Welcome and blessings to all in our community
Dear Shamanic Community of Austin,
With the changes in our political future and the anxieties and nervous imbalance this brings to many, Nate offers the following as a way to redirect our misgivings into hopeful attitudes and action.
A Few Words From Butterfly :
Yes, I am Butterfly. I embody the transition into beauty, flight, and color. It is my truth and is the only way I know.
So, my challenge to you is: Use your imagination as a tool to create a new beautiful you and reimagine who you have been. Changing your perspective, truth, and reality just may be WHY you’ve been given an imagination to begin with.
When you look forward to what may happen in your life, whether a promise of something amazing to come or the anxiety of confrontation, you use both personal beliefs and imagination to create and craft a future to live within. When you look backward and honor past teachings and meaningful moments, or cringe from past horrors and regret, you use both personal beliefs and imagination to reconstruct and define your memory.
In both cases, future and past, reality only exists as you have invented it. Positive and negative. The extreme joy, the frightful trauma, and the mundane everyday interactions. It is all a personal reality that you have created.
As a Butterfly, I’m proud to be a namesake of the concept known as the “butterfly effect”… which is relevant to both past and future healing work. The “butterfly effect” refers to the theory that the flapping of the wings of a butterfly several weeks before would influence the strength and trajectory of a tornado today. It means that if you could change even the smallest thing in the past … then the present would be altered.
The idea of changing history just by imagining something different may seem overreaching, even silly. But if you think about it, you change what you remember, and rewrite your history all the time. You might even find and invent clues to support these new histories … then, turn around and call them reality. If a story is told enough times, no matter how far-fetched, then it eventually becomes truth to some, even to many. And where there are multiple truths then conflict and discord arise.
Anxiety arises when you find yourself in a position to choose one truth over another. This uneasiness surfaces and spreads throughout the community and nation and can stain everything around you. All because of an uncertainty in what to believe.
The “butterfly effect” as it relates to the future is relevant, as well. It can be powerful to imagine that what you do (maybe even everything you do) is a “seed” that creates and brings life to something grand. When you live with the view that each action is for the benefit of a future goal, relationship, or descendant, then your present truth and vision will change into something beautiful and more colorful. In the same way, if your imagined future is darker and more dangerous, then your present decisions will be colored accordingly.
I have landed upon your hand, and I tickle your skin, and you ask, “So, what am I to do?” My answer is to dig deep into your discernment and discover your own truth. Bring forward a positive, joyful, and colorful truth. Then imagine and craft your reality – past, present, and future – around that truth, holding a view of the world that is healing and full of promise.
It is time for me to move on to the next flower. However, I don’t believe I am creating a tornado on the other side of the world. I believe my flight will bring two people together in love, or an inquisitive spark from a toddler, or perhaps it will bring a lonely soul back from the edge of a very dark decision.
Fly well my friend,
Butterfly
— The Leadership Team for the Shamanic Community of Austin
Learn More
We are partnering with The Shamanic Passages Institute to offer two virtual introductory courses especially designed for those new and relatively new to the shamanic journey. Council member Gerry Starnes, M.Ed., author and creator of the Institute, is offering a special 20% discount on two foundational courses. See the blog regarding Journey Courses For Beginners for more information.
The Shamanic Community of Austin website also has an educational library under the Resources page. You can find links to books by leading shamanic teachers and leaders.
The Leadership Council is working towards providing educational online videos for both new and continuing members to learn about our core values and mission. We are also looking to present our leadership team to the community through online videos to express each unique practice, expertise, and shamanic view.
Join the Shamanic Community of Austin Meetup site to keep up with all current event listings and to RSVP. We ask that you RSVP with integrity. A solid head-count before each event helps us better plan and better serve the entire community.
Please consider supporting the Shamanic Community of Austin through your contributions using PayPal or Venmo
We also would love to get your feedback! Please email us at contactus@shamaniccommunityaustin.com