Many cultures around the world infuse their physical environments with the life and animation of the spirit world. Spirit is energy, spirit is everywhere, and spirit energy is supportive and healing. These cultures honor not only the spirits of those who have passed on, but also the spirit of the earth itself.

A number of the practices and rituals of these cultures are finding their way into everyday life for many people. Aromatherapy and flower essences use the energy and spirit of plants for healing. Crystals carry the energy of the earth itself, a powerful and supportive force alone as well as in combination with other energy forms.

In the beginning of human existence, everyone had a close and intimate relationship with the environment. The land supported life. Survival meant connecting with the cycles of nature: day and night, the four seasons, planting and harvest, birth and death.

Early cultures moved to follow the cycles, trying to keep pace with those that meant life and those that spelled certain doom. Over time and as tribes grew in numbers, moving every few months became impractical. Large groups became easy targets for predators, and made it difficult for the group to respond quickly to environmental changes.

To keep up with the changing bounty of the earth, some tribe members continued in nomadic ways while the rest settled in a location where the land provided fairly steady support—shelter, water, limited food. Those who stayed behind learned to harvest and lay in crops, saving for the lean times when darkness exceeded light and the earth showed few signs of life.

The hunters—those who left the group to follow their food sources—shadowed migratory herds for hundreds of miles. They learned that the further from home the kill was, the harder they had to work to get the meat, bones, and hides back to the tribe. So they learned to direct the migratory flow, keeping it closer to the home tribe.

For centuries, people lived according to these patterns. They learned to appreciate, as their forebears had, and to be thankful for the earth’s riches. They identified the energy of the focal points of their celebrations as spirits representing Mother Earth, Father Sky, the birds, the trees, the grasses, the water. Every element had its energy, and every element had its spirit. And they began to formalize their gratitude through song, dance, and ceremony.

These celebrations became the mythology of humankind that carries forward to modern times in many forms and practices.

As the indigenous culture of North America, Native Americans have always honored the spirit energy of the world around them. Rather than controlling the physical environment, the Native American belief is that we are here to take care of the environment, to take care of the earth and the bounty it supplies to make life possible.

Within most Native American belief systems, life is seamless, existing across time and space. Those who have passed to spirit simply exist in a different form than those who have physical bodies. Rituals and ceremonies emphasize the connections between the earth plane and the spirit world, and communication between the two is ongoing.

Many ancient Mayan cultures believed that the dead descended into the Underworld. There was no death, really, just a relocation to this setting. There, they inhabited one of nine Underworld levels. This was similar to the belief systems of other cultures of the same time period, such as the ancient Greeks and Romans.

One Mayan tribe, la Candones, held a belief system that was somewhat different and closer, at least in context, to the Western concept of heaven. The la Candones people believed that rather than descending to the Underworld the dead ascended to a place, similar to the land they inhabited on earth, where they then lived forever without wanting for anything. There was no need to work; everything necessary for a pleasant and worry-free existence was provided. The distinction between this belief and heaven is that there was no concept of needing to “earn” passage to this ethereal land. Everyone went there after death, not just those deemed deserving.

The indigenous cultures of Africa are varied and diverse. However, their belief systems share a number of common characteristics. These include the following:

Rituals are formalized actions that we repeat, with certain significance, in conjunction with specific events or situations. Ceremonies incorporate rituals into celebrations. A ceremony often contains multiple rituals. The wedding ceremony, for example, includes the rituals of exchanging vows and rings.

When these celebrations become ingrained in the community culture, they become tradition. We inherit them, and participate in them sometimes without fully understanding why but just because they’re how we do things. At weddings, we toss rice at the bride and groom as they leave the church. Why? You get 10 points if you know! No? Rice is showered upon newlyweds as a symbol of fertility.

Such symbolic practices fill our lives. They connect the small events of our daily lives with the bigger picture of how we fit in the universe. Tradition dictates how we honor passages from birth through death. Birthdays celebrate the day of entry into physical life, and the countdown to the day of departure, as yet unknown. They remind us that we are all connected to a greater energy, the energy from which we come, in which we exist, and to which we return.

Ritual and ceremony can also establish energy connections, such as for spirit contact. When you set your intent for spirit communication to come for the highest and the best, you’re “tuning” the energy of your connection to support this. Prayer, meditation, and other focused practices accomplish similar purpose.

The vision quest is integral to many cultures that hold a deep connection to the earth. In such cultures, like many aboriginal tribes of Australia and Native American tribes, spirit guidance is an essential part of the rite of passage to adulthood.

In Western cultures, external events such as obtaining a driver’s license and reaching legal age of consent (or drinking alcohol) are the hallmarks of the transition from child to adult. In many indigenous cultures, however, becoming an adult means demonstrating that you have reached maturity physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Physical maturation is apparent. Emotional maturation reflects in attitudes and behaviors. Spiritual maturation occurs when the young person has the adult experience of connecting with his or her spirit heritage and with the spirit energy of the earth. Only when young people connect with their spirit origins and ancestors are they fully able to take their places as adults within their communities.

On the typical vision quest, one goal is for you to meet and identify your power animal—an animal spirit with special traits or characteristics that represent attributes or qualities that you have or need. Power animals are deeply symbolic. As the quest gets underway, you begin to see signs and indications that, as they accumulate, point toward a particular animal. As you start out, you might see a crow fly across your path, a squirrel run up a pine tree at the edge of the woods, and a rabbit bound off into the underbrush. Which might be your power animal? At this point, any … or none.

Over the span of your vision quest, other animals or representations of them appear. After a time, one stands out and your attention focuses on this animal. And at some point, there’s an encounter—such as through a vision or a dream—in which you know that this is your power animal, and the animal’s spirit tells you why. (See the later “Power Animal Journey: A Guided Meditation” section for another way to identify and meet your power animal.)

Shamanism is an earth-based religion, meaning that it’s integrated with its environment. It’s quite complex, and we’re just going to briefly talk about a small portion of Shamanism, soul release (also called soul retrieval). Shamanistic belief systems hold that as we go through our lives and are traumatized in various ways, we lose little bits of ourselves. This depletes personal energy, causing physical, emotional, and spiritual problems.

Shamans, through guided meditation, help you to identify what those missing parts are and bring them back. This lets you experience the healing that takes place when that essence of you comes back. In some ways, the process is similar to Western psychology’s inner child work, or therapy to reconnect with and bring back your inner child, the parts of you that you’ve lost. Most of us have been told throughout our lives that there are things we can’t do, which is trauma. So we lose those parts—creativity, musical ability, whatever. Through psychotherapy that sometimes includes hypnosis, you reconnect with these parts of yourself to restore your sense of wholeness and balance.

Shaman soul release helps you find and bring back missing spirit, or energy, elements. The shaman leads you in a very light meditative state, from which you can then identify what’s bothering you. You make this identification, not the shaman. Say that you have pain in your neck. In this light, altered state, you go inside of yourself, so to speak, to look at this pain. You might touch it or determine who or what it is. Then you ask your spirit guides to take it away and replace it with healing light. This last part is very important for restoring the balance of your energy; you can’t just take away some energy without putting some back to fill the void.

The earth itself is a tremendous source of energy. Magnets, gemstones, and crystals carry the earth’s energy, which has many applications in conventional as well as spirit healing. And of course, earth energy supports all other energy on the earth plane.

Animals contain great spirit energy. In many indigenous cultures, animal spirits represent the connection between the earth and the divine. The spirits of certain animals have special significance. Native American tribes had animal spirit guides that helped them in nearly all functions of daily life.

These beliefs carry over into modern life in many ways. The United States has the bald eagle as its official symbol, which represents power and grace. Golfing fans know the great American golfer Jack Nicklaus as the golden bear. Fast cars are mustangs, jaguars, and cougars.

Like spirit guides, power animals bring special energy connections to your life. And like spirit guides from the higher side, your power animals change according to your needs (physical, emotional, and spiritual) and what is going on in your life. Power animals are also called totem animals or just totems. A totem is an emblem or a symbol that has spiritual significance.

Any animal can be a power animal; each animal has particular traits and characteristics. When this animal is your power animal, it shares these attributes with you to give you the energy they provide. When you are learning something, such as when you are in school, your power animal might be an owl for wisdom. If you feel someone is threatening your child or your family, perhaps you draw from the energy of the bear. When you are working creatively, such as writing or painting, the power animal supporting you might be a spider or a crow.

You don’t choose your power animals. They choose you. Familiar power animals such as bears, wolves, and owls have become almost archetypal in their representations of certain attributes:

Rita’s good friend Martha Tierney wrote the following guided meditation for meeting your power animals especially for this book. A certified metaphysical hypnotherapist and spirit-trained shamanic facilitator, Martha maintains a private practice in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information about Martha and her practice, you can go to her website at www.marthatierney.com. Thanks, Martha!

We recommend that you read this guided meditation into a tape recorder, so you can listen and follow its suggestions. If you don’t want to listen to your own voice, ask someone whose voice you find soothing and calming to record it for you.

To prepare for listening to your tape and the journey it will take you on, follow these tips:

Here is the guided meditation. Read it through a couple times, so it’s familiar and you can read it smoothly. Where you see <pause>, pause for two or three seconds and then continue. This might seem awkward while you’re doing the reading, but when you’re listening to the tape it gives you time to follow the suggestion. Read in a steady, calm voice.

Continue to focus upon your slow <pause>
comfortable <pause>
breathing <pause>
allowing yourself to drop your shoulders <pause>
and warmly relax your back <pause>
you may begin to relax your body starting at the top of your head <pause>
relaxing your scalp <pause>
forehead, eyes, nose, and mouth <pause>
letting your cheeks and jaw relax and drop your jaw slightly
resting your tongue naturally, at the top of your mouth, and behind your front teeth
<pause>

Feel how relaxed you are from your throat, up through your head, to the top of your
scalp <pause>
so relaxed <pause>
and continue on down <pause>
relaxing the throat <pause>
warming and relaxing your shoulders, arms, and hands <pause>
noticing how wonderful you feel as you continue to release all inner tension from the
top of your head, right down through to your shoulders and arms <pause>
bring your attention to your chest <pause>
allow yourself to let go of all of today’s stress, simply let it melt away <pause>
freeing you to relax so much more than before <pause>
and with every breath <pause>
you are able to release all of today’s unhealthy tension that you may have held within
your body <pause>
as you relax your waist, your organs, colon and genitals <pause>
warming and relaxing your pelvis <pause> your hips <pause>
and as you move down through your thighs <pause>
the front and the back of your knees feel so much more relaxed <pause>
as you continue to release the day’s tension <pause>
relaxing your calves, the muscles supporting your chins <pause>
your ankles are relaxed, you may rotate them if you wish <pause>
and the warmth of relaxation
continues on down through the arches of your feet <pause>
the soles of your feet, and on down into each toe.

Check your body and see if there is any tension still left,
and if there is, simply release it by warming it with your intention. That’s right, let it
go <long pause>

Now try to imagine your relaxed energy growing out from of the bottoms of your
feet, like a tree growing roots, into Mother Earth <pause>
your roots can be as straight or windy as you wish <pause>
and as deep or shallow as you wish <pause>
allow yourself a moment to feel the energy of love and balance <pause>
touching <pause> nourishing <pause> your lovely roots <pause>

Bringing your attention to the top of your head, allow your relaxed energy to reach
toward Father Sky <pause> feeling the warmth of the sun relaxing you <pause> nourishing
you <pause>

and when you feel you have touched upon the right area of Father Sky bring that
wonderful loving feeling down into the crown of your head down through your body
<pause> washing away any worry <pause> any tension or discomfort <pause>

if you wish you may allow Father Sky to meet and blend with Mother Earth within
you <pause>
and as you do <pause>
feel how radiant and beautiful you feel <pause>
let this energy of healing love continue to feed and nourish your body, mind, and
spirit <pause>
as you allow yourself to imagine yourself in a calm sacred space <pause>
it can be somewhere you’ve been before <pause>
or somewhere you discover here today <pause>
that’s right, allow yourself to travel anywhere you wish <pause>
as you begin to get comfortable in your nice safe <pause> calm <pause> sacred space.

A space that is all yours right now <pause> a place where no one will interrupt you.

Relax in your nice spot and feel the beauty that surrounds you <pause>
take a moment to smell the air <pause>
feel the warm gentle winds upon your face <pause>
there may be sounds of nature around you <pause>
maybe there is a babbling brook nearby that you can hear,
or a bird singing its song to his mate <pause>
whatever you wish here is fine <pause>
for this is your sacred spot in the universe.

As you continue to feel the energy of nature all around you, supporting you <pause>
this is your time to journey to meet with your Power Animal <pause>

He or she will come to you to guide you <pause>
and protect you <pause>
he or she will become a companion to you and you a companion to him or her
<pause>

It can be any animal you feel comfortable with at this time <pause>
off in the distance you see an animal moving slowly toward you <pause>
if you wish you may move forward to meet them on their way <pause>

If, for any reason <pause>
you do not feel right with the first animal you see <pause>
there will be another one who comes along <pause>
to greet you <pause>

as the two of you meet, just take a moment to sense one another <long pause>
you may communicate with one another simply with your thoughts <long pause>
you will and do understand one another easily <pause>
if you feel ready and you would like to extend yourself in friendship at this time,
you may <long pause>
perhaps you would like to walk, or fly, or swim with your new friend, to get to know
how he or she lives, go ahead <long pause>
you may relax with your friend <pause>
or play with your friend <pause>
or explore with your friend <pause>

take the time you wish together, for a few moments <pause>
when it is time, I will call you back <pause>

The two of you will have a uniquely personal relationship together <pause>
a relationship of reciprocity <pause>
you may visit one another at any time you wish simply by calling to one another
<pause>

<one-minute pause>
It is time to take your leave now <pause>
give thanks to your new friend <pause>
give thanks to Great Spirit for this wonderful experience with your Power Animal.

Remember that your Power Animal can change into any size, larger or smaller, when you need protection.

He or she can and will work in any way that the situation calls for to protect you <pause>

you may ask if your Power Animal would like to return with you to your sacred space
so that he or she will know where to meet you the next time <pause>
if you are comfortable with that <pause>

return now to the point where the two of you met <long pause>
going back to your journeying point <pause>
and return now to your sacred space <pause>

If your Power Animal is with you take a moment to exchange good-byes for now <pause>

Until you meet again <pause>
alone now, return to the room in your home where you started this special journey
<pause>

feel the room around you <pause>
feel the energy of Mother Earth and Father Sky <pause>

Join them <pause>
thank them for healing you and for holding your place during your journey <pause>

Release Father Sky with love and pull down your relaxed energy <pause>
that’s right, pull it all back, right back to the crown of your head where it started from
<pause>

feel your relaxed energy strengthening again <pause> tightening <pause>
like a loose mesh weave closing up <pause>

Release Mother Earth with love and gratitude <pause>
and as she releases, call back your roots <pause> all your roots <pause>
and bring your relaxed energy right back into your feet again where it started from
<pause>

feel your relaxed energy strengthening again <pause> tightening <pause>
like a loose mesh weave closing up <pause>

Feel your feet now <pause> your chins, calves, and knees <pause>
your thighs, hips, and pelvis <pause>
your colon, genitals, and organs <pause> your chest and back <pause>
your shoulders, arms, and hands <pause>
your throat and tongue <pause>
your cheeks and jaw <pause>
mouth, nose, eyes, and forehead <pause>
the top of your head and your scalp <pause>

I am going to count to three, and when I do,
you will open your eyes and feel confident, loved, fresh, and revitalized,
ready to continue on with your day.

You will remember the experience with your Power Animal in full detail.

That’s right, you will remember in detail your experience with your Power Animal.

You can repeat this guided meditation as often as you like. After a while, you’ll see certain patterns begin to emerge. You might have an owl as your power animal for as long as several years, and then have the ant. Your power animals change according to your needs, so that their energy fulfills where yours is lacking.

Pets are loyal and loving companions. Like all living things, they have vital energy. Often when Rita does readings, spirits come through with their favorite pets accompanying them. Pets do follow us to the higher side.

Often, a pet is so identifiable that it becomes a key piece of identifying the person who’s coming through when that’s not clear. Pets show themselves by species (dog, cat), size, and personality. It’s wonderful to know that our beloved pets, like human loved ones, are still around us, even when they pass to the higher side.

Many times a spirit will show a particular plant as a symbol; roses as love, daisies as new beginnings, for example. As with all symbols, each medium will create his or her own dictionary.

Plants give us all life-sustaining energy, every day. The whole-wheat bread you drop in the toaster in the morning … plant energy. The salad you eat for lunch … plant energy. The sautéed mushrooms and green bean casserole you enjoy for dinner … plant energy. Plants—grains, fruits, vegetables—are the fuels that give your body the energy it needs to carry out the functions of living.

Many plants have additional energies that often are not apparent, unless you are tuned in and know about these special qualities. Some of these qualities can be explained through biochemistry. We can look at the plant’s chemical composition and know the effect it will have on the body. But all plants have healing energy properties on the energy level. You can’t see, taste, or smell these properties. They act on your aura to influence your personal energy.

Medicinal herbs and botanicals, for example, contain chemicals that function as drugs. The plant foxglove contains digitalis, which is the chemical now used in the drug digoxin, prescribed to strengthen and regulate the heartbeat. There are thousands of such plants, many of which are the basis for the drugs of modern medicine as well as ancient medical systems such as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Plants with medicinal qualities act on your physical body to influence physical functions. The changes that result can affect emotional and spiritual aspects of your health as well.

Flower essences use water to capture the energy imprints of plants. In most plants, the flower is the most potent energy source because it is the plant’s structure of regeneration. Flower essences come in liquid form, and have no taste or smell. They work by interacting with your personal energy field through your aura. Flower essences influence your spiritual and emotional dimensions.

Dr. Edward Bach, a British bacteriologist, discovered flower essences in the 1930s while he was doing research in the then-new field of vaccines. He began to find evidence that the plants he was using in his culture mediums actually influenced health by themselves, by interacting on an energy level.

Each plant has specific qualities that act on certain issues. Essence of pine, for example, influences self-acceptance. Roses, so familiar as symbols of romance, not surprisingly influence compassion and love.

Aromatherapy has become popular in Western cultures because it smells good. You can enjoy aromatherapy whether or not you understand its energy foundation. Many people enjoy the fragrances associated with aromatherapy. From a scientific perspective, the smells of various substances elicit responses in the brain that cause biochemical changes. From an energy perspective, aromatherapy acts on the body’s energy field in the same ways as flower essences.

You are spirit, and you are of spirit. The essence of your being is spirit energy in its own right. Your energy also connects with the spirit of the physical world around you, and the universe at large. Spirit and energy are inseparable. They exist contiguously, across the earth plane and the spirit world. Spirit energy links us to the natural environment that supports our physical needs, to each other, and to loved ones who no longer walk the earth plane.

This is the foundation of belief for many indigenous cultures, and it is the foundation that supports spirit contact and communication. Honoring this foundation, in yourself and in others, makes it possible for it to continue supporting you—in your everyday life as well as during times of special need.

The Least You Need to Know