I gave birth to my first son at home in a 600 sq. ft. rental in Sebastopol and instantly realized I had no context for motherhood.
Despite all the reading I had done on the topic, I had no idea how I was supposed to care for this tiny, brand new being in my arms. How was I supposed to help him navigate this world of contradictions — of tremendous beauty and immense pain? I’d felt despair for what humans are doing to the Earth since the age of seven, since I learned what an endangered species was. I was holding a potential endangered species in my arms and I knew it. What had I done?
When my writing last appeared weekly in these pages, I was young and full of despair for the Earth but also full of hope that I could make a difference in the world. I was writing about local environmental initiatives, school gardens, farms, food and plants. That was 2007 and 2008, before I became a mother.
My big dream was to create a farm-based intentional community that was a model of sustainability, a training ground for future organic farmers, and a place that could survive the collapse of the human systems we have come to rely upon that also devastate the Earth. I wanted to homeschool the two children I planned to have, shelter them from screens, raise them close to the Earth, growing their own food, and equipped to be part of the solution to the world’s problems.
Life didn’t turn out as I planned. Maybe you can relate.
In 2010 my (now ex-) husband and I bought a used motorhome and drove across country with our 1½-year-old son, looking for our place to land and call home, to build that dream.
Our families helped us buy 105 acres in Trumansburg, NY. I got pregnant again and gave birth at home, but 4th degree tearing landed me in the hospital afterwards to get stitched up. And I learned that having two kids is not just twice as hard as one, it’s exponentially more difficult!
We were at the very beginning of living my dream and I felt like I wasn’t participating in the dream at all — I was just a pair of breasts in the kitchen — all I could manage was breast-feeding, cooking, and doing dishes, if that. The hardest years of my life had commenced.
I’ll spare you the details other than to say that I found myself in the bottom of a pit of despair, my lowest point in life (go to sacraltransformations.com/bettis-story/ for the full “bones” of my story).
What got me out of that painful place was finding my Spiritual path of Shamanic Healing.
In 2016 I met the woman who would become my Shamanic teacher, who had also been sensitive to the cries of the Earth all her life. She showed me how to access my own direct connection to the Divine. I learned to Shamanic Journey- to send a part of my Spirit safely out of my body, into the Spirit World, to communicate with my Spirit Guides, to receive guidance, healing, transformative experiences, and unconditional love and support. Shamanic Journeying was what I’d been desperately searching for all my life without even knowing I’d been looking.
Grandmother Moon became my primary Spirit Guide. There were animal guides too: a Tiger that had been protecting me all my life without me knowing it. A Mother Elephant and a Chipmunk, a Lioness and a Honeybee. Soon Mother Earth herself began to appear to me in the Spirit World, then Grandfather Sun and Father Sky.
I no longer had to navigate life without direction or purpose- I could rely on my Spirit Guides for answers to all of my questions, big or small.
Two months into this amazingly transformational path my purpose was revealed to me in a very potent Shamanic Journey. I learned that my lifelong despair had perfectly equipped me to help people who feel despair for the Earth and Humanity. I learned that this Shamanic path I’d just begun to tread would give me the skills to help people heal and transform and find their way to empowered action.
That was in 2016. I’ve walked in devotion to Spirit, to the Earth, to Humanity, to my Children, and to Myself ever since. And I’ve learned to trust. To trust that although I have not been able to give my sons the life, experiences, and skills I’d hoped, I have given them one immensely important thing- their own direct connection to the Divine.
Shamanism is humanity’s oldest form of Spirituality- of connecting to the Earth, to the Cosmos, to ourselves, and to each other. The Shamanic path belonged to all of our Ancestors and it belongs to all of us, now. We can all learn to Shamanic Journey, to travel into the Spirit World and to communicate with our Spirit Guides.
I’d love to help you find your devotion, your purpose, your joy, your direct connection to the Divine, your way out of the Despair, and your part in the exponential transformations required for life on this amazing planet to continue into the future!
You can experience a guided Shamanic Journey called “Moon, Sun, Earth, Sky: Elemental Healing with the Earth Keepers” by going to my website: https://sacraltransformations.com. And I’m excited for the opportunity to share more Spiritual wisdom with you in these pages! Blessings and Courage, Betti.
Betti Rooted Lionheart teaches Shamanic Healing and Journeying so that people who feel despair for the Earth and Humanity are empowered to heal and transform themselves, remember their power and purpose, and take aligned action in service of the Earth and All Life. She is passionate about reclaiming the Divine Feminine through teaching Earth and Goddess-centered Shamanic Spiritual Practices.
Betti is a Shamanic healer, a spiritual empowerment activist, a fire weaver, a writer, a Minister of the Church of Earth healing, a facilitator of the work that reconnects, the mother of two sons, and the founder of Braided Root Waters Healing Sanctuary in Trumansburg, NY. Betti’s work first appeared in The Community Voice in 2007-08 as Betti Lambro. [email protected].