The Lightning Tribe
I have been quiet lately because I have been working on a forthcoming full length book: The Christ Centered Shamanic Woman. I’m not sure how, but I need to finish the majority of it, or a shortish e-book version by the end of March. So I am working towards it. If you have ever written a book then you know it is sometimes messy and you don’t always know where it’s going, but ultimately I think it is partly a guide to claiming and practically applying your spiritual power gifts. It’s also about Jesus, who was the consummate shaman. And it’s about women and why now is the time that God needs us to pick up our medicine and heal the world. The book will be a lot of things, but hopefully it helps people. If you haven’t already, you may want to read my post called the Christ Centered Shamanic Woman for more context.
For today, I am posting something that I feel inspired to share. Maybe it will end up in the book, or maybe it’s just for someone today.
Sometimes people ask me what Shamanic Lineage I am trained in or practice. My answer is that I was trained on the job by Jesus and His angels. I have never considered myself a “contemporary shaman” and although I have learned from many tribes and cultures I have never considered myself to be a member of any tribe, until some years ago I discovered the Lightning Tribe.
In Laura's poem she told how the lightning followed her sister-in-law into the house to strike her as she was carrying in groceries. In the moment it happened Jenny saw the faces of all the other people who had been struck by the same lightening…
A Native American Shaman in Flagstaff mentioned to a doctor friend of mine at lunch that the cause of her son’s eczema (which medicine couldn’t seem to figure out) was either a lightning strike or spider bite. She was curious about lightning. He said it could come down through the DNA (ancestor struck by lightning), or eating food struck by lightning. The cure was to do a ceremony to initiate the patient into the lightning struck.
In Peru, the people know that only a Fifth level shaman can survive a lightning strike.
In the West there is a saying that if you do bad things, you’ll be struck by lightning/God will strike you. The subconscious and cultural consciousness therefore believes that a lightning strike is a curse. Isn’t it silly how everything is turned upside down in the modern western world? The truth, I learned from God and through journeying upon The Way is that the opposite is true. It’s not a curse. It’s a gift that has to be claimed.
My family tells the story of my mother being struck by lightning when she was living in Brazil, serving a mission. She was holding onto a pole that was struck by lightning and afterwards she had a kind of sunburn down her center-parted hair (this was the 1970s. That was cool hair.)
After my initiation into the lightning tribe, which happened upon The Way in a shamanic journey, many things that seemed to be cursed in my life shifted into blessings. Upside-down things turned right-side-up. I also began to attract a large number of people coming to me for healing who had been struck by lightning. [!] And many others that didn’t know they had, but they had all the signs, and after investigation, found that had an ancestor that was. In other cases, we couldn’t figure out a known strike, but once we performed the initiation ceremony, their mysterious ailments or mental aberrations went away. The curse turned into a gift.
The Lightning Tribe are people who are selected. Their prayers go out with lightning speed and power. They often manifest without effort. They leap in progress. They may be called to prophesy.
If you aren't sure, let me share with you some scriptures, where I was surprised to find, lightning is mentioned many times.
Psalm 97:4 "His lightnings enlighteneth the world: the earth saw and trembled."
Notice that lightnings is plural. There is a similar verse in Ps 77. The enlightenment the lightnings bring cause people to shake or tremble! Perhaps becuase of the presense or the glory that is revealed?
There are also some very interesting verses about lightning in Ezekiel 1 in the verses that seem to be about the chakras, in Revelations (lightnings go out from the throne of God), Job, and DC. In almost all these verses the interesting use of plural "lightnings" is used. In all the verses on lightning it seems to be associated with God's Presence coming... or his answers coming through his direction.
Job 37:2-3 Hear attentively the noise of his voice and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He directeth it under the hole heaven and his lightning unto the ends of the earth.
D&C 43:22 says "....when the lightnings shall streak forth from the east unto the west and shall utter forth their voices unto all that live and make the ears of all tingle that hear, saying these words "Repent ye, for the great day of the Lord is come..."
D&C 43:v 25 says He has oft called us by "the voice of his servants and the voice of lightnings."
There are many more, but I'll let you play and search it out if you are interested.
Gift or Curse?
When the gift is not claimed and believed to be a curse, the symptoms may include: a fried nervous system, unspecific underlying feelings of having done something to deserve God’s punishment, a longing to belong but having no place, physical, mental, or learning aberrations that medical science can’t diagnose or do much for. For example, I have a shaman friend Alison who was electrocuted when she was 5 years old. It was not exactly a lightning strike but it was high voltage electricity—something most people would not survive. She says while she was being electrocuted she saw everyone’s insides. As she grew up, she always felt strange with her unique learning and hearing differences (when people talk she doesn’t hear what they say so much as what they mean. A person might say their leg hurts and she will hear that they are getting a divorce.) She used to get into all kinds of scrapes for knowing things she couldn’t explain. Later, when she trained in shamanism she realized that she had unique spiritual gifts and that they could be practically applied to help people when Spirit directed.
I have another friend who was sitting in his living room feeling a little run down and heading toward what the doctors would later call a Nervous Breakdown, when suddenly his whole body was zapped as if with electricity. He jumped out of his seat about a foot high. He even heard the popping sound, but no one around him heard or felt it. Was it a breakdown? Did his nerves snap? I do not believe it. [As a side note, the shamanic view on mental illness is that it is the awakening of the healer. When a society doesn’t know how to help people transition into their proper place as healers and teachers their “disfunction” becomes more and more noticeable. It’s a tragedy. Even more of a tragedy is how these people (more and more who are children) are treated or medicated to make them tractable. I will write more another time about the shamanic view and treatment of mental illness. ]
An initiation ceremony is very powerful for remedying not just symptoms a person is having but also for giving them a sense of belonging into a community.
If you think you are in the lightning tribe, you may well be.
Initiation ceremonies can happen in person with a shaman from the Lightning tribe to guide you, but when that is not available, shamanic guides like Jesus and helpers including ancestors can initiate you in a journey upon The Way in non-ordinary reality. There are all kinds of things that are possible in non-ordinary reality. Remember, this world is an illusion.
Members of the Lightning tribe, when initiated and properly mentored and trained are Gods helpers on the earth. I am a believer that much of that mentorship should come from God/Jesus. But I also know that community is important and there is a long period of doubt and confusion as one approaches the throne of God and it is really important to have teachers and mentors on earth who have a well of living water springing up in them. These are few, but worth looking for with God's guidance until one finds their way to the ultimate teacher and we no longer need a guide outside of ourselves.
Community is a big part of the shaman’s life. Shaman don’t exist in a vacuum They are leaders of the community. They are gatherers. Healers. Artists.
Yes, artists. All shaman are trained in the arts. Art is essentially the act of trying to make the unseen seen (or heard or experienced) in the world. Creating a new way of living on planet earth is an ongoing work of art that a shamanic woman is engaged in.
What are your thoughts and questions about this? What art are you creating? Are you in the lightning tribe? Did you know about it before?
If something I shared resonates and you are looking for help,
reach out to me or if you just want to connect, please reach out. Blessings and Sat Nam.
reach out to me or if you just want to connect, please reach out. Blessings and Sat Nam.
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