Eddy is one of the most down to earth, insightful and authentic people we have had the pleasure of meeting. He is also an incredible healer and comes from a place that makes shamanic practises accessible; in a world where there is so much noise and so many claims, we find Eddy’s voice to be a clear guide.
We talk to him and discover more on his journey, thoughts and practises.
My name is Eddy Elsey, and I am a shamanic practitioner.
I was pretty ill with chronic anxiety in my earlier life. After trying more mainstream methods of healing, I decided to look at alternative ways to heal myself. This eventually led me to shamanism.
It was this way of being that enabled me to begin to put myself back together.
I began to train with a shaman from the UK and, well, here I am!
It is not so much the big things. For me, it is more the small reminders that the world is much vaster than the way we generally perceive it. Little moments of healing in people where their true nature has, maybe for the first time, been allowed to peek its face from behind the veil.
These are the things that stay with you the most. They have been the most nourishing.
I do. I think it gives the power back to the person too. Shamanism is about empowerment. The healing journey is one that someone must undertake for themselves. With the help of spirit, a shaman can clean you up and restore the inner resolve to do this – but you must ultimately become your own hero.
In this way, it can be a difficult journey at first. We have a habit in the West of handing over our power to authority figures, which is the same with healing. We place all our trust in doctors instead of ourselves.
Shamanism, I hope, enables us to forge a personal relationship with the world and rekindle the fires of our unique spark.
Yes many. The things that bind them together is the use of altered states. The trance.
Different cultures use different methods to get into this state – drumming, plants, chanting or dancing – but this creates the ‘shamanic state. If there isn’t a trance its not shamanism. Offerings to the spirit world and the praising of life are also found cross-culturally.
Starting a practice of making offerings. Go out to nature and find a place that calls you. It doesn’t have to be particularly impressive. Just a place that calls you to it. And feed it with offerings, with praise, prayer and song – and watch how, over time, that place becomes intensely alive again.
This relationship alone reconnects us with the world and can help us in many ways. It will probably feel quite silly at first. I suppose in terms of the society we live in; it is silly. But note how it makes YOU feel and go from there.
Tottenham Hotspur.
I’m currently researching a book. Raising a naughty kitten and feeling my way through these strange times.
