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There is NO substitute for the deep work

By Lian Brook-Tyler

There is no substitute for the deep work… the work of descending and integrating your shadow.

And yet, your shadow has every reason to convince you otherwise.

It will whisper that you can meet your needs through the OTHER work… life coaching, breathwork, NLP, Reiki, mindfulness, meditation and most brilliant of all, that there is no self and therefore nothing to see and nowhere to go.

All of which can be beneficial in their own way and yet, they’re no substitute for the deep work.

Meanwhile, you find ways to bypass and numb your fear that your needs are not being met and never will be.

Until finally you realise… there is NO substitute for the deep work.

Which is your first step to true liberation and the fulfilment of your deepest needs… those of your Soul.

Art: Luis Royo

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✨ What SUCCESS really is and how to be truly successful ✨

By Lian Brook-Tyler

I sometimes find myself in conversations about “success” and when I ask someone to share their definition of it, they realise the trusty societal landmarks and milestones with which they used confidently to measure success have been left behind on a worn and dusty game board upon which it no longer makes sense for them to place their piece.

This is because although the people who are journeying with me might still feel some of the shadowy allure of approval, security and control (the hidden basis of what’s deemed success in our culture), they know enough by now to know it’s not the game they came here to play.

Yes, they could still achieve our culture’s hallmarks of success… money, power, status… if it’s aligned for them to do so, but if so, it will be a manifestation of something much deeper occurring.

So how do I define “success”?

Spoiler alert: it’s kind of meaningless because it’s absolutely general and yet completely different for each person…

For me, success means living as an embodiment and expression of your Soul.

Absolutely general because this is true for all of us.

Completely different because this will be unique to each of us.

You might think that would make it hard to tell when someone is successful using this definition, given how subjective and individual it is.

But no, we can see it, it’s unmistakable, so much so, our friend Clarissa says this…

“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul…. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.” Clarissa Pinkola Estés

This is being so soul-illuminated we dance through the world like fireflies, entirely of this earth and from a fantastical other world at the same time, lighting the way for ourselves and others.

But the incandescence, just like wealth, position or fame, is a side effect of doing what brings our hearts alive, whether it brings us the trappings of cultural success or not… come what may, we choose to play the only game our souls came here for.

And one last thing, this kind of success is a Divinely-rigged game which all of us can win, in fact, we all win when any one of us wins.

So that’s what I call success… here’s to yours.

P.S. if you’re ready to play, come see if Waking The Wild Sovereign is meant for you.

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✨THE STORY OF THIS FACE✨

By Lian Brook-Tyler

This face experienced fifteen years of chronic pain.

It began with an attack in which my nose was broken and my brow slashed so deeply I thought I’d lost my sight because my eyes were filled with blood.

Or maybe it began with the panic attack the night before the first identity parade.

Or maybe it was the anxiety about the subsequent identity parades, each one more terrifying than the last.

Regardless, the pain started with a sensitive tooth which became a toothache which became a dental mystery which required a root canal and then the pain spread to my whole jaw which then required anti-depressants intermingled with NLP, hypnosis and various woo, and then finally anti-epilepsy drugs… at which point I said STOP.

I’ll accept the diagnosis of atypical facial pain (aka “Sorry, we have no actual clue”) and I’ll manage with constant applications of clove oil which burns and incessant chewing of gum that makes my jaw ache but enables me not to smash my head against the wall when the pain is at 10/10.

And then fifteen years on from the inception of the sensitive tooth, the facial pain vanished.

It began with suddenly seeing that my thoughts create my reality – not just seeing some cute words on a meme but at such a deep level it changed my life in an instant. I realised I wasn’t a powerless victim, I was the creator of my whole life… the attack, facial pain and miraculous cure included.

Or maybe it began a week after that when my decade-and-a-half fear of being attacked again vanished, and my body opened and relaxed.

Or maybe it was really about my focus going from Fear to Love.

Regardless, the pain disappeared overnight, leaving me with questions I’m still discovering answers to eight years later… and me being me, providing me with more questions.

It seems that whilst the scars can tell a tale, the true story of this face continues to be written.

And I will be its avid reader until the end.

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Why I’m Unlikely To Ever Call Myself A Shaman

By Lian Brook-Tyler

Despite my many years of experience of nature-based soul and spirit work, my current devotion to shamanic work, and clients calling me a shamaness for years before it was even something in my own awareness, I don’t call myself a shaman and I don’t know if I ever will.

This isn’t a reaction to cultural appropriation or the degradation of the word “It’s even fashionable nowadays for First World ecotourists to visit remote parts of the world, spend a week or two with an indigenous shaman, smoke a few plants, see a few hallucinations, then come back and declare themselves shamans.” Thom Hartmann, foreword to Robert Wolff’s Original Wisdom (one of my favourite books).

It’s because for me, context is crucial.

I live in a world of patterns. And patterns within patterns (it’s one of the incredible gifts of being autistic).
And context is a vital part of a pattern.

Just like how a wolf needs its pack, a shaman needs to be part of a real community (meaning one of interdependence with humans who live in deep connection with their environment – but that’s a whole other post) to be a shaman because a shaman is a role within a community.

It’s a role which requires the shaman to stand with one foot in the human world, one foot in the spirit world and bring whatever’s needed to create balance on behalf of the spirits and on behalf of their community.

Without a real community, who is the shaman acting as an intermediary for in the human world?

And is what they’re doing creating balance between the worlds?

As one of my favourite passages by Rilke says “…be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

So these are two of the important questions that I’m living into.

And so for me, as I’m still living into them, calling myself a shaman without having that role within a real community doesn’t make sense.

If you feel otherwise about the word, that’s all good with me. These days not all shamans doing great work have a real community – they’ve redefined “shaman” to answer those questions in a way that works for them and I have no judgement about that.

The truth is, I have very little judgement about what people do. I’ve been told by my ancestors that one of my roles here is as a Taboo Breaker… not that I need to break #allthetaboos myself (thankfully! That would be messy and tiring 😅), it’s about bringing my unconditional love to those who do. So really, do what thou wilt.

And if you still feel that I am a shaman to you, feel free to call me that… Because if I’m ever a shaman, I suspect it will be other humans who let me know when I’ve lived some distant day into the answers.

👑✨♥️

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