Category: Applied Shamanism
Blog: Huna: Aka-Mana Patterns
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
The idea of Aka and Mana is drawn from Huna, a tradition of knowledge that has been stored in Hawaii for the last thousand years or so. According to its oral history, it was brought to Hawaii for conservation in times of darkness. You can trace the progression of Huna from northern Africa all the way to India and throughout Melanesia. This system of knowledge has become incorporated into certain native practices of Hawaiian Shamanism.
Blog: Boundaries: A Case Study
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
When people come into my office with relationship problems, they do not always realize they’re dealing with boundary issues. Many people think if they’re being treated badly in relationship, they must be doing something wrong. This is generally due to a lack of understanding about boundaries, and this lack of understanding usually stems from a place of unworthiness. The person being mistreated believes they’re flawed in some way, and makes compromises to stay in relationships where they are suffering. Boundary issues almost always arise when a person doesn’t feel lovable, and consequently, they’re willing to do almost anything to get another person’s approval. Because they don’t love themselves, they are dependent on others to be sources of love and validation.
On the Air: Inner Truth Podcast: Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.: Discover Your Shamanic Superpowers
What lies beyond the world we can see with our eyes?
The answer is a lot more than you might think!
There is a language hidden in the world of things seen, that can help us to understand what is really going on in the world around us.
Shamanism is one of the ways we can see through and integrate the physical and spiritual planes of existence.
It is one of the oldest wisdom traditions known to man and having fallen temporarily onto the fringe of popular culture, it is now becoming popular again amongst a generation of people keen to learn indigenous wisdom and reconnect with spirit.
Blog: Inner Truth: Taking the Shamanic Journey
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
As we move deeper into fall, we are reaping the harvest of our busy spring and summer here at Sacred Stream. We’ve been collaborating with colleagues to create new platforms for carrying out our mission, and they’re changing the way we work to fulfill our mission. Our mission statement says, “We understand that there is a common source of wisdom that underlies all authentic spiritual, cultural and artistic traditions that informs and enlivens them. And while each tradition may take a different form, like plants along a riverbank, each is sustained by the same source. Each workshop we create, each artist or guest teacher we host, and each resource we post is offered to you with the intention of illuminating another way to deepen your own connection to this source, attain a broader perspective, and receive inspiration from it.” These collaborations will multiply our offerings, allowing more people to receive the inspiration and the perspective-altering wisdom of the classes we teach through the Sacred Stream.
Article: The Shamanic Practices of Space Clearing: Part Two
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
When the Space Clearing Society doesn’t have any requests for services, we offer healing ceremonies for events that happened in the distant past in places around the globe.
Shamanic healing as a practice is complex. Many of the practices that shamans have engaged with for millennia can seem foreign to modern people, yet at the same time, oddly familiar. One practice has to do with conceiving of time and space in a different way. No shamanic practice is dependent on time or space, and shamans can perform an effective healing on someone who is miles away. They can even offer healing to situations that have already occurred. This is because shamans work “outside of time.”
Many of us do “work outside of time” as we daydream about the future and mull over the past, and that is why this work seems familiar. But when we engage in this way, it is also unfamiliar to think about having a powerful effect on events that lie outside our present experience.
Article: Circles for the Earth: Restoring the Health of the Planet
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Fires in California, chemical and oil spills, deadly heatwaves in India, floods in Japan, the extinction of species after species…
People are often uncertain of how they can protect the wellbeing of the planet in these calamitous times. While it can be overwhelming, it’s important to realize we can create change by engaging in social activism, and by individually and collectively aligning ourselves with the forces of nature, just as shamans have done since time immemorial. With the Circles for the Earth, shamanic practitioners gather to create positive change by focusing on a common intention.
Article: The Shamanic Practices of Space Clearing: Part One
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
It was a foggy summer day in 2003, and as I was trying to ascertain if the fog had any intention of clearing, the phone rang. I answered it and the voice at the other end spoke in a hushed tone, “Look, you are going to think I am crazy, but I think we have ghosts. Someone said you might know what to do about that.”
The woman calling was one of the administrative managers at a non-profit foundation that had taken up residence in the Presidio, a former military installation that had been turned over to the National Park Service several years before. When I assured her that I didn’t think she was crazy and that there might be something I could do to help, she opened up.
She said, “Well, we have a whole section of our offices that people are just refusing to work in. Some say they feel chills when they go there, others say they see shadows in the ladies’ room mirrors, and we often hear the doors open and close when no one is near them. The electrical system has shorted out for no apparent reason at least four times in the last three months. We really don’t know what to do. We are paying rent for that part of the building, and we need to be able to use it.”
As it turns out, they were housed in a building that had been a military hospital from 1898 until it closed in 1994. Many wounded soldiers spent time recovering in that building. There was also a psychiatric ward, and many people who had experienced a great deal of trauma passed through the building for nearly one hundred years.
Article: Finding Myself on the Path
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
In the summer of 2013 Thupten Jinpa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s principle English language interpreter, asked me if the Foundation of the Sacred Stream would be willing to host a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Gaden Shartse Dokhang. His former monastic house had fallen on difficult times, and he felt a year-long cross-cultural exchange tour in the United States would help them out of those difficulties. I had no idea what it would entail to host such a tour, but if Jinpa asked me to create a bridge to the far side of the moon, I would figure out a way to do it. I was honored to be asked, and there was no question in my mind that I would help him.
Blog: The Call to the Shamanic Path
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
I am often asked how people can know if the shamanic path is a path that is right for them. Of course, this is a very important question – but only the individual can really know if the shamanic path is right for them. When people ask me this question, I ask, “Have you had anything out of the ordinary happen to you? You may have had anomalous experiences – you may have felt a shift in the light and a sense of a presence of something unseen. Or perhaps you have vivid dreams while those around report never dreaming, or perhaps you have had an illness or a calamity befall you which has changed you and separated you from those around you. And you may have set off on a path to try to understand these experiences.” If this is the case, it is likely that education related to the shamanic path will be helpful to you.
Blog: Listening to the Sacred Earth
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
If we listen, the earth has much to tell us. When humans lived closer to the earth, they understood that great wisdom was held in the trees, the plants, the rocks and the sea. They communicated with the earth, and learned ways of listening to the wisdom she had to offer. For example, the shaman of a tribe is often described as talking to the plants to learn the nature of their medicine. Ways of gathering this kind wisdom are still preserved by many indigenous cultures. The vision quest and the shamanic journey are just two examples of these processes that are accessible to us today.
On the Air: Inner Truth Podcast Episode #001: Conflict As A Gateway To Peace with Isa Gucciardi
The Inner Truth podcast looks at the central questions of human life, what does it mean to be human, and how can we be fully alive? Inner Truth explores answers to these questions through ancient and contemporary spiritual wisdom along with insights from the fields of psychology, philosophy, and mythology. It also looks at the role of shamanism, meditation, and reconnection with nature as tributaries into the inner self, the wellspring of our inner source in knowledge.
In the premier episode, Inner Truth host David Newell catches up with Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. – Founding Director and lead teacher of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream – to talk about conflict, the ways we can take steps to resolve it, and how it can be gateway to profound internal growth and healing.
On The Air: Buddha at the Gas Pump Episode #427: Sudden or Gradual: Two Paths to Realization?
Rick Archer created Buddha at the Gas Pump in the Fall of 2009 and has since interviewed countless spiritually awakening people, from the well-known to the unknown, and from a variety of backgrounds and traditions. He conducts a new interview each week in hopes to help ordinary people share their experience of awakening.
In this episode, Archer leads a panel alongside previous BATGAP guests Isa Gucciardi, David F. Buckland, and Michael Rodriguez to address a perennial debate in spiritual traditions: whether realization is direct (sudden) or progressive (gradual). This talk was recorded October 22, 2017 at the Science and Nonduality Conference.
On The Air: Buddha at the Gas Pump Episode #427: Sudden or Gradual: Two Paths to Realization?
Rick Archer created Buddha at the Gas Pump in the Fall of 2009 and has since interviewed countless spiritually awakening people, from the well-known to the unknown, and from a variety of backgrounds and traditions. He conducts a new interview each week in hopes to help ordinary people share their experience of awakening.
In this episode, Archer leads a panel alongside previous BATGAP guests Isa Gucciardi, David F. Buckland, and Michael Rodriguez to address a perennial debate in spiritual traditions: whether realization is direct (sudden) or progressive (gradual). This talk was recorded October 22, 2017 at the Science and Nonduality Conference.
Video: The Nature of Universal Power
Isa Gucciardi discusses the differences between universal power and personal power and the interplay between the two. She discusses the play of negative intention and how it impacts the energy exchanges that form the basis of relationships between people. Isa is the author of Coming to Peace, the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream, and the creator of the ground-breaking therapeutic model, Depth Hypnosis. This talk takes place at the Sacred Stream Center in Berkeley, CA.
Video: Perspectives on Empowerment in Buddhist & Shamanic Practice
Isa Gucciardi discusses the similarities and differences in initiatory power in shamanism and Buddhism. She explores the concepts of deity meditation, vajrayana practices, and working with power. Isa is the author of Coming to Peace, the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream, and the creator of the ground-breaking therapeutic model, Depth Hypnosis. This talk takes place at the Sacred Stream Center in Berkeley, CA.