Signs of a Shamanic Spiritual Awakening and 3 Grounded Paths to Honour Your Initiation Calling

Artwork: Lisa Nelson

It began with a crack I couldn’t explain; subtle at first, then splitting me wide. I didn’t know it then, but I was in the early stages of a shamanic initiation. It came through dreams, physical symptoms, and a trembling sense that something ancient was stirring in my bones. Trauma cracked me open. Illness hollowed me out. I had waves of ecstasy so intense I searched online if it could be the symptom of a brain tumour. There was grief, longing, a strange new tenderness for the world, and then animals began showing up with unignorable insistence.

Growing up, my mother had been a healer. Her rituals and bone readings were part of daily life. She taught me how to access visionary states, how to feel energy, how to question, even when I felt certain. She fed our conversations with teachings pulled from the Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Qur’an, and a magnificent plethora of spiritual texts. My upbringing was filled with reverence, depth, and mystery. What I hadn’t yet realised was that this was my foundational training.

One day, I felt forcefully called to a forest. I stopped everything I was doing and followed the pull. The voice inside was clear, and it took me to a path I had never taken before. Then, it sent me off the path to a dried-up stream where an old tree stood. I was surprised because it was the tree I had seen once before in a vision during a trance. It felt like it called to me to climb, and I joyfully obeyed. Then, as I pulled myself along one of the branches, I stopped with a jolt. There, in front of my hands, was my son's name carved into the wood. I let out a laughing sob and embraced the branch. It was too profoundly synchronous to ignore. In that moment, I knew that I was being told to trust, and I said yes. It was one of many meaningful moments where the path confirmed to me: I’m not alone. I’m not crazy. I am being guided and held.

However, there were times when I tried to find a container for what I was going through. I looked for teachers. I researched lineages. I begged Spirit to let me belong somewhere.

But every time I reached for a path with a name, my guides blocked it. The message came again and again: this isn’t your way. Stay close. Listen. Let us show you. It wasn’t vague. It wasn’t a metaphor. It was a clear insistence: not this. I didn’t know that was a thing. I thought if you were called, you would find a teacher. But I listened, and over time, I began to trust.

It was maddening. Lonely. At times, I feared I was losing my mind. But beneath the confusion, a fragile thread of trust was forming. I was learning to follow something deeper than tradition—something alive, intuitive, and relational.

And then something astonishing began to happen. I would receive teachings directly through encounters during trance rituals, and then that day, or months later, I’d read them described by Sangomas, Curanderas, or Siberian shamans. That’s when I realised: I was being shown the teachings that live beneath all traditions. This is the river we all drink from when we learn to listen.

This way of working, without a human teacher but under the guidance of Spirit, is what some Sangomas call studying under the waters. It’s a recognised, legitimate, and ancestral way of being initiated.

That journey shaped everything. It’s why I now walk with others, not as a gatekeeper or authority, but as a midwife of their own direct knowing.

Signs of a Shamanic Spiritual Awakening

You may find yourself asking questions that don’t fit into conventional frameworks. These are the kinds of questions I hear again and again from those in the early phases of spiritual emergence—and I asked many of them myself.

The more of these questions you’re asking, the more likely it is that something sacred is stirring within you.

Psychological & Perceptual Signs

• Am I going crazy, or is this a spiritual awakening?

• I’m seeing visions, hearing voices, hallucinating, or feeling manic—am I psychic, mentally ill, or spiritually awakening?

• Why do I feel like I’m not fully here, like I’m in two worlds at once?

• Could this just be autism, ADHD, or is it something spiritual?

• Why do I feel like I’ve always known things no one ever taught me—am I psychic or intuitive?

Emotional & Identity Shifts

• Why do I feel like I don’t belong in this world anymore, like I’m homesick for somewhere I’ve never been?

• Why do I feel like I’m falling apart, but also like something bigger is waking up in me?

• Why do I cry for no reason, feel waves of energy in my body, or get overwhelmed by other people’s emotions—am I an empath?

• Why am I suddenly questioning my gender, sexuality, or identity?

• Why do I feel disconnected from my family, friends, or old life—and want to isolate or start over?

• Why do I feel so much emotion—rage, grief, compassion, or love—for people and the world that I can’t contain it?

Physical & Sensory Symptoms

• What’s happening to my body—buzzing, heart palpitations, nausea, hormonal changes, or insomnia?

• I wake up from night terrors or feel like I’ve been visited—what’s going on?

• Why am I so sensitive to light, sound, electronics, or other people’s emotions?

Spiritual & Mythic Themes

• Why do I see colours around people, feel energy in my hands and body, or feel like I’m channelling something?

• Why do I feel pulled toward plant medicine, rituals, or nature like it's calling me home?

• I keep thinking about death, grief, or the spirit world—what does that mean?

• Is anyone else going through this?

If you've asked yourself even one of these, know that you're not broken—you may be remembering. These are common experiences during spiritual emergence, shamanic awakening, or intuitive unfolding. And the more of these questions you find yourself asking, the more likely it is that something sacred is stirring within you. You're not alone, and your questions are sacred.

So, what now? If you’re being called, how do you begin to understand which path might be yours? Below are three common pathways that seekers walk, each with its own rhythms, responsibilities, and gifts.

1. Lineage-Based Shamanic Training

These paths are rooted in cultural and ancestral traditions, where spiritual knowledge is passed down through elders, initiation rites, and years of committed apprenticeship. Common in African, Amazonian, Andean, Mongolian, and other Indigenous cosmologies, these initiations are often catalysed by a calling through illness, dreams, or spiritual crisis. The training is often long and rigorous, but it grants access to rich cosmological teachings, deep understanding of the unseen realms, and established lineages of guardianship, spiritual protection, and community recognition. One does not choose this path lightly—it chooses you.

Strengths: Deeply rooted in tradition, supported by ancestral cosmologies and community-tested rituals. Offers spiritual protection, cosmological orientation, and established frameworks for healing and transformation. These paths provide containment, often with communal accountability and elder guidance. They also offer tangible recognition—you may become a licensed and registered Sangoma or traditional healer and join a broader community with cultural representation and legal recognition.

Limitations: Requires spiritual permission and cultural integrity, especially when crossing cultural boundaries. Some seekers feel estranged from unfamiliar cosmologies, and navigating cultural appropriation is a serious concern. There can also be politics around alcohol, animal sacrifice, or hierarchical power. Some clients have shared feeling under-supported or overly reliant on a school or teacher, particularly as the training is often long and demanding. These paths often include strict taboos, such as prohibitions around sexual expression outside ancestral marriage, which may feel misaligned with queer or relationally diverse identities who are sex-positive and find strength through sexual expression. 

2. Contemporary Shamanic Trainings and Workshops

These approaches are generally modular and trauma-informed, designed to provide access to altered states and animist tools without requiring lineage or cultural initiation. Popularised by figures such as Michael Harner and Sandra Ingerman, and evolved further by modern animist educators, these trainings often include soul retrieval, journeying, drum work, and inner healing techniques.

Strengths: Welcoming to diverse spiritual backgrounds, grounded in psychological safety and personal agency. Allows exploration of shamanic tools without pressure to conform to a tradition. Encourages sovereignty, often with built-in ethical frameworks and community support.

Limitations: May not offer the depth of spiritual cosmology or long-term initiatory containment found in ancestral paths. These programmes are often offered by large institutions or overseas schools, frequently online and at significant financial cost. This can result in limited personal time with the teacher, and your journey may need to conform to a fixed timeline or set of outcomes. Some seekers find the experience more focused on skills or tools than deep transformational thresholds, and without ongoing spiritual guardianship, there can be feelings of bypassing, fragmentation, or lack of integration.

3. Spirit-Led Pathways with a Witness and Co-Navigator

This is the path I walk and offer—not as a teacher or authority, but as an initiatory witness and co-navigator.

The Way of the Living Transmission: Witnessing and Co-Navigation

This path is not a curriculum. It is not a programme. It is a living transmission—guided by presence, sacred mirroring, and unseen allies.

I don’t hold authority here. I serve as an initiatory witness and co-navigator. I walk beside you, listening to what is emerging. I protect the container, translate what moves between the worlds, and tend the ritual space as we move between the ancestral, somatic, relational, and symbolic realms.

You won’t be recruited into this work. You’ll be called.

Those who walk this path are not students, but soul-called initiates—held not by linear progression, but by sacred unfolding. You will be supported in finding your own rituals, forging your own relationships with spirit, and remembering your own ways of knowing. I witness, name, and walk with you—but the path is yours.

The work we do together may include:

• dream work and trance states

• SomatoSensual practices to awaken body–spirit wisdom

• co-journeying, energetic clearing, or soul remembering ceremonies

• psychedelic preparation, ceremony, and post-journey integration

• protection rituals, altar creation, and ancestral offerings

• learning to use spiritual tools like pendulums, sage, feathers, wands, sacred stones, or instruments—always with respect and intentionality

• working in the energetic field through practices like chakra cleansing, field scanning, or light/sound attunement

• bone readings and nature-based rituals for energetic reciprocity

• integrative dialogue to uncover your personal mythology

Shared practices may include ritual reflections, journey logs, and ceremonies. There is no map. Only the next right step.

Strengths: Deeply personal and intuitive; honours the uniqueness of each soul’s path. Allows for flexible, emergent, and co-created spiritual development. Especially resonant for those receiving direct revelation, dream guidance, or mystical insight. Offers relational presence and supports neurodivergence, queerness, and relational diversity in ways that feel liberatory. Relationality itself becomes a tool for reflection and growth, and sexual energy is recognised as a valid and sacred portal for expansion. This path supports those who feel pulled by a desire to trust their inner guidance and intuition.

Limitations: This path requires emotional maturity, discernment, and a deep commitment to self-responsibility. Without external validation or formal structure, it can feel disorienting, especially to those seeking containment, lineage, or hierarchical guidance. Because the unfolding is so emergent, it may not suit those who need clear stages, consistent outcomes, or official recognition. The lack of an institution or certification can also make it difficult to explain or contextualise to others, and because this path is one-on-one, it can feel isolated from the sense of community or shared ritual that group-based paths may offer.

Which Path Is Right for You?

Each path offers a different doorway, and the one that’s right for you will depend on your ancestry, your spiritual temperament, and where you are in your healing journey.

If you are seeking tools, community, and trauma-informed safety as a starting point, contemporary facilitation models can be a powerful foundation. And if your path is wild, emergent, or marked by dreams, sensitivities, and visions, a spirit-led co-journey may be the most natural unfolding.

This isn’t about being chosen. It’s about recognising what’s already inside you. The right path is the one that honours your soul.

My Commitment to Equity and Spiritual Access

I believe that sacred work should not be reserved for the privileged. For every five paid initiates I work with, I accept one person at no cost—someone who is truly called but currently unable to afford mentorship due to systemic inequality, generational trauma, or spiritual marginalisation.

When you pay for this work, you're not only investing in your own path—you're also helping to support someone else’s sacred unfolding. This model honours the spirit of reciprocity and community care that sits at the heart of all initiatory traditions. If you feel deeply called but are held back by financial barriers, I invite you to reach out. Your calling is valid, and we will find a way.

My activism and my initiatory wounds have shaped me into someone who walks in shared power, honouring relationality over authority. I work relationally, not hierarchically. If you are drawn to my essence, it’s likely because your path requires empowerment, not obedience. Your own knowing, not replication.

Work With Me: Spirit-Led Mentorship and Shamanic Support

If this way resonates with you, you’re invited to reach out for a discovery call. This is not a programme. It’s a remembering. And if you’re ready to remember, I would be honoured to walk with you.