the greatest service to the planet is the light and love we allow to shine through us as we walk through the world.

As St. Germain said, “The high road as distinguished from the low road, is the way of the alchemist, whose heart is in the shining glory all the day and all the way that his pilgrim feet walk the dusty ways of man—transmuting, transmuting, and transmuting that dust into purest radiance.”


Please remember that we join our hearts and light together to continue to weave a human web of light around the globe on the full moon which is July 24.

Back to Shaman Resources

Transmutation News – March 2002

I just returned from meeting with a group who participated in the five-day Medicine for the Earth Gathering in June of last year. We decided to meet again and share how our work has been going. It was very exciting to see how everyone is taking this work out into the world in his or her own way.

During one of our sessions we got into a discussion about transfiguration. In Medicine for the Earth I shared how in a dream I was told that this was the missing piece to the transmutation work I was attempting to share.

There was agreement with the entire group how invaluable the practice of transfiguration has been in each person’s lives. The positive changes that this practice has produced for everyone is quite exciting.

There is such brilliant work going on from all different groups around the world in working on solutions to our environmental issues. The piece that the Medicine for the Earth work brings to the puzzle is the process of transfiguration.

Although everyone in the group agreed that this process has been life changing there were a lot of questions of how to explain transfiguration to others. Sometimes we can experience spiritual practices and have a great effect from them, but it can be hard to find the words to share in the explanation. I figured if the people who are practicing transfiguration are confused on how to explain and understand the process you might be too.

As this is so key to the transmutation work I describe in Medicine for the Earth, I would like to explain it again.

In different esoteric teachings you will see the statement “as above so below, as within so without.” In our lives we often put spiritual sources of power outside of ourselves. We see God outside of ourselves, power animals and spiritual teachers outside of ourselves, deities outside of ourselves, etc. From a spiritual perspective these spiritual forces are “us” too.

In all my books I shared a message from “the voice” which came to me in a dream in the 1980’s. The voice said, “Man has been looking for God outside of himself for the last two thousand years. Man will be looking for God inside of himself for the next two thousand years.”

Transfiguration is a practice that helps us experience our own divinity in whatever form that takes to fit our philosophical, religious, and spiritual beliefs. The actual definition in Webster’s of transfiguration is shapeshifting. So in the process we shapeshift into a divine force.

Many saints, mystics, and spiritual masters are sometimes described as shining brighter than any light seen. This is the process of transfiguration. And the process is not reserved for spiritual masters. You can do it to.

When we look at the obsession today with gathering money, material objects, relationships, etc. what are people truly seeking? We are seeking spiritual light. We are just looking for it in all the wrong places. When we experience spiritual light through some divine force inside of us we are fulfilled. We realize that what we need in life is available to us in ourselves. We stop reaching to outside forces for safety, enlightenment, and happiness. We begin to get in touch with our creative energy. We start to transmute as we walk through the world.

If you have not been working with the process of transfiguration please look at the section which discusses the process in Medicine for the Earth. I am not suggesting you transfigure to a level where you cannot live your life and you have to move to a cave where people bring you food. There are many levels to the process. I am talking about getting in touch with your divinity and letting your light shine through you which will give you the power to manifest light and love in your life and transform those problematic forces which need to be transformed.

One of the questions that the group I was in spoke about is how there is not one way to transfigure. As people sat around talking about the process we realized that everyone did it in a different way. So although I offer suggestions in Medicine for the Earth you might find that you need to find your own way. You will find that you need to encompass all the elements of the formula for transmutation. You need a strong intention and must stay focused and concentrate on your intention. You need to embrace love for yourself and your divine nature and be clear that you are doing this to bring harmony within and without. You need to be in union with your creator. And you need to be able to imagine that you have the capability to transfigure into the divine.

I find in my own transfiguration practice my level of concentration only allows me to stay in this state for a short period of time. With practice one can maintain this state for longer periods. Again the end result we are looking for is carrying a light inside that transforms your life and the environment as you walk through the world.

I hoped you felt good about the water ritual you performed in February. I think it is very important to understand that the more we can work together as a collective the better results we will see in healing our environment, creating a new dream, and transforming consciousness.

A friend of mine shared with me the following excerpt that was on an online Reiki newsletter:

Global Consciousness is Being Measured by William Lee Reed

“A team of researchers headed by Roger Nelson of Princeton University has been conducting an experiment to measure the effects of focused global consciousness on random events. They have had some very interesting results.

Called the Global Consciousness Project, their experiment involves the use of 37 computers located around the world using random number generators to flip virtual coins. The experiment has been going on since 1998. Each computer flips 200 virtual coins at a time and the results of all computers are compared. The results are usually completely random, with the virtual coin tosses come up heads or tails 50% of the time.

However, when a global event takes place that focuses the attention of billions of people, the randomness of the coin tosses changes and they tend to go significantly more one way than another. In other words they become more coherent or non-random. This took place on September 11 when so many people worldwide were focused on the events of the World Trade Center disaster. This produced the strongest effect so far, but other events have coincided with changes in randomness too, including:

Each New Years Eve, the papal visit to Israel, the first hour of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia, a variety of global meditations, several major earthquakes, the funeral for Princess Diana and last years sinking of Russia’s Kursk submarine.

This seems to indicate that consciousness has an effect on other wise random events.”


I spoke with Roger Nelson a few years ago as I was thinking of trying to get a random, number generator to use at my workshops. It was clear that I was not ready to work with one yet, as it is a quite complex system. But I think the point that is being shown is that when we focus together something happens.

Last month we focused together to let the element water including all the waters of the world know that we love you and appreciate all that you give to us. We placed pure water into a water source where we live to help water remember its purity and divinity.


As we will be celebrating the spring equinox together on March 20 I suggest that we honor “earth” together. On March 20 go outside and hold some soil in your hand. Rub the earth between your fingers. Give love and appreciation to “earth” for all it provides for us and for its life.

If the only way you can do this is with soil from a potted plant then use this. The point is, just do it!

As I wrote in a past transmutation news: The earth is alive and if we would deepen our relationship with it, it would once again produce an abundance that we can only imagine.

We must once again feed our relationship with “earth”. As our relationship with earth is drying up so is the earth.

Here is another practice that you can start with the beginning of spring. Plant some seeds in a pot in your house. You might consider using some herb seeds that are easy to grow like parsley. You can also get a new houseplant. Over the next months notice what thoughts and beliefs you are feeding “your garden”. See this plant as the garden of your life. Notice how you take care of “your garden”.

Notice how with nurturance your plant grows without being forced to grow.

This month be observant to how balanced you are in allowing growth and change in your life versus forcing it.

In a shamanic journey once, the Egyptian god Osiris said to me, “It doesn’t take real strength when one only uses will. Real strength is when one can open and surrender to the powers that be.”

If you would like to contact me about how the ceremonies for water and earth have been for you, please write me at P.O. Box Santa Fe, NM 87502. If there is any comments you would like publish on this web page let me know.

Please remember to join us in continuing to nurture the global web of light on the full moon which is March 28. If you have been practicing transfiguring into a divine force, you might wish to try transfiguring before you work with the web. You will find that your experience changes and what you contribute to the web is greatly amplified.
Next month we will perform a ceremony to honor “air”.

Happy Spring!!

Back to Shaman Resources