Over years of experience as a shamanic learner and practitioner, our founder, Jez Hughes has built up a wealth of knowledge that he chooses to share to help those with an interest in shamanism to begin to form a deeper understanding of what it means.
The Heart of Life
In this personal journey by Jez Hughes, the Heart of Life explores the depths of what it means to be alive, when the ‘cellophane packaging we wrap around life to keep it safe and sterile has been unwrapped and discarded’. It reveals how the ancient path of shamanism and indigenous wisdom can offer us solutions to the many problems facing the modern world, both global and collective. It offers a unique cosmology that explores how these problems, from potential global ecological catastrophe to the multitude of mental and physical illnesses afflicting individuals, are intrinsically linked and how they can be treated. How the soul sickness that is affecting the modern world may well be the initiation we are going through as a species.
This book explores how the ancient path of shamanism can help us to understand the nature of mental illness, recasting psychological breakdown as a potentially transformational experience. What we label as pathological could actually be an initiation into a better relationship with ourselves and the world.
Written for those who are experiencing or who have experienced mental illness, or whose loved ones are going through such episodes, or who are mental wellbeing practitioners, this is a guide to the potentially transformational experience of that which we label mental illness. It explores the ancient concept of the “shamanic sickness”, whereby the prospective shaman underwent many years of mental distress as part of their initiation, and looks at what this can teach us about mental health. It argues that, in some cases, what we seek to medicate could actually be a calling to a path of service and healing.
Jez is a renowned voice in the ways of shamanism, and is regularly invited to talk on shamanic practice and experiences. Throughout the years his honest and candid talks have been a welcome entry into shamanism for the curious of mind. To receive these straight to your inbox, sign up to the Campfire Community.
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