Shamanism and the Celtic shaman path towards healing

12/21/23 • 55 min

We are delighted to be presenting this third episode of Fields of Healing where we discuss a healing field that is becoming more and more visible and popular within Irish healing circles. Shamanism is what many people might think of as something pagan and definitely something from ‘over there’, maybe South America or Siberia or Mongolia, not something Irish. Yes, it is something from ‘over there’ for sure, though more accurately something associated with indigenous healing practices in any part of the world. In Ireland, much of our traditional indigenous healing practices and even words have been disappeared. By various colonial usurpers, latterly by the catholic church and probably significantly influenced by the so called age of reason and science.

Of course, healing practices, medicine men and women, remained in folklore and to a large extent perhaps could only survive within this dimension until recent decades, where we have seen a huge increase in interest and practices grounded in our very own indigenous healing. Celtic shamanism has re-emerged within this development and even still, lost words and descriptions are slowly beginning to emerge that give meaning to these practices. For now, shamanism can and does offer a way of being that encompasses this old and contemporary spiritual holistic healing modality.

Previous Episode

Family Constellations & Systemic Healing

We are delighted to present this second Fields of Healing Podcast recorded in a healing field known locally as Granny’s acre. We have adjusted sound as best we can, though we can’t help hearing a short rain shower and distant laughter from outside of our Yurt. Mad in Ireland have opportunistically gathered together a group of family constellations facilitators at Irelands yearly Family Constellations Camp https://constellationscampireland.ie/ (or https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064473321292) for this episode.

What is Family Constellations?

Although we attempt to answer this question in the podcast, to tweak your interest, a version or summary describing Family Constellations introduces us to the podcast and interviewees below.

Family Constellations is a therapeutic modality founded by Bert Hellinger, who spent many years as a catholic priest and teacher in a Zulu school in South Africa. In Family Constellations we explore dynamics and patterns that run through families. The focus is primarily on trans-generational trauma: how the events that affected our ancestors continue to have an effect on us. Our ancestors often had to deal with massive traumas: war, hunger, early deaths, extreme poverty, and the attitudes and strategies they developed to deal with those events can show up in our lives, where they are no longer helpful.

Next Episode

Music, the rhythm of the soul

Welcome once again to Mad in Irelands podcast series ‘Fields of Healing’. This time around we visit the world of music and rhythm as a field or landscape of and for healing. Music is something that many people appreciate in its various guises and it has many forms. If we were to reflect on the impact of music on our lives, we might at the very least notice how different music evokes a range of emotional states; we might even feel that energetic drawback in time to a place when we liked a certain genre or listened to particular songs that remain with us today. We may not have considered the nature of music and rhythm generally as a healing field, yet since time memorial it has played a part in healing rituals. And within the broader eclectic paradigm of healing and how people can and do engage with music as part of their own healing journey, we visit that field. It is vast and at best we can give an Irish sample, in this case from two people who work within mental health services and outside of it, bringing their own version of music and rhythmic healing to the mental health field. We are speaking with Rory Adams, music therapist and Deirdre Howard, Community drum facilitator and hope your interest is peeked by our latest podcast.