I am Melissa, a Holistic Shamanic Alchemist.

Throughout my life, I have studied magic. I have looked for it in daily life, in the way the wind blows. I have leaned deeply into intuition and sought to understand it with my rather strong logical mind, much to my frustration. I have opened and closed doors and gateways and explored paths not meant for me. I have missed some that were meant for me. I certainly sought books on the topics trending in my life, but I truthfully found my answers in my natural environment, in the textures of my life, in the patterns and between them. In deeper truth, the answers found me when I let them, when I let things unfold.

In much the same way I sought magic, my unfolding within it has revealed my animistic beliefs, my shamanistic ways and my seership. I identify as a mystic and as a seer. But as I formally study shamanism, I find it helpful to orient myself within this broader conversation by humbly offering some perspectives and things that feel true to me. 

Shamanism, to me, is deeply personal and as ancient as every culture, and every expression of spirituality and seeking. 

Often, the term shamanism is associated with particular cultures... this is not wrong and yet it is a slice of truth. Sometimes holding only a slice of the pie misleads us into a perceived divide between what is a "real shaman" and who is just playing at this based on one's ancestral culture of this lifetime. There are preserved and honored expressions of "the shaman" and the field that I hold with deep reverence within respective cultures. It is also true that shamanism has roots in the deepest histories of all cultures, on every continent... which preserves a seat for the shamanic practitioner from every ancestral lineage and certainly from soul lineage as well. There are a good many cultures where it was driven underground and even extinguished for a long time when the arrival of other belief and learning systems surfaced and began to make it suspect and punishable in the communities and in the minds of the people.  What we are blessed enough to experience now, in this time, is the awakening of this medicine, where we can heal and rediscover the medicine we carry from our ancestors... in all cultures.  The shamanism that I refer to and from which I come is of the ancient peoples and beings of my lineages. 

My methods of connecting with the divine and seeking clarity and healing are so very relevant to many titles.  For these reasons, I often refer to myself as a seeker, seer, mystic, witch, seidr practitioner… but within each is simply my expression of my medicine. The titles of "shamanic soul coach" & "shamanic alchemist" help to braid together many of my lineages and medicines into an expression of what, why, and how. 

Shamanism, to me, feels like the oldest practice of honoring spirituality and connection through ritual.

In my studies on this sacred path, I have found the depth and texture of my roots and the subsequent reachings of my branches, into deep medicine. The fruit that grows on these branches is the product of my medicine. It is as much the deep and sticky roots that simultaneously feed and pull nourishment from the depths as it is the life force coursing through the tree limbs and ultimately producing and offering forth fruits as luminous gifts. I humbly offer it to you, in service of the greatest good, and our most fertile growth.

It is my belief that through our living of life, our trials and tribulations, and our lessons -whether they are bestowed upon us or hard fought- we are provided with the experiential textures from which we learn about our unique medicine and gifts. Our medicine encompasses our ability to heal ourselves, our capacity for self compassion, our love and honoring of ourselves. Long before we can turn it outward, in service to others, we must reach some degree of mastery with gratitude for our many selves, magical and mundane, joyful and grieving, emotional and physical, mastery-level and still growing. 

Teachers, Studies, Gratitude

I have deep gratitude for my teachers along this path. Some were soul companions that have since passed from this human realm, some less formal mentors honored along the way or in hindsight. My years of bodywork trainings, as well as practice, all grew this path within me. The energy healing skills of Reiki, Chakra Energy Healing, and Pranic Healing that I studied along the way all show up within my sessions. Three years of studying Traditional Chinese medicine and acupunture styles as well as Japanese style acupuncture at The New England School of Acupuncture (NESA) all flow through my clinical voice... and then there have been the most recent years where I found myself learning from the most capable and knowledgable of shamanic and magical teachers. I have been fortunate enough to study "The Art and Practice of Shamanic Healing: A Three-Year Professional Training and Initiation" with Julie M. Kramer. I found myself drinking from the incredible fountain of knowledge that is Betsy Bergstrom, honing skills of Curse and Thought-Form Unraveling, Compassionate Depossession, working more extensively with Energy Hygiene, and awakening to the magic of seidr and the Nordic mysteries in "Völva, Vala, Norn". I stumbled upon and studied the wonders and practical skills of Trolldom, Swedish Folk Medicine and Nordic Spirituality with Johannes Gårdbäck.

Of course there are the countless books that I have walked and walked within, and the talented shamanic practitioners that I have worked with in infinite sessions, to heal and hone, to awaken and arrive. The guidance of my own healing allies is too, unquantifiable. These less formal teachers are significant nonetheless as I see the texture of their voices and wisdom woven into my path. 

The intensive cauldron of these most recent and diverse learnings has formed who I am in this moment. I have emerged learned in shamanic practices, awakened to my lineages and my medicine, comfortable with my witchy abilities, excited about magical technologies and steeped in magic. The learning continues, of course as I am, beyond all, a mystic.