I am re-reading Angeles Arrien’s book The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Healer, Teacher and Visionary, and always find new insights, new lessons and new ways forward.
If you are not familiar with the book, I share below just one of the aspects — the Four Shamanic Questions — that I come back to time and time again in my Soul Work and on days like today with a Full Super Moon, the earlier eclipse, and the qualities of Sagittarius (shared in earlier posts), which ask — demand? — that we examine our lives, see what was not visible before, explore, wander (and wonder) and use the wisdom to bring us into alignment with our purpose.
In the words of Angeles Arrien in The Four-Fold Way:
“Every culture has ways of maintaining health and well-being. Healers throughout the world recognize the importance of maintaining or retrieving the four universal healing salves: storytelling, singing, dancing, and silence. Shamanic societies believe that when we stop singing, stop dancing, are no longer enchanted by stories, or become uncomfortable with silence, we experience soul loss, which opens the door to discomfort and disease. The gifted Healer restores the soul through use of the healing salves. It has long been recognized that these healing salves reawaken and sustain the divine child within us and return to us the qualities of wonder, hope, and awe.”
The Four Shamanic Questions
When did you stop singing?
The answer can be found in when and where you stopped bringing your voice forward, or following your authentic voice.
When did you stop dancing?
The answer can be found in when and where you lost your connection to the wisdom of your body.
When did you stop being enchanted by stories?
The answer can be found in when and where you lost your connection to your fire, your heart stories, and the stories of others.
When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?
The answer can be found in when and where did you began to distrust or ignore the mystery of life, and stopped being an explorer in reflection and contemplation.
“Where we have stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories or finding comfort in silence is where we have experienced the loss of soul. Dancing, singing, storytelling and silence are the four universal healing salves.”
Angeles Arrien, The Four-Fold Way
These four questions — and your answers — can point you towards a healing salve and find once again your Self and wonder, hope and awe.
