The Heart of The Healer Foundation: Sacred Rituals & Ceremonies to Reconnect Us with The Earth

Sacred Space, Urban Grace

Every once in a while, just when you think you have Utah pegged, you’ll come across something that blows your conception out of the water. Such was the case with the Sacred Space, Urban Grace conference held at Utah State University over Labor Day weekend. Led by Peruvian-born Oscar Miro-Quesada, a practicing shaman, the conference was a three-day trip into the magical, intriguing worlds of indigenous shamanic practices of South America. In short, the conference was esoteric and a bit bizarre, yet also strangely applicable to modern life.

Initiation into Shamanic Dream World

The 70-some conference participants were initiated into a sensory shamanic smorgasbord of drumming, rattling, flickering fragrant candles, smoking incense, sacred herbal waters, mythological figurines, and sacred, archetypal patterns. Shamanism is indeed a sight to behold. Yet beyond the outward showiness of the dancing, spitting, and blowing shaman, it seems something deeper and more profound is being brought forth through the shamanic dream.

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The Heart of the Healer

The goal of Oscar Miro-Quesada’s non-profit foundation, the Heart of the Healer, is lofty: the restoration of the Earth through the ritual healing arts of visionary shamanism. The organization is deeply involved in the preservation and protection of the rainforest and indigenous cultures in Peru as well as the revitalization of the Earth throughout the world. The Heart of the Healer seeks to inspire an eco-spiritual revival by introducing people to the ancient wisdom and healing of native practices. The organization proclaims that the way back from our frantic, fragmented urban lives to wholeness, peace, and harmony is through reconnection to the Earth.

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The Earth as Our Teacher

The doctrine of the shaman proclaims that to heal we must accept that we are not separate from Mother Earth or from one another and that the spiritual nature of reality is the basis for the physical. A mouthful and brainful of abstract fodder indeed, yet the creaking door onto an ancient vision embodied in the wisdom of Earth-based spirituality, which has been locked for far too long, is opening ever so slightly. Maybe it is high time for us to begin dreaming a new collective dream of a better, kinder, saner tomorrow, of more harmonious urban spaces in resonance with the natural world. Perhaps the time is ripe for us to start recognizing the Earth as our mother and the plants as our teachers.

But how practical, compelling, and sustainable is the vision? Time will be the litmus test.

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For Additional Information About Shamanic Practices, You Might Enjoy This Article:

Sacred Ayahuasca in Shamanism: Its Uses, Effects, and Legality