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Shamanic Breathwork 1 Pap/Com edition
Utilizing the healing power of breath to change consciousness
• Explains how to enter altered states of consciousness, increase paranormal abilities, and resolve old traumas using breathwork
• Introduces the Five Cycles of Change that bring about major life shifts and how to work with them
• Includes a 70-minute CD of chakra-attuned rhythms to play during the journey
Incorporating psychospiritual tools with her Shamanic Breathwork practice, Linda Star Wolf shows how to spiritually journey in the same way shamans entrain to the rhythms of drums or rattles using the breath, either alone or together with music. Much like traveling to sacred places or ingesting entheogens, this practice can be used to enter altered states of consciousness, connect to cosmic consciousness, increase paranormal abilities, and awaken the shaman within. Breathwork can also be used to resolve old traumas and shapeshift unproductive modes of thinking in order to move beyond them.
Utilizing the healing power of breath along with chakra-attuned music, Linda Star Wolf explores the Five Cycles of Change--the Alchemical Map of Shamanic Consciousness--and how these cycles affect you as you move through major shifts in your life. Filled with personal stories and case histories, the book also includes a 70-minute CD of shamanic trance rhythms and a guided meditation to awaken the chakras during practice.
• Explains how to enter altered states of consciousness, increase paranormal abilities, and resolve old traumas using breathwork
• Introduces the Five Cycles of Change that bring about major life shifts and how to work with them
• Includes a 70-minute CD of chakra-attuned rhythms to play during the journey
Incorporating psychospiritual tools with her Shamanic Breathwork practice, Linda Star Wolf shows how to spiritually journey in the same way shamans entrain to the rhythms of drums or rattles using the breath, either alone or together with music. Much like traveling to sacred places or ingesting entheogens, this practice can be used to enter altered states of consciousness, connect to cosmic consciousness, increase paranormal abilities, and awaken the shaman within. Breathwork can also be used to resolve old traumas and shapeshift unproductive modes of thinking in order to move beyond them.
Utilizing the healing power of breath along with chakra-attuned music, Linda Star Wolf explores the Five Cycles of Change--the Alchemical Map of Shamanic Consciousness--and how these cycles affect you as you move through major shifts in your life. Filled with personal stories and case histories, the book also includes a 70-minute CD of shamanic trance rhythms and a guided meditation to awaken the chakras during practice.
- GenresSpiritualityPsychology
Paperback
First published November 1, 2009
30 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
Linda Star Wolf
16 books19 followersLinda Star Wolf is the Founder & Co-Director of Venus Rising Institute for Shamanic Healing Arts and the Shamanic Breathwork Process, a highly transformative, shamanic-pyscho-spiritual tool, which integrates ancient wisdom and shamanic methods with dynamic processing techniques and a cutting-edge consciousness to assist people in awakening their own inner shamanic spirit and stepping into a life of POWER, PASSION and PURPOSE!"
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 13, 2012
Having held an amateur’s interest in the topic of ritual and yogic breathing for some time, I was interested to receive this title. The combination of intense breathwork and shamanic journeying could be involved and beneficial, both personally and as part of a healing practice.
And it probably could… except the author has somehow only included the absolute minimum of information on what shamanic breathwork actually IS. To find out more, you have to attend one of her workshops and/or courses.
This is not a small book, and as such, it contains a lot that is inspirational – many stories from those who have successfully turned their lives around using shamanic breathing techniques, as well as the author and her colleagues telling the history of both the techniques and how they hope to utilise these with teaching to assist others. Lovely stuff, and a pleasure to read.
However, it was rather frustrating to read chapter after chapter on the background to a technique that is never really detailed. There is (finally!) a chapter that looks as solo work, using the CD provided. Very nice… but that’s all there is.
From a pagan perspective, this does contain some interesting perspectives on the use of elemental energy as a ‘rebirthing’ process. While (again) this seems to be only practically taught in person, I’m sure many of those reading can apply and use such ideas for themselves without too much difficulty.
The book wears its New Age credentials on its sleeve, with a clear parallel drawn between the psychedelia of ’60s and ’70s America and Native American-as-Shaman stories. While this is no bad thing, it tended to grate on this British reader after a while. Those Native Americans I’ve met (and those in the book, it seems!) focus more on ‘getting on and doing’ than just talking about something so very based in real, practical life-work.
This could have been so much more if the author had included more exercises or specific details on the breathwork practice, instead of leaving me with the feeling that I’d just read an extended brochure for her workshops.
And it probably could… except the author has somehow only included the absolute minimum of information on what shamanic breathwork actually IS. To find out more, you have to attend one of her workshops and/or courses.
This is not a small book, and as such, it contains a lot that is inspirational – many stories from those who have successfully turned their lives around using shamanic breathing techniques, as well as the author and her colleagues telling the history of both the techniques and how they hope to utilise these with teaching to assist others. Lovely stuff, and a pleasure to read.
However, it was rather frustrating to read chapter after chapter on the background to a technique that is never really detailed. There is (finally!) a chapter that looks as solo work, using the CD provided. Very nice… but that’s all there is.
From a pagan perspective, this does contain some interesting perspectives on the use of elemental energy as a ‘rebirthing’ process. While (again) this seems to be only practically taught in person, I’m sure many of those reading can apply and use such ideas for themselves without too much difficulty.
The book wears its New Age credentials on its sleeve, with a clear parallel drawn between the psychedelia of ’60s and ’70s America and Native American-as-Shaman stories. While this is no bad thing, it tended to grate on this British reader after a while. Those Native Americans I’ve met (and those in the book, it seems!) focus more on ‘getting on and doing’ than just talking about something so very based in real, practical life-work.
This could have been so much more if the author had included more exercises or specific details on the breathwork practice, instead of leaving me with the feeling that I’d just read an extended brochure for her workshops.
December 11, 2011
Shamanic Breathwork goes one step beyond the traditional shamanic journey by utilizing the techniques of super-oxygenated breathing, chakra attuned music, art creation, and the five cycles of shamanic consciousness. The value of this process is then shared through many stories from actual Shamanic Breathwork participants. Finally, with the overtone of the book being related to addiction, the last quarter of the book is dedicated to looking at alternative paths for recovery through the "Thirty Shamanic Questions for Humanity" and the "Shamanic Twelve Steps for Recovery and Discovery", both of which are more appealing than traditional 12-step programs because they cultivate connection to ones "inner greater power".
Selected Quotes:
Speaking on the Shamanic Shakti Art Process that follows the breathwork: "The individual drops into the self (the shaman within) and the universe of knowing and connection (the shakti) that is part of every human’s cellular and psychic structure.” and “Exploring a memory through this process can lead to healing that memory on the cellular level, thereby opening the very cells of our bodies and allowing them to expand and receive the connection to the divine through the language of the soul.”
“The longing many of us have felt for the mother ship to come and take us home is really an ancient memory of our lineage and ancestry. It is similar to longing for lost childhood, or for those we love who have passed over. It is not really about going back home but rather about growing up and becoming adult children of the gods.”
“The modern day shamanic counselor blends mysticism and magic with compassion. In the Aquarian Age, it is time to revolutionize and shape-shift reality into higher consciousness.”
Selected Quotes:
Speaking on the Shamanic Shakti Art Process that follows the breathwork: "The individual drops into the self (the shaman within) and the universe of knowing and connection (the shakti) that is part of every human’s cellular and psychic structure.” and “Exploring a memory through this process can lead to healing that memory on the cellular level, thereby opening the very cells of our bodies and allowing them to expand and receive the connection to the divine through the language of the soul.”
“The longing many of us have felt for the mother ship to come and take us home is really an ancient memory of our lineage and ancestry. It is similar to longing for lost childhood, or for those we love who have passed over. It is not really about going back home but rather about growing up and becoming adult children of the gods.”
“The modern day shamanic counselor blends mysticism and magic with compassion. In the Aquarian Age, it is time to revolutionize and shape-shift reality into higher consciousness.”
February 3, 2021
This book is essentially an ad for the author’s healing retreat, full of testimonials from people at the retreat about how it changed their lives. Just for that I’d give it one star; I was interested in the actual mechanics of breathwork, not in being told to go drop hundreds on a class halfway across the country.
It’s also, uh, extraordinarily appropriative, and beyond that just plain weird. It includes an anecdote about a friend of the author’s who snorkels in the bath every morning to be more in touch with water because an “Indian guru” taught him this would help him achieve immortality. There’s a whole thing about healing from the trauma of having been born with medical assistance. It’s the kind of stuff that’s moderately offensive but mostly funny, and reads as almost a parody of the New Age movement. Do not recommend.
It’s also, uh, extraordinarily appropriative, and beyond that just plain weird. It includes an anecdote about a friend of the author’s who snorkels in the bath every morning to be more in touch with water because an “Indian guru” taught him this would help him achieve immortality. There’s a whole thing about healing from the trauma of having been born with medical assistance. It’s the kind of stuff that’s moderately offensive but mostly funny, and reads as almost a parody of the New Age movement. Do not recommend.
August 10, 2012
Transformational.......Linda Wolf.....Just breathe Everyone It is So Powerful!!!!!
Thank You Linda for Writing this so All Can Follow this Powerful Way of Life transformation
If something isnt working TRY THIS!
Thank You Linda for Writing this so All Can Follow this Powerful Way of Life transformation
If something isnt working TRY THIS!
January 3, 2021
How wonderfully synchronistic that it took me EXACTLY a year to finish this book!! I just realized this, writing the review, that I’ve completed this journey in a full solar circle. I love those kind of small, yet significant synchronistices and occurrences.
It fits beautifully with the themes and messages of this book, of how our lives move forward in a spiral pattern, how all things are interconnected, our souls and our bodies, the spiritual and the physical world, our trauma and our healing, and how much growth and movement is cyclical in nature, where there is an overall pattern of phase that we move through, again and again, as we grow, just like we move through the seasons of our years, adding years and experiences to our life, coming back to our starting point or mark (like a birthday or an anniversary etc), each time a little different, influenced by our own growth and experiences.
This book held a lot of different and inspiring ideas and tools. There was star wolfs own experience and story which I found both fascinating and inspiring, then there was the shamanic practices, tools and ideas, like the spiral path, the breath work as well as the soul recovery, and the shamanic questions, all of them tools and ideas that have been adopted and adapted by star wold and that shes been practicing and teaching as she has been asssiting people in and on their healing journeys.
There is much in this book to be explored and to reflect upon.
At times I feel like star wolf and the format and practices laid out becomes a little too influenced by its own presuppositions, which is absolutely forgivable, as we as humans of course always will be filtering and teaching through our own experiences, and not all of the possible experiences and variations will ever be able to fit into a format - but the awareness of that and the ability to discern for yourselves what is relevant to and fitting for you and what you resonate with, then, as always, is absolutely key and paramount. So I did with this book as I do with all teachings and which I would advice anyone to do:take what resonates and leave the rest. No matter if someone says ‘you have to do it this way, or this is how it always is, or is best’ etc, follow your own intuition and know that they are speaking from their own experience and perception, but you and yours might fall outside of that.
You are inherently and ultimately always your own master and a sovereign being.
Your intuition and your resonance is your roadmap.
Discernment is key.
What is your Truth - and what might be blocking it?
Bon journey and discovery !
Shine bright !
It fits beautifully with the themes and messages of this book, of how our lives move forward in a spiral pattern, how all things are interconnected, our souls and our bodies, the spiritual and the physical world, our trauma and our healing, and how much growth and movement is cyclical in nature, where there is an overall pattern of phase that we move through, again and again, as we grow, just like we move through the seasons of our years, adding years and experiences to our life, coming back to our starting point or mark (like a birthday or an anniversary etc), each time a little different, influenced by our own growth and experiences.
This book held a lot of different and inspiring ideas and tools. There was star wolfs own experience and story which I found both fascinating and inspiring, then there was the shamanic practices, tools and ideas, like the spiral path, the breath work as well as the soul recovery, and the shamanic questions, all of them tools and ideas that have been adopted and adapted by star wold and that shes been practicing and teaching as she has been asssiting people in and on their healing journeys.
There is much in this book to be explored and to reflect upon.
At times I feel like star wolf and the format and practices laid out becomes a little too influenced by its own presuppositions, which is absolutely forgivable, as we as humans of course always will be filtering and teaching through our own experiences, and not all of the possible experiences and variations will ever be able to fit into a format - but the awareness of that and the ability to discern for yourselves what is relevant to and fitting for you and what you resonate with, then, as always, is absolutely key and paramount. So I did with this book as I do with all teachings and which I would advice anyone to do:take what resonates and leave the rest. No matter if someone says ‘you have to do it this way, or this is how it always is, or is best’ etc, follow your own intuition and know that they are speaking from their own experience and perception, but you and yours might fall outside of that.
You are inherently and ultimately always your own master and a sovereign being.
Your intuition and your resonance is your roadmap.
Discernment is key.
What is your Truth - and what might be blocking it?
Bon journey and discovery !
Shine bright !
December 27, 2022
Disappointing read. The entire book was just filled with anecdotes about the author's life journey and the people she's met along the way. Maybe it should just be retitled for the content to make more sense. The meditation in the end are good.
March 9, 2024
I should have read some of these reviews first. This book reads like an infomercial for the authors Venus Rising workshops. It's wonderful to know how Shamanic Breathwork has helped so many people but I was hoping for something more informational, less testimonials.
October 11, 2021
Terrible book. Author has taken a lot of different shamanic practices and mangeled them together into something meaningless and inauthentic. Cultural appropriation.
May 29, 2022
Good to read after attending one of her workshop sessions at Gathering of the Shaman (online).
October 25, 2015
I found this book quite disappointing. I was expecting an interesting, well reserched and clearly written method of breathing techniques you could use in shamanistic work but what I got was rather vague collection of people's experiences and the author's personal story about something called Shamanistic Breathwork. It seemed to be a mixed salad of New Age & Pagan ideas loosely tied to shamanism and the book is more like an introduction to a course than the technique itself. If you have already read several books on shamanism and other related things there is really nothing new. Of course the ideas are good and there's lots of beautiful, important things mentioned in this book but all in all it really did not live up to my expectations at all.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews