Medicine and spiritual powers

By Medicine I do not mean paracetamol or aspirin, or any other type of Pharmacutical remedy. I refer to medicine in the way that Shamans do.

Medicine is something that makes you whole; it is your unique abilities, your personal power and your link to the world of spirit.

Medicine is given to us by the spirits, by the Mother Earth, Father Sun, Grandmother Moon, our Totems and by Great Spirit. It is something that we should use with care but also pride, it is who we are and if we use it correctly it can grow, whereas if we abuse it, it diminishes.

Totems and Power Allies

As I said, one of the Common beliefs in shamanic culture is that certain guides and guardians accompany us all on our life paths. Most commonly these guides and guardians take the form of Animal, bird, mineral or plant spirits. We split these into two categories. The first is the Totem, this is something we are born with, and according to the Medicine wheel of Sun Bear's vision, we are each born with one Animal, one Mineral and one plant Totem. For readers interested in learning more about this I refer you to two very good books; The Medicine wheel: Earth Astrology By Sun Bear and Wabun, and Dancing with the wheel by Sun Bear, Wabun wind and Crysalis Mulligan and I have provided a link on the page Guides, Totems and Allies.

Power allies are spirits that are with us at certain points in our life, they come to teach us about how to handle a situation, or they come to us with gifts, such as art, healing, hunting or to give us protection. Power allies come and go as they will, and ca stay for a few hours, or all our lives, they can come up at different points in our lives and keep coming up when needed. A power ally can be a mineral, an ancestor, an animal, a bird, a plant, even a dinosaur or angel.

Modern Totems and Allies

In the Modern World we can look for other Totems that our ancestors didn't have at the time, such as Car or Aircraft for Allies of Travel, Computer for a Totem of information, Television or Radio for Bardic/Expressive Totems, perhaps even Bomb for a Berserker's Totem. Look deeply and see what "modern" things represent your personality.

Blessing and Karma

As I said, if we use the medicine we have in good ways it will grow, if we abuse it, it will diminish.

By a good way I mean, being generous, caring for the community and the environment and sharing your medicine with others. Abusing the medicine can be being selfish, using your medicine for personal gain and polluting the environment.

The more good work we do with our medicine the more blessing we receive, in the form of good luck, health, more medicine, food and anything that we need. The more bad work we do with the medicine the more we suffer, with ill health, bad luck, hunger, debt and any bad things. This is called Karma. The worse we get, the more it affects both this life and the next. The truth is that once you have abused your medicine, you must pay the consequences. The belief held in Wicca that whatever you give out comes back to you three times; is in many ways very true.