Rite Two: Healer's Rite : Opening Sacred Space, the 7 Directions

The Seven Directions:  Open Sacred Space

When you begin your healing work, sacred space must be opened.  Place your hands together, palms inward, at your heart.  Raise them up into the 8th chakra, which is just above the crown chakra, and open your hands out, palms outward. Spread your hands down to create the luminous energy field.  

See the picture below (thank you, Alex) Return your hands to prayer position.  

Continue opening to the seven directions.

South              

To the winds of the South,  Great Serpent, Satchamama

Wrap your coils of light around us. Teach us to shed the past the way you shed your skin.  To walk softly on the Earth.  Teach us the Beauty Way.  Walk with us.

West

To the winds of the West, Mother Jaguar, Otorongo

Protect our medicine space. Teach us the way of peace, to live impeccably

Show us the way beyond death.  Walk with us.

North

To the winds of the North, Hummingbird, Sewacanthe, Grandmothers and Grandfathers, Ancient Ones, Come and warm your hands by our fires

Whisper to us in the wind. We honor you who have come before us,

And you who will come after us, our children’s children.  Walk with us.

East

To the winds of the East, Great eagle, Condor.

Come to us from the place of the rising Sun. Keep us under your wing. 

Show us the mountains we only dare to dream of…

Teach us to fly wing to wing with the Great Spirit. Fly with us.

Mother Earth

We’ve gathered for the healing of all of your children

The Stone People, the Plant People, The four-legged, the two-legged, the creepy crawlers,The finned, the furred, and the winged ones, All our relations.  Be with us.

Father Sun

Father Sun, Grandmother Moon, to the Star Nations  Great Spirit, known by a thousand names. And you who are the unnamable One. 

Thank you for bringing us together and allowing us to sing the Song of Life.

Interior Being  (Hands on heart.  Focus energy on YOU.  Silent prayers.)

–When you have finished your healing work, sacred space must be closed. It is important to close the Sacred Space every night or at the end of the work week. Sacred space can also be opened at home to create an atmosphere of peace and protection. To close the space, follow the same procedure as for the opening, acknowledging the four directions, Mother Earth and Father Sky. Thank the archetypes for being with you—serpent, jaguar, hummingbird, and eagle—and release their energies to return to the four corners of the Earth.

Lesson 2:  Crossing the Hummingbird Bridge

Shamans always begin healing ceremonies by opening sacred space.  If you walk the medicine path, you are a student.  You may be called as a Healer.  You may be called as a Lightworker.  This calling does not make you a shaman.  Your presence here today, does not make you a shaman.  It makes you a student, an initiate. When you complete the study and practice of Wisdomkeeping, you may be initiated into a specific tradition, and then, teach others.  If you plant the seeds of these teachings, they will sprout and grow into incredible and powerful skills.

Your commitment today puts you on the Hummingbird Bridge.  Will you study and practice?  Will you walk the walk?  Will these seeds burst forth within you?  Will you make it to the other side?  Will it take a week or a year, or many, many years for the effects to take place?  Will you turn back and forget where you are (been there, done that)?

Before you take the Healer's Rite, you must learn to call upon the energy of the four cardinal Directions, then, Mother, Father and Self.  You will practice the importance of opening sacred space for yourself and how to protect others.  

The practice of creating sacred space has been used by shamans in all areas of the world.  It provides a safe and sacred space within which to work.

In this space, we leave behind the affairs of ordinary life, the bustling world of meetings and schedules, and prepare to meet the Divine.  Sacred space allows us to enter our quiet minds, where healing takes place.

Within sacred space, our burdens become lighter, and we can be touched by the hand of Spirit.  After we finish our healing work, sacred space must be closed again, acknowledging the seven directions.

Sacred space is a healing sphere that is pure, holy and safe.  Imagine it as a shimmering cupola above the area where you do your healing work.  Everyone within this space is protected.  Sacred space creates an environment where our defenses can be lowered, where we can explore our soft underbelly. 

Sacred space also gives us access to the luminous healer – the medicine men and women who assist us from the Spirit world.

You can create sacred space and summon the healing power of nature anywhere on Earth.  You can use it while your own prayer reveals itself to you.  The shaman’s covenant with Spirit is that when she calls, Spirit answers.  

Powerful medicine people from the Spirit world appear (the Earthkeepers) in the form of luminous beings who assist us in our healing work.  You can employ a smudge stick of sage, palo santo, frankincense, or copaiba, or scented water if you like.  Shamans throughout the Americas accompany their prayer by fanning the sage or burnt offering with an eagle or condor feather in the appropriate direction they are addressing, or holding their hand up to the sky and saluting each point.