Succumb | July 2018

When I am writing the title of this newsletter, I get this weird feeling in my gut.  I then find myself saying to myself, ugh, I do not like that word, why am I writing a newsletter about it?  It is not a word that I really use in my day to day life.  To me, succumb means, oh just give up, stop trying, stop fighting, or I am just going to give in and compromise myself. I especially experience this when it is something in my life that I felt was so important to stand up to, or against, to value as truth enough to die for, or a belief that I held as truth and must now succumb to knowing that I was wrong this entire time!  It does kind of feel like giving up or relinquishing something to succumb; so, what is this part inside of me that just wants to remain stubbornly in my position regardless of how it may weaken my ability to grow?  In this newsletter, let me share an experience that I had a couple of weeks ago that has allowed me to review my stand on the meaning of the word “succumb”.  

A client came in for a Sangoma Bones Divination session with me.  If you do not remember or are new to our work, a Sangoma is a South African Traditional Medicine Person.  A person who becomes a Sangoma must be called by their spiritual ancestors from the other side to step into their gifts and abilities to help individuals and communities to heal.  You can not simply decide that you want to be a Sangoma and take a course on how to do so.  There is a traditional process that is recognized through an individual having powerful dreams, seeing energy, hearing spirits/ancestors talking, and knowing things about people that you could not possibly know.  Then you go to a South African Sangoma, they go into trance, and talk with the ancestors who will reveal if you are being called into the work.  Once this has been verified by a practicing Sangoma, then you must go through training in South Africa.  I have experienced the calling, verified that calling by a Sangoma and trained in South Africa to do what is called, “Bones Divining”.  

This particular client has come in to see me maybe 6 times in 10 years, not a full-time client but a client I knew well enough to have a shared comfort level.  This client has a powerful spirit and powerful ancestors.  This client has a normal home life, with adult kids, and grandchildren.  She works full time, more than full time at a regular job and tunes in to her intuition and gut instinct like most of you do to make day to day decisions.  However, her spirit and her ancestors from the past, really wanted her to step up more, use her intuition more, and talk to her spirit and ancestors more often.  She noticed, as many of my clients and students do, that the more she talked to her spirit and her spirit guides the faster her life went, her desires unfolded rapidly, and all heck would break lose at home and work because life changes became quicker.  Therefore, she made the choice to talk with her spirit and spirit guides less, so her life would change slower and be more manageable.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?

She sat in front of me on the floor, which is traditional in a Bones Reading.  It was good to see her after a couple of years.  I placed the burning bowl filled with Impepo, (South African type sage, that clears the energy between us and the spirit world), in front of her and asked her to talk with her ancestors/spirit guides in prayer to ask them to illuminate the wisdom she desires to know.  I too, tuned in, as she called her ancestors and guides in.  I clairvoyantly watched them come into the room and then saw them move back out.  Again, her guides would come in, and move back out.  Now under normal situations they would come in and stay for the duration of the bones reading but this day there was something different going on.  For twenty minutes I watched through my spiritual eyes this dance between she and her ancestors.  For twenty very long minutes.  Then suddenly, they moved in and ingulfed her energy field and she shapeshifted into an ancient wise woman with a wolf skin covering her head and body!  My eyes widened at what I had just witnessed, the energy in the room was potent with a sacred richness. 

When I finally spoke, she calmly opened her eyes unaware that she had been in prayer that long.  I just had to describe what I had witnessed and asked her what her own internal experience was showing her? Her first words were; “I, SUCCUMBED!”  We both sat there in that moment with the energy of that word, the power of that word and the beauty of that word!  I, SUCCUMBED!   We talked about all the ways in which she calls to her own soul, calls to the ancient ones who guide her only to push it all away to keep life slower, simpler, and more controlled. 

I then asked her with great curiosity, “What did it feel like to totally succumb when you became the ancient wise one wearing the wolf skin?”  She then spoke, with a holy wisdom, expressing a contentment at no longer fighting her own spirit.  No longer fighting the ancient ancestors that so long to love and support her.  She put down her stubborn need to manage change and succumbed to the rest of the bones reading and the messages the ancients ones brought through for her. 

After she left, I found myself just sitting on the floor with my burning bowl and bones set out before me, profoundly changed by what I had witnessed.  I am changed, by making the choice to succumb to my own soul and put down my own stubbornness in situations where I desire to hang on to control.  Every day since that day, I can hear my ancestors and spirit guides remind me to succumb when I feel myself contract inside.  Who are we really fighting, battling, and managing when it comes right down to it? 

Please read further to the Energetic Health tips for a mini meditation you can do at home to release contracted stubborn places you may hold inside and succumb to the expansiveness of your own soul!

Energy Health Tips

In this segment I offer some suggestions on ways you can succumb to the inner call of your own spirit and spiritual guidance.  This is not about succumbing to an abusive situation, or conflict at the work place, this is more personal than that. This is about succumbing to all the ways you fight with yourself and your own inner wisdom. 

1. Write down all the ways you know that your own spirit or spiritual guidance is attempting to get your attention and you deeply know you are pushing it away because it would require changes that maybe you do not want to make.  Be really honest with yourself. 
2. Know for certain, that you truly have free will. That no matter what your spirit or guides are “calling” you to do or change in your life, you have free will and you are in charge. You do not ever have to take their advice or wisdom.  Please hear this, you are number one in charge of every decision you make and you can always say no. 
3. Write down the ways that your body feels when it is contracting inside. Do you feel sick to your stomach?  Do you get a tension headache?  Do you feel irritated and annoyed or panicked?  Notice how your body signals you when you are out of sorts between your body and spirit and change is in the air and you do not want to change. 
4. Then close your eyes and imagine a grounding cord, grounding tree roots or another image that represents grounding. Connect this imaginary image to the area around your hips and extend the grounding image all the way to the center of the earth.  Continue to strengthen your grounding by sending more and more of your energy to the core of the earth until you feel settled.
5. Notice where in your body you feel contracted and say to yourself, I succumb, and allow that place inside to succumb to the contracted tightness until it relaxes.
6. Repeat this over and over and over again, on every single place in your body that is contracted.
7. Each time you succumb, you put down the stubborn fight in that small or large area of your body. You allow the internal fighting to stop, you succumb to your spirit and allow your spirit to move into that space inside and relax it. 
8. Now choose one item on your list that you know you have been fighting your spirit on. Let your spirit know that you succumb and are willing to stop fighting and willing to put down your stubbornness.  Now remember, this does not mean that you are changing anything in your life unless you want to.  It simply means that you are no longer battling it out inside of your body. 
9. Notice how it feels to simply succumb and let go.
10. Take a deep breath, open your eyes and make notes about what you noticed.
11. Please write us a note about what you noticed.