White Raven Woman Story

A story of Shamanic Dismemberment

One day, during a journey session, I went to the lower world (a place in the spirit world where animals and nature spirits reside) to meet up with my power animal. My intention was to find an ally to help me with my practice, specifically to help overcome my imposter syndrome. I was still working full time at UC Berkeley, but I was planning my early retirement to focus on my Shamanic practice full time.

When I entered the lower world, a large bear was there to greet me. I often have dreams of bears, and let me tell you, the dreams are rather terrifying. So, seeing this bear, I asked it if it had a message for me, or if it was a spirit helper. The bear immediately swiped me with it's enormous paw and proceeded to tear me apart and scatter all of my pieces around the meadow where we were standing. This is known as a Shamanic dismemberment and it symbolizes an ego death. I have had this experience previously during a workshop in 2016. It is not painful at all, but it is disconcerting, gathering up parts of yourself to rebuild something new.

Well, after the bear scattered my parts, the crows showed up. The crows snatched up all of my parts and flew away across the meadow. This was very concerning to me and I had a bit of a panic. How was I supposed to rebuild my self with no materials? I had never heard of anything like this before. I was an ethereal being. I touched my power animal who is always with me and we floated towards this light in a clearing way off in the distance. As we got closer, there appeared to be a wooden structure. It was a kind of lodge pole structure, but before I could notice anything else, all of the crows from the sky converged in one spot about 200 yards in front of us. As they flew away I noticed that they had left a light being there, very white and glowing, but nondescript. I figured that this must be a teacher who will help me find my soul parts. As I floated closer, I saw that the being was a woman and she had large white wings and the spirit of a bird...She was White Raven Woman. I happily rejoiced in the moment, so grateful for such a powerful presence to come to my aid. She glided up to me, all light and feathers...then she quietly just passed into me and she was me.

All I could do was cry tears of gratitude.

There are many stories of White Raven Woman on the internet. I read all that I could find after this experience. They are all amazing, but none are me, none are what White Raven has been for me. This is one of the coolest things about journeys to the spirit realms. Things happen that are utterly personal and meaningful to you and your own path. I am still writing my own story of White Raven woman. I can tell you that since we merged, I feel different. I have a different life, an art studio, a Shamanic practice and my female ancestors tend to show up in all of my healings and space clearings.

When one of my clients was experiencing a horrible withdrawal from a pain medication. He had awful nightmares and delusions causing a lot of trauma for him and his wife. He requested an emergency house clearing to remove all of the dark energies that exploded into his space. This was a remote healing, so I entered into my spirit form and traveled to his home. As I saw the house, I suddenly grew tall, like 20 feet tall, lifted the roof off of his home and did the clearing. It was much faster and he immediately felt enormous relief. I just laughed, not having had any idea that this was possible.

The lodge pole structure I experienced in my journey was exactly like a Muskogee village I saw depicted in the Museum of Natural History in New York. More about my Muskogee/Creek heritage is in another post.

So, our story is ongoing. White Raven has brought many gifts and I am humbled and filled with joy.

And Bear, well Bear is still in my dreams, foreshadowing growth to come.