The Fork in the Road

As some of you may know, I have been blessed with finding my spiritual path in Shamanism.  As a person of mostly European decent as many of us are in the U.S., We have along with almost all of the indigenous cultures of the world, been robbed of our birthright. Our Spiritual Autonomy. 

Europeans lost this right over the last thousand years. Persecution by the church and politics were the down fall of this freedom to practice spiritual autonomy.  This is why I am so passionate about sharing this beautiful and powerful practice with others. 

Over the last 7 years, I have been workin with people individually. But now, as I come to a fork in the road,  I have another blessing to share. I have been accepted as faculty by The Foundation for Shamanic Studies and will be offering their time tested programs online. 

This is a wonderfully informative interview with Micheal Harner, the founder of Core Shamanism and the FSS and that can be accessed on the FSS website.  https://www.shamanism.org/articles/article01.html

So it goes, as I continue to go deeper in this work and continue to learn from both my human teachers and my spirit teachers, I offer myself to help others learn to learn from their spirit teachers. 

Visit my webpage with Workshop offerings. 

www.workshops.antoinettecresci.com

Core Shamanism, Our Birth Right

Why the Shamanic Journey?

Shamanism, over the last few decades has been making a come back.  This revival is out of necessity. Before this rebirth, Shamanism was disappearing from the face of the earth.  Only a few indigenous cultures have been able to survive this systematic erasure of this beautiful and powerful spiritual practice. Politics, Organized Religion, Colonization, these are a few of the causes of our spiritual autonomy being robbed from us. But there is hope. 

Most people are not aware of the fact that shamanism even exists. Many people, myself included no longer trust organized religion. They know there is more to spirit than blind faith. And since Shamanism is an experience based methodology, many scientific minds and educated people are realizing that to make a real change in healing ourselves and the planet there must be communication.  Not just communication with human people, but also with as the Lakota say, "all our relations". The animal people, plant people, rock people, the elements and the natural world in general.  And of course, the unseen. 

I once read a book by Duane Elgin, author of The Living Universe. He tells us that 95% of what exists in the world is unseen. Shamanism is a methodology used to access non ordinary reality. To interact with highly evolved, benevolent, compassionate and full of wisdom spirits. The very spirits our ancient ancestors drew upon for the purpose of healing and survival. 

I have seen through my personal experience with Shamanism, the ecological side of this beautiful practice. The reverence for nature, something that was overlooked in my Roman Catholic upbringing. Our ancestors had this reverence. They recognized the power of nature and our connection to all living beings. Now modern civilization is at an awakening, a cross roads. We are realizing that our connection to nature is of a life and death relationship, just as it was for our ancient ancestors. 

World wide people are using a drum as a means for entering an altered state to access these beings. Many cultures use plant medicine to access this way of being as Carlos Castaneda wrote about decades ago. World wide people are forming circles to drum and journey to gain insight and wisdom for the purpose of healing ourselves and the planet. Entering non ordinary reality and learning what our ancient ancestors knew. 

The beauty of modern Shamanism is the fact that through technology we have access to each other all over the planet. And the ability to share this wisdom with others. In my Shamanic practice I do just that. Since Covid, I have started using technology as a means for teaching the methodology to access other realms, I have been giving others the gift of the Shamanic Journey both in person and on Zoom. 

Shamanic Counceling is an avenue that teaches a person the methodology to gain access to non ordinary reality for the purpose of gaining access to highly evolved, compassionate spirits and to gain wisdom and healing . This is to learn what ancient and modern indigenous cultures already know. "Everything that exists, is alive!"

For more information about Shamanism click here

To learn to do a Shamanic Journey make an appointment with me here

Shamanism Workshops click here

The Gift

The Gift

My work as a healer has taken me through many different doors. Some of which are bodywork, Reiki and Shamanic Healing and Counceling. Not to mention all the self healing that has occurred. Recovering from my Catholic upbringing and growing into myself as a woman. It was a natural progression for me to arrive at the study and practice of Shamanism, and working within the container of Shamanic Healing, everything in life has become much richer. More layered.  From the mundane day to day life, to my healing practice,  to surfing and even my relationships with my friends and family. So it was only obvious that I would eventually meet Ashley through surfing. The divine intervenes and then there you have it.  Serendipity......

I first met Ashley a few years ago. I contacted her on a friends recommendation for some surf coaching. I had reached out, telling her I wanted to progress in surfing faster than I'm aging.( Partly joking, but not really.... ) We met and I took my first lesson from her. Ashley quickly became someone I knew deep down would be a very close friend. A soul sister so to speak. I have been an emotional and spiritual support for her and she has been the person to help me heal some of the stories I was believing about my surfing. 

Fast forward - Ashley had loaned me one of her boards. "Banana" as she lovingly calls it. I fell in love with the board. And so began the journey of the board.  She was to shape a board for me. This has turned out to not be just any board. This board is very very special. Over the time span of about a year,  she learned something intimate about me. She learned of my love and devotion to the Madonna. I'm in no way a devout Catholic. If anything I am a recovering Catholic, and the Great Mother has helped with that healing. 

The image on the board is Our Lady of Guadalupe whom is lovingly called Guadalupana. She is the mother of The America's and she is one of the three virgins that show up for me in my life. The other two being from my Sicilian culture, The Black Madonna and The Mother of Light (La Madonna Del Lume). The protectresses of fishermen. I come from a long line of fishermen and I believe this is where my deep connection to the sea comes from.  

One day, she and I were walking down the street and I glanced over at the painting of Guadalupana that is displayed on Frostie's house. I had been admiring it for years. At this point Ashley knew my connection to her. Guadalupana, this beautiful healing spirit, my guide and protectress. I exclaimed excitedly (Partly joking, but not really.... ) "Wouldn't it be amazing to have her on my board?!”  

To my amazement a few days later she told me that Marciano would be painting her on my board. This was her gift to me.  This may not seem like a miracle on first glance. But, this never would have happened if Marciano wasn't the painter. The thing about this amazing vessel that is my board, is that only an artist devoted to Our Lady could paint her. Only Marciano. He told me after it was done that he invoked her spirit and prayed the entire time he was painting her. Everything was in divine order. It all fell into place effortlessly. This miraculous gift from my dear friend Ashley. And in perfect timing. A healing board. Not just for me, but for the sea and for anyone wanting to receive. And so, The Great Woman, Our Lady, Guadalupana,  will be visiting anyone who is open to her every time she is set upon the water. Her gift to us. 

How I found Shamanism

How I found Shamanism

My practice is a project in progress. It started when I was a young girl growing up in San Francisco.  I have always had a strong connection to spirit. But, I have not always let others know this about me. Growing up in a traditional Sicilian family with strong ties to Catholicism this wasn't the type of thing you shared openly. 

As an adult, I searched for that spiritual tradition that would embrace me and confirm what I already knew deep in my being. I dipped my toes in Taoism, Native American Studies, Ayuvedic Healing, Tarot, Metaphysics, Reiki just to name a few. But none gave me the answers I was looking for. 

Then one day, I went to the Crystal Fair in San Francisco. One of the mediums approached me and told me he was guided to give me a reading at no charge because he was being guided to do so.  Up until this moment, I had been battling pain from a car accident that happened a couple of years before. I managed to run myself over with my own car. At the time it happened, I knew the spirits were trying to get my attention and give me a message,  but I was in denial about what that message was. 

This medium sat me down and as he looked off into another reality he delivered the message. I came from a long line of  female healers. On both sides of my family!  My initial reaction was "yeah right". But then he said something that nearly knocked me out of my chair. His exact words....."They are telling me the car is just the beginning if you don't embrace your path."  I sat... eyes in the headlights... mouth hanging open...   He asked if that meant something to me and I told him an emphatic YES!   Up until that time, I was working as an esthetician and massage therapist offering Reiki in my facial and massage sessions. Never, ever, referring to myself as a healer.  That was a title I thought belonged to others, but not me. I went home that afternoon in shock and fear.  It wasn't as though he told me something I didn't know. The problem was he told me something I did know. And I had been successfully avoiding it for all of my life! But, I knew in the core of my being his words were truth. 

It didn't take long for things to start into motion. The spirits were not going to let me out of this easily. A few days later, I decided to clean out my book shelf. I am an avid book lover. I have books that I got when I was a child in my collection. I have read about 95% of them but there are a few I just never got around to. Or I wasn't ready for them so they are waiting for me to evolve.  The book that fell off the shelf onto the floor is one of those very books.  It was The Way of the Shaman by Micheal Harner.  I bought the book in 1990 and tried to read it. At the time, I guess I wasn't ready because I never finished and I put the book on the shelf and there it stayed for over a decade. 

I decided to read it that day. And I read it in a little over a day. I couldn't put it down. Every page had something on it that pertained to my personal experience. In those two days I realized I had been practicing Shamanism my whole life but it didn't have a name.  I finally after a lifetime of searching found my way. Since the book was published in 1980 and we didn't have internet back then I decided to do a google search on the author. I knew of him from a friend that had been trying to get me to go to a workshop.  I soon found the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. I wanted to get a healing. My thought process was that if I was going to go down this path as a "healer", then the healer should heal herself first. I contacted a woman on the list who was located about 40 minutes from my house. But I misunderstood her when I made the appointment.  When I arrived I realized I wasn't signed up for a healing. I was signed up for a five session series in Shamanic Counseling.  This was exactly what I needed!  The spirits were taking my hand and guiding me in a way they never did before.  The person with whom I made the appointment turned out to be Sandra Harner, the creator of Harner Shamanic Counceling and the wife of Micheal Harner. I worked with her for a year after my 5 sessions were over.  There was much learning during that time and much freedom gained. Spiritual autonomy...... something I knew nothing about, or thought I didn't.  I eventually started taking workshops to learn more about the healing aspects of shamanism so that I could help my clients.  But I must say, most of my education has come straight from my beautiful, compassionate, helping spirits. 

My life if very different now. I could not have made this transformation without the help of my spirits and also, importantly, my husband Brad. He has and continues to support me every step of the way. At the time of this writing we are in the middle of a global pandemic. I have been unable to work in my healing space as a massage therapist and esthetician, but my healing practice flourishes.  With the help of my Helping Spirits and Zoom, I have been able to give others the gift of spiritual autonomy and healing from my home in Pacifica. 

My practice is rooted in Core Shamanism. Core Shamanism is based on age old practices in many different cultures. It is the universal and non universal practices combined with sonic drumming to 'journey' into non ordinary reality in an altered state of being in order to communicate with compassionate spirits. These other worlds where spirits reside are the 95% of reality that is unseen. As author Duane Elgin says, We only see 5% of matter. the rest is unseen. This is were the healing, wisdom and power happen. The healings that I offer may include some of these core shamanic healing modalities as taught by The Foundation For Shamanic Studies and my beautiful, compassionate, healing spirit helpers. 

Shamanic Counceling

Soul Retrieval 

Power Animal Retrieval 

Shamanic Divination

Extraction Healing

Psychopomp - Healing and transformation for crossing over. 

Space clearing

Song Doctoring

My practice is located in Pacifica, California and I offer remote sessions via telephone and Zoom. 

I am currently enrolled in the Three Year Program of Advanced Initiations in Shamanism and Shamanic Healing. 

If you are in need of healing, please contact me. Distance work is very effective. I have learned this in a big way since the onset of Covid-19. Please care for yourself. 

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