Doing a series of paintings as a form of shamanic soul retrieval | Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

I wrote earlier in My spiritual lesson from the Brighthouse repairman that being without internet and phone after the lightning flash led me to contemplate what a lost signal meant on my path to personal growth. I’d been feeling a little off signal and like I was ready for a reboot. Now that I’m back in the art studio after years away, I’m feeling re-motivated and back in the slot. I know one reason is that art is a form of meditation for me, and more meditation and self reflection is always good for me. In shamanic fashion, I’ve been working on a series of paintings for the purpose of soul retrieval, showing the spirit version of the various fragmented parts of myself, each bringing back a healed part.

Before I create each image, I sit to meditate on what the next step in my personal journey is. As I wait for thoughts to arise in answer, an image comes to me who I take to depict a part of me, a facet of my personality or character, in this life or previous or future lives. A soul retrieval in shamanic tradition has you meditate to alter your consciousness, then takes you, via inner imagery and creative visualization, on a journey to the astral realm to enlist the aid of helping spirits to locate and restore lost soul fragments. These soul fragments are restored by recognizing they exist, then discovering what gifts each part of your soul is handing back to you.

I am also sketching a composite for a painting showing various scenes and the different worlds, but for now I am painting the individual messengers, the totems, the power animals that I encounter along my journey. I take note of everything that comes into my mind’s eye, because everything has meaning. I take note of every animal I see, furred, feathered, scaled, two legged (what kind of bird is it?), four legged (is it a fox or an otter?), many legged (caterpillar or centipede?) Is it a komoda dragon, a cobra, a chameleon? I also notice what type of journeying tools may be present. Is there a drum, a rattle, any amulets or stones, herbs, oils, smudge shell, feathers? What kind of tree do I see, flower, vine, bushes? Are there mountains, woods or water? These are elements to be added to the painting as they reveal themselves.

I’m enjoying watching what unfolds on the canvas, and what unfolds within me as I work on it. The ideas and images that rise up, the thoughts of early life scenes, past regrets coming up to be mended. (A process to do that here –> How to forgive and find closure if the other is unwilling, absent or dead.) Realizations of seemingly long-over issues. Some insights escape me until repeated contemplation brings me to realization in the Now. Even years and decades later.

Time and awareness reveal life’s patterns to us, then we see how simple it all is. If you’d hit me over the head with it 10-20-40 years ago, I wouldn’t have seen it. I wasn’t tuned to the right channel. I was not in a vibrational place to receive it. I’m more open now and ready to receive. It’s a process. I’m in no hurry. I’ve got all the time in the world, and not a moment to lose.

You can see I paint like a kid but that’s how I feel when I paint.