Soul Retrieval.

My husband and I have bought a few homes in the last 20 years.  Like everyone else when searching for a home we always choose a city or community we feel we would most be comfortable in; we list house specifics; and when we find something we like we make sure to have the building inspected.  I don’t know too many people who will take the time to knock at neighbouring houses to see if the neighbours are actually friendly.  I’ve noticed through helping KM (real estate agent) that many individuals will move from their homes because of conflicts with neighbours.  It doesn’t matter how close or how far people live from their most immediate neighbours – feuds have existed over territory for millenniums. 

Why is it so difficult to get along?

I often think that many of the conflicts that we have with our neighbours, our spouses, our family members (parents, siblings etc…) and even our children are not about relationships with others; but about how we relate to ourselves.  They are clues so to speak to uncovering the details of our personal story.

The Medicine Wheel teaches each of us to work with “our inner community.”  In some way it identifies “humans or any other living creature on Earth as a collective being.”  Some people may state that “we are naturally multiple”.  I don’t like the use of the word “multiple” simply because it’s used in therapeutic circles to diagnose a condition; which speaks of fragmentation due to horrible, childhood trauma.  The Wheel doesn’t suggest that we “fragment.”  Instead, the Wheel mentions that the soul constantly and consistently searches for wholeness.  In Shamanism we speak of this journey as “soul retrieval.” 

When exploring the idea of “soul retrieval” many Medicine People across the Planet and through time have left us with some incredible clues towards “why?” the soul does this…  One may definitely be connected to trauma.  Lifetime after lifetime we do seem to encounter trauma; which fragments the soul into different pieces.  Yet, one of the most plausible reasons for division is based on natural law. 

I recently took a trip to the Eastern townships, a rural area 40mins from Montreal; which is re-known for being cottage country because it has no black flies and mosquitoes; lots of lakes, mountains and beautiful scenery.  Often when teaching about the Wheel I’ve mentioned how our Indigenous ancestors once used it, as a medium to control and manage pests. 

The magnetic field created by a Medicine Wheel will create a sound and impression, which insects, rodents and other animals will respond to as a claim in territory.  In the Eastern townships a lot of the soil is crystal base so much so that you can pick it up off the ground as if it is gravel.  Clear crystal like the Medicine Wheel will create a magnetic signature:  One of many reasons why there aren’t any black flies and mosquitoes in this region.  Where you can find crystals as big as 6 feet tall in this environment, most of the crystals have been broken down into pieces as small as pebbles because of time and the elements. 

The soul is often referred to as a “crystal” and like the crystals in nature it simply makes sense that time and weather would also divide our soul into pebbles.  One whole crystal will not have the same effect on a mountain as million pieces spread through a whole valley.  I believe nature tells us why our soul divides and searches to retrieve its different pieces through the dreaming.  It seems almost obvious to some degree that the soul searches to explore deeper and deeper the different dimensions of what it means to be collective:  Whole and One.

Crystals live with crystals and they resonate to each other.  It seems at the soul level we as “creatures” also seem to need one another and we also seem to search to resonate.  Where it may take 100,000 years for a piece of wood to petrify or a rock to crystallize, the same natural laws seem to apply to our soul.  I guess we shouldn’t discourage when we explore reincarnation (ancestral stories) and work on ourselves…

In the last 25 years and three homes later – we’ve noticed how we always seem to attract the same kind of patterns around us.  For example, the neighbours on the left side of our home always seem to go through huge renovations during the course of our stay.  Often these renovations are the reason why we move.  The neighbours in front of us are always old.  We usually never really speak to them unless there’s a crisis and we can help.  Death is often what brings these neighbours to move and by the time they sell their house, we’ve already left the community.  Our neighbours on the right are always very talkative and friendly.  Ironically, they always express that they had huge conflicts with the people who lived in our house before we moved in. It’s amazing that every house we’ve lived in has repeated this exact pattern. 

We’ve looked at this waking dream from different perspectives in the last 3 decades. We’ve tried to change the situation by working through some of the issues we were able to pin point.  We’ve changed attitudes and behaviours in hope to make a difference.   When nothing changed we dug deeper and tried again.  These days, we look at these different patterns as details within our territory.  We understand them as characteristics and at some level:  Protection. 

Like I often teach my students – dreaming isn’t only about the messages we can receive and how they manifest in our lives.  Dreaming can also be about connections we have to the land and the environment.  There’s no doubt in my mind that my soul is bigger than a pea size dot lodged somewhere in my cerebral cortex.  The World around me describes it in subtle details and experiences.  Every day is about the Breath of Life and our soul seems to speak through it.