Let's Talk Longing
An Interview with Lisa Anderson Schaffer and Mimi Young
The following is an article transcribed from a conversation between myself (Mimi Young) + Lisa Anderson Schaffer - artist and founder of Zelma Rose, author of These Three Things, and host/therapist consultant of Joy is Now Podcast. We shared recorded two juicy interviews, and the excerpt below is from episode 53, titled Let's Talk Longing with Mimi Young. (Note, since this originally was a verbal interview, some of the text may have been lost in the transcription).
WHAT IS SHAMANISM?
Shamanism is the oldest recorded spiritual practise found in cultures all over the world, including my own (Chinese Taiwanese). Through entering into a non-rational mind space via a number of tools such as altered breath, ecstatic dance, chanting, rattling and drumming, and the consumption of specific plants (in my case, non-entheogenic plants), the practitioner can tap into a reality (and set of brainwaves) that is broader than the mundane and access the Unseen and the Otherwordly to receive beneficial messages and then deliver them to those asking for help.
THE ROAD TO HEALING IS NOT THROUGH A SAVIOUR, BUT THROUGH A DEVIL
We must become reconciled to the shadows within before we can be reconciled to the shadows in the outer world. Only the acknowledgment of our own fears, triggers, narcissism, hate, and every other appalling, rejected, or denied part of ourselves can prevent the same reenactment of pain. Enough of “love and light” spirituality. Stop forcing the light. It’s about giving space for the darkness to be seen and heard. That’s why the darkness has been relegated there in the first place, because she wasn’t received with acceptance.
PLANTS AS PERSONS
They are not products.They are not plant extracts, essential oils, resins, compounds, or other human-made rendering.
INTEGRATION
I've been resisting the integration of two very real sides to me: One side is the mystic, the shamanic intuitive, the witch who works with plants and hears their whispers. The other side is the "science geek". The one that biohacks and loves what technology can offer for humans. The one that is a neurofeedback practitioner. Both expressions of me are to support you in your re-membrance, in your re-awakening, in re-plugging into your source of power. I am a healer and teacher in both expressions. Yet, I've kept them mostly separate.
HEALING FOOD PATTERNS WITH CORE SHAMANISM
One aspect about shamanism is that the craft is about RELATIONSHIP. I can speak to plants, to animals, to the elements, to the dead, and so forth. In my work, I also speak to what is seen as “objects” and when I am in relationship with those things, there is medicine to be found there as well.
INVOKING THE CRONE
The feminist says every woman (and all who identify as) is unique and beautiful in her way, with her personal stories kept as sacred scriptures in her body, her temple.
There are feminists EVERYWHERE, in all professions. Females represent an immense pool of economic buying might, yet, it perplexes and pains me that older, naturally aging women are so little represented and embraced within media, within art, and within visible society.