There are many reasons to call a body of work ‘Middle Earth Medicine Ways.’ I’ve been curious about it myself over the time it has hovered around me and then once it fully landed I started to get the picture every clearly.

There is my own story in it, born in the Midlands, on the Winter Solstice between those moments of dark and light, born a middle child and through my childhood always being caught in the middle of various scenarios and walking the fine edge between the worlds. (There is more about this in my book, which hopefully will be published early 2018.)

Then there is the world of Middle Earth, the country I found it in connecting it to my own country and the need to find a medicine that felt more at home with me.

I was never drawn to the eastern philosophies, nor was I drawn to the west particularly. I have tried various ways, but they never lasted or felt right. A lot of my peers were interested in Native American teachings, I thought this was wonderful, I tried it but it just did not stick. For sure I related a lot to it, learned its ancient ways and connections to nature, but it didn’t grab me as an actual practice. Eastern ways, nope never interested me, couldn’t quite get stuck into it, even though I agree with a lot of its teachings, Buddhist teachings for example, but I was never going to find a practice from that part of the world. Mine was a shamanic path and the only path I could truly walk was my own.

So where did I fit in and why was I looking to other cultures or parts of the world for something that wasn’t mine? I danced and life has became a dance and I would always find what I was looking for within it. Artistry, poetry, prayers, healing, inspiration, you name it I found it there, connection to Wicca and the Celts and the connection to the nature of my own shores.

I’ve taken great interest in the indigenous and sacred for other worlds and learned what I can, respecting and honoring each, just not finding an actual practice or particular way of sharing my own medicine. My shamanic tendencies however always leaned to the drum of original shamans of Siberia rather than psychotropic plants of South America for instance, reaching expanded consciousness through the beat and rhythm and connecting to spirit guides and guardians, and then of course the dance has been very much a part of that.The dance rooted in Africa and the ecstatic nature of the shamanic world was always calling to me and the wild abandonment that that brought. I would dance inside myself during quiet or too busy times and I dance stretched out when the beat is stronger and I need that release and that dynamic connection to life, that has become a way of life, to meet with ecstacy in all its many forms.

Within this dance many pieces of work have come to me over time. Because I had a number of challenges in my life, I had to find a way to solve them or make them easier on myself. And from my own shamanic nature, I always knew that there was a purpose to these challenges. They were there to teach me and help me to become the person I needed to be and carry the work I needed to carry. Shamanism is about healing our own cultures wounds, and knowing many of the wounds of my culture is a task I have taken on in its fullest, working with it daily for most of my life.

Part of me knew that only ‘I’ could find this medicine, that using another cultures or persons medicine wasn’t really where it was at for me, this was very particular to my life and my story. So gradually after many years of dancing and processing and working with my love of shamanism, I started to receive maps and models of work that supported my process and what I needed to learn. I used them on my own journey, on my psyche and my wounding. They worked!

One of the first pieces of work that emerged was the Magic of Mandorla process, which is all about working with polarities and conflict, being literally in the middle and finding the power source that is emanating in order to find the solutions or healing, or just to simply be with that profound energy.

More maps and models followed until the Medicine Wheel itself was presented to me. That was my ah,ha! moment when I fully saw

what was needed of me, not just my work but what I needed to do with it, how I needed to be with it and most importantly ‘who’ I needed to be. And that of course, was simply and obviously ‘myself!’

The Middle Earth lies between East and West and holds the philosophy and the magic that lies between. The drum beat that is felt in the earth, the dance that rocks our shores and the language that sings our own medicine songs, from the time we were born.

That same offering is available to you, to find yourself among all that is offered to you. To piece together your own life, your history and your own experience as well as the challenges, and ask life to show you fully and to say ”what is my purpose.” It is a question well worth asking and beginning to understand its journey. Every purpose or new beginning starts with Spirit and with its dreaming and then follows its path to completion. No matter what your experience, no matter what your age or position in life, it may be able to support you on a journey of discovery. And of course it is not for everyone and it is by no means the only way.

Stepping onto the shamanic path to find your whole being, to embody your soul, to fully be yourself without compromise in this day and age is not so easy, there are so many demands on us, but with the right kind of support, perseverance, openness and direction, the world will receive you just as you need to be, because you are receiving yourself.

Caroline Carey

www.middleearthmedicine.com

Next shamanic course https://middleearthmedicine.com/intensives/shamaniccourse/