Shapeshifting Into Higher Consciousness
by Llyn Roberts
O-Books, John Hunt Publishing Ltd. 2011
Book Excerpt | Chapter 1 – Shapeshifting and Higher Consciousness
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.” – Joseph Campbell
What is Shapeshifting?
Described in simplest terms, Shapeshifting is about changing from one state to another. It is innate to us all and the calling card of nature and life. Everyone has experienced nature’s Shapeshifting. Do you remember lying down on the grass as a child and gazing at the endlessly morphing clouds in the sky? Or watching a winter stream manifest ever changing worlds of ice and snow through the long, cold months? Or standing outside feeling soft breezes waft against your skin, only to feel the breeze suddenly shift to penetrating gusts?
We, and the world within which we live, are ever-changing and evolving. When we take the time to really see and immerse ourselves in the natural world around us – we discover that everything is constantly moving. The seasons and skies alter in color and weather patterns. The air can transform from an oppressive stillness on a hot summer’s night into a gentle breeze that gulls glide on at the ocean’s edge. Then again it can morph into powerful hurricanes that destroy homes and trees. Even stones appearing unyielding will over time deteriorate. They crack, change color and crumble into sand. We are part of this natural life cycle. Human beings also continuously morph from one state to another. Our body changes dramatically through the course of a lifetime from birth to death. Medical science says our cells and organs continuously reconfigure. We can see this when we get a cold or virus and recover from it. Or even if we develop life-threatening dis-eases we can have spontaneous remissions, rendering hopeless prognoses not so solid. Our emotions can wax and wane. Yet unlike the moon they can do so with lightning speed. Our thoughts, too, incessantly shift, rise and fall, affecting physiology, emotions and perception.
Here is a mundane example of the shifting nature of the body, perception and feelings. Try going grocery shopping sometime before you have had the chance to eat. You will be more focused on food and may pile more of it in your cart than your refrigerator can handle. Then if you stop for lunch on the way home, by the time you unpack everything you will wonder why you bought so much. Such is our shifting nature and inseparability of body, emotions and mind.
Being an energy practitioner well before I worked with indigenous shamanic healers, I witnessed physical Shapeshifts routinely. Eye conditions were remedied after one session, back problems that no medical or chiropractic intervention could cure were reversed in one treatment, women receiving energy work simultaneously to radiation treatments for breast cancer treatment suffered no skin burns, ear infections in infants disappeared never to return, and so on. This is not to say that every session resulted in spontaneous healing. And it does not discount the often complex, compelling circumstances of illness, or its opportunities. But in beholding many afflictions transform effortlessly, I wondered why we view miracles so exceptionally.
Whether changing weather patterns, shifting moods or mutable physical afflictions – it is easy to see that we and everything in our world are quite fluid. The ecstasy of life is to reconfigure. Sometimes it is a little disconcerting to recognize this is the key to Shapeshifting and to affirming all life on this planet. As a young person meditating for the first time, I found the practice unsettling. I did not realize how busy my mind was. Or how my identity was held intact by loosely strung together internal dialogue. It was shocking to sit labeling each thought as “thinking”. My thoughts simply came and went. My mind was (I was!) fickle and did not have continuous form. This was uncomfortable until I started resting more in the gaps in between. I began to focus less on the thoughts themselves. This practice has helped me embrace the magic of each moment. Then I could relax more into the ever changing flow of life.
Shapeshifting is an inherent aspect of the dance of life and of our own nature. Shapeshifting helps us live in the gaps. Throughout this book we will explore how to use it consciously. It can help us change perspectives, reality, and experience wholeness.
Award-winning author, Llyn Roberts is a prominent teacher of healing and shamanism. Her books include Shamanic Reiki, The Good Remembering, and the Independent Publisher’s award-winning Shapeshifting into Higher Consciousness. Her most recent book, Speaking with Nature, coauthored with Sandra Ingerman, is a Nautilus Gold award-winner.
Purchase Shapeshifting Into Higher Consciousness here
Visit Llyn Roberts’ website:
www.shamanicreikiworldwide.com
