Secrets of Shamanism

Jose ATID LEIIA STEVENS 139

stronger, his gait growing swifter with the passing of each

moon. And each day he thanked his allies for their help.

One evening near the seventh moon of his practice,

when the boy and She Who Knows the Sun were nearing

sleep, she whispered to him, "You must speak to your

feet who fly like the Wind now. You must tell them that

soon there is to be a test, an initiation. Tell them you must

know they are in readiness." With that, the old woman

went to sleep, leaving the boy to ponder her words. He

did as she told him and held an image of his winged feet

in his vision as he drifted off to sleep.

The following sunrise found the boy in his usual place,

playing with the Wind and the spirit of Hawk. Suddenly

the peaceful silence was shattered by an enormous roar

as the mountain above him opened and the molten earth

below came up through its peak. A river of fire was be-

ginning to form, making its way toward the village. With-

out thinking, the boy ran with winged feet toward the

village, feeling the Wind at his back. Hearing his warning,

the tribe moved quickly and only one lodge was lost.

He Who Runs Like the Wind now thanked his name

giver and knew that he had done his task well. She Who

Knows the Sun smiled.

Problem solving, like goal setting, uses many of the prin-
ciples we have already discussed. The most important thing
to remember in shamanic problem solving is sensitivity: sen-
sitivity to your spirit body and its needs, sensitivity to other
people's spirit bodies and their needs, and sensitivity to the
spirit world itself, the spirit of all things and the balance in
nature. Only in this way will you find the truly powerful so-
lutions to the problems at hand.
Shamanic problem solving also includes listening: listen-
ing to the advice of your guides or allies; listening to your
own spirit self or perhaps the spirit self of another person. By
listening, shamans adopt a win-win attitude in their problem
solving.
For example, if you need to increase your income, it can-
not be at the expense of reducing someone else's income.
Think of the abundance in nature and find a way to increase
incomes across the board. Likewise, if you are competing
against four others for the same position at work, your great-
est success will come from wishing the other four goodwill,
even if it means that one of them will get the position instead
of you. If that happens, something better is in store for you
that you cannot foresee. Remember that, as in goal setting,