Wisdom Rising

Embracing the Winds of Spirit with Renee Baribeau, The Practical Shaman

• Christine Renee, Isabel Wells, and Shantel Ochoa • Season 1 • Episode 15

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What if the wind could guide you through life's most difficult challenges? Join us as we welcome Renee Baribeau. You may know Renee as co-host of the Shaman’s Cave podcast with Sandra Ingerman, or read her most recent book, Winds of Spirit. In addition to being an acclaimed Shamanic teacher, Renee is an esteemed Nautilus gold award-winning Hay House author, captivating audiences with her profound insights and down-to-earth wisdom.

With her transformative book, Winds of Spirit: Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, Health, and the Divine, Renee has gained recognition as a leading voice in the contemporary spiritual landscape. In today’s episode, Renee shares about the transformative power of the winds, sharing how we can use the cardinal directions to interpret how the winds of change are blowing in our lives.

We traverse the intricate landscapes of Shamanism, balancing spiritual and nature-centric practices. Renee sheds light on global variations, practical shamanic methods, and the importance of moving beyond rigid labels to foster a holistic understanding of our relationship with nature. We also discuss the broader implications of reconnecting with nature for spiritual growth and healing, complete with a fascinating recommendation to watch "The Queens" on Hulu, showcasing the intuitive intelligence of animals and drawing parallels to our own potential for wisdom.

Discover how modern life's artificial structures contrast sharply with the fluidity of the natural world. We introduce the concept of the "innerverse" as a personal compass for life's journey, delving into the cultural significance of the cardinal winds and their historical guidance for humanity. Renee discusses archetypes and meanings of wind spirits and highlights the power of aligning with these ancient forces for personal growth. Embrace the wisdom of the wind and learn to listen to and act upon its messages to transform your spiritual journey.

Along the way, we touch on the importance of reconnecting with nature, and at the end Renee shares a powerful gift with us by playing her sacred wind whistle. We hope you enjoy this week's episode!

Connect with Renee:

Website: https://thepracticalshaman.com/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/windbelievers
Podcast: https://theshamanscave.com/
Winds of Spirit Book:

Moon Rising Shamanic Institute Links:
Website: https://moonrisinginstitute.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/moonrisinginstitute
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/moonrisingmystics
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonrising.institute
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@moonrisinginstitute

Book a session with Isabel: https://calendly.com/into-the-deep/schedule

Book a FREE 15 minute connect call with Izzy: https://calendly.com/moonrisinginstitute/connect

Book a session with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/90-minutes-intensive

Book a FREE 10 minute connect call with Christine: https://calendly.com/christinerenee/10-minute-connect-call-srpt

Speaker 1:

It's time to remember your divine purpose and limitless potential. Welcome to Wisdom Rising, the official podcast of Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. Join shamanic Reiki practitioners Christine Rene, isabel Wells and Chantel Ochoa as we guide you on a journey of radical self-discovery and spiritual guidance. Each week, we'll dance through the realms of shamanism, mysticism, energy, healing and personal development to illuminate your path to true healing and self-sourced wisdom Through weekly inspired conversations and interviews with leading spiritual and shamanic practitioners. We are here to help you acknowledge, reconcile and balance your energy so that you can awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Welcome back to another amazing episode of the Wisdom Rising podcast. I'm your host for this week, isabel Wells, and I am so honored to be joined by Renee Barabo, the practical shaman. You may know Renee as co-host of the Shaman's Cave podcast with Sandra Ingerman or from reading her most recent book, winds of Spirit.

Speaker 1:

In addition to being an acclaimed shamanic teacher, renee is an esteemed Nautilus Gold Award-winning Hay House author, captivating audiences with her profound insights and down-to-earth wisdom. With her transformative book Winds of Spirit Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, health and the Divine, renee has gained recognition as a leading voice in the contemporary spiritual landscape. In today's episode, renee shares about the transformative power of the winds, sharing how we can use the cardinal directions to interpret how the winds of change are blowing in our own lives. Along the way, we touch on the importance of reconnecting with nature and, at the end, renee shares a powerful gift with us by playing her sacred wind whistle. I highly encourage you to listen through to this episode to the end, as this episode contains profound wisdom and healing energy.

Speaker 1:

Please note that there was a slight glitch with my audio at the very end of the episode, so I appreciate your patience with that. With that said, I hope you enjoy today's episode. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so that you can listen to new episodes sooner and help us reach more spiritual seekers around the world. But for now, let's dive in to today's episode. Welcome, welcome back to another amazing episode. I am so honored and excited today to be joined with Rene Barabo. We have been planning this interview for so long and I'm so excited for it to finally come forward. So welcome to the show, renee.

Speaker 2:

I'm really excited to be here with you. I love your. I love the color of your top. It's really pretty.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thank you, this is. I got this earlier last summer. We were doing a photo shoot for the company and I got a new dress for it, and so now it just has really special memories attached to it.

Speaker 2:

Got the good juju Exactly.

Speaker 1:

It's got all the good vibes and I feel very professional and spiritual when I wear it, so I thought it would be perfect for today's conversation.

Speaker 2:

That's interesting. When my book Winds of Spirit came out, I did a photo shoot and I had a cape made and it's still one of my favorite things to wear. You see it a lot in a lot of my promo photos from back then.

Speaker 1:

I love moments like that, where we get to kind of tie something in the physical world to this experience that we've had and then it comes back every time we use it.

Speaker 2:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I actually. I spent quite a few hours reading your amazing book Winds of Spirit, and it was. There are so many beautiful insights in there and of course you know you wrote the book for a reason, so all of that information is there. But I'm really curious if we could use that as a jumping off point for today, because there's there's so much wisdom to be found in the wind, so maybe we can take that and see where it takes us.

Speaker 2:

I love that the, you know, sometimes when I reread some of the book, I'm there like who wrote this? Like you know, I really think that it was wind inspired and the wind did most of the you know the sculpting like it does on a dirt field out your window. But it still inspires me to go back and read it because it doesn't feel like they're my words. It feels like they're words of the wind more than words of her name.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful and there are so many different ways in the book that you describe what the wind is and the different ways that it can present itself. But I'm curious if you could give us you know now that you've had so much time after writing it and releasing the book to the world when someone asks you, you know now that you've had so much time after writing it and releasing the book to the world when someone asks you, you know well what is wind to you.

Speaker 2:

What's your answer? For me, wind is the force that moves absolutely everything in creation and if you look at any of the creation stories, you know the wind is there. And if you think back to what we can imagine is the beginning of creation, something stirred and that's something that's stirring is the wind. And fast forward you a few million billion years when people started to, you know, navigate the landscape as hunters and gatherers. They communicated with the wind to get the information about when to change locations, where to hunt, where, to you know how to name a child, naming ceremonies. All of that was, you know, fostered by the wind. And therefore, you know, people in Africa had a different wind relationship than the people at the Arctic or the people in the Dakotas. They all had a relationship but depending on where they lived in the community which they were communicating with, it came out in very different ways.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful, and so in your waking life we were talking before we hit record about shamanism and Reiki and all the amazing ways that spirit moves us. How do you find the wind showing up for you in your personal practice?

Speaker 2:

moves us. How do you find the wind showing up for you in your personal practice? Well, let's get to Reiki first, because I think so. Reiki is like the doorway that so many people walk in through for energy.

Speaker 2:

You know it used to be touch healing and now it seems to be. You know, reiki is the buzzword and a long time ago, reikiiki master, because that was probably one of the first things, you know somebody gave me, um, you know, in a Reiki initiation and I don't think they call it that, but you know, and it was like my doorway into, oh, this is energy, this is how energy moves, this is symbols of energy and it just seems such an accessible way. But she also told me that when she journeyed to Asamoto is that his name? Yeah, that he said it never intended it to be its own system, that it was always intended to be, you know, used in conjunction with other things. And so for me, you know, when the first time I crawled into an anipi on my hands and knees, I felt like, well, this is home, this is how I can express myself to spirit in this darkened womb, you know, with hot coals in the middle, you know, hot rocks in the middle, in the middle, and there was a. It related more to me, to, you know, maybe that's why I'm the practical shaman. It related more to me to like the practical nature of how community crawls into, you know, darkened chamber and connects with spirit, with each other.

Speaker 2:

And so, when the wind work came out, I thought I was writing a book for my coaching clients, truthfully. And the wind started to speak to me one day on the block and I was thinking, well, what a great metaphor for things. Wind, you know, like you know, mary Poppins blew in on an east wind and left on a west wind, and you know all of these wind metaphors that you could find through your wind down. And I thought, well, this is really interesting. Well then, one day I was with a client and you know, a shamanic client and she said, well, why don't we start calling up some of those wind spirits? And that's when the work started to change, when I went direct to these wind spirits for you know more of a direct experience and realized, well, this isn't a metaphor, this is. This is an ancient shamanic practice that's been lost in the caves of time.

Speaker 1:

I love what you were saying about that using Reiki as an entry point, because I think that's something that I see a lot with our own students and clients is it really is this beautiful access point where people start to dive deeper, and I love that you had an experience with a teacher who knew that Reiki wasn't originally meant to be a standalone. That's something that I feel like we don't get as much in today's Reiki trainings is. It was really just it was a part of the pathway to enlightenment, is what they would have termed it, because you know it was, it was rooted in those Buddhist traditions. But I love the ways that we can find those connections between Reiki leading into shamanic practices, leading into working with nature and how it. I almost see it as like this funnel that brings us deeper into nature and deeper into connection with ourselves and how.

Speaker 1:

I think we all have those moments, whether they're on a grand scale that inspire us to write a book, or if they're just like personal moments of revelation where spirit leads us through those doorways, and then we have that aha moment of well, what if I just called in the wind and worked with that and invited it in? And then it sparks something amazing. So did you know, at the time when the wind started working with you, where it would lead you?

Speaker 2:

I had no clue and, you know, even still, my editors are like you know, your next book doesn't have to be about the wind and I'm thinking like, but everything's about the wind when you really get down to it, it's just like one of the things. Lately I've been on this mission because, you know, I have a podcast with Sondra Ingram and it's a humbling experience because you know, she's been teaching for 40 years and has, you know, multitudes of thousands of students and you know they're you, like they're, they're sandra sandra shaman, sandra sandra shaman. And they, you know, like you know renee, whatever this wind stuff is, they don't relate to the winds of shamanism. You know the wind work as being shamanic and I was.

Speaker 2:

I'm teaching for the college of Psychic Studies this spring in the UK and she goes yeah, I think we need to add you know shamanic wind work. And I'm there like wow, like just that little psychic shift in somebody else saying it made me think like, yeah, people don't think that I'm a shaman, even though I go by the practical shaman I'm doing you know wind work and that's not shamanic. I've had like students who finished after two years of a program saying, yeah, I'm going to go take some shamanism now and I'm thinking like, all right, you'd go, you go, do that. You know what do you think we've been doing, and you know, and you know what do you think we've been doing and you know, and you know, any program is just about really revealing your own shadows and your own other side so that you can have that more direct connection with spirit. But recently I'm on this, this thing to let people know that the wind work is really shamanism in its own ancient, most primal form of energy movements.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that idea of wind as a reflection of energy movement, because that's, you know, that's really all it is. And I know that you work with coaching clients too, and I love the balance there, because one of the things that I love to bring up in sessions is, you know, when a client is experiencing a really difficult emotion or something really heavy and they have to go through that energetic process of releasing it, you know, we cry, we burp, we sneeze, we cough, we scream, we yell, all of these things, and I always relate it back to it's like how the earth has weather patterns where it releases energy through the rain and the hurricanes and the thunder, and we have to do that too as people, through the rain and the hurricanes and the thunder, and we have to do that too as people.

Speaker 1:

And I love the awareness that you're bringing of wind work as shamanic, because I feel like the more that I explore shamanism and the different ways that it's perceived across the world, it almost feels like and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this but it almost feels like there's two different ways of viewing shamanism. There's kind of the group of people who see shamanism as connecting with your power animal and your spirit guide and really journeying in non-ordinary reality and more of that spiritual side of shamanism. And then there's the side of shamanism where we're connecting with nature and we're feeling the energy of the tree or the wind as it's taking us and we're tuning into the energetic patterns that are underlying things in our physical reality, almost like the nature of nature, if you will. And I find it so interesting these two different sects of shamanism because you'd think you know it's a shamanic practice, this has happened for thousands of years and yet we still have these different ways of viewing the practice as a whole.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that's an interesting point because you know, there's this I the the direct revelation from you know going to a power animal, getting a direct revelation. I don't know if it's there's been an hierarchy of like information or something like. As opposed to, if you go to, you know, if you go to Peru and you know one of the Pacos, you know that's what they call themselves. It's like you know that's my, that's my mountain, you know that's that's my mountain, you know that's that's your mountain. Over there, you know what I mean Like that, that that there's this relationship, and so when, over there, you know what I mean like that, that that there's this relationship, and so when, when the idea of you going out to get information, or that you're taking a walk and the information comes because you're out with the mountain and you're out with the wind and you're out with the, the nature, I I've been actually it's been a question on my mind because I'm working on the book the Practical Shaman and like, for me it's got to be way more practical, because not everyone's going to sit down, take out their drum and, you know, tap away and journey to source it, but does that mean that they're not getting good information, or that inspiration that's outside of themselves. And so I think that there is.

Speaker 2:

If you talk about shamanism and there's changing, you know moving from one reality to you know another to get information, whether it's through trance or journeying, or you know dancing or singing, or, for me, you know another to get information, whether it's through trance or journeying, or you know dancing or singing, or for me, you know playing the wind whistle. That they're all respectable, but just as we've classified our religions and you know we've made, we've become to a monotheistic religious, there's one God and my God's right, your God's wrong, and I see that a lot happening in the you know, the nature-based communities is that this is ours. No, it's not yours. It was on the wind for 4 billion years and because you needed that information when you were living up here, you got that information, whereas the people maybe in Australia got different information because that's what their community needed to survive. It's way more practical.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think that idea of moving towards how we all have this tendency, this desire as people to have those labels and this structure to this is where shamanism ends and something else begins, or this is the religion, and I think it was.

Speaker 1:

Was it New Zealand who just declared shamanism as a religion?

Speaker 1:

And I saw that and I was just thinking but it's not because it's it's.

Speaker 1:

It's a coming into communion and connection with nature and recognizing, like you said, that there's not one thing or one area of knowledge or wisdom that is ours. It's just part of that continual flow. We're just part of the greater whole. And that awareness, I think, is a shift that I'm really hoping you know, people like you who are working with the wind and working with that idea will start to bring that awareness into the spiritual community, because I think it's an area of our awareness that's maybe not as developed as it could be. I think we're still holding on to that idea of these labels, of this is shamanism and this is not, or I have to do, you know, I have to meet my power animal this way, otherwise it wasn't a direct revelation, whereas when we can step into that space of just being part of the cycles and part of that movement and part of a greater whole, and recognizing that we're almost just like a cog in clockwork, if we're just part of how energy is moving, I think that's such a beautiful way to facilitate healing.

Speaker 2:

Have you watched the Queens? No, I haven't. It's on Hulu. And if you really think that we're so smart and so you know, so advanced, this is like a National Geographic on the women, animals and the kingdom. And I was watching it and thinking to myself like, well, you just want to know.

Speaker 2:

Well, how do they know that there's just so much food in this territory and it's time to kick out? You know, one of the packs or the pack is going to survive, so the pack is going to survive. You know, or how do they know that you know this one, this is the cub eater and you know that you've got to protect your young from that. And so the thing is, is this like it's this whole experience about? Like, how do we, how do they know? You know, and it's nature, you know, it's just like nature is there to tell us absolutely everything we need to know and how to survive on this, this planet earth. And it's us who moved from that experience in relationship with nature and thought like, no, no, we have language, we, we can be smarter than this and we're going to build communities and we're going to build skyscrapers and we're going to build, you know, plantations or whatever it was that made us have power over and it's not working anymore more. And I don't even want to call them indigenous, because indigenous classifies it into a place.

Speaker 2:

But to go back to the wind, which is really a direct source of energy and energy movement, and really like dear know to change direction when the wind is blowing, you know when's the last time I mean, did you change direction when the wind was blowing?

Speaker 2:

I mean, maybe if you, you know, don't want was blowing. I mean, maybe if you, you know, don't want the, you know the soot in your eyes. But you know we don't have that fine sense of nature. And so we look out at, you know what's going on out there, the storms and stuff and we, like, judge them. But the truth of the matter is, is we're the ones who built the communities too tight together so that when the fire comes through and takes it all out, we blame the fire instead of. Why do we take all of those ticky, tacky houses and congest them into a small space? And now we're going to be mad at the fire because the fire knows to clean out the debris so that new seeds can grow and new plant can survive. I mean, we're just the thing that's out of sync with nature, not the nature.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, and I was. You know, I was actually. I was talking with a group of our students today and they're in a module of their coursework where we actually are focusing on the direction of the East and the energy of air and wind, which I love, the synchronicity of talking with you today when we have this conversation but we were talking about that idea of how our external reality is a reflection of our internal energy and we were talking about, you know well, if all of that's true and external reality is because of an internal energetic blueprint, then what's nature? A reflection of Nature is then a reflection of the divine, of spirit, of source, of whatever you want to call it, but of that inherent life force, energy. And so, therefore, nature itself, that tree outside, that blade of grass, that bird, is inherently going to be so close to the divine and have so much wisdom to offer. So, like the female lions, knowing when to release someone from the tribe, or, you know, I was thinking, even just watching my cat and how he knows when it's time to go, sit in the patch of sunlight, and just the inherent wisdom.

Speaker 1:

Or ducks, you know, I love watching ducks after they get in a fight and then they shake themselves off and they float on their way because they know that they just have to release that energy. And I think nature has such a beautiful way of because it is just that reflection of life, of the divine, and so it's going to express itself that way. And when we look at, you know how we've built our lives. Something that I love that you talk about in the book is how we've built ourselves into boxes. You know, we drive in a box, we live in a box, we have all of these boxes that we put ourselves in. And if you look at nature, there are very few places where a box shape exists. You know, trees are round and leaves are curved and there's so much illusion to flow and being flexible and having that ability to just move with life that I think we've taken out of our day-to-day reality as humans in the modern world.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. And the thing is is it's so tenuous at the moment I mean, if you think of, like, all of the natural disasters happening here and there and you know that these boxes we built are really pretty much on some pretty shaky foundation at the, at the you know, at the very least and yet I had this experience where I had my idea that my security was in a house that I owned Right, and all of a sudden something happened this this winter that took me and shook me to my core and I realized like, oh, I think this is safe. I think that this is where my safety lives, and these artificial constraints that we build around, knowing, like, how am I going to, how do I navigate my inner east wind, or how do I navigate my inner south wind, or my inner west wind, or my inner north wind, and is that in harmony with what's going on in the exterior world? And it may or may not be.

Speaker 1:

I love that idea of an innerverse. That's amazing.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, I'm working. That's a chapter of my new book is about navigating your innerverse.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful so can you? Tell us a little bit more about those different. You know, if someone hasn't read your book and they're hearing this conversation and hearing us talk about the different winds, they might feel a little lost. So can you tell us a little bit about each direction of wind and what those are in our practice?

Speaker 2:

Sure, so what you know, like you and like so many other people, I've studied many disciplines. In fact, I do a Vedic meditation every week because I believe, as most truly spiritual believe, that it's all the same and the view from the top is the same, you know, but different. And some of us want to climb the mountain with you know rocks, some of us want a nice easy slope up the hill, and we all navigate very differently. But the real truth is about cleaning house, to be of service. Essentially. I think that that's our job. Here is our role is to how can we be of service to each other, to our survival on the planet? And so, being that I had studied so many different traditions that when I was writing the book Winds of Spirit Heroes just show it in case you haven't seen it or you're curious I needed the awakening compass, as I call it. And so I spent months with the living room having, you know, a big compass in the middle of the floor, and I went through all of the traditions that I had studied and a few I had never studied, and I put everything that they said about the East, wind and the East. I put everything that they said about the South, the West and the North. And what was really clear was not everyone thought the same things about each direction. There was a lot of similarities In every tradition the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The whole north wind and the south wind have always been in opposition to each other as opposed to the other, are on more of a cooper, you know, cooperating continuum those they're more oppositional. And but what was really clear was that that these four cardinal points the east, the south, the west and the north have been been on the radar for humanity since before we were speaking. They were. If you go back to the Lascaux Caves and you go back to some of the you know earlier cave drawings and line drawings that they're finding, there was always these directional pointers. And one thing we know from sailors is that sailors navigate from their own wheelhouses. I can't navigate from your boat and you can't navigate my boat. We have to navigate from the central core of how we are. Hence the idea of this interverse. But these other you know. So if you go to one school and they say this is what's going on in the East, and I say this, what's going on, it doesn't really matter, because if you're navigating from your own wheelhouse, then your, your sun is going to rise wherever it does in your world and it's going to set wherever it doesn't in your world as well.

Speaker 2:

But that then I was um. So I'm there like, okay, well, we're talking about winds. Which winds am I going to? I mean, this was a lot of, it was heavy, that's. What winds are we going to use? Well, I couldn't say the Roman winds, I just couldn't say it. And I'm there like, oh, people are really going to struggle with this. So I went to the Greek winds. I thought I just went to the Greek winds because I could say them.

Speaker 2:

But what I realized later is that it was the Greeks who started to conceptualize all of this earlier information that we were receiving directly from nature. It was the Greeks who started to really think about logic and how that all went. So I realized that that was probably a good reason to delineate the Greek words. But then what surprised me was that I found 150 or more wind spirits from around the world. And that's where it really got interesting, because I started to realize, like, for example, like just open to ones who would have says, oh, I got no wind, when I only got that no wind, how would they know that at the equator is no wind blows. There's these bands along the equator where no wind blows.

Speaker 2:

But, like Yongdong, homelung from Jeju was about balance and Goda from Poland was about compassion, that these wins had different archetypes, different characteristics and and I can only believe it's because it's what the people who are speaking the same language back then needed. So I just charted them all Once I had. The master scale of this is you know, this is your compass. Well, these other winds could be blowing at any given time in your life and then, but it could be like so say, for example, you had this isn't confusing that you have Dagotas in the south. So if Dagotas in the south, that you need to have compassion for your own needs and desires, if to go to you know this is, remember compassion. If, if it's in the west, then you have to. Maybe you're having a foot problem and you have to have compassion for your ability to not finish projects or not be able to do something physically. And then in the North, it's about the spiritual. So, do you have compassion as a principle that leads your life? And if it's in the East. It's new beginnings and ideas and memories. Again, I charted all of this and that's what this goes into.

Speaker 2:

But what are your beliefs around the idea of compassion, you know?

Speaker 2:

Do you only have compassion when it fits into your mind and your beliefs, or can you have compassion when it goes against what you believe? And you know, which I think is a good lesson, for what's going on in the world now is like you know, do you have compassion for the person across the table who doesn't believe as you believe? Politically? You know how are, and if you don't, that's fine, but it's your life that's out of balance, not mine. If I can be in my own inner spin and, you know, see everything, as you know, just a reflection of my own wheelhouse, my own experience then I can, you know, I can either be in Trader Joe's and you know aggravation that the person in front of me is like putting their groceries out slow, or I could be perfectly in principle, saying, oh well, you know they don't move as fast as I do, you know, and and our conditioning is always going depending on what inner winds are blowing, as well as you know where we are in our own cycle of experience.

Speaker 1:

And I think we can. That makes total sense and I I love the map that you just kind of gave us, because that's, you know, that's everything that your book goes into is looking at what are these different wins and how do you learn to use them in your own life and which spirits are at play for you and what are they telling you about what needs to happen. And I love how clearly throughout the book you lay everything out, because I think you know, like you were saying, those of us who have studied multiple modalities, I think we do come back to this understanding that, at the end of the day, they're just different frameworks that we've been given to help us understand ourselves, understand our role in the world, understand how we heal, and it was what we needed at the time. And so I love using the wind and the wind spirits because it does give you. You know, like you said, there were more than 150 wind spirits from around the world, and so it gives you you know, for anything that you're experiencing, it gives you this spirit, this archetype that you can connect to and you can call on, that can give you.

Speaker 1:

You know, like we were saying at the beginning, we all have that desire to put a label on something or to put a container on something, and so when we have a direct spirit that we can call on, it satiates that desire that our mind has to have something to pinpoint it on.

Speaker 1:

But then it also gives us this opportunity to then engage with that energy, because I think we all have, you know, whether it's through Reiki or shamanism, or breathwork or whatever it is, I think we all have that experience of feeling energy move through us and how similar it feels this is something I was struck by when I was reading your book is that idea of how similar those moments when we feel energy moving through us feels to actually feeling wind on our physical body and we can feel that momentum and feel that change. And so when we can engage with that, and then we have this conscious tool that we can use of knowing, okay, which direction is it coming from, metaphorically or literally, which spirit is this going to work in conjunction with, and how can I bring that energy into my life? It just gives us this really tangible tool for working with the inherent momentum that energy has throughout our lives.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm and to classify it, the idea that I can call to Vayu for strength or Mari when I'm lost, instead of traveling out to the universe to see which animal wants to meet me, to the universe to see, you know, which animal wants to meet me, it makes me more empowered to say Mari, mari, mari, I'm lost. You know, come, and you know the wind will come and help you. And I find that you know, like what I first started to see when I started to teach it was that people's lives just started to change once they put a little wind in their sails, you know, and they knew that they could, you know, twist the put a little wind in their sails and they knew that they could twist the sail a little bit if they wanted to go to a different shore, but that it was wind powered. It doesn't mean things aren't going to happen. I had a really tough situation at the beginning of the year but the wind stepped in to meet me at every turn.

Speaker 2:

That I had to tack to get through the situation and sometimes I think that's the best we can do is like it doesn't mean you're not going to get diseases, it's not going to mean that people aren't going to die in your life. It means that there's a force bigger than, more powerful than you, that can help you move through those experiences. Or you could sit there, like when the doldrums, where there's no wind, for as long as you want, but knowing that there is going to be a momentum, there is going to be a spirit, there is going to be some source of movement that comes in and shifts you from that place.

Speaker 1:

And I love it as a teaching tool as well, because I think one of the questions that I get asked very often when people start their spiritual journey is you know, we start thinking about that idea of being aligned with the divine or aligned with our soul or aligned with whatever it is that we're aligning to on our spiritual journey.

Speaker 1:

But there's always this idea of this inherent understanding that we have that there's a flow to life, there's a direction to all of this, and if we align ourselves with it, if we kind of pinpoint ourselves in the right direction, then we can flow along with it. And there's that question of well, that's a great understanding, but how do I do that? And I love the concepts that you put in that book because they really give you a framework of here's how you work with the wind, here's how you align yourself with it, here's how you keep yourself. You know, just like a sailor in a sailboat, here's how you keep your sails working with the wind and using them to further that momentum and to stay on the right path. And I think that's a really beautiful gift of clarity that you can give people in the midst of that journey when the wind can feel so tumultuous, I think.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, because the winds are going to blow. They really are. Hold on to your hat. They're going to blow more and more and more. You're very wise for a young woman. Where did you get this wisdom that you possess?

Speaker 1:

Oh, thank you. That's a lovely question. I think, I don't know. I think I kind of came in into this lifetime with it this time around.

Speaker 2:

Your students are lucky because you know you're like, you're vibrant and alive and you've got really a great deep insight and that's just a nice thing to see. It's refreshing.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thank you so much, truly, that's. It's an honor to hear those words from you. I truly appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

The but yeah, that really there's not. It's really quite simple. You, really, I would suggest that everyone picks up this book because I think it's just, it's like the book of ruins or you know, it's going to be on the bookshelves long after Hopefully there will be bookshelves long after I'm here but it's one of those pearls of wisdom that it's just. I'm honored that I was listening and that's a really important question because the late Hank Wesselesselman, when he started to read my book, he called me. He goes no, the winds came to see me. I go yeah, too bad, you weren't listening that day. He goes yeah, somebody came. And he goes didn't you read it in my book? And I'm there like no, I didn't read that book.

Speaker 2:

And he's there like, and so there was this whole like, this whole mini chapter about this mini paragraph about how this woman came up to him and after a lecture and said, hey, the North winds in the back of the room wants to speak to you. And you know he got it just enough to put a paragraph in the book. And I'm there like thank goodness you weren't listening because you might've written this book first and and that's what's really fascinating about spirit, it's like, are you listening and are you going to do something when spirit speaks to you? Because if not, spirit's going to move on to the next person. Who's going to listen, who's going to put pen to paper and write out those words?

Speaker 2:

Because it's been moving around the planet for 4 billion years. It's been moving around the planet for 4 billion years. The fact that it came out six years ago when I heard it was because or 10 years ago when I started listening, was that every single time in history that there's been a tumultuous time you know the fall of the Roman Empire, when nuclear war came, you know nuclear power came in all of these different times we were tossed into turmoil and you know what's our spiritual lifeline. I think this time the wind has a really important hand in how we can move through it, because it's accessible to everyone. You can go outside, you can feel the wind kiss your cheek and then you can, you know, move in harmony with your soul's calling.

Speaker 1:

I was reminded while you were speaking earlier and again just now, of the idea of, you know, in shamanic traditions we have those vision quests or the Hanblashayafi, I think is what they call it in the Lakota tradition of crying out for a vision or calling to spirit to work with you. And I love the alignment in that with what you were talking about, with calling on the wind spirits or aligning yourself with what your soul is speaking to you, because it is. It's just, it's calling out to the divine, calling out to the wind, calling out to life to blow through you and to show you the way, and I think that's a beautiful visual.

Speaker 2:

It's great. And you just remind me, I spent time on the mountain and I sat there crying for a vision for two or three days and nothing crickets, you know, because the vision doesn't necessarily. This is the human element. The vision doesn't necessarily come in the way that we want it or the way that we, you know, think we deserve it. It comes in the way that spirit wants to deliver it.

Speaker 2:

When I was on day three and I was, I was torn apart because I wasn't supposed to be holding the Chinook bow with while I was bleeding and I probably wasn't supposed to be in the ceremony while I was bleeding. So I decided, in my best thinking, that I was going to leave. So I I left everything there and I started to walk down the mountain. You know. So when they came looking for me, I wasn't there. I think they were quite concerned, but I got lost. I got lost and I traveled maybe eight or nine miles out of my way and you have to remember I hadn't drank water or had any food in several days and I found myself in front of a spigot. And I found myself in front of a spigot and there was spirit speaking to me with the spigot, because I had never experienced reverence before in my life. And here I was in reverence to the water and it wasn't like you think I would like opened up the faucet and put my you know mouth under it, but it was that there was. I took a little bit on my handkerchief and, you know, wet my lips and it was just this reminder of for me.

Speaker 2:

It was like, you know, when I was walking up there, the, the medicine man said so have you ever seen a bear? And I saw, like all the time I'm thinking like I'm going to see a bear, you know, and again he was preparing me for another time in my life, when I was somewhere else doing a ceremony. I looked up and there was a bear standing there and but I had had 10 years, 15 years to think about this bear, I guess, and I and so it didn't scare me, I'm, I said thank the bear for coming, you can go now and I, you know, I went back to the ceremony I was doing, and so we think of these little packets of spirituality, but really it's a bigger, longer continuum. You that might be this life, two lives, three lives, you know a hundred lives, we don't know. And so I feel like that with the wind.

Speaker 2:

The wind is that kind of expansive. You know it's been traveling around the planet for 4 billion years. Think of all of the information that it has and it travels around the world in a few short, you know, a week. So it's getting a lot of information from you, a little information from me. It is the warehouse of all the information and that's powerful.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and that idea of you know, like you were saying, that vision or that wind, it doesn't always come the way that we think it should or the way that we want to, and I think that's where, again, going back to connecting with nature helps us move out of that space, because you know the trees don't worry about if it's supposed to rain that day or if it's supposed to be sunny.

Speaker 1:

They just, you know, they were called the standing beings in a lot of native traditions. They just existed, they just were. And the same thing with the winds. If it's not a question of, is this where the wind is supposed to be going?

Speaker 1:

It just is where it is and it's going and it's going to take what it needs and leave what it doesn't. And I love that idea of being able to navigate life in a more almost in a more gentle way when we let go of those restrictions and those boxes that we've made that we think things should fit into and we just let that wind blow in our lives. So I'm curious, as we come to a wrapping up point on today's episode. I'm curious if you have obviously reading your amazing book. But if someone were to come to you and say I'm, you know I'm, I can feel the wind calling to me. I'm ready to work with it in my life, what do I do first? What would you tell them?

Speaker 2:

Well, can I let me play the wind whistle so that they can even remember what the wind sounds like?

Speaker 1:

Please.

Speaker 2:

Let me know if you can hear it, okay. So I'm going to invite everyone to close their eyes and just check in to see if you remember this call Vav, vav, vav, vav. So if you hear that call and you feel that call, my first suggestion would be to, you know, order the book Winds of Spirit and really just dive in, take yourself for a wind, walk, go to the door, go outside, ask the wind a question Simple, start with simple questions and then wait until you feel the wind kissing you on your cheek and then just walk, put away your questions, put away everything and just walk and see what changes, see what shifts, see what information's there, see how you want to experience that walk and you know I'm preparing for to walk the El Camino, so I've been taking a lot more wind walks lately and you know it tells me something different every single day and it's just as simple as, like you know, notice how the day is a little bit longer, renee, that you can walk a little bit later. See, we want to make it these big, complicated answers, but it's like, no, you can get a little bit later. See, we want to make it these big, complicated answers, but it's like, no, you can get a little more done because you can take a little walk later when it's not so hot.

Speaker 2:

I mean, if we start to live in harmony with nature. We're just coming out, now it's spring. We've been hibernating, so it's like you know what seeds am I going to plant for the summer, and if you're in Australia, you know what seeds am I going to plant for the summer and if you're in Australia, you know what seeds am I going to take from you know what seeds am I going to harvest and put in the silo so that you know, or food, so that I can get through the long winter and start to live more in harmony with nature, because the wind will get you doing that.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom today, renee, and I think if someone wanted to connect with you, how would they do that?

Speaker 2:

You can go. There's a couple of places. Thepracticalshamancom is my main website and from there you can go over to windworkorg, and I also have a private Facebook group called the Wind Clam on Facebook and also every other week Sandra and I drop a new the Shaman's Case show and we're just like two old friends who sit there and talk like talk over tea. You know what's going on and how we see the world, and so it's not as formal as some podcasts, but we have a grand old time.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. It's been an honor to talk with you and hopefully we'll have you on very, very soon.

Speaker 2:

That'd be great. So thank you so much, and thank you to all the people listening now and later.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to today's show. I hope you enjoyed listening to Renee's healing perspective. If you'd like to connect with her, you can visit her website at thepracticalshamancom, listen to her speak with Sandra Ingerman on their podcast, the Shaman's Cave, or join Renee's private Facebook group, the Wind Clan. All these links, as well as the link to her book, are in the show notes. Once again, thank you for listening and until next time may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Thanks for tuning in to today's show. The Wisdom Rising podcast is sponsored by Moon Rising Shamanic Institute. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting app and be the first to know when we release a new episode. You can find us on Instagram, facebook, youtube and TikTok at Moon Rising Institute, or visit our website, moonrisinginstitutecom to learn more about our mission and find future opportunities to connect with our community of shamanic mystics. Once again, thank you for sharing space with us today, and until next time may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within.