Since I started my journey of self-discovery, many things have changed, I discovered new things, new spiritual tools to help me in my journey, some perceptions shifted, while other things have come and gone from my soul and mind. I have tried different practices, meditation, rituals, breathing exercises and so on. In a way or another, they all helped me heal some aspects of myself. I learned new things and also helped me to dive deeper into my patterns and my soul.
Some spiritual tools were always present in all these practices that made everything feel more grounded, sacred and magical – music and musical instruments, incense, the written word, crystals, candles, plants, and animals.
All these elements are used in such practices to bring awareness and ground our intentions. These spiritual tools can make us feel connected with everything around us. They increase our self-understanding and thus the understanding of everything that is.
Over the years, besides music and animals, which have been around me since forever, I began to involve myself in daily life mindful rituals to help me understand myself. Little by little, I became involved in these rituals using different tools. Right from the start, they helped me raise my energy and also brought me peace and calm. All these tools enriched my life and made me more conscious and more powerful in manifesting my visualisations.
Kalimba
I love music, and I have always wanted to play an instrument. But unfortunately, I did not fulfil this dream. In my family, my sister is the one who studied and managed to have a beautiful career in music, not me.
Expressing our emotions through music is one of the most powerful methods of healing one’s self. Many times, we don’t know how to address what we feel or think. But by playing an instrument, even if we don’t know the correct way to play, we set our emotions and thoughts free.
A few years ago, I came across Kalimba, an outstanding African instrument that brought so much joy into my life and thought that maybe, my dream of playing an instrument could become a reality. I don’t remember how I came across it, but what is certain is that the sounds she made have enchanted me forever. Although I don’t have any musical background, each note I played on Kalimba sounded like a touch of a feather. A Kalimba gives you the feeling that it is so easy to play an instrument.
For me, Kalimba is the most expressive of the spiritual tools I work with. It is a healing instrument due to its therapeutic and powerful vibrations that can penetrate the soul and the mind. I play the Kalimba before and after meditation, when I feel melancholy, happy, sad, or without any reason.
When I was pregnant with Arun, I sang to him constantly using my Kalimba, because it was so peaceful and calming for both of us. Every time I play I let myself be absorbed by her sounds and this makes me feel more into myself.
My kalimba is from Kalimbera. This brand produces high-quality handcrafted Kalimbas from pine and mahogany wood. Kalimbera offers a very nice feature, you can engrave your symbol on your kalimba and also, for each Kalimba sold, they plant a tree somewhere in the world.
If you purchase a Kalimba from them be sure to insert code – mushroomdana – and you will receive a 6% discount.
Crystals
I have always been attracted to stones. Ever since I was a little girl, I remember looking for coloured stones in my grandparents’ village streams. I liked to collect them and wet them because they were always changing their colour, and I always lifted them towards the sun to see if they glitter.
I don’t remember how my journey with stones ended in my childhood, but I suppose the city did its job in dissipating my passion. Also, I don’t remember how I found it again. What I know, though, is that since I began working with crystals more than ten years ago, my life changed drastically.
Gems and stones are spirit guides that can help us to ground ourselves. Also, they can induce a more profound meditation, increase concentration, balance our energies, help us with different illnesses and much more. All this makes them one of the most common spiritual tools I encountered in my journey.
Crystals are like a timeless database of knowledge because they retain all the information they have ever been exposed to. They have the lowest amount of entropy (a measurement of disorder) and are the most orderly structures in nature. This means that they respond to the inputs of all different energies around them, so they oscillate, emitting specific vibratory frequencies.
If you haven’t worked with any crystal until now, but you wish to enter this wonderful world, I recommend starting with a Rose Quartz. Rose Quartz is the stone of universal love. It restores trust and harmony in relationships and encourages unconditional love. This crystal purifies and opens the heart at all levels. Rose Quartz promotes love, self-love, friendship, deep inner healing and feelings of peace.
Find out more about crystals from my article What Crystals To Have In Your Home And Where To Place Them.
Burning sage — also known as smudging
The burning of organic material and incense has been practised by people all over the world since ancient times.
People often use smudging as a spiritual tool for cleansing, purification and healing. It can also be used to relieve the symptoms of some conditions, dispel negative energy, cleanse or empower specific objects, improve mood, soothe stress, improve the quality of sleep, boost cognition, boost energy levels, etc.
I use incense, incense sticks, white sage (Salvia apiana) and sometimes palo santo (Bursera Graveolens) every day before I meditate and sometimes also during the day for cleansing the air, grounding and clearing my mind.
Over the years, this has become a powerful ritual for me. Lightning up the match, lighting the candle, burning the sage, admiring the smoke, and sensing the smell are all spiritual tools that instantly send me somewhere inside me where everything is peaceful and harmonious. They always help me enter a profound state of calm.
For some people, it can be a bit difficult to tolerate the smell in the beginning because it has another kind of essence. Still, from my experience, each person I know that didn’t like the scent became a daily user as they deepened their inner work.
Agua De Florida Spirit Water by Lanman & Kemp Peru
Genuine Peruvian Agua De Florida is known as shamanic cleansing spirit water. This is a shamanic tool and it is used widely by many indigenous healers throughout the world and South America.
The Q’ero Inca Shamans (Paqos) and medicine people use this water for its unique ability to clear heavy energies and cleanse the bodies, energy field and surrounding spaces. Agua de Florida is used during ceremonies, rituals, healing processes for protection, opening sacred spaces, feeding sacred altars, healing baths and much more. You can also use it as a natural household product to purify and refresh rooms and clothing.
Some people also use it as a first aid resource for headaches, nervous tension, shock, head colds, tiredness, treating insect bites and for use after exercise as a rub down to cool the body, tone muscles and soothe the nerves.
Agua De Florida has a fresh fragrant, uplifting and refreshing zingy citrus aroma that awakens the senses, installing a feeling of refreshment and revival. Its key ingredients include citrus and herbal notes along with spice and floral undertones of Bergamot, Neroli, Lemon, Clove, Cinnamon, Lavender, Rose and Orange. This is one of my favourite spiritual tools.
Every time I use this water in my rituals, the meditations are longer and more concentrated. It is like I’m entering a different state of mind. The use of aromatic substances to elicit particular responses via the sense of smell was integral to many cultures and life practices. Dr Jennifer Rhind speaks more in-depth about the use of scent in her article Meditations on Scent.
Divination cards
There are three different types of divination cards that I work with. Each speaking and addressing other areas but equally powerful and meaningful. I believe that each of them speaks in a different language and for different kinds of understandings about the same powerful message of love, connection and consciousness.
We are all the same as we are different. This is a beautiful paradox that will make our lives so rich and abundant if we came to understand it. The reason I work with all three is that I am also different. Sometimes, I understand better with my soul, sometimes with my mind. Other times, I connect better with wild animals, while in other cases, I feel more connected with archetypal symbols.
I set the intention to receive a message for us from each set of cards. I pulled out a card, and I wrote below the messages they have for us.
1. Rumi cards
Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, was a 13th-century Persian poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. The book and the 54 interactive cards explore Rumi’s wisdom and love for the beloved.
Rumi cards are divided into six families and colours: orange – birth, red – love, blue – ordeal, dark blue – transformation, dark orange – warnings, green – rewards. The cards come with a book for interpretations and instructions. You can use them in meditation, as a guide in discovering the answers to your life questions.
The message that Rumi has for us is this:
“The fragrance, my friend, that floats to you at this moment streams from the tent of the secrets of God.
Your life has reached a decisive and a very positive turning point.” – The Birth Cards.
2. Dreams of Gaia Tarot
I love these cards. Besides the rich information they provide about archetypes, symbols and alchemy, you can also find hidden and extremely powerful messages within the images on the cards. They are one of the most magical spiritual tools I have ever worked with.
The Dreams of Gaia Tarot is for those who desire unity within themselves, their relationships, and with heaven and earth. It is for those who wish to explore and develop a keener understanding of “self” as well as those who seek to commune with the spirit realms and the Divine.
This life is our journey of undoing, being, and becoming. All that manifests in our present is born of choices made in the past. All that manifests in our future is born of choices made in the present. If we choose to walk on the path of knowledge, we will create a present and a future in harmony with our dreams and heart’s desire.
The Queen of Air has this message for us.
The air cards are associated with the mind – thoughts, beliefs, ideas, imagination, and reality.
The Queen of Air represents a need to think clearly, without emotion clouding judgement and perception. Emotional detachment is necessary. It is not uncaring, but understanding that the moment at hand requires decisiveness and impartial objectivity. She also represents a need to speak with honesty and authority and to be just and fair. Allow those around you to speak with the same freedom, even if what is offered challenges you.
3. Medicine cards
Animals are all around us, even if we have eyes to see them or not. They all have their unique messages for us. It is our job to be opened enough and figure them out. We are all connected on this planet and we are here to help one another – humans, animals, plants, rocks, to heal and elevate each other.
These cards are a unique and powerful divination system that draws upon ancient wisdom and tradition to teach the healing medicine of animals. The Medicine Cards teaches us about the importance of animal signs in our daily lives and how these signs are powerful and meaningful to our life situations.
The card that popped out of the deck is The Butterfly Card, and his message is this:
Butterfly that flutters
In the morning light,
You have known many forms,
Before you e’er took flight.
The power that Butterfly medicine brings to us is akin to the air. It is the mind and the ability to know the reason or to change it. It is the art of transformation. To use Butterfly medicine, you must astutely observe your position in the cycle of self-transformation.
The way to discern where you are in this cycle is to ask yourself:
- Egg stage – Is this the egg stage? Is it just a thought or an idea?
- Larva stage – Is this the larva stage? Do I need to make a decision?
- Cocoon stage – Is this the cocoon stage? Am I developing and doing something to make my idea a reality?
- Birth stage – Is this the birth stage? Am I sharing my completed idea?
When you understand where you are, the symbol can teach you what to do next to continue in the cycle of self-transformation.
Koshy chime
The first time I heard the sound of this beautiful instrument, I was mesmerised. I was participating in a healing gathering, and a part of the healing was a sound bath followed by the sound of this mesmerising instrument. It had such a significant impact on me that I had to bring it into my life.
When I’m performing more significant ceremonies like the ones I do on a new and full moon, I always start and end with the sound of water that these bells make. Each time all around me becomes still and balanced.
Koshi Chime is an authentic musical instrument and an original creation of high quality. Handmade at the foot of the Pyrenean mountains. Each chime is the result of meticulous craftsmanship.
Eight chords are welded with silver into the metal plate at the base of the resonance tube. Precise tuning creates a play of clear tones that is rich in overtones. The overtones of the shorter chords gradually dominate and become fundamental thus, forming a circular tone range.
Kosi is the most delicate of all spiritual tools I have work with and comes in different tones Terra, Aqua, Aria and Ignis.
Animal Friend
Almost every time I sit down to meditate, Luna comes and sits on my legs. Some of you might know Luna, the white cat and my best friend from the animal kingdom. We have been together for almost four years. I adopted her from a person who had rescued her from a ditch when she was only a few days old.
In all these years, she taught me how to be more compassionate, more present and loving. If we take the time to observe our animal friends and see how they do the things they do, we can learn so much from them and create strong relationships. I all these years I have experienced so many moments of deep connection and communication with Luna that is impressive and empowering on many levels.
I believe this kind of connection can be developed with any animal – birds, fishes, reptiles, plants. We just need to open ourselves and see them as souls with knowledge and understandings of their own. We are not superior to them. I believe we are part of an ecosystem in which everyone has his own role and place. We are all souls who are here to help each other in any way that we can.
Each time Luna comes and sits in my arms, I feel so much peace, grounding and happiness. In our current life, these three things are a luxury. Even now, as I write these lines, she sleeps peacefully in my arms, and the feeling is priceless.
To be able to experience such moments daily by connecting with the animals around us is extraordinary. This kind of closenesses confirms our ability to experience pure moments of love every day, and that’s only up to us.
Final words
We are all different, as we are all the same. We have different experiences, live in different worlds, and respond differently to life situations, ideas, or visions. Still, we all want the same thing at a deeper level – to live happy, fulfilling lives infused with love and harmony.
Fortunately for us, I believe there are countless paths that can help us all find the road to the centre of our being. We all know this path. We have just forgotten it. Meditation, divination cards, animals, stones, rituals, healing procedures, are all spiritual tools that can help us to find the path. We just need to find the proper spiritual tools, the ones that speak to our hearts and after let them guide us on this journey.
For me, up to this point, all these tools helped me in so many ways. I feel so grateful and blessed that I found them and that I have let them by my guides. I hope you will give some of these tools a chance to see if you resonate with them in creating the life you dream of.
What are you currently doing to understand and unfold yourself? What are the things that resonated with you and that had an impact on your life? Let me know your experience in the comment box below. I would love to know about your journey.
Remember to love yourself.
