Heart of the Wild charity

Heart of the Wild is a shamanic charity being established by a group of practitioners who have been called to work together and share ancient and contemporary shamanic practices with the wider public and the global community. We are growing steadily and organically, inspired and guided by Spirit at every step of the journey.

Rootings

For over 20 years, Twobirds has taught cross-cultural shamanism in the UK and hundreds of people have found the space to deepen their relationship with shamanism and to become part of the Embracing Shamanism family.

New shoots

2019 marked a point of new growth and expansion for Embracing Shamanism and a time of moving out into the wider world. An important aspect of this was the heartfelt call, put out by Twobirds, for a core group of shamanic practitioners to come together to form a Council with the intention of establishing a charity. This call was responded to with enthusiasm on 3rd November 2019 when 26 practitioners from around the UK came together at the Anam Cara Retreat Centre in Inverness to begin the weaving of the vision for the charity. Through shared shamanic practice, we opened consciously to communication and guidance from the spirits, recognising the essential importance of working from a strong foundation of collaboration. Our meeting place also became a chamber of dreams for the night when participants entered into dreamtime together, sharing further wisdom and guidance from this. The following day we also began weaving the dreams into being with the initial creation of a shield to which we all added symbols from our dreams and visions. By the time we parted, the intention to find land in which to set up a shamanic centre was alight in the hearts of each of us.

The shoots strengthen

Following this gathering, some Council members began to work on a Vision statement. Aiming always for balance with the spiritual and practical aspects we spent time drawing upon the rebirthing energies of the Midwinter Solstice, using shamanic practice to facilitate communication with our spirit guides. From this, the vision was deepened and it became clear that what was being called for was a true shamanic centre, with buildings and land, space for learning, sharing, teaching, ceremony and rewilding. The commitment has been central from the beginning to work together in a co-operative, consensual way, holding at the core of all we do, our respect and love for the Earth and our shared spiritual path.

Buds

The establishing of a charity involves vision, commitment and careful, methodical planning. Some Council members have been called to deepen their involvement and become Trustees or to join the ever-growing support team circle. We have also been aided in planning by a Trustee Training day in early March 2020, to look at the practical and legal aspects of establishing a charity. We had the opportunity to look at our individual and group strengths, challenges and dreams. The Trustee group is blessed with a wide range of life experiences and skills and a shared honouring of this path we have set foot upon and which is opening out before us. It was also on this day that, through shared communication with our spirit guides, our name came to us and we now step into the wider world as ‘Heart of the Wild’!

This process has now come to a very exciting point – registration forms have been submitted to OSCR (Scottish Charities Register) on the 17th of April and we now must wait patiently, nurture the vision, and await a response. There are areas to be tended in the three to four months this may take, of course, and we are beginning to look at our next steps such as promotion, fundraising, and construction of a website. The intention is for Heart of the Wild to be able to buy land and facilities which will then be cared for by the shamanic community as a whole, including some who will make this their home and work, to be caretakers of the centre.

In all the steps so far, we will work on both practical and spiritual levels to facilitate this, trusting in our collective ability to bring the vision into further manifestation.

Heart of the Wild has grown, in the space of five months, from an initial spark of bright new life into a charity ready to birth its way into the world, bringing love, joy, connectedness, insight, compassion and learning. We all eagerly await the next stages of the unfolding process, all of which will be shared on the Embracing Shamanism newsletter.

– Jayne Paulson, Trustee

Vision Statement

Our collective vision is to create a community built with love where shamanic practitioners can live, work and share knowledge of the ancient ways in forms that are appropriate to our times and culture.

We envisage a centre in which we can honour life transitions of the community and individuals and come together in celebration of the cycles of nature.

In addition to being a centre for shamanic practitioners to gather, we will also reach out to the general public, offering healing and learning. A wide programme of workshops is envisaged including cross-cultural shamanic practices, natural arts and crafts, ceremony and celebrations.

The centre will also work to create connections as part of a global shamanic network and will be a beacon of light in the movement for regeneration and reconnection to each other and the planet.

We will work in harmony with the spirits of place to allow the land to reveal its sacred places – tree groves, springs, stones, wild areas and others – and how we can honour these. We will also be guided in the creation of new areas, these may be for; ceremony and healing, such as sweatlodges and medicine wheels; revering the land such as altars and prayer places; and providing for the needs of the community with living spaces, gardens and work spaces. All of this will be created with conscious love and beauty, knowing that, in doing so, we allow spirit to manifest.

We are dedicated to the preservation of indigenous and ancestral wisdom of all cultures across the planet and, as part of this, seek to create a central library of knowledge available to all who need to draw from it.

We will work to honour and restore the true nature-based spiritual practices of our land and hold awareness that we are consciously and respectfully co-creating with the spirits of the land, elemental beings and star beings to restore balance and bring healing. We are aware that, as humans, we are part of the web of creation and honour all spirit beings in all worlds; past, present and future.

In the knowledge that the physical body of land is sacred, we will nurture the earth in ways which encourage re-wilding and biodiversity, preserving the land and the spiritual traditions for future generations.

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