Jez Hughes - The Heart of Life: Shamanic Initiation & Healing In The Modern World

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT

THE HEART OF LIFE

The author engages our attention mind, heart and soul from the very first page, and walks us through an intense process of insight which is both deeply personal, but also has wider collective significance. Written in an accessible and honest way, this book addresses the suffering of our troubled times, dismantling false beliefs and encouraging us to align ourselves once again with the ancient ways. He offers a cosmology that supports the reality that darkness, illness and affliction may be the very portals through which we enter, individually and collectively, into an initiation, a rite of passage, a healing. A brave work, to be celebrated and savoured.

Melanie Reinhart, teacher, astrologer and bestselling author of Chiron and the Healing Journey

A courageous and sincere exploration of how to travel the shamanic path in 21st century England. With our ever-increasing global ecocide, this book addresses the problems and associated dis-ease of our being apart from Nature rather than being a part of Nature.

Dr David Luke, senior lecturer of psychology, Greenwich University and author of Talking with the Spirits: Ethnographies from Between the Worlds

This book is a heartfelt exploration into the soul sickness that afflicts the modern world with very real healing solutions inspired by ancient cultures. Through the authors personal story we are touched to discover that what we may have seen as pathological inside of us, actually holds the key to our transformation, both individually and as a culture. A heart-warming work.

Jamie Catto, teacher, author and creator of the multi-award winning, Grammy nominated global philosophy and music project 1 Giant Leap

Jez Hughes is a remarkable healer, psychic and visionary. His new book, The Heart of Life Shamanic Initiation & Healing, recounts the need in our modern era for initiation and re-birth. He talks about ancestors, death and initiation in a fresh way; educating the reader about the importance of remembering our ancestors. Our modern world is out of balance. The root of this could be our fear of death and disconnection with the natural world. Jez talks in a frank way drawing on personal experiences to show the importance of spiritual/ shamanic initiation as a bridge into the unseen world, thus allowing for greater spiritual transformation and acceptance of death.

I recommend Jezs book for all people searching for meaning amidst the chaos of western living.

John Lockley, Sangoma (Traditional South African Shaman), spiritual teacher & ceremonialist.

This is a book of the heart, spoken by one who has a deep understanding and personal experience of knowing. His is the story of the divine spark that flows through all of consciousness, reaching those willing to surrender and become one with nature through the teachings of the ancestors and ancient ones. In this book you will become immersed in the sacred ways of the shaman, the one who knows, learning that you are the one that has locked away and hidden those life changing teachings. Jez will lead you to the edge through his deep personal healing awareness, to become once more whole and healed.

Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, best-selling and award winning author of The Shaman Within and The Shamanic Handbook of Sacred Tools and Ceremonies.

In The Heart of Life, Jez Hughes rightly says that many people have no context in which to place the spiritual experiences they have and dont feel connected to the earth. He offers a context that may appeal to many people. Hughes also suggests that its loss of meaning that creates soul sickness. I agree. People want to find meaning. This book may well bring people to where they can begin the journey.

Elen Sentier, author of Elen of the Ways, The Celtic Chakras and Following the Deer Trods, and other books on the British native tradition.

First published by Moon Books, 2015

Moon Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach, Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK

www.johnhuntpublishing.com

www.moon-books.net

For distributor details and how to order please visit the Ordering section on our website.

Text copyright: Jez Hughes 2014

ISBN: 978 1 78535 026 9

Library of Congress Control Number:

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publishers.

The rights of Jez Hughes as author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Design: Stuart Davies

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY, UK

We operate a distinctive and ethical publishing philosophy in all areas of our business, from our global network of authors to production and worldwide distribution.

To Ali, my love
To my parents, for your love
To the invisible ones, for my life

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Andy Thomas for your encouragement for this project, which kept me going when I wanted to give up. Thank you to Andy Wood for friendship and brotherhood throughout my journey. To Donna Waugh for friendship and love. To Helen Sewel for astrological insight and guidance. To Tara and Boag, for friendship and laughter and to James Clifton for friendship and deep connection.

To Rodrigo, Don Santos and the Wixaritari nation for friendship, teaching and sharing your beautiful medicine with us.

To Pete Bowley and Sara Saunders at Two Feathers for support and community. To Siobhan and Darren Thomas for sharing your beautiful woods with us. For everyone who has come through the trainings and those who have supported them: Christian Timony, Beverley Peter, David de Sousa, Gabriel Lewry, Katy Dunne, Erica Shorter, Simon Welsh and Wendy Quelch.

To Daniel Stone, Simon Buxton, Ken Little Fish, Miguel Chiriap, Don Jaun Currico and many others for your teachings.

To Mervyn and Louis for your art. To Melanie Reinhart for encouragement and taking the time for lovely feedback. To John Lockley for shamanic chats and sharing. To everyone who has been for a healing and shared your soul.

To my family for love and support, Jon, James, Charlie, Emily, Vanessa, Pat and Jim Hughes. To Louise and Paris Jefferson. To everyone at Moon Books. To Iris Rauch for the light you shined in life and death. To Bejou Baile de la Perrier for being there when I needed someone the most.

To all the indigenous people around the world who have generously shared your ceremonies and sacred ways. To the plants that sustain and teach us.

And lastly to my beautiful, strange little family, Ali, again for all your support and love, Ditta and Scrilly and to Maya Bracknell-Watson for being you and teaching me.

Preface

There is a spirit that runs through everything, an invisible force that animates life. Like with the physical body, which is animated in a lifetime yet becomes apparently lifeless in death, this spirit orchestrates and conducts the physical phenomenon we call reality. It has been called many names, and many maps and guides have been set out on how to contact, connect with or embody it. Great treatises have been written on the routes we must take in order to fully realise this spirit that exists both inside and outside us; and what it expects of us when we do connect to it.