Healing Grief with Shamanism: A Journey Back to the Heart

 Healing Grief with Shamanism: A Journey Back to the Heart

Grief is a strange companion. It settles into the cracks of your soul, reshaping how you see the world and yourself. One of my clients, whom I’ll call Maya, came to me carrying a deep and abiding grief. She had lost her mother two years earlier and felt stuck in a cycle of pain, guilt, and longing. Her loss wasn’t fresh, but the weight of it hadn’t lessened with time.

Maya came seeking relief—not to forget her mother but to feel alive again. She wanted to move forward without leaving her love and memories behind.

The Beginning: Opening the Sacred Door

In our first session, I invited Maya into a sacred space where she could safely explore the raw edges of her grief. We began with grounding rituals, breathwork, and meditation to help her center herself in the present moment. Maya admitted that she often avoided sitting still because the quiet brought her pain to the surface.

Together, we worked gently, starting with ancestral work to honor her connection to her mother and the lineage they shared. Through guided visualization, Maya envisioned her mother not as a source of loss but as a powerful presence who had shaped her life and spirit.

Journeying to the Root

In a subsequent session, I guided Maya through a shamanic journey—a meditative state where she could access her subconscious and connect to spiritual realms. During this journey, we called upon her spirit guides and ancestors to walk with her as she ventured into the layers of her grief.

Maya described feeling her mother’s presence during the journey. It wasn’t in words or visions but a warmth, a knowing. Her mother’s spirit conveyed a message: “You are not alone. I am always with you, but it’s time for you to live.”

This moment was a breakthrough. It gave Maya permission to release the guilt she’d been carrying—the feeling that moving forward meant betraying her mother’s memory.

Rituals for Healing

Over the next several months, we created personalized rituals to help Maya process her grief.

• Water Ceremony: We held a ceremony by a river where Maya spoke aloud the words she’d wished she could say to her mother. As the water carried her words away, she imagined her grief being transformed into love.

• Dream Work: Maya kept a journal of her dreams and began inviting her mother into her dream space. Over time, these dreams became a source of comfort and wisdom.

• Daily Connection Practices: Maya set up an altar in her home with photos, candles, and objects that reminded her of her mother. It became a place where she could visit, speak, and feel her mother’s presence whenever she needed.

The Transformation

After nearly a year of sessions, Maya described feeling like she had been “unfrozen.” Grief was still part of her story, but it no longer defined her. She found herself laughing again, creating new memories, and even feeling inspired to pursue a dream her mother had always encouraged: writing.

The rituals and journeys had taught her that love doesn’t end with death. Her mother’s spirit remained alive in her, not as a shadow but as a light guiding her forward.

The Bigger Lesson

Grief is a journey, and there’s no single “fix” for it. What shamanism offers is a pathway to reconnect with the sacred, to honor both the love and the loss, and to find a way forward that feels true.

For Maya, the process wasn’t about “letting go” of her mother but learning to carry her in a way that allowed life to bloom again.

If you are navigating grief, know that healing is not about forgetting but about remembering differently—finding a way to carry love forward while reclaiming your own joy.

~Shanti Freedom Das