During the pandemic we had a group that met every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month to do weather working and subtle activism.
This is a short history of how this came about and a little about what we do:
This group was started in the fall of 2020 when the astrological reports were all hinting at severe weather. And sure enough …. it’s the new normal.
In 2011, the Fairy Council did a shamanic journey about what the next steps were for the Fairy Congress. After a humorous berating that it would really help a lot if we loved ourselves more …. we were told by some helping spirits that we needed to learn how to work with the spirits of weather just like we had learned how to work with plant spirits. …. and we needed to learn that fairly quickly because “you have no idea what is coming around the bend”.
Lindsey Swope organized a week long workshop in Weather Shamanism with Nan Moss the summers of 2012 and 2013. Nan Moss is the author of “Weather Shamanism; Harmonizing Our Connections with the Elements” and is a graduate of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Lindsey and I took the workshops both years. In 2014, everything south of Skalitude blew up in what was called the Carlton Complex which burned 256,000 acres and remains the largest single wildfire in Washington State. We were working with interactive forest fighting websites and conference calls. I do remember that the rain “came in from nowhere” and that the wind changed direction and died down.
Fast forward to 2020 and extreme weather seems like an everyday “normal”.
One of the foundations of Nan Moss’ Weather Shamanism is to develop strong relationships with the weather spirits and find out what support they need in order to do their work.
Now, with radically shifting weather, some weather spirits are really confused about what their job is. This means that we need to be very creative and discerning.
Many of us are inspired by David Spangler’s writings on “Subtle Activism”, the work of “Shamanism without Borders / Shamanic Tending for Trauma and Disasters”, and Sandra Ingerman’s “Medicine for the Earth”. How do we work to help balance energies in times of crisis? What are our roles as earth stewards? What effects the weather? What is weather? How do we work with the elementals? How do we tend to ancestral land spirits? When do you work with local weather patterns and when do we need to work with global weather patterns such as a jet streams and ocean currents? How do we keep an “internal balance” when the external world seems very imbalanced? And the list goes on.
The prerequisite is you have a knowledge of shamanic journeying, that you know the difference between lower, middle and upper world, and that you have a relationship with protector and helping spirits. Weather working is done primarily in the Middle World and you want to make sure that you stay clean and clear. If you don’t have these skills and you want to learn, Jan teaches a “Shamanic Navigation” class that can help you with the basics.
This is powerful work. It can be a bit intense at times. It can also be joyful and ecstatic. And we have an amazing community.
For more info, email Jan at proudmountain@outlook.com or join the community here
Bibliography:
Weather Shamanism; Harmonizing Our Connection with the Elements. Nan Moss with David Corbin. 2008.
Medicine for the Earth; How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins. Sandra Ingerman. 2000.
Shamanism Without Borders; A Guide to Shamanic Tending for Trauma and Disasters. A Society for Shamanic Practitioners Handbook. 2011.