Our physical and energetic environment includes our friends the plants and animals, the elements, the personality and character of the landscape, the make up of our very planet itself, the mineral kingdom, and the heavenly bodies. We know what science teaches us about them but the average person knows little or nothing about their shamanic value to us beyond that they are physical resources to plunder for our own purposes. As you shall see, mountains are repositories of minerals and therefore hold a special place as allies for human beings. Minerals compose the heavenly bodies and therefore help to form a communication grid or matrix that connects the whole universe together.

The shamanic perspective is that everything we experience on any level is a form of medicine. This is to say that each unique manifestation of Spirit comes with healing qualities and special properties that you can ask for support and help with any number of challenges. Some of these properties are uniquely helpful to plants, others to animals, or other aspects of the environment, and many are helpful and sustaining to human life. Some plants and minerals are helpful to certain other animals but toxic to humans, this is fundamental and most people know this. However a plant or mineral that is physically toxic to the human body can still be a good ally if approached properly and with respect. Tobacco is one such plant that has many healing properties but can also make a human being sick if consumed in the wrong way. The same is true for arsenic and many other ingredients. You have to know how to use them in a shamanic sense or you might get sick or die. Early human beings, through their new found powers of intuition and shamanic practices survived by learning the ins and outs of the environment. Their survival was not as scientists believe, based on trial and error. If we had used that method the human race would not be here today.

Minerals include metals, semiprecious stones, crystals, and those that we culturally think of as precious metals and gemstones. Metals and crystals are often interwoven together and have combined properties that can be mightily beneficial to your health. This depends on the combinations included. Like all allies the minerals have a physical body but also have energetic properties as well.

Like the archetypes of the plants and animals the mineral kingdom exists all over the physical universe, on other planets, moons, suns, asteroids, comets, gas clouds, and the contents of all of space. Shamanically speaking it is useful to remember that each specimen of mineral is linked via the quantum field to not only all the same type of mineral on earth but all the same type of mineral everywhere in the universe. Therefore the qualities of gold are the same everywhere in the universe and each particle of gold has the knowledge of gold everywhere. This is part of their overall power.

Mineral Exercise:

Imagine for a moment all the minerals that compose your body: Tiny bits of magnesium, potassium, calcium, gold, silver, iron, and so on. Sense how they are orchestrated throughout your body and the great service they do in coordinating and assisting with your bodily functions. Address them and thank them for their great service, something you may have taken for granted. Make friends with them by saying hello and honoring them for their medicine. Now realize that they are each connected to all similar minerals everywhere in the universe via the quantum field and therefore are in touch with events everywhere. Realize how you are connected with everything and anything. Feel the expansiveness of this, the very power of this. Find a way to honor your favorite mineral through a screen saver or buying a specimen that you can admire.

Minerals are intelligent in the sense that they are a part of consciousness and are an expression of Spirit. This is to say that each mineral has the intelligence of Spirit within it. Even so, minerals can be harmful if used improperly. Just because something is the manifestation of Spirit does not mean it cannot kill your body or make it sick. In this physical universe one has to know the proper use of things. Spiritually speaking no mineral can harm you because all is one and it is not separate from you. When you use essence or the higher mind to navigate the world of allies you will always be safe because you will know what to do. When you use the false personality or the lower states of mind you are quite vulnerable to make serious mistakes. How many alchemists and scientists have died over the ages by experimenting and making their choices out of ignorance of this fact?

Minerals have the element of carbon within them and this is the balancing agent for this physical universe. Truth (intelligence), Love, (magnetism) and energy (power) are the three building blocks of this universe. Since they are a triad, they create a state of imbalance allowing constant change and this is how we experience evolution, growth, acceleration, learning, and so on while we are embodied here. In our perfectly natural states as children of Spirit we are unchanging and perfect, timeless, whole and complete. There is no game going on in the highest state of mind. The game is happening at the purely physical states and it can be quite fun when not experienced from lower frequencies. Even though carbon has truth, love, and energy within it, it represents a fourth and local building block that grounds the other three. This produces a quadrant that is more stable, but not entirely. This is why when we look around we have a somewhat false sense of stability. A rock seems to have stability when we look at it. Most of the time it is not going anywhere or transforming itself in the brief moment we are contemplating it. In the bigger picture no matter how strong and powerful, a rock is totally unstable and will not last. Nothing does. Carbon allows us to have this temporary stability of the planet and the cosmos for long enough that we can experience a few things. We can build houses and drive cars and they last for a little while, perhaps just long enough for whatever we need to learn.

The shape and color of minerals gives them additional qualities that add to their overall influence. Crystals with the shape of an octahedron, six points, have great stability and are able to impart that to the user. Fluorite has this stability as well as the ability to absorb lower frequencies and neutralize them making it a good hygiene stone to carry. You can go anywhere in this physical universe and wherever you find fluorite it will have these same abilities and influences. The black of some tourmaline also makes it an excellent absorber of negativity, the clear clarity of some crystals makes them highly programmable, the red of ruby incites passion, and the yellow of citrine helps to elevate the mind. This is a broad body of knowledge I can only hint at here.

Concentrated mineral deposits mostly in mountain ranges account for some of the strangest and more interesting shamanic phenomena. Shamanically speaking mountain ranges are the skeletal structure of the Earth, the oceans and waterways are the vascular system, the atmosphere is the respiratory system and so on. Here we will focus on the mountains. Great power runs through every mountain range and is concentrated in the highest peaks of each range. As you may recall, in the Andes these peaks are referred to as Apus, great beings who act as guardians to the land all around. The Andeans honor and acknowledge the mountain peaks with offerings and prayers and petition them for special assistance with healing, protection, fertility, and more.

Almost everyone who visits the mountains anywhere experiences well being and rejuvenation, your body and mind are energized and revitalized there. In addition many people report great inspiration visiting mountain ranges. Massive flows of what the Taoists call Chi or Qi radiate from mountain ranges throughout the surrounding countryside attracting people, animals and plants. This is why many people insist on living near hazardous volcanoes that could wipe them out at any time. The attraction of the mountains is just too great to ignore and many people are willing to endure the hardships of living in the mountains for the many benefits they gain.

Mountain Exercise:

Think of the closest mountain or mountain range to where you live. It may be quite far but that is fine. Now imagine yourself as on the very top experiencing the power, the majesty of the view, the cool air, the quality of the sky there. Soak in the essence of the experience. Now say hello to the presence of the mountain beneath your feet. Yes, it is a large being with a consciousness that is different from your own. Thank it for the benefit it provides to all the surrounding countryside. Thank it for whatever benefit it has provided you whether it be vitality, inspiration, or expansiveness. Give it an offering or a gift. For example you can imagine that you have brought it a piece of fruit that you leave there or some tobacco perhaps.

If you wish, tell it to help you in some way. Experience the great power the mountain has within it and tell it to fill you up with the grand flow of energy and strength that blazes out its peak. Make it your friend.

To return to our discussion, what the average person is not able to see are the tremendous mineral deposits lying underneath the mountains. These mineral deposits are not random nor are they accidental. They are part of deliberate planned structures that give the mountains their special powers. Unbeknown to most people there are caves and underground spaces that are meeting places for high level shamans from many different locations. The shamans meet there in the dream state, in out of body experiences. They have to be advanced enough and skilled enough to be able to carry this off in order to gain entry. Here in these mountain temple caves they share knowledge and information with one another. In other words these are meetings among masters who use the power of the mineral kingdom to accomplish any number of aims. From these meeting places they are able to calm violence and disruption as well as spread well being and love to a great many people in the region. Like a veritable United Nations, shamans from all continents may be in attendance as well as some from other locations in the galaxy.

No shaman is able to enter these places without permission or an invitation. When they have the power to do so and they are invited to attend they participate as an observer only. After a long apprenticeship they are able to more actively participate and at the mastery level they can exhibit leadership.

The mainstream culture vehemently denies that any of this is true suggesting that there is no evidence to prove it but there are numerous references that these meeting places exist cross culturally and historically. The Mayans, the Qeros, the Dine, African Shamans, Siberian Shamans, are just a few who refer to these meetings. They say the meetings are secret and hidden and involve shamanic methods not recognized by the mainstream cultures.

The Huichols of Mexico are well aware that their sacred mountain overlooking Wirricuta, Cerro Quemado, is filled with gold and silver deposits and this in part accounts for its power and influence. No wonder it is being sought by Canadian Mining operations to remove the deposits, threatening the Hucihols traditional holy mountain. In their defense the mining companies say they can remove the deposits from below without disturbing the surface. The Huichols just shake their heads at the absurdity of this argument. For them the deposits are integral to the sacred site and if removed would change its character forever. They warn that if attempts are made to remove the deposits the mountain itself will protect itself. This suggests disaster for any company desecrating the mountain.

The Blue Lake region of the Rocky Mountains is one such area where meetings take place as are areas of the Sierras of California, Mount Shasta, Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii, Ausangate in Peru, the Lake Titicaca region Peru and Bolivia, Northern Chile, Mt. Chimboraso in Ecuador, locations within the Alps, the Himalayas, the Altai mountains, the Andes and so on all over the world. Remember that the actual locations are so well protected they cannot be found unless one is prepared and invited. You could hike all over the region and find no trace of such a place. Even if you did find it no one would believe you and you would be quickly labeled as crazy. Such is the fear and denial of the larger cultures on the planet.

Not all the locations are to be found in mountain ranges. There are several within the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The world is definitely stranger than it seems and will only get stranger as people become more and more aware and conscious of dimensions of activity in higher frequencies.

Now most people think of the planets as stable big balls of minerals orbiting around the sun that are for the most part forbidding and uninhabitable. There are several problems with this perception. People used to think that the world itself was flat and today we are so accustomed to thinking it is round we laugh at the naivety of our ancestors. Yet someday our descendants will chuckle at our naivety thinking it and all the planets are round. The roundness of the planets are only a convenience, a way to understand certain sets of laws that govern the spaces we live on. In truth there are no objective round planets. We each perceive our environment by piecing together billions of fragments of data that give our minds a kind of coat hanger to hang our ideas on. In truth there is no objective round world out there. There is only the movement of units of consciousness and fragments of matter that give us a semblance of an idea that we occupy some place in space we call home. The Earth and the other planets are more like a dreamscape, a convenience of our consensus perception. Indeed this is a very hard concept to wrap our brains around because it seems to violate every thing we thought was true, everything that gives us a sense of stability.

In all truth there is no stability. All is in flux. People thought the planets were like clockwork with fixed orbits around the sun in fixed locations. Now it turns out that these orbits are very temporary and have fluctuated often. The whole solar system is totally unstable and could change at any time. This idea is so scary for us that our minds deny it but it is fact. There is no stability to be found out there and there never was. The stability comes from within, from knowing what we actually are, who we really are and that, shamanically speaking, is so majestic and mind boggling that we just haven’t the imagination to contemplate that yet.

For the time being let us get back to our perception that the planets are balls of minerals rotating around the sun. It is after all a rather beautiful idea, very aesthetic. Astrologers in many continents over millennia have mapped the movement of the planets and discovered how they influence our minds, our emotions, our actions for better or for worse. Their perception is that the movement of heavenly bodies influence human beings and that by studying them we can take advantage of this knowledge to be more careful or more aggressive during certain times and not others. They also have described a set of personality structures linked to planetary types. While their work is quite insightful and can be quite helpful there are misperceptions that have crept into the human psyche regarding astrology. Most people think of the planets as having certain characteristics that influence one no matter what and this leads people to have attitudes about certain planets and their movements. They become fearful of them, fatalistic, or feel victimized by them. Perhaps they have their favorites and the ones they regard as enemies.

This is because most people have forgotten that the heavenly bodies are big elementals that can become allies. Yes, they have intelligence and they each have their medicine and yes their medicine may or may not be good for each person at special times. However the planets like the earth are composed of minerals and gases that are in communication with similar minerals and gases all over the universe. Yes, they know things and they can be most helpful if approached properly. Few people think of the value of making friends with Saturn, with Pluto, or with Uranus, yet, they can be communicated with. They can be enlisted as allies if they are acknowledged as having consciousness, as having a particular medicine or set of medicines, and yes, they can even be loved for what they are and what they do. Once this relationship is established the heavenly bodies can protect you, support you, teach you, and will even mentor you. And yes, they can love you as well. This of course is the shamanic perspective and sounds crazy if not impossible to most people.

Heavenly Body Exercise:

Pick a planet that you have some unease about or it could be the sun or the moon. Say hello to it in your minds eye. Contemplate its special medicine, its consciousness, and its essential quality. How do you feel in its presence, neutral, awed, fearful, slightly disagreeable, or attracted to its beauty and presence? What would have to happen for you to make friends with it and enlist it as an ally? What could it do for you if it were on your side or if you did not resist it in any way. Tell it you want a better relationship with it, that you want its help. What do you feel now? Compliment it and tell it how beautiful it is and how you want a good relationship with it. What are you willing to do for it? Offer it something? Put its picture on your computer screen as a screen saver? And so on?

Now let’s tie our discussion together with our earlier statements about how the planets are not really round balls but constructed within our perception to meet certain consensus needs of the game we call being human. This means that the planets are like elements of a game like monopoly or chess. They are elements of the game like apartments, play money, cards, board pieces and so on. You need to have these to play the game but the game is made up. The game is mostly imagination because that is where the fun is to really pretend you are getting rich or taking the queen. If you cannot imagine that then the game is no fun. So the planets and everything are there as part of the game to enjoy and pretend for a while they are real. Like a video game when the guy representing you goes off the cliff you yell out, “OH Shit, I died.” But then you just start the game again.

Since all the pieces of the game are in your mind they are all you and so they can love you or attack you or give you trouble. In the end that is what life is, a series of imagined phantasms designed to give you an experience. In the end great masters discovered this and said things like, “I Am that I Am” meaning, oops, its all spirit after all and that is what I am too.

To recap then, minerals are all in contact and are the building blocks to most of the structures in this universe. They each come with their special gifts and can be enlisted as allies. They tend to be concentrated in certain areas like mountain ranges and huge power emanates from these places. This power can be harnessed and used by one who knows.

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