Books About Shamanism from Michelle Hawk in Portland, Oregon

People often ask me for recommendations of books about Shamanism, so I thought I would share a roundup of my favorites with you.

… just kidding! I don’t have any favorite books *about* Shamanism. Here’s why:

Books *about* Shamanism are most often written from either an academic perspective (anthropological analysis, descriptions and observations of practices), or a how-to perspective (step by step instructions of how to “do” a Shamanic practice). In both cases, there is usually a strong flavor of intellectualizing, logicking, as well as a degree of separation that places the reader in the role of observer or recipe-follower.

Reading a book *about* Shamanism is like reading a book about how to learn to ride a bike. Maybe you would learn some interesting history and background about bikes and study the theory of physics. But it would be kind of useless to you in the practicality of actually riding a bike.

Reading a book about Shamanism might be intellectually interesting, but it’s kind of useless to you in practicality.

Shamanism as a practice is all about relationship. It’s about immediacy, intimacy and immersion.

Shamanism is an animistic practice (the belief that all things are alive and connected through that universal aliveness) and a mediumistic practice (active communication and relationship with the spiritual forces all around us).

A book can’t teach you about being in relationship with the life force in all things. A book won’t prepare you for what it feels like to connect with powerful spirits. You must experience those things directly to truly know and understand.

While I don’t have any favorite books *about* Shamanism, I do have some other recommendations:

When I was a child, my favorite books were all folktales about talking animals, magical plants, sacred springs of healing water, elemental spirits and deities. I loved stories where a young person went on some kind of journey or quest, and met wise allies to guide them on their path. The humans in these stories who showed disrespect or disregard for the wisdom of nature always suffered the consequences, and those humans who listened and respected the Earth and her children were supported.

I read creation myths such as How Raven Stole the Sun and the legend of Quetzalcoatl. I read stories of gods and goddesses from around the world, these personified forces of nature with magical powers and unique wisdoms. I read fictional stories set in our world about young people who lived closely in nature, such as Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain.

Stories and folktales like this help us access our own mythopoetic consciousness. They help us enter into the liminal spaces through imagination, beyond the confines of logic. They help us readily accept a reality where animals talk and the unseen realms are very real. They teach us about principles of respect, right relation, and honoring the laws and wisdom of Earth and non-human consciousness. They teach us energetic dynamics of creation and destruction, destiny and sovereignty, agreements and contracts, death and rebirth, wounding and healing, wisdom, initiation and actualization.

These are all Shamanic principles.

This is the traditional style of wisdom transmission: storytelling and direct experience. Receiving wisdom teachings through stories invites us to imagine ourselves as the protagonist, to see ourselves in the myth, and opens the door to our subconscious wisdom and connection. And direct experience and contact with the mysteries is how we anchor that wisdom into our embodied consciousness.

So instead of reading books *about* Shamanism, I always invite people to go out in nature. Talk to the trees. Allow yourself to daydream and imagine. Read animistic folktales. And if you really want more information related to Shamanism and related topics, check out my podcast, Shaman Sister Sessions. There are currently 138 episodes full of great stuff. Find it on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

And of course, if you’re interested in exploring Shamanism through receiving healing work or developing your own Shamanic practice, please reach out to me and we can talk about what kind of support is right for you: >>>Book a call with me here.

Do you have favorite books about Shamanism, or animistic folktales or stories? Comment and let me know!

Why do I practice Shamanism?

Why do I practice Shamanism?

(And why you may want to, if you are called to it.)

I don’t practice Shamanism for my clients. I practice it first and foremost for Life.

I practice Shamanism because I love Life. By that I don’t only mean my life specifically, I mean capital-L Life itself. I love that Life exists.

I love that consciousness has manifested in the incarnate. I love that so many different bioforms have evolved over millennia to cooperate and live in concert with each other. I love that plants eat sunlight and trees sing to each other through the mycelial network. I love that elephant matriarchs remember for decades where to find water and pass this knowledge down to their daughters and granddaughters. I love the song of the red-winged blackbird. I love that hawthorn thorns eventually grow into branches, and what starts out as sharp and protective evolves into a flowering wand that bears abundant fruit.

I love that Life exists, and I am so grateful that I get to be a part of it.

I practice Shamanism to be awake in my life, to celebrate Life and to collaborate with this grand symphony of aliveness all around me every day.

I practice Shamanism as a student and steward of Life. I study the cycles. I study the darkness, hibernation and death. I study decay, rotting logs, and bones left after a cougar kill and scavenging coyotes. I study the explosion of budding flowers, eagles flirting, squirrels fortifying their nests. I study the rise and fall of the river. I study the movement of the stars and the planets, and the pattern of wheeling vultures.

I study Life so that I may collaborate with it, move in alignment with the flow of creation and be a harmonious contribution to something so, so much bigger than me: Spirit. The Great Unknowable. Thou. Life.

By studying Life, we learn its flow and rhythm. We learn what expands and supports and generates Life, and what contracts or restricts it. We learn to feel and collaborate with this flow of Life in our bodies, our health, our relationships, our daily experience. Healing and growth is the study and practice of Life-generating worldview and behaviors, and of course that offers a huge personal benefit to us.

But that’s only a tiny fraction of the whole. And the longer I practice Shamanism (now over 20 years), the more I feel absolutely certain that it’s not about us and our personal experience at all.

Something beautiful comes from de-centering the self. This inherently goes against all of the conditioning and foundation of modern, western culture (especially in the US) which is based on individualism and, to be brutally honest, this weird fetishization of selfishness. My rights. Look out for #1. Selfies. If it’s not on social media, it didn’t happen. Endless navel-gazing and pathologizing and self-diagnosing and therapizing and making it all about me, me, me.

How lonely. How small. How inherently blind.

But what happens when we de-center ourselves? What happens when we truly embrace that if I am sovereign, it means that all beings are sovereign? What happens when we remember that if I am a unique and special expression of consciousness, it means that all beings are unique and special expressions of consciousness? What happens when we believe that if I am devoted to cultivating life in myself, it means I am devoted to cultivating life for all beings? What happens when we make our Earthwalk into a prayer of gratitude and generosity to Life?

How connected we become. How expansive. How loving.

De-centering the Self helps us remember that consciousness is living itself through us. Life is living through us, just as it is living through all things. It helps us to take responsibility for what we are personally accountable for and to surrender burdens that do not belong to us. It helps us to be generous. It helps us to remember that we belong. You belong to Life, and Life loves you.

I practice Shamanism because I love Life, and I love that I get to be a part of Life, but even more than that, I want Life to thrive. I want so deeply with every part of my being to devote every day to honoring and advocating for the sovereignty of all beings. I am so excited to live in this world and cultivate relationships with forms of Life–people, plants, animals, mountains, elements–so that I can know Spirit in as many ways as possible. I practice Shamanism because I know truly that by devoting myself to Life, and collaborating with Life, and studying Life, it benefits me, and everyone around me, and all beings on Earth, and the Earth herself.

I practice Shamanism because it is the best way I know how to love myself, and you, and Thou, Life.

I cannot give you your why. I cannot make you fall in love with Life. I cannot give you the key that will make you excited to wake up every day and participate in this gorgeous symphony. That is for you to discover, if you haven’t already.

But I can help you learn how to listen. I can teach you Shamanic practices. I can guide you through Shamanic journeys, mediumship cultivation and help you connect with the spirits. I can give you the best tools that I know of to study Life, to awaken to your animistic consciousness and mediumistic gifts, to honor the spirits, to connect with something bigger than yourself.

Are you called to Shamanism?

Have you experienced a Shamanic awakening, but aren’t sure where or how to begin developing your practice?

Do you already have a Shamanic practice but are looking for deeper support, personal mentorship or healing work?

Get Support:

>>>Book a call with me to talk about your journey with Shamanism and what type of support is right for you!

The medicine you need most might surprise you

Yesterday during a healing session, I offered my client a Shamanic journey to connect with one of their animal guides.

The journey was very beautiful, and the animal guide came through very strongly. It told me about some of the medicine that it wanted to share with my client, and *wow.*

After the journey, I told my client which animal guide had emerged. “Huh, that’s surprising,” they said. “I never in a million years would have guessed that.”

The guide who stepped forward was an ocean animal, and my client shared that they didn’t really resonate with the ocean. “I’m more of a desert and forest person.”

“Let’s see how this guide wants to support you,” I told my client. I guided my client through a journey to connect with their guide, and I journeyed simultaneously to receive more information and transmissions about the medicine this guide was offering.

My client surfaced from the journey with new appreciation for this guide. They told me what the guide had shared with them, and how it perfectly related to their current life circumstances.

Then I shared with my client what the guide had shown me regarding its medicine, and my client ended up in tears. “That’s exactly what I feel like! Yes, I definitely need that. That is f***in rad.”

All of this to say —

The medicine we need most might surprise us.

Some of the deepest, most powerful lessons and support can come from areas of our lives where we feel less familiar or comfortable.

Are you ready for your medicine to surprise you?

Are you open to powerful lessons and support from unexpected sources?

Are you called to work with powerful spiritual forces for the purpose of guidance, illumination and healing?

>>>Book a call with me to talk about what type of support is right for you!

The Best Tools and How to Use Them

If you’re like me, you don’t just want tools in your tool belt.

You want the best tools, and you want to know how to use them masterfully.

And I have to tell you —

Alchemy has the best tools for powerful transformation.

And when we apply them skillfully —

Transformation becomes not only possible, but inevitable.

Alchemy has become one of the most valuable tools in my very extensive tool kit. (Remember, I’ve been walking this path for 22 years so I have lots of tools.)

And my Alchemy apprentices inevitably find the same thing to be true — Alchemy becomes one of their most valuable tools for personal healing and transformation.

One past apprentice shared:

“The I AM Alchemy course was not just a way to deepen my own magical mastery through all of the different teachings, tools, and practices, but it was a container for deep transformation.”

If you want the best tools and the skills to use them masterfully, you want the 5 Transformational Keys of I AM Alchemy.

Key 1: Alchemy Fundamentals

• Master the Cycle of Transformation and practical application of spiritual technology.

• Study Alchemy teachings on body, mind, heart and spirit transformation.

• Learn practices and ancient wisdom foundationed in Universal Law.

• Explore Alchemical teachings and practice for your personal constitution, and learn how to offer Alchemical healing to others.

Key 2: Alchemy of Self

• Walk the 12 Pathways of Initiation to Mastery.

• Use Alchemy to liberate trauma, dis-ease and stagnation.

• Bring Alchemy mystery school teachings to your health, relationships, home, career and creative expression to transform on every level.

• Come home to yourself and your sacred purpose with Alchemy wisdom teachings.

Key 3: Embody Alchemy

• Fully ground high-vibration Alchemical transformation practice into the physical plane.

• Bring Alchemy into your body and Earthly experience through movement practice, intuitive embodiment, qigong, breathwork and somatic cultivation.

• Gain a complete somatic toolkit to create healing for yourself and your clients.

• Use these techniques with energy work and consciousness practices to provide transformational experiences in 1:1 and group healing settings.

Key 4: Spiritual Collaboration

• Cultivate powerful, working relationships with Divine beings of Alchemical wisdom.

• Receive direct initiations and transmissions from spirit-side guides and teachers of the Alchemy wisdom tradition, and the I AM Alchemy mystery school.

• Work directly with Spirit to translate cosmic and etheric forces into the material plane.

• Develop your intuitive practice to channel forces of Alchemical creation and transformation into your life and practice.

Key 5: Practical Magic

• Master the process of ritual and sacred ceremony. Prepare and design meaningful ritual experiences according to Alchemical correspondences.

• Use your Alchemical knowledge to assess transformational and healing needs. Master the practical application of spiritual technology for healing and transformation on every level.

• Cultivate your facilitation skills to create powerful transformational portals for yourself and your clients, in 1:1 or group settings.

Are you ready for the best transformational healing tools?

Are you ready to skillfully apply them in your life and in the world?

Are you ready for the inevitable transformation that will occur when you do?

The course begins soon. If you are called to join us in the crucible —

>>>Book a call with me to discuss Alchemy and see if you qualify.

Here's What Your Spiritual Practice Is Missing

Have you studied different spiritual or healing modalities, but still feel like there’s something missing?

Have you read the books, taken the courses and listened to the podcasts, but you don’t know how to organize your knowledge and training into a synergistic transformational practice?

Have you gotten the certifications and feel like you “should” be working with your tools, but you’re not sure how your unique magic and personal medicine fits within the systems you’ve studied?

If so, you need I AM Alchemy.

I AM Alchemy Mystery School will teach you to confidently transform yourself and others through the power of ancient spiritual wisdom and practical skill development.

Alchemy is the spiritual science of transformation — the logical, predictable map for how transformation actually works.

This system of ancient wisdom is the missing piece that will help all of your other modalities, tools and practices synergize and work together most effectively.

But don’t just take my word for it. Past students have reported:

“I recommend I AM Alchemy to anyone who has taken many courses and programs but still feel like they're not fully integrating. For me, this was like the graduate study in practical magic that helped pull everything together and allowed me to lead my own transformation.”

“Through I AM Alchemy, I have learned so much about how creation, transformation, and magic works on both a practical and spiritual level. This course helped me to incorporate all of the different teachings and modalities that I had learned before into a strong foundation that I can continue to use over and over again.”

“I feel so much more confident in my own practices, magic, and ability to lead.”

“I joined I AM Alchemy because I had been on a spiritual and magical journey for several years, but I desired something deeper to truly integrate all that I was learning. I knew I needed something with structure that was not just about completing modules or participating in calls, but something that I was able to immerse myself in while still living my day to day life.”

If you’re reading this and feeling, “YES, that’s me!” —

The I AM Alchemy course begins March 17!

This course is especially crafted for healers, practitioners and guides who desire an in-depth study and practical application of transformational spiritual skill development.

Are you ready to learn tools and practices that will immediately and noticeably enhance your vitality, health, energy and well-being?

Are you called to use these powerful tools to support your loved ones, community and clients in their journey of transformation and actualization?

>>>Book your I AM Alchemy interview call now!

Freedom Through Commitment

What are you committed to this year?

Those of us who follow the path of Spirit know what it feels like to commit to something that defies logical explanation.

Even if it's terrifying. Even if it goes against everything we thought we knew.

When I AM Alchemy was asking to be born in 2017, I was apprehensive. At that time, offering a year-long course tied to a syllabus sounded constricting and limiting. One of my core values of practice is freedom, flexibility and immediacy, so I can follow the emergent currents of energy and the illuminated path in my personal and professional practice. Sometimes that can change from year to year, or season to season.

Fellow Seeker, I'm sure you understand. When Spirit is calling, we heed the call.

But the thing about this course is that it has a life force of its own, and as such, it has a process of evolution and growth within the body of knowledge itself. I AM Alchemy is not a dry, scripted teaching from a dusty book. It is a vital, living entity that has its own energy flow and plan. Someone asked me during the early years of I AM Alchemy how I organized and offered my teachings, and the most honest response was simply, "I listen to what wants to be shared."

This is the difference between teaching and stewardship. Yes, I have a plan. Yes, I have a course outline and recorded videos and documents and structure. But more important than this is the capacity to listen and to transmit what wants to come through, and knowing that it will be exactly the right thing for my students.

Even now, as I have shifted from teaching the classes live to sharing the teachings over video recordings, there is flexibility and freedom for real-time transmissions, and I am always listening.

Ultimately, my role in this process is to simply pass along the messages. As a steward of this mystery school, part of my job is to be quiet and allow myself to be guided, so that I can guide my students in turn. This is my commitment to Spirit and to Alchemy itself, and as long as I practice this work, I honor this commitment. As long as I honor this commitment, I have the freedom I desire in my practice.

My commitments to this body of knowledge allow me to be an active participant in the mystery, which always feels like the most illuminated path.

In preparation for one of the I AM Alchemy course retreats, I ask my students to write their own commitments. This practice is our way of making a contract of sorts with ourselves and with the work. We witness each other in our commitments during ceremony, and the power that comes from this practice always blows everyone away.

What happens when we make these commitments? What happens when we spell out in writing what we are signing up for as an Alchemist on this planet?
 
Seeker, what are your commitments?

Here are some of mine. Check out below for the prompts I offer my students if you would like to write your own.

As an Alchemist, I commit...

As an Alchemist, I commit to holding myself in trust and compassion through change as I discover and know fully all parts of my Self. I commit to bringing magic to every facet of my life.

As an Alchemist, I commit to bringing more subtlety, intentionality, precision and grace to my work. I commit to redefining my personal practice to align more supportively and harmoniously with my well-being.

As an Alchemist, I commit to carrying out the operations of the Sun, Moon and Earth here on this planet for the Highest and Greatest Good of all beings.

As an Alchemist, I commit to being an instrument and steward of this body of knowledge, to ensuring its path in the modern world, and to honoring and participating in this cycle, always. I commit to holding the torch so that those who are ready may find the path. I commit to listening always to this work, and offering teachings in alignment with the instruction I receive.
 
If you are ready to step into your own commitments to the path, then I AM Alchemy is right for you. If you are ready to answer your deep soul calling to live your purpose... If you are ready to step into fulfillment of your Soul Contract and commitments... If you are ready to remember who you truly are, claim your I AM and inspire others to do the same... If you are ready to walk the Earth as a Divine Embodied Being...
 
...submit your application for I AM Alchemy now.

I AM Alchemy begins March 17. Are you ready to commit?

Journal prompts:

What are my commitments to my Self?
What are my commitments to my practice?
What are my commitments to Spirit?
What do I need in order to honor those commitments?

I AM Alchemy:
Study the Mystery
Practice Transformation
Actualize your Radiance