Depth Soul Retrievals with MIKKAL



Mikkal is shamanic healer and depth psychologist. Here he discusses his soul retrieval practice, what he does, what your responsibilities are, what results to expect, costs, and other issues you need to know to work with him for a depth soul retrieval.

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Shamanic healing, like depth psychology, is concerned with the care, the health and welfare of the soul, the inner being who looks out through a pair of eyes. Aliveness and vitality, awareness and compassionate acceptance of all that we are, are hall marks of health and wholeness.



If you deeply hunger for a fuller sense of self, if you feel more of you needs to be on line and present in the world, but for some reason it is not, this discussion of soul loss and retrieval may be of interest to you. If you feel that something is missing, or that you have not been the same since some heart-break, accident, illness, or major surgery, childhood abuse or other traumatic events, you are probably suffering from a condition known in the shamanic healing system as “soul loss.” Soul loss means that some vital energy or aspect of your being is not available, not ‘on line; or not ‘incarnate in your living.’ The shamanic ceremony of soul retrieval can place you back on the heart path, put you back in connection to the vital parts of You, so that you may continue in your growth or healing process.



In ancient and indigenous cultures where social and spiritual life has been relatively intact, the human soul has been fairly well supported by the community, its mythology and ritual life, --the condition of soul loss was a fairly rare occurrence reserved for occasional traumatic events and accidents. But today we who live in the culture of late modernity live in societies that are driven by over stimulating media, the competitive goals of domination and greed, materialism and overly rational view, such that the soul is easily violated, the connection to the heart broken, and parts of our essential being repressed or dissociated.



So it is in our modern culture that it is a rather rare exception for individuals to feel whole, fully alive, and satisfied with their lives. Not feeling and living our wholeness, we yearn for substitute gratifications to fill us up. We hunger for more and more food, money, status, security, we seek esteem in the eyes of others and take our sense of self-worth from external evaluations and externally derived norms. Our modern societies are rampant with diseases (heart disease, a variety of cancers, and many mental disorders), and addictions that are themselves associated with broken hearts and the nagging emptiness soul loss.



Because of this widespread soul loss condition, and in efforts to fill the hole in our being, we have become a society obsessed with addictions of various kinds, and with abusive and co-dependent relationships, child abuse and incest, and shallow materialistic greed, sex addictions, computer addictions, credit addictions, spiritual tourism, and so on.



With more than 30 years experience as a depth psychotherapist I know that psychotherapy can take years and in some cases decades to heal unhealthy patterns originating from soul loss. Depth Psychotherapy offers many important services to the soul, and good psychotherapy entails increase in soul health, and many new growth directions can be acknowledged as a result, with many smaller soul pieces coming on line. But there are places where the therapy can be stuck, with some old pattern hanging on and little or new growth in this one area.



For years I have plotted my psychotherapy clients growth directions on charts at 3 month intervals to see what has come on line and how the client has progressed. Often there are many areas of growth---but there often will be an area or two that won’t budge after two, three or many years of therapy, and efforts to develop it just seem not to work. These are areas where there is significant soul loss, and those pieces need to be on line enough for the client to begin moving forward from this stuck place in therapy.



Shamans understand that psychological or spiritual growth won’t occur in areas where there is significant soul loss, and ‘significant’ means a rather large piece of You is not on line. Often there are several such missing pieces, and they are tied to some type of traumatic injury to the soul. It is possible to find or pinpoint what was online before the accident or traumatic injury, that was no longer available afterward.



From the viewpoint of a shamanic system of healing, soul loss occurs  when we undergo a trauma or injury severe enough for parts of us to flip off, dissociate, be repressed and go into hiding (usually behind a wall of fear). For therapy to be effective in healing the traumas, those flipped off pieces need to come back on line. Without them there is not enough of You present for psychotherapy to succeed in this sector of your life.



Soul Loss, understood from a modern depth psychological perspective, actually has a protective function, enabling the person to survive a traumatic situation. Incest and rape survivors often report being able to look down on the violent situation from above, as if floating above. Individuals suffering from heart attacks or serious auto accidents, thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, are increasingly reporting the ‘out-of-body’ experiences. This kind of disconnection enables survival of what otherwise would be unendurable pain. The temporary soul loss can be a good survival resource. The problem is when these soul parts do not return within a short time frame, they may stay disconnected, problem patterns will then develop, along with other problematic behaviors filling the hole.



Some of the common symptoms of soul loss we are seeing a lot of in our modern social context include:



Dissociation

Repression of memories and life-energies

Feelings of passively observing life but not participating

Loss of life direction or no sense of purpose

Feeling ungrounded

Having enduring problem patterns (trouble enjoying a form of sex, trouble trusting …, fear of love, chronic looking outside oneself for a solution)

Addictions

Chronic illness

Ongoing Depression

Unresolved Grief (lasting years—known as broken heart, “she still has a piece of my heart”)

Chronic self-esteem issues

Loss of a sense of personal power

Not having a Voice in things

Not able to stand one’s own ground.

Always seeking to please others, fit in, rather than express your truth…

Unable to be heart open or fully loving with another



The list is endless, really. Traditional psychiatric and psychotherapeutic systems of healing also becomes ongoing because the piece or aspect of the person involved in the trauma is not on line. The piece with the feelings, the memories, and with the assets and the needed capacities has left the house of self. Such soul loss leaves the person dis-spirited and weakened. The psychotherapist needs that piece back on line in order to help you work the trauma through to resolution, so you can move forward in life.



How is Shamanic Soul Retrieval Done?

For me it is a rather traditional sacred ceremony, invoking spiritual help, and entering an altered state of consciousness known now as the SSC (shamanic state of consciousness). I state my intent for this ceremony of ‘shamanic journeying,’and ask for help in being of service to You. In this state I use drumming to clear my consciousness, moving ego out of the way, and making room to get in touch with deep spiritual sources, known simply as ‘my spirit guides’. Some of these appear in animal form. This is a visionary state and is highly intuitive in nature.



I put complete faith in my guides to find and access the information and pieces needed to help you move forward at this time. In accessing and trusting my guides, I put myself in connection with a profounder source of knowing and objectivity about the core of You and your soul condition, than is possible in an ordinary state of consciousness. The journey procedure is a way of setting aside the "modern doctor within", and accessing the "indigenous healer within."



My shamanic training comes from several indigenous traditions, including initiation into soul retrieval and extraction by my Cherokee-metis Wolf Clan teacher Ai Gvhdi Waya, and a 12 year relationship with her (I am also Cherokee-metis), and an 8 year apprenticeship with the Taita Iachak (master shaman, curandero, and teacher), don Alverto Taxo, Quechua (Kichwa) tribe of Ecuador. My way of shamanic healing is also closely woven with and supported my training and years of experience in Jungian psychology, Focusing, and Transpersonal Psychology.



I have long learned to access and navigate in the non ordinary reality, following the mystical iconography of the three-world visionary planes of consciousness commonly known in shamanism as the Underworld, Middle World, and Upper World. Shamans have accessed these realms for an estimate 40,000 years. For additional information about these worlds, I have written of them in my book, JUNG AND SHAMANISM IN DIALOGUE: RETRIEVING SOUL/RETRIEVING THE SACRED (PAULIST 1997, TRAFFORD 2007). There are many other books and websites where you can learn more about this mythical and mystical itinerary of shamans.



Soul Retrieval Healing with me involves something like a very brief psychotherapy, because there are a couple of deep sessions prior to and after the soul retrieval. I insist on this as essential to solid and lasting results. The clients I do depth soul retrieval for must schedule three sessions with me. The first session is to get acquainted, explore the problem or complaint motivating soul retrieval service, and through heart to heart talks rapidly identify likely areas of soul loss. The client is also given some reading assignment, the articles on this website and a small book on soul retrieval to prepare them in terms of knowing what to expect, and to insure they know their my responsibility as well as theirs. Client preparation is essential to a solid and lasting soul retrieval. I then do a diagnostic journey and ask for permission of my guides to do the soul retrieval. Then an appointment is booked for the soul retrieval at some point in the near future, usually at least a week or two out. During this time the client may email information I have requested from them, along with questions. Preparatory Sessions usually last about an hour.



The Soul Retrieval Ceremony

At the scheduled time, I perform the soul retrieval with my guides' help. Once in these non ordinary realms of consciousness I enlist the service of my chief guide and my power animals for assistance to find and bring back lost soul pieces that are needed at this time, to move forward. Once I have the “pieces”, they are returned to the client through the heart and crown charkas, and often enough there is some sense of new energy and sense of fullness as they enter the body in this way. Often the pieces come back with somatic or eidetic memories and emotions generated by the trauma that caused them to flip off. The intensity of the emotions subsides within a couple of days, leaving a renewed sense of presence and vigor since the piece that flipped off is now back home. I encourage clients to work with a therapist or ‘Focusing partner’ to work through any remaining emotions, memories, or other contents that come back with the returned pieces.

I am often asked about what the pieces look like. I can say I see them ‘imaginally’, so they come packaged often as some kind of image, and details of the images may have factual biographical details, or they may be entirely symbolic, or a mixture. The packaging is important especially if it is not what you expect, because the image is expanding your understanding, compensating your limited point of view, as Jung put it about dream images. Expansion of consciousness is one function of shamanic visionary work.The specifics of an image bring up exact facets of you that you would not ordinarily have thought of in this context,  or that you  were somehow defending against. The details of the image are often crucial to getting its essential message for you, and books on symbolism won't help. It if is a symbol, its a symbol of your soul part and no one elses. The soul quality that infuses and shines through the details of  the image, its’ intra-psychic essence, potential or pattern that is what is being returned. Soul stuff in invisible, it’s the presentation which can be ‘seen’ in concrete detail. Welcome it, then, regardless of whether it is something you kind of suspected, and if it surprises you. One good way to respond to an image of a soul piece is in kind. I often have clients find or create symbols (masks, talismans for their meditation altars), to give them little tangible handles on the feel of a returned soul piece. [Read the article  entitled "Image and Soul Retrieval Integration"on this webpage]



The Processing and Post Soul Retrieval Integration Session

If the client is physically present with me, we welcome, and process the pieces right then and there in a post-soul retrieval session in my healing lodge or consulting room. If the client is long distance, in another part of the country or world, I email a report or sending a recording, and process things in a scheduled processing session by telephone at a time convenient for both, but as close to the soul retrieval ceremony as possible. Post soul retrieval sessions usually take an hour.



In the processing session I answer additional questions regarding the soul retrieval, help the client make sense of the pieces and have a pretty clear understanding of how to welcome them and integrate them. I offer explicit daily meditations and practices for saying ‘Hello” to each of them, and updating them on your life, and finally integrating them. It can’t be emphasized enough how important it is for the client to actively relate to and integrate these pieces over the next few weeks. Shamanic healing requires action on the part of the client to make it solid and reliable.



I ask the client to email me with in 48 hours with an update of how the integration process is going, and answer any questions they may have. I ask for another email up date at around the 30 day point.



Results of Soul Retrieval

Details of results vary with the person and with the particular kind of piece that came back. Some immediately feel a gentle sense of well being, others feel powerful energies moving through their body, within a day or two as they come more alive, and still others simply feel more empowered and free during the time of the soul retrieval journey. The fullness of results and the new connections about the pieces accrue often over days or weeks. Often the person comes to look on the soul retrieval as a turning point, or major shift in their life, where new energies, new courage, and new action steps were taken to create a new life direction, and began living a more purposeful and meaningful life.



During the integration phase you have work to do, but the results are highly rewarding and lasting as a result. Once all the significant parts of you are back on line and integrated, the old destructive behavior patterns begin crumbling as their old toxic mental scaffolding collapses. Some individuals ceremonially bury symbols of old patterns they are releasing, creating a kind of funeral for them. In relatively a short period of time old family patterns and resulting emotional dramas are broken because You are too present and empowered to tolerate them any longer. Any attachment to the pain of the past is broken, victim thinking is naturally shed as you more intentionally live from the heart, take responsibility for creating your life into something you really love. Often individuals feel free and more energized to become of service to others, and to Mother Earth.



Costs



I charge $100. For the preparation and diagnostic session.

I charge $200.00 for both the soul retrieval and post soul retrieval processing session.

This includes the follow up emails and responses.

Hence, the total cost per soul retrieval cycle is $300,00 which can be paid all at once or at the time of the preparation session, and the soul retrieval and post retrieval processing session.



You may pay by Pay Pal, or through sending a personal check to his office: Mikkal 333 N. Second Street, Suite 304, Niles, MI 49120. Checks must clear before the date of the service. I have tried to price things in an affordable way. It is possible to space the distance between sessions so that you may spread out any burden of cost to you. To pay through PayPal simply go to PayPal, click "Send Money", put Mikkal's email address in the appropriate box: ShamanicAR@aol.com and enter the amount you are authorizing from your debit card or credit card. you will receive a receipt.



If you wish subsequent shamanic counseling or shamanic life coaching the fee structure is $120.00 per hour, and $65.00 per half hour.



While it is true that we all have missing soul pieces, some repressed, some blocked, some dissociated, often these are not enough to seriously hamper our lives. Pieces can flip off through minor stresses and shocks, but often will gradually come back on line. However, when we are blocked or stuck in some important life area, over substantial period of time, significant soul loss is likely to be the case. Typically there are several major pieces you will need back on line. You don’t need soul retrieval every week or month…but you may need up to three soul retrieval cycles, spaced over several months, to get all the major pieces. Thus a second and third cycle soul of retrieval is often recommended for those clients who have multiple significant soul losses. The guides offer back only what the client needs next, and first soul retrieval pieces are needed to be in place to support the return of larger or more complicated pieces in subsequent journeys.



How to schedule a depth soul retrieval with Mikkal

If you wish to schedule a depth soul retrieval with me, first read all the articles about soul retrieval here on this website. Then if you are sure you want to schedule such, email me and state your request and specify what you are seeking, and in brief why. Reading all the articles about soul retrieval and extraction on this website is necessary preparation-- so you know what it is I am willing and able to do for you and what you can expect from me, as well as know your responsibilities in this powerful shamanic healing process.

Please Also go back to the Menu of this website and click on the ARTICLES page, and read DEVELOPING YOUR HEART'S INTERNAL GUIDANCE , and the article entitled TOLTEC, IACHAK & CURANDERISMO WISDOM. These articles not only inform you of my background, shamanic path and philosophy, they inform you of the most basic soul connection. The soul has a core or center of being, and this is the heart, also termed the core of aliveness. It has is the source of your own life energies, and if you put the mind in service of it, and protect what arises from your own heart, many of your soul pieces and potentialities will come online naturally. What comes from the heart must be protected from the mind's constant criticism and doubting (the Judge) and from the criticism of others. Protection of the heart is vital to soul health and the success of soul retrevals. So please read these articles.







Other Shamanic Healing Services Offered by Mikkal

Power Animal or Spirit Guide Retrieval

Cleansings (Limpias/Smudging/Medicine Sweat)

Extraction (Shamanic Energy Medicine)

Shamanic Counseling (Facilitating dialogue between you and your power animal or guide for inner direction and problem solving)

Blessings / Weddings / Funerals

Shamanic Life Coaching (Ceremony of Heart To Heart Talks)

Shamanic Psychotherapy



Retreats and Workshops with Mikkal

S. Manitou Vision Quest  (August each Year)

Wounded Healer Summer School

3 Year Apprenticeship Programs in Shamanic Psychotherapy and Shamanic Life Coaching

Depth Soul Retrieval and Extraction Training

ShamanicAR@aol.com

(269) 687-9364



 

Mikkal