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72. Bloom Post - Restoring Harmony with Shamanic Wisdom
32 Plays4 months ago
In this episode we welcome Bloom Post to the show. Bloom is a shamanic practitioner who works with clients and students all over the world sharing her tools and knowledge of shamanism to support and guide them to navigate the unseen realms. We explore her journey and lineage, as she imparts her wisdom, grounded in a deep passion for helping others live in a state of healing and joy.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Guest
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Pursuit of Infinity, a podcast where we journey into the intricate landscapes of human consciousness, delving deep into the mesmerizing realm of psychedelics and more. In this episode, we welcome Bloom Post to the show. Bloom is a shamanic practitioner who works with clients and students all over the world sharing her tools and knowledge of shamanism to support and guide them to navigate the unseen realms.
00:00:25
Speaker
We explore her journey and lineage as she imparts her wisdom, which is grounded in a deep passion for helping others live in a state of healing and joy. But before we get to it, as always, you can visit our website, pursueofinfinity.com, where you can not only listen to the podcast through our integrated media player, but find all the places you can follow us as well.
00:00:47
Speaker
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider a sub, a five star rating, or even a review. These things play a crucial role in extending the reach of our discussions as widely as possible. If you're an avid listener and you want to show us some extra support, you can become a patron at patreon dot.com slash pursuit of infinity, and you'll get some great stuff in return. So head on over there and check out the details.
00:01:12
Speaker
Give us a follow on Instagram. We're at pursuit of infinity pod so you can keep up with any news, episode drops, memes, and general musings. Also below, you'll find links to our discord server and YouTube channel, which is at youtube dot.com slash at pursuit of infinity. All of our episodes are always posted there in video format, as well as an array of shorts that we put together on a regular basis. Now with all of that out of the way, thank you so much for listening and I hope you enjoy today's episode.
Bloom Post's Psychic Journey and Empathy Development
00:01:57
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome to the Pursuit of Infinity. I'm your host, Josh, and today I'm here with ceremonialist and shamanic healer Bloom Post. Bloom, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. It's really fun to be here. It's good to chat with you.
00:02:12
Speaker
It's such an honor. Now we've come to know each other through ah the Blue Morpho Academy. And you had done a ah guest appearance, a guest lecture as a ceremonialist, which was amazing, very, very eye-opening. And at the end of it, you did a Q and&A. And one of the people, they asked a question about um blockages because they were comparing their path to yours and he said that he felt a sort of blockage that he was trying to sort of break through with this work and for you it was the opposite where you just had all of this information all of this psychic info coming in and you had to do quite the opposite which is sort of tame that stuff
00:02:58
Speaker
Um, so I guess that's sort of a roundabout way of asking you to sort of share your journey and what it means to have to, uh, filter out all of that psychic information and sort of bring it back to yourself, your experience and your control. Yeah. Great question. Great place to start. Cause that's how my, my path began. Um, and I remember him asking that question. I have a lot of people who will, when I work with clients or in ceremony who will ask.
00:03:28
Speaker
how they can get linked in with the unseen realms, how they can connect with their guides, how they can open up those those psychic and intuitive spaces that for me were just wide open from a very young age. And so, yes, it very much felt like I needed filters as opposed to Other people, I sit with a lot of people who who need support kind of clearing some of those walls. And I needed filters, not walls, but I needed filters so that I wasn't inundated with information all the time. And I think part of that was coming in sensitive and being just, there's a lot of people who are born onto the planet, sensitive and highly sensitive people. But I also had a very traumatic childhood, which then opened up
00:04:21
Speaker
my the necessity, my need to be hypervigilant. And part of that hypervigilance was tracking energy so that I could keep myself safe. And so then as I was growing up, I was, and I also was an empath being raised by an abusive narcissist. So narcissists create empaths. That's a whole other conversation, but as an empath, picking up on everybody else's energy. So Part of it was, I think, a natural gift, and part of it was a learned ability because I needed it to survive. And then as I got older, especially when I left home, it no longer felt like it felt like it was really helping me survive. It felt like it was shutting me down because I was getting so much information. And and it's it's really hard to walk around in the world hypervigilant.
00:05:10
Speaker
you know, constantly tracking everybody else's energy instead of my own. So I needed to learn through the teachers that I sat with and through practicing and healing. I needed to learn to be sovereign and autonomous and not have to track everybody while also retaining my ability to get information that could be of support to people because the information I generally got about people was where their wounds were.
Narcissism and Empathy Dynamics
00:05:36
Speaker
And so that really supported my work as a healer when I Again, moving in that direction and learning how to offer shamanic healing to people, being able to track people became a gift. But until I learned how to navigate that and create some balance so that I wasn't constantly receiving psychic information. Yeah, it was, it was a, an interesting tightrope to walk for a while. You mentioned that narcissists create empaths. Can you unpack that a little bit?
00:06:09
Speaker
Yeah, so i I did some training with a really amazing therapist who is just absolutely a leader in this field, in my opinion. And she's moved out of the United States since I worked with her, but she did trainings around empaths and trainings around um narcissistic personality disorder. And one of the things I learned through those workshops and trainings is that you can you can be highly sensitive without being an empath.
00:06:37
Speaker
but empaths are always highly sensitive and empaths are created by narcissists. So as a child, when we have a narcissist adult, usually a narcissist parent in our life, the energy of the narcissist is annihilation. So as a child, very, very, very young, sometimes as an infant, we figure out real quick that it doesn't feel safe and the energy feels annihilating.
00:07:03
Speaker
And so the way most humans will navigate that is to become, and I'm speaking to this psychologically, but also shamanically. So I'm kind of bridging the information a little bit here. A therapist might not speak a bit in exactly this languaging, but my experience, for example, is what often happens is that we have this annihilating energy coming from a source that should be protective. And so we.
00:07:31
Speaker
We open up and become one with that energy and track them and kind of blend with their energy to keep ourselves safe. and so Then we start picking up some of those behaviors, which is why you don't have to be a narcissist, but you might have some narcissistic echo. Some of those behaviors still coming through if you grow up with ah with a narcissistic adult for 18 to 20 years.
00:07:50
Speaker
and so The child often ends up growing up to be either an empath or a narcissist because it's really hard to survive any other way without blending with that energy because it's truly an energy of annihilation. And so that's where this this energy around empath actually begins, where it's born, where it's created. And then that empath goes out into the world and is often still trying to track and become one with everybody's energy to stay safe, and then gets very overwhelmed. I work with a lot of empaths. And so when I learned about how narcissism creates an empath, it gave me a whole other
00:08:36
Speaker
understanding of how to work with empaths, to be of support to them, and to be of support to myself. Because a lot of us grow up thinking, I'm so sensitive, it's a curse. That's how I felt growing up. I was like, this is a curse. I feel like I'm crazy. And I met my first teacher, Shaman John, and he said, you might be crazy, but it's in a good way. Let me show you how to use it.
00:09:00
Speaker
And I love that, I absolutely love that because he didn't have any qualms with my emotional experience. He saw my gifts and he said, oh, I can show you how to work with that. And he helped me learn how to create healthy boundaries and how to track myself instead of other people all the time. And also to check what's mine and what's not mine. Because where a lot of us are very sensitive in this world and so things will be happening and will feel it, and sometimes people can start to spiral out because they're feeling the wounds of the world instead of tracking themselves and finding out, is this mine? No, this is not mine. Okay, I can be of support. I don't need to spiral. This isn't really my emotional experience right now. So that's been very helpful for me personally on my journey, but also for sitting with others who are sensitive, who are empathic. So I'll unpack it about that much. There's a lot more to it.
00:09:59
Speaker
Definitely because all circumstances are very complex and differ in many ways.
Soul Loss and Shamanic Healing
00:10:04
Speaker
um But I do have one last question about this. um Is the path to healing for an empath very similar to the path of healing for a narcissist?
00:10:17
Speaker
hu That's a great question. I'm going to just share my opinion straight up. I've never seen a true narcissist interested in healing. they'll They'll say they're interested in healing long enough to get people off their back about it and then flow back into the behaviors. and just I've just never seen someone who truly has narcissistic personality disorder shift. And I'm not saying it can't happen. And I've seen it on social media media. There's people who call themselves narcissists and say that they're here to help others understand it and help heal that.
00:10:57
Speaker
But I would definitely that's a big red flag for me if someone's announcing they're a narcissist, you know, then offering to support others to heal, I would I would be wary of that myself. But ah yeah, i've I've personally never seen it, but I haven't seen every person on the planet. There's all sorts of possibilities. My experience and what I've learned and and the trainings that I went through is that there's a soul loss there for a narcissist. Someone who has narcissistic personality disorder has a soul loss that from everything I've learned and everything I've seen and everything I've tracked, I have not yet seen anyone find a way to retrieve that soul. And so this to me is is
00:11:48
Speaker
of epidemic, epidemic proportions on the planet. Narcissism has become something that's so acceptable. And people just think it's a normal way to behave. And it can be very subtle, it might not be full narcissistic personality, having a hard time saying the word narcissistic personality disorder, it might be the echoes we talk about, and we see a lot of those echoes in the programming, the patriarchal programming and the ah oppression programming, and we'll see a lot of those narcissistic behaviors and echoes in that. So I'm certainly not someone who's a PhD in narcissism. But what I've tracked shamanically is I've not yet seen how to retrieve those souls and really bring a true narcissist back to themselves. I'd love to see that happen. And so I look forward to the possibility of that.
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah. And as you say, I also have noticed the same thing where I've never actually seen somebody who's on that far of the narcissist spectrum. I'm having a hard time saying it to necessarily come back or do like a full circle thing.
00:13:00
Speaker
um But I really, I try to also hold the paradox that I do think it's possible for any human being to heal in whatever way um they can or whatever way they see fit in their life or whatever their karmic path happens to be. um But you mentioned soul retrieval, and I understand that's something that you do. That's like something you help people with a lot. Can you talk about what soul retrieval is and how you go about doing that for people?
00:13:27
Speaker
Yes, for sure. And I agree with you. I definitely hold the vision that there's the possibility of healing for everyone. I think it's important to work from that space of seeing the wholeness and and the healed already happened in order to empower that when working with with others in ceremony or in one-on-one work.
00:13:47
Speaker
Cell retrieval from a shamanic perspective, ah the easiest way to explain it would be that when we have an experience, it might be very traumatic, very overtly traumatic, very obviously traumatic, or it might be more subtle. But generally, something frightening happens, something that scares us.
00:14:07
Speaker
And in order to help ourselves feel more safe in that process, and an aspect of our soul will disengage, kind of leave the body.
00:14:18
Speaker
in order to not feel the pain as deeply, not suffer as deeply in that challenging experience. You see this in somatic experiencing when they talk about a gazelle running from a lion, for example, and if the lion catches its prey, and like the gazelle will fall on the ground and kind of just go limp.
00:14:40
Speaker
And that's an example of leaving the body before this traumatic thing can happen. That's kind of an intense visual. But we have those experiences emotionally, energetically as well. And so from a shamanic perspective, we need to bring those soul pieces back because that soul loss can create confusion. It can create sickness. It might be physical sickness, mental sickness.
00:15:06
Speaker
It can drain our energy. And also, those soul pieces say if something happened when someone was four years old and it was scary to them, they might not think of it as traumatic now, but their four-year-old self did. And so that soul piece will leave the body in order to help them stay. It's a very highly evolved way of keeping ourselves safe in a situation. There's nothing wrong that it happens. It's very highly evolved.
00:15:34
Speaker
and we need to bring those pieces back to to come back to homeless and so. We don't go back and find for example that four year old self that still crying and grieving and whatever experience they're having then that four year old self will influence.
00:15:50
Speaker
our behaviors today. And I see this in healing sessions with clients all the time where they can't figure out how to stop some of the patterns that keep showing up, especially in relationship, relationship with their family or relationship with their partner or relationship with a boss or coworker or friends. And these patterns will repeat themselves often because we're still being influenced by these younger aspects.
00:16:20
Speaker
that disengage to help us feel safe, but now it doesn't feel safe anymore to have them disengaged. So from a shamanic perspective, we bring those pieces back in order to help them integrate and grow up, embody us once again into the age that we are now, so that we can really step forward with all of our soul pieces feeling embodied, integrated, and then we can make decisions as a whole person, not from our wounded experience.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah, this reminds me a lot of internal family systems, um, where it's almost as if trauma creates a fracturing of our, of ah the many selves that we have. Um, and through the passage of time, it feels like in our bodies that that person that we used to be is gone and now I'm here and now I'm me and but the memories, they tend to sort of fade a little bit.
00:17:17
Speaker
And it sort of just feels like that's the past. um But as we know, time does not work that way. um And the healing aspect of it is it's so important, at least from my perspective, to be able to reconnect with those parts of ourselves, those those cast out or banished parts of ourselves and see what they need, what Like, what did that four-year-old need at the time that he didn't get or he or or she didn't get? And how do we give that to our four-year-old selves now in order to heal that part of it so that that part of ourselves is no longer banished and is back into, as you said, wholeness and can contribute? Because it seems to me that all the parts of ourselves have a contributing factor to our lives and to who we are.
00:18:11
Speaker
Yes, internal family systems, somatic experiencing, there's lots of ways to work with this. For me, the the aspect around shamanism that that I work with brings in another piece. We find out what that little one needs, but then we actually need to bring that little one home. And that's the retrieval aspect, but I believe shamanism brings in that final piece that can support these other tools and modalities that you're talking about, which I think are great.
00:18:37
Speaker
And that's the piece that has been so supportive to me in my life to really bring those those pieces back home and integrate them. And shamanism is a wonderful way to do that. Shamanic practices really understand that. So for anybody who might not be familiar with what shamanism is, I assume if you listen to this podcast, you probably know. But just in case, can you just sort of describe and define shamanism as you see it?
00:19:08
Speaker
I can describe it as I see it. There are lots of differing opinions. There's you know anthropologists and scientists who will have a very different way of looking at it. And and there's people all over the world of differing backgrounds who will have different opinions about it. For me, it's someone who walks between worlds and works within that trance state to empower others to heal, being able to link into the unseen realms,
00:19:38
Speaker
um might involve working with plant medicine, might not. It just really depends on the way someone was trained, but really walking between worlds and and working in those trance states is a big piece of what I resonate with as shamanism.
Shamanic Practices and Plant Medicines
00:19:57
Speaker
And what are the main tools that you use shamanically for your ceremonies?
00:20:04
Speaker
For ceremonies, it depends on the ceremony, but across the board, it's consistent that I work with singing, singing medicine songs, singing Ikaros, which are generally learned through medicine practice, working with teachers. I also work with rattles. I love to work with rattles. They're a tool that has become very much just an extension of my arm, um working with just different different things that create different vibrations. There's a little bug flying around, different vibrations in the space, shakappas, bells. I don't play bells, but sometimes I'll work with certain bells to create a certain vibration within the space. I have students who will bring a singing bowl and sometimes work with the singing bowl to help, but mostly I rattle and sing. I did recently start working again with a drum.
00:20:56
Speaker
so drumming and singing, but really working with medicine songs is my primary form of moving the energy within the space and working the medicine throughout the ceremonial space to empower each person to have their intentions realized within that space. Sometimes at the end of ceremonies, depending on which ceremony it is, I will work with people one-on-one and do some individual healing, doing what we call limpias, which is a cleansing of the energy I do specific Olympias to, meaning I will find the space in their body very specifically. And overall, Olympia cleanses the whole body. When I'm working with five or six people at the end of a ceremony, I'll be much more direct and specific and find the place in their body where the emotional trauma or need for healing is hanging out. And I'll go straight to that space and start working with them on that.
00:21:53
Speaker
But I love to work with psychotropic plants. I love to work with non-psychotropic plants. we and i mean i When I first started out, I even worked with no plants at all and simply sang the medicine in because the plants are so powerful. They can show up.
00:22:11
Speaker
whether we've ingested them or not as third dimensional beings that often helps us if we ingest them so that we can have that physical way of connecting. but That's just one of the things I love about plant medicines is they're so potent. When you create personal relationship with them, you can invoke them and call them in and they will be with you whether you have ingested them or not, whether it's been years since you've ingested them, they'll still be there.
00:22:37
Speaker
and im just really feel that it's important to have that personal relationship with the medicines we work with, whatever those medicines are, whether they're plant medicines or energies in the unseen realms or whatever each person is working with. Personal relationship really elevates, amplifies, and makes all the difference from my experience.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I hear a lot of people describe this in sort of like this new age-y psychedelic movement. you're hear you You hear people talk about it, and it almost seems negative when they say it, but they'll say something like, oh, once you open the door, you'll never be able to close it again, as if you should want to close the door. But the whole point of the door being opened is for you to be able to go into it or for the plant to come out of it, and then you have that connection then.
00:23:25
Speaker
Because, as you said, when when the door is open, you you can't close it. That thing is always whatever it is. The spirit of the of the mushroom, at least in my case, mushrooms have been my go-to healing modality. But you do create that relationship, and it is always with you every second of every day, and it's it's accessible. And it seems to me that Through the tools of shamanism, it's even more accessible than than at least like in in my in my story. I've you know, I used to just sort of put on cool music or you know, do something that I feel like is going to relax me and allow me to go inside.
00:24:10
Speaker
Um, cause it's always been about that for me. It's never really been about the partying or the fun. I didn't approach these substances for that reason. Um, like some people do. Um, but since experiencing some of these shamanic tools while under the influence of psilocybin.
00:24:29
Speaker
really just exploded the growth. um Because the first time I'd ever experienced an ichiro under the influence was through the Blue Morpho Academy through Hamilton's um live ceremony. And it it feels to me like i I might not ever change the way I go about it. I might always approach this with ichiro's and with rattles and with these these types of tools, they've been really effective. I love what you shared. And I i agree with you, that intention is really what makes a difference. I love how Hamilton talks about Hamilton South, or you had mentioned in Blue Morpho Academy. And um he talks about people often say that the plants are doing this to them, especially at onset when things are are dropping in and really kicking in. And there can be this attitude of the plant did this to me, that but but that's really not what's happening. This is, it's a co-creation.
00:25:27
Speaker
It's completely a co-creation. So in no way does it feel bad to me like I need to close the door. Now, having said that, I do understand that the path of healing isn't always easy. And there can be times when we just think, oh, I just opened a Pandora's box. What was I thinking? I will never get this thing closed again. I get that. I totally understand that. I have had moments like that back in the day. But yeah, once we open up the medicine and open ourselves to it, I truly believe it's worth it to to keep walking through that door. And it's interesting because someone the other day asked me,
00:26:07
Speaker
was asking specifically about cacao and they said, do you do you feel that the medicine of cacao can still come through like in a candy bar or in some experience where it's been so over processed or not even over processed, it's just been greatly processed and shifted. And I shared the story, I had a ah client who ended up being a student of mine for years and she,
00:26:35
Speaker
was wrongly accused and had been arrested. And if you can't come up with the money to get a lawyer and get things moving, then you sit in jail and you wait until things can move. And so she was in this jail for a year with no fresh air, no natural light. I mean, it was just to me, it was horrific conditions that you literally never get fresh air and you never see daylight. It's all just a really enclosed bubble and I would email her and say we're having cacao ceremony this weekend and here's the time and day and she would go and I feel a little emotional even talking about it. She would go and get some Swiss Miss from the commissary and a styrofoam cup and pour some hot water in it and go back to her cell and be in ceremony with us from jail with Swiss Miss.
00:27:34
Speaker
Swiss Miss is so processed and is mostly sugar, but it didn't matter. It was her intention or it was her her need to link in with community and the spirit of the medicine and really just keep bringing healing to her heart in that process. And fortunately, she was able to get out of there because she had not done anything wrong.
00:27:58
Speaker
But she spent that year in ceremony with us from a jail cell with Swiss Miss. And it was just such a huge teaching to me witnessing that, witnessing her willingness to link in however she could with the heart opening medicine of cacao and how cacao came to her through Swiss Miss and through this hot cocoa processed product and The plants, even if someone is just partying, the plant is still working with them. The medicine is still there. and and It took me a while to remember that because it's really important to me to have a space of respect and intention and really be intentional when we're sitting with medicine. and I've never been someone who wanted to just trip balls and cruise through the club. like i'm I'm not saying I haven't partied and had my experiences, but
00:28:54
Speaker
i I just didn't like to feel altered in that kind of way when I was younger. And i can see I can see the fun in it. And I know that a lot of people have a great experience with that. And I do have a deep appreciation for when people bring and intention to the experience. And so if they bring intention and they listen to a set list of music, they're in ceremony in their own way. you know It doesn't mean we have to sing medicine songs and do things that we would consider shamanic.
00:29:24
Speaker
to link in with the plants. And that's something that's so important for me to share with people is that you're linking with plant medicine when you eat green beans. they They're grown in the earth, they're grown in the garden, ideally. They might come out of a can or the frozen food section for some people. But when you're working with herbs, when you're drinking herb tea, garlic, I mean, just so many things that we put in our body without thinking about it.
00:29:52
Speaker
That's plant medicine. These are different forms of plant medicine, and they might not be psychedelic plant medicines, but they're still medicine from the earth. And so I always encourage people to, if you can't grow a garden, at least grow a plant. Grow a plant, link in with the green kingdom. And a garden is so much easier than it sounds. It really is. I have a garden, I have gardens.
00:30:16
Speaker
every year and i so it's survival of the fittest in my garden because I give up on weeding after a while. But I have all sorts of vegetables and flowers and herbs that are at my disposal and I get to to see how they grow and be with them as they grow and so the energy that comes into my body is so healing. And for me it's so important to keep spreading the message within this psychedelic renaissance that non-psychadelic plants are part of the Renaissance because in between these ceremonies and these tripping experiences is integration and integration is so vital and there's so many plants that can support us in that process.
00:30:59
Speaker
Yeah, integration, such, such an important aspect of this Renaissance. And I mean, not to change the subject too much, but a lot of what I'm seeing in popular culture with these substances coming back, it seems like the integration aspect and the intention part of it.
00:31:19
Speaker
It doesn't seem like they're quite getting it, which is why I think shamanism is so important. And if you listen to a lot of people of the past, whether it be influences like Terrence McKenna, Ram Dass, a lot of these people talk about shamanism as like a need as a foundation. We have to have a shamanic foundation to understand these plans to do this the correct way. So we don't sort of repeat the patterns of the past.
00:31:45
Speaker
Well, everybody might not be called towards a more shamanic understanding, but the basics of that, the basics of a shamanic understanding are personal relationship. And so even if someone doesn't feel a resonance with the idea of shamanic, or it may never come onto their radar, it really is about personal relationship. And so If I'm reaching out to the plant saying, do this for me, do this for me, do this for me, how much of this can I put in my system? How often can I do this? What can this plant do for me? But I'm not also saying, what can I do for this plant? What can I bring in sacred reciprocity? How can this be a circle instead of a one-sided gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme? Because that's what I see happening sometimes. I do see a lot of respect and intention. And then sometimes I also see this
00:32:34
Speaker
almost capitalistic vibration of what can the plants do for me? The plants need to do this for me. I need this. I need this. And it it feels like we're just gobbling it all up and in kind of a capitalist way. And I just don't want to have a relationship like that with the plants. I want to ask the plants, what can I do for you? How can I be in service to you and others? You know, what what can I bring to this relationship so that it's reciprocal, sacred reciprocity, I need, as they say in the Andes. So that's, that's some of what I see missing a little bit. It, when it's, when people will ask me about microdosing, sometimes they talk to me like it's another medication, but it's a magic bullet. That'll be this pill that will almost like a pill that will make everything better.
00:33:27
Speaker
Oh, I just need to microdose and all my depression will go away. Well, you can microdose and it can be a huge support for depression and you still need to do your work. You need to bring your piece to the puzzle. And so same thing with ayahuasca. And people say, oh, well, I'll just ayahuasca will fix it. And then they don't do anything about it in the meantime or in between the ceremonies. And this this attitude that the plants will do it for me,
00:33:53
Speaker
is is not, in my opinion, sacred relationship with the plants. That's not being in right relationship. That's expecting the plants to do the work. And there's there's our own work and practices to do in between. and And yes, we can use plants to support with that, but we need to show up and be part of that process. We co-create
00:34:17
Speaker
definitely yes and you know whenever i go into that world into that realm there's always an aspect of that there's always it almost is like uh an expectation where the spirit is like maybe you didn't do what i needed you to do last time and now you're not showing up as like the level of co-creationist that i need you to but it's okay we're gonna get through it and you know it shows me the way anyway but There always is this aspect of like, what am I bringing to the experience? And I tried to impart that on anyone who asks me about it or comes to me and requests any sort of like a sitter situation. It's very important along with your intentions. Like what are you bringing to this experience? You know?
00:35:01
Speaker
um A lot of it is for people who just start out on the path, you know research, you know just steeping yourself in the wisdom and um the paths of people who have whoever you know paved the way for us. Yeah, it's interesting. I'm finding that it's awesome that there's so much information online. Yet I also find that a lot of people will have a lot of information, but not necessarily a lot of experience.
00:35:29
Speaker
and
00:35:32
Speaker
no Information isn't the same thing as wisdom. For me, wisdom comes from that relationship and from experience and from practice and from spending time together. If I go on a dating site and I get all this information about a person, that doesn't mean I know them. I have to date them and get to know them and spend time together and and create a ah connection there that is a relationship. To me, it's very similar with plant medicine. there's every piece of information is on the internet now. And so people think they know a bunch of stuff because they read it online and they can just go make DMT or whatever because it's right there on on the internet without without any container or any teacher or any kind of accountability as to how they're moving forward with their experience. and
00:36:31
Speaker
I trust that everybody's going to do what they need to do and their karma, their Dharma, their soul contracts in this world. I'm not trying to judge how people want to do it. I just have some questions around where where is the teacher relationship with someone who's been there? Where is the accountability? Where is the reflection from something other than ourselves? Because I've seen that plants can be a powerful reflection of the work that we can do, they can also powerfully reflect our ego. And so sometimes I hear people talking and it sounds like what's getting reflected to them is what they want to hear. What's getting reflected is their ego. And then they're moving forward from that space. And to me, that can be a little dangerous, like not necessarily physically dangerous, but maybe mostly energetically for them, just that it can become delusional.
00:37:29
Speaker
And it might be a very high functioning delusion, but it still feels to me like it's important to have people who can hold us accountable, who can reflect for us our shadow in our places that we can't see, who can help us be an integrity on the path. I think that's a really big piece that's needed for this psychedelic Renaissance is to have Renaissance was in my Southern accent, Renaissance to have teachers Plant teachers as well as human, a human teacher who can hold us accountable and help us stay in integrity on this path. Because I find that for most people, that's easier when we have a teacher to walk with us through
Guidance and Accountability in Spiritual Practices
00:38:12
Speaker
that. We have someone who can reflect for us in that way because there's so much we can't see within ourselves and especially early on in the path. And I feel like that's a piece that's missing when everything is available online and you could just dive in on your own.
00:38:28
Speaker
then this understanding of working with a teacher can can get lost. And I hope that that will come back around. I think it's really important. I have teachers that I work with. I have had teachers on this path. I've also had times when I had to really check myself and learn from the plants. I've done it both ways. And I really appreciate having a human teacher has been through the experience and can really hold me accountable and help me stay in integrity with my journey. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you bring up the capitalist nature of just just consuming, consuming, and we do that with information. We consume, consume, and we think that if we consume enough information, then somehow we'll just get there, you know? But another important aspect of it is that information that we obtain from internet books, videos, whatever it may be,
00:39:20
Speaker
is just language. It's in English or whatever language you happen to speak. And these these realms, these substances, plant medicine, these types of ceremonies, they don't speak to you necessarily. I mean, sometimes they do in English. They talk they talk to me all the time. They talk to me all the time. But I but i hear what you're saying. I totally hear what you're saying. And and And I didn't mean to cut you off, but they i I'm verbal, and that's the way I communicate with the spirits. and And I also can see and feel, and I have lots of ways of linking in. But yes, the plants very much talk to me. When you're in ceremony, like with the mushrooms, they don't have a conversation with you. Is that what you're saying?
00:40:02
Speaker
They do, but okay it's the the conversation usually goes something like this. like Here's one of like my my very favorite conversations that I ever had with the mushroom, where um I was able to sort of break into this very expansive like cosmic realm, it felt like, in my mind. where i could it It literally said to me in English, you can ask me any question you want, and I'm going to give you the answer. Here it is. So I started asking these questions.
00:40:32
Speaker
And I'd ask it a question and it would say, well, you know, I, I can't really tell you the answer to that, but let me just give you this. And it would just give me this experience that would show me the answer.
00:40:44
Speaker
And I was like, wow, that is amazing. And I would say, well, what about this? Can I know this? Can you, can you answer me this question and that question? And it would just give me a little wink and it would say, well, I can't answer you, but I'm going to show you like this. But there have been other times where it has given me just straight answers to things or not even answers, but just messages.
00:41:07
Speaker
And it jokes sometimes I've this, this trickster aspect of the mushroom is just so I love it so much. One time it, it likes just spoke to me in an Australian accent for some reason. And I was like, all right, that that's cool. That's kind of funny. And it just, it gives these, these interesting messages that to me are just massive cosmic winks at my inability to comprehend the vastness of the mystery.
00:41:35
Speaker
I hear what you're saying though, when you, when you talk about, we can get information online and that's just words, but then actually sitting with the medicines is a whole other way of communicating. And yes, we might have some verbal discussion, but it's, it's etheric, it's aric, it's shamanic, it's energetic, it's cosmic, it's altered. It's a whole other experience that can't really be put into words. And so I can see where you were going with that thought. Um, but yeah, I've definitely had,
00:42:05
Speaker
those experiences where I'm clearly communicated with, and then also those experiences where, yeah, you can't be in your mind for this. You you need to live this. You need to feel this a felt sense lived embodied experience of what the plant medicine is bringing. And yeah, it's it's interesting to bring that experiential aspect in, which is so different than, and I do think it's important to do research. I'm not poo-pooing doing research or getting information at all.
00:42:35
Speaker
um especially with precautions and interactions that people are taking medications, it's very important to do your research and to know the medicine. um Yeah, for me, it's just like you're saying, thats that's just one aspect. And then the felt sense lived experience is a whole other thing.
00:42:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And another super interesting aspect of what I hear you talk a lot about and I hear about it from a lot of people too. I remember I've listened to a guy named Paul Selig, who speaks with what you call guides.
00:43:07
Speaker
um And I've never really understood because I haven't really gotten an explanation. I haven't really gotten to talk to anybody who has been able to create a relationship with guides. So can you tell me what are guides? how do they How do they communicate with you? Do you see them? Do you hear them? Yeah, that's a great question. I love to work with guides. That's where I started because the first shaman in that I met in 1999, which is really how I got started on this path.
00:43:37
Speaker
um He didn't work with plant medicines. He still doesn't. And so he he taught me much more traditionally from a place of not working with medicine. It was all about connecting with guides, um tracking energy, cell retrieval, finding portals, all sorts of interesting things. And we did a lot of work out in the forest in the woods. um And so working with guides is something that came very naturally to me.
00:44:05
Speaker
The easiest way to explain it might be that we're working with energies and in the unseen realms that are here to support us. And depending on what resonates for you, that's where your guidance will be. it's i When I work with clients and help them link with their guides, I don't tell them this is who you need to work with. I mean, I can see who who's available to them, but I want to walk them through that process of linking in so that it really feels resonant and authentic for them.
00:44:32
Speaker
um And sometimes they link with guides that I didn't realize they were going to link with, which is awesome to witness as well. But it could be animal totems. It could be plant spirit devas. It can be archangels or beings of light, star beings, religious figures, teachers, shamans. I mean, it really ancestors. It can really be anything that is resonant for you and linking with the spirit of that energy for support. It could be.
00:45:01
Speaker
um Archetypes that can even be you know like gods and goddesses like Isis or Artemis or you know energies that people really feel a resonance with. and Sometimes people will link in with energies that they're remembering from what might be considered past lives and different timelines. But often people will find it easier to link with animal totems first.
00:45:25
Speaker
Just because we have a lot of that medicine around us or we see it it feels more tangible and third-dimensional to us Yeah, there's all sorts of possibilities and linking with your guides is a practice um It's it's a practice of listening. It's also a practice of trusting what you receive because people will sometimes tell me I don't I can't see anything. I don't have an imagination and I can't see and I and That's just patently untrue. It's just being able to find your way of seeing so people see in different ways I'm a true intuitive so I feel it first and then I learned to um Translate what I was feeling into visuals so that ah then I could then see
00:46:10
Speaker
and in my cosmic eye and not see like I'm looking at you in this computer, but I could see the visual of if something felt like a tiger, then I could see the tiger standing there with the person. So that took practice and learning how to navigate that. um And it's it's not as third dimensional. It's not like I'm looking at an archangel and I'm looking at their hair color or the color of their eyes or the shape of their nose. i'm not going in for details like that, I'm getting a sense of an archangel energy. And then I i and would say I link with it, but to explain that, I would say ah I would communicate with it to feel into who it is and why they're here to be of support, just as an example, whether it's an animal totem, an archangel, whatever it is, you want to link in and find out how they're here to support you. And it really takes practice because often
00:47:07
Speaker
People will try it, and that's a little hard, and and so they stop trying. But it it you know in order to create that relationship, you want to be in communication. And it's one of those things where you can also Google. If you've been, I'll just use Tiger since I brought that up already. um You can use Tiger if you're feeling a sense of connecting with a tiger, and you can Google what that totem is about. You can Google and research what the archangels bring as far as human understanding.
00:47:38
Speaker
star beings, different things, you can you can get information and research so you have a better understanding of what you're linking with. And sometimes that can help you create a relationship as well. But my experience from a shamanic perspective is that humans can't always be what we need them to be or what we want them to be 24 seven. And I we can't always be for ourselves what we want us to be. So When I found my guides in the realms, it was absolutely pure, unconditional love. They were available 24 seven. There was no judgment. It was just absolutely everything you would want in a relationship. And so it empowered me to have that experience of deep, unconditional love without judgment, always supported, always guided. And then I practiced learning to trust the information I'm getting because most people are getting information every single day.
00:48:35
Speaker
But we're taught to ignore it. We're taught to write it off. We're taught to just not take it seriously. And I truly believe that if you can just reconnect with the wonder and the magic of being a five-year-old and allow for the possibility of these spirits that are here to be of support and get out of that adulting overthinking space, it's a lot easier to link in and connect.
00:49:07
Speaker
So is there a legitimacy to people who think that they're getting information that may not be quote unquote real or true, like it might not be from their guides? Like, is that something that people do get? Or do you feel that most of the information that comes through does have origin in their guides and they just aren't really able to filter it or facilitate um the communication? There are.
00:49:34
Speaker
all sorts of energies floating around in our consciousness that we then experience floating around in the unseen realms. So there's certainly um opportunities for someone to get If I want to be careful about talking about this because I don't want to create fear. And so as soon as you ask that question, if I start answering from a purely shamanic perspective, I feel like people might run with that in a direction that I'm not intending to go.
00:50:05
Speaker
If you see someone who's not necessarily mentally stable and is having some mental health issues and they're saying they're receiving messages that feel harmful to that person or to others, then I think it's for me it's pretty obvious that they're receiving information that's not supportive to them and isn't coming from the kind of guides that I would link you with.
00:50:29
Speaker
But though it doesn't mean that those energies don't exist. I tend to call them entities if they're energies that I don't want to link with because they they don't feel supportive. They feel possibly harmful.
00:50:42
Speaker
there's an aspect of anything that's in our consciousness can be available in the realms. Because when we link with guides, we're really linking with aspects of ourselves. That's why it's so resonant for us. Even if someone's linking with a religious figure, they're still linking with an aspect of themselves. that they Maybe they got programmed into that aspect, or maybe it's something they really resonate with, but it's still an aspect from their consciousness that they're working with.
00:51:09
Speaker
And I also have talked to guides that very much do not feel like they're part of my consciousness and they're very supportive. So I i don't want this to sound like guides or something that we project out. It's both and. And that's a shamanic perspective that can cause some cognitive dissonance sometimes for folks. But my experience is that guides are separate from us and they're also an aspect of us.
00:51:35
Speaker
If someone is receiving information that could possibly not be helpful to them, then they might be linking in with an entity aspect that's not helpful to them. And that's very much a possibility, which is why I work with people to support them in linking in with what will actually be helpful to them.
00:51:55
Speaker
So I'm not sure if I answered your question, but we can all get information that we need to pass through a lens of integrity, a lens of accountability and a lens of common sense. And so generally when we're doing that and we have a teacher who can help us check our ego, then we can get very clear communication from our guides. But sure, it's totally possible for someone to link in with an entity that is giving them information that doesn't feel very helpful or supportive. I don't find that often to be the case with people who work with me and ask to link with their guides. they They're not generally going into those spaces. I find that can be the case with people who already have a tendency towards linking in with things that we might consider of a not supportive nature.
00:52:55
Speaker
Yes, it sounds to me like what you're saying is again this co-creation aspect of it. You know, we have the responsibility of bringing in the correct intentions to whatever we're doing so that we do get the information that is beneficial to our healing or the healing of the world as opposed to, you know, something more nefarious. And sometimes people don't realize they're linking with something that feels more nefarious. that there's If there's been trauma and there's a mental health issue,
00:53:25
Speaker
then it's you know And I dealt with that growing up. I dealt with a lot of entities that did not feel supportive to me and very much wanted me to leave the planet. And so that was part of what I needed healing around so that I didn't feel like I was picking up every single radio station.
00:53:43
Speaker
to the unseen realms. I wanted to link in with the ones that felt most supportive and most healing. But I also got help from therapists and I i didn't just go sit with a shaman. When people come sit with me who have mental health issues, I won't work with them in thisler also unless they're also doing their work in other modalities.
00:54:04
Speaker
um Because as Westerners, I think it's very important that, and I'm talking about ah if someone shows up with a mental health issue, I don't ask every client to go see a counselor or therapist. But I think it's very important when we have a mind or a body that's in crisis that we we receive support from more than one modality. Shamanism can bring the aspect of healing that it can bring.
00:54:31
Speaker
other aspects bring their aspects. I don't do bodywork, right? I don't do psychological counseling. I don't do, you know, all of these other aspects, energy work, like through Reiki or different things that people might do. That's not how I'm working with people. So I think it's important that we get support in lots of different ways. And and that kind of goes back to taking everything to the plants and wanting the plants to do all of it. We also can't just take everything to a therapist and expect that to fix everything. I don't think. I think it's great if someone talks to a counselor and gets that support. I did for years and it was hugely supportive. And I also needed the shamanic aspect and I needed the plant aspect and I needed the body work and I needed, you know, I needed the full holless holistic spectrum and I think that's important.
Holistic Healing and Consciousness
00:55:23
Speaker
very, very important. And it seems that this day and age, we are looking for one answer to everything instead of a holistic answer. um A holistic answer of practice, it takes work, it's not easy, it's very difficult at times. um But we like to ah to take one pill and hope that everything is going to be better. um But as we begin to sort of approach an hour here, there's two huge questions that I'd like to ask you. um I like to ask a lot of people these questions just because I like to get a background on people and understand where they're coming from what kind of work they've done and then sort of Ask how you apply this to humanity and let's just let's start with with the broad Well, they're both broad but We see the world right now. There is so much violence so much division It seems like societies are crumbling around us
00:56:24
Speaker
How do we move forward here and what do you see as the main issues from a shamanic lens? Yeah, I like these questions that you offer out in this understanding of really seeing the global perspective as well as the individual perspective. Ultimately, my experience is that the more I'm healed, the more healing I can bring to the global, to the big picture.
00:56:51
Speaker
um to the larger perspective. And so I continue to focus on my individual healing as well as being in service to others to heal because part of this renaissance with plant medicines and psychedelics I feel is in response to what we see in the world, especially portrayed on social media and the media at large, you know, in journalism, if it bleeds, it leads. So they're not necessarily inclined to put the feel-good stories on the on the front page, so to speak. um I'm not saying there's not awful things happening on the planet, but we get inundated with that.
00:57:34
Speaker
And I really believe that this renaissance in psychedelics and plant medicines and healing and interest in shamanism and interest in new age modalities and interest in just awakening and consciousness, I believe that that is the response to the opposite that we're seeing in the world. And so as we continue to do our work of inner peace,
00:58:01
Speaker
and inner healing so that we can bring that to others, then that spreads and and really, that does affect the global, even though it might feel really small.
00:58:14
Speaker
on your own and you might not see an immediate impact but it does make an effect and especially as that momentum grows and grows and grows. you You feel like you're just one drop of water sometimes but you got to remember there's an ocean of other drops of water doing the same thing and that momentum builds And so that's a big piece of bringing it to bringing that healing and that inner peace to the trap of humanity. And also, when I'm autonomous and sovereign and conscious in my daily life, then I'm not triggered and activated and hooking in to the drama of humanity. And so I'm not adding to that energetic. It doesn't mean I don't also sign petitions and donate money and
00:59:03
Speaker
do what I can to be an ally and to you know bring an end to these oppressive experiences. I'm not saying don't do anything in the third dimensional. Many people are called to support in different ways. For me, it's important that the support I bring comes from a place of being empowered and autonomous and sovereign and in alignment with peace and harmony and not from a wounded reactive place so that I'm not adding to the collective drama.
00:59:36
Speaker
Very beautifully said. I completely agree. It resonates with me very strongly. um And I really love the analogy of the the drop in the ocean. Like all of us are a drop in this massive ocean that we share. um Which brings me to my next massive question because I always kind of consider consciousness itself when I when i consider what that is.
00:59:59
Speaker
I like to consider it as an ocean, and we are each just drops in that ocean that merge back with it, you know, when all of this is done. So um throughout all of your experience, all of your practices, when you contemplate what consciousness is, what does it mean to be alive? Like, what is this whole thing we're doing? ah Where does your mind go? Wow, that is a massive question. One of the unanswerables, right?
01:00:27
Speaker
how I would say at this point in my life, because it's always evolving and changing. But in this particular moment, consciousness, awakening, awareness, what is life all about? It might sound cheesy, but it just feels like it's about love. Because the more I can be present, the more I can step out of my bullshit and and really be in integrity with myself and and
01:00:58
Speaker
continue my healing and and be present with others and be compassionate and kind. And and and I don't even have to be patient. To me, patient feels like I'm choosing to be patient because I don't want to be, you know, it kind of feels like you're annoying me so I'm going to be patient with you and that's not where I want to come from. True patience to me is is that kindness and compassion for myself so that I can then express that for others because I have people come and sit with me from all different experiences and I'm having my experience too and so it
01:01:39
Speaker
It doesn't matter what kind of mood I'm in. I want to show up from a place of kindness and compassion and that awareness and that love so that I can also just have fun. One of the things I've learned over the years because I took myself hella seriously, I'm remembering now that you said I could curse, so I'm going to get all my curse words in right here at the end. I was being so polite. oh No, but I took myself very seriously because I really wanted to to be an integrity on this path and I wanted to bring good medicine to people and I still do.
01:02:13
Speaker
And I learned over the years that it's good to take the medicine seriously. It's good to take the journey and the learning seriously, but I can't take myself so seriously. I'm a human. I'm a wounded healer, just like everybody else. We got our stuff.
01:02:26
Speaker
and something that's come up so much for me is like, I'm here to have fun. That's been forgotten in the process. This gets to be fun, because I grew up in so much trauma, and my sole focus was I gotta heal, I gotta heal, I gotta heal, I gotta heal. And the plants are like, yes, and don't forget, we can have fun.
01:02:49
Speaker
Right. oh I told this story. I think I told this story. I'll share it with you here for your listeners. But I think I told this in the lecture that you were talking about. um Working with Wachuma.
01:03:02
Speaker
and leading Wachuma ceremony. And this was back when I was still finding my way with leading ceremonies. I was much younger in that path. And I was feeling very altered, very altered, and I'm supposed to be leading. And I was like, whoa. And I said to the medicine abuelo, grandfather, I said, whoa, I'm really altered.
01:03:30
Speaker
Am I going to be okay? and The medicine said, are you? and I said, I don't know. I'm not flying this plane because I knew I was not in control. right and The medicine said, oh honey, you've never been flying this plane. You're not you're not the one flying this plane. and I said, well, what am I here for? and The Wachuma said, you're the in-flight entertainment.
01:03:52
Speaker
And I was just like, right. i'm i' I think I was thinking and that like San Pedro, like I'm flying the plane with San Pedro and I'm taking these people through their journey and the medicine is like.
01:04:04
Speaker
as your heart. No, you're the in-flight entertainment. and And it wasn't dismissive of me. It was very funny. And it made me laugh. And it totally reminded me, I'm here to sing the songs and to play the drum and to rattle and to hold the space and to weave them through their medicine experience. But I'm not in control of this. I'm not the thing. And I get to have fun as I learn and I get to have fun with the medicines and I get to have fun on this planet. and I have a student I've worked with for probably 12 years who's now a dear friend and her mantra is I love my life and I have taken that mantra over the last however many years and it is my like my banner that I carry with me. I love my life. I love my life because ultimately
01:04:54
Speaker
that just feels so important. That, to me, is what life is about. We're here for such a finite amount of time, and I'm not saying there's not a lot of shit going down on the planet. Do I support that if I just stay spiraled out in my victimhood? No, I do not. I can empower and support others when I'm in my personal power with the Big P, when I'm doing my healing, when I'm doing my work,
01:05:18
Speaker
and then I can be in service to others and that momentum grows. so For me, that's exciting. That's fun to to bring medicine to people, to bring healing to people, to link with these plant medicines. that That's what my life is about. I'm not saying that's what life is about for everybody, but ultimately that brings me back to a place of joy and loving my life and being in love.
01:05:45
Speaker
not in love in a romantic way, but being in love, embodying love. And so that's when I feel most present and conscious and connected and in the oneness. And I just love that.
01:05:59
Speaker
Amazing, amazing. You're speaking my language, Bloom. um And I've just really, really enjoyed this conversation. Endless gratitude to you for coming on here and sharing your wisdom with me and everyone who's listening. Can you just share where anybody can find you if they want to get in touch, they want to connect, they want to work with you? Yeah. My website is bloompost dot.com. B-L-O-O-M-P-O-S-T dot.com.
01:06:25
Speaker
You can find me there. It's got all of my offerings listed, most of my offerings. There's some things, everything that can be public is listed. And then just reach out to me by email. That's the best way to reach me. I'm on Instagram as bloompostlove. I just got back on Instagram. I'm going to try that out for a while. And I'm on Facebook as bloomer and weather post. um But my website's the best place to find me and reach out for any questions or support bloompost dot.com.
01:06:54
Speaker
Thank you so much, Josh. This has been super fun. Yeah, it's been great. Thank you so much again for coming on the show today, Bloom. Yeah, thank you.