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May/June 2007 Living Now
Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt

by Connie Hill

Nicki Scully is a shamanic teacher and author of Alchemical Healing and Power Animals, and co-author with Linda Star Wolf of Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt: Awakening the Healing Power of the Heart. In October 2005, Scully and Star Wolf led a trip to Egypt, which became a shamanic journey and the wisdom portal for her new book.

Scully: We were told that this information would pass through our lives like a comet and our lives would be altered as a result, which is true.

Shamanic Mysteries of Egypt turned out to be Anubis' journey. Anubis guides the dead and knows the pathways from darkness. Anubis is like the hanged man in tarot, who gives new perspectives.

Anubis is the shaman priest who teaches us to walk between the worlds. As any shamanic student knows, learning to traverse the dimensions and experience your death and rebirth, and become comfortable entering these dimensions, requires surrender. You must be able to step off that cliff, like the fool in tarot, and know you'll be supported.

Next comes Osiris, which we call regeneration. After you experience the surrender, death and awakening of Osiris, you're introduced to Hathor, the medicine woman, the magic of love and its integration so you can face your shadow, who is Set. When you face the dark side of yourself, you have all of the ingredients to allow you to realize that it's all a part of you. It allows you to integrate the darkness with light, the sorrow with joy and all other opposing forces inside yourself.

If we are just love and light, we're denying a whole part of ourselves that is real. There is no denying our shadow. We need to honor and recognize how we grow from our adversarial situations.

Hill: Some people may fear night and darkness.

Scully: But it's a time of rest and regeneration and dreams, visions, contemplation and restoration. Nothing is born without its shadow. Then there's trickster magic that acts out unholy thoughts and actions, and is most often projected unconsciously. When we learn how to express the negative, we can feel the opposite - self-love, forgiveness and acceptance, and be in our power.

The lover's card, which represents reconciliation of opposites, forgiveness and understanding, is a way to encounter the shadow. It can help you reconcile opposites inside of you so you can handle a greater degree of power without misusing it. We are all looking to become sovereigns unto ourselves. Unlike the past, each of us now has to be our own sovereign or savior, to wake and take responsibility and not destroy life on this planet.

Hill: In the preface, Star Wolf says in one of her visions, "It's not too late. There is still hope. There's still time."

Scully: What a message of hope. We cannot let ourselves fall into despair. We have to keep striving to awaken and keep opening to feel more. Only in that way can we find our way through the mess we have made on the planet.

Nicki Scully lectures at New Renaissance in Portland on May 17, and at East West Bookshop in Seattle on May 18 and 19. Call New Renaissance at 503-224-4929 or East West at 206-523-3726 to register or go to www.shamanicjourneys.com for information about her classes and tours. Connie Hill works at New Renaissance Bookshop and is a local astrologer. She can be reached at 503-542-4330 ext. 1287 or gmnite@yahoo.com.