Image by Gerd Altmann

How often do you daydream and find yourself drifting back to times in your earlier life or into ideas of what might become? How often do you dream for yourself or for your loved ones? The act of recalling memories or dreaming into the future is an intimate relationship with longing.

We long to connect and reconnect. We long for union. Reunion is our true nature. Time travel is all about reunion.

When I learnt about shamanism, I was taught that the shaman was someone who interacted with spirit worlds through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. I was taught that the goal of this was usually to direct these spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world, for healing or other purposes.

Our natural state is reunion. Whether our culture or our own choosing defines us as shamans, visionaries, soul-searchers, daydreamers or those who play, I believe we all long for union and the bringing together of a world that shows the truth about time travel again.

Ego and the Idea of Continuum

The ego, as named by Freud and later recontextualized by Jung, is a strong facade of ourselves we create in order to belong, be accepted by our tribe, and to keep ourselves safe. The ego learns to comply and behave in a way that is culturally acceptable and is built from not wanting to be punished or die. The "far out" idea of a continuum of time that we can access at all times could be a bit of a challenge for the ego as the ego prefers predictability and conformity.

I recommend finding a way to honour your ego and the part of you that numbs out, denies, laughs at or feels threatened by some of the things you begin to find out on this journey.

Get to know your ego and the way that it behaves and love it no matter what. The ego needs lots of compassion and gratitude for what it is trying to do. For in truth, the opening to a spiritual paradigm is ultimately the ego's death.

Honour yourself, your ego every day and the ego in the world around you. However, don't worship it or give way to it. You might have to be quiet, lie low and just get gently on with your own way at times. You definitely will need to cultivate both a deeper humility and a strength of knowing.

Allowing a Flow

Loop is a flow. It is a continuum. It is a circle with no beginning and no ending. It lets you go wherever you need to go. Remember through this time that allowing a flow also means that you can choose to pause wherever you are.

Become a Director of flow. Choose to be in charge of your own limits and choices. Trust that you know what you need, as well as knowing that things will change for you.

Visionary Practice

Practise with present, past and future timelines.

EXERCISE: Nature (with Presence)

The first thing I am going to ask you to do is to find a special place in nature with a tree, where you can sit regularly. It might be your garden or a tree on a walk close to you. Attune to where this place is going to be and resolve to dedicatedly visit this place for the duration of the course. Take about twenty minutes or more for this task.

Go to your chosen place in nature. Sit with your back to the special tree that you will visit regularly. Take some time to become present. Focus on your breath and simply become mindful to what chatter inside your head might be going on. You don’t need to push it out. Presence is about allowing awareness to a rise and comes from a dif ferent place to the mind chatter.

Let yourself move into your senses:

Touch—feel the air on your skin, touch the ground with your fingers and the surface of the tree, grass and nature around you.
Smell—breathe in the scents.
Taste—taste the air, lick the grass, bark, a flower.
Hearing—let your ears take in the sounds.
Sight—let your eyes cast on everything as if seeing for the first time. Let nature join you through your senses.

In this space, bring yourself to awareness of being present and in the moment. You are looking to become present with nature both within and without. Now imagine this presence as being able to exist throughout all times. Take yourself to the beginnings of everything. Feel the origins. Feel the today. Allow a conversation to happen, moving with presence with your senses and nature through these two stations of presence.

Bring yourself back. How do you feel about nature now? How do you feel about your own true nature and nature around you? Make some notes on how you found this experience.

EXERCISE: Nature with Others

Part 1—with Present Humans included

Now I invite you to feel yourself and all of us humans as being a part of nature!

Include trees and all of nature here!

Go outside. Spend some time walking mindfully. Be aware that you are a soul living in a body in a physical realm called Earth and that you are anchored in a time called the present.

Take some time to register all the other members of this Earth community all about you. Feel the physicality of this plane we all exist in together. Deeply acknowledge every living part of nature you can see or might be there but you can’t see them, in your world. Be aware of the other presences on this Earth plane like the trees, plants, sheep, rain, air and birds. Try to imagine or tune in to some of these other beings especially to try to feel how it would be for them to relate to this present moment Earth plane too.

Now call to mind your current Earth fa mily who live in this plane with you. Recall the members of your family who are alive and also any special significant others for you. Take some time to register what it is like to be in your body and how it feels to relate to this present-moment Earth plane.

After about ten minutes with this exercise, take some notes.

Part 2—with Ancestors

Include trees and all of nature here.

Open to the idea of the existence of the ancestors of the land you are on now as nature beings as well as human ancestors of the land and your own ancestors.

Deeply acknowledge every living part of nature that has lived on this Earth before this time. Be conscious of the other presences on this Earth plane in the past like the trees, plants, sheep, rain, air and birds. Try to imagine or tune in to some of these other beings especially to try to feel how it would have been for them to relate to this past times Earth plane too.

Now do the same for the human ancestors of the land and for your own ancestors.

Imagine how your soul and your ancestral soul are connected. Feel a bubble of light all around you and your energetic body. Ask that a soul guide can hold your vibration clear and true for you. Set the intention that in this exercise you are kept clear and state that you are not available to take on any feelings of others in other times, but just to be open to acknowledge and honour everyone and everything.

Think about the existence of previous generations on the land you stand on right now and imagine how the soul of the land and these ancestors are connected. Connect with the idea of previously met trees and nature elements that have existed on this land too. Open up to the world of possibility that all of these different realms of soul can have a place here. Make a place for your ancestors and a place for the ancestors of the land.

Feel how this present moment on the Earth plane and other planes of time and experience can exist together. Find a way to open upiourself to appreciate your own soul a nd the world around you as part of a wider soul though space and time.

What does this feel like?

Take the next five or ten minutes to honour or acknowledge your ancestral nature souls, the personal relative souls and the souls of the ancestors of the land where you are who have died and have passed beyond this time and space. You will be opening a special council space for them just by honouring them. You may do this through song, speaking aloud to them, gently ringing bells or leaving biodegradable offerings. Everyone senses in different ways, so be aware this may feel very subtle. The fact is if we reach out then what we reach out to can feel the invitation. Sometimes this takes lots of practice and the building up of a groove and relationship to be felt by you. Sometimes it can be felt very easily.

After you feel complete, thank everything and say goodbye for now. Close the space by asking the soul guide you connected with at the beginning to sweep between you and the soul of everything like a curtain that closes with respect but continues to honour in a different way. This will make sure you can go back into your everyday life and perception more smoothly and keep focus.

Take some notes on what this was like for you and what you perceived.

Part 3—with the Future ones

Open to the idea of the existence of the future nature beings and future humans of the land you are on now and your own family’s future descendants through whatever branch they may continue. Imagine how your soul and your future ones’ souls are connected.

Feel a bubble of light all around you and your energetic body. Again, ask that a soul guide can hold your vibration clear and true for you. Set the intention that in this exercise you are kept clear and state that you are not available to take on any feelings of others in other times but just to be open to acknowledge and honour everyone and everything.

Think about the existence of future nature beings and future generations on the land you stand on right now and imagine how the soul of the land and these future ones are connected. Open up to the world of possibility that all of these different realms of soul can have a place here.

Make a place for your future family descendants (if there will be any for you or for your siblings) through whatever branch they take. Make a place for the future ones of this land. Feel how this present moment on the Earth plane and other planes of time and experience can exist together. Find a way to open up yourself to appreciate your own soul and the world around you as part of a wider soul though space and time.

What does this feel like?

Take the next five or ten minutes to honour or acknowledge future family relative souls and the souls of the future nature ones and humans of the land where you are. Feel again how you are opening a special council space for them just by honouring them. Again, you may do this through song, speaking aloud to them, gently ringing bells or leaving biodegradable offerings.

Which Way Does Time Go?

When I was pregnant with my son in 1999, I rented a room in a town close to the country cottage renovation project I was working on with his dad, just until the cottage was ready. On the landing outside my bedroom was a poster. On it were these words: 

Treat the Earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
                                    - Native Proverb

With my first child in my belly, of course the sentiment of these words and the synchronicity of the message being outside my door at this time had a profound impression on me. Time seemed to go backwards from what I had previously felt when looked at this way. Becoming a mother, my whole concept of time shifted.

The caravan of creation apparently ran back to source not from it! This blew my mind! Over the years I began to comprehend that actually either way you went it was the same source. Suddenly, one day it became apparent to me that this was the mystery of death! Everything was one big Loop, often experienced as cycles.

Copyright ©2023 by Carol Day.
All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.

Article Source:

Shamanic Dreaming: Connecting with Your Inner Visionary
by Carol Day

Visionaries dream the future into life, and throughout the ages shamans have served this role within their communities. Yet, how does one as an individual open to visions and allow the messages we need to hear to come through? Enter the stage of Shamanic Dreaming for a playful, evocative rendezvous with circle consciousness.

In this shamanic guide, visionary Carol Day shows how to access our creative potential to shape a strong vision for ourselves and others, connecting intimately to the world around with the support of seen and unseen realms. Earth whispering practices prepare for shamanic visioning by expanding the senses; we open up to different dimensions and initiate a conscious relationship with nature, myth, and archetype through the creativity wheel.

Click here for more info and/or to order this paperback book. Also available as a Kindle edition.

About the Author

Carol Day is a visionary teacher, psychotherapist, artist, and director of Creative Earth Ensemble in Scotland. Also the founder of the systemic story therapy, she runs a private practice and is involved in projects centered on creating community and connecting people back to the land.

Visit her website at CreativeEarthEnsemble.com

More Books by the author.