James Endredy - Lightning in My Blood: A Journey Into Shamanic Healing & the Supernatural

About the Author

James Endredy is a teacher, mentor, and guide to thousands of people through his books and workshops. After a series of life tragedies and mystical experiences as a teenager, he changed direction from his Catholic upbringing and embarked on a lifelong spiritual journey to encounter the mysteries of life and death and why we are all here. For over twenty-five years, he has learned shamanic practices from all over the globe while also studying with kawiteros, lamas, siddhas, roadmen, and leaders in the modern fields of ecopsychology, bioregionalism, and sustainable living. James also worked for ten years with Mexican shamanic researcher Victor Sanchez, learning to share shamanic practices with modern people.

On a daily level, his experiences have inspired him to live a sustainable lifestyle as much as possible while still working within mainstream society. He writes, leads workshops, mentors private clients, visits schools and community centers, speaks at bookstores, and volunteers in his community. His booksincluding Ecoshamanism and Beyond 2012 have thus far been published in seven languages.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Lightning in My Blood: A Journey into Shamanic Healing & the Supernatural 2011 by James Endredy.

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First e-book edition 2011

E-book ISBN: 9780738728247

Book design by Rebecca Zins

Cover design by Adrienne W. Zimiga

Cover image by Eric Williams/Koralik and Associates

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Contents

Lightning in My Blood

The Early Years: The Medicine Teachings Begin

Blood: Medicine of Life and Death

Initiation: Medicine of Transformation

Plant Medicine: Power from the Earth and Sky

Animal Medicine: Wise Teachers of the More-Than-Human World

Medicine of Ancient Sacred Sites: Knowledge of the Ancestors

Medicine of Healing: The Journey Continues

Acknowledgments

I must first express my gratitude to the folks at Llewellyn for their continued support, especially my long-time editor Rebecca Zins, Carrie Obry, publicist Steven Pomije, Amy Martin, and publisher Bill Krause. Special thanks to Ashley Becker and Benton Rooks for editorial assistance during the preparation of this book. Then I must acknowledge the many friends and colleagues who have been helpful and supportive during the course of this project: Marissa Joilette, Amy Gerber, Judy Bettencourt, Shawn Tassone, Kathryn Landherr, Eva Svingen, Valerie Wilsgard, Rahelio, Lupa, Jane D., Cody, Kate, Calib, Patricia, the family Calvitti, the family Endredy (Irma, Cindy, Kira, and Mike), Paul K., Tomas Pinkson, Jos Stevens, Hillary Webb, Sophie, and El Gato Bandito, to name a few. Finally, I am grateful to all of those, named and unnamed, who were part of these stories and who have graced my life. Thank you.

preface

Lightning in My Blood

O nce, in Qero, Peru, I had the privilege to spend many days with a very powerful and revered shaman/healer. During my second day with the old but vibrant man, he sat me down in a chair opposite the one he was sitting in. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we were sitting outside in the shade of a large tree.

He said he needed to read the lightning in my blood to determine if we should continue working together. I was willing to accept his request. He leaned over to me and, using his hands, began taking my pulse at various parts of my body; mostly he concentrated on my temples, biceps, wrists, and calves.

After a half-hour or so, he began telling me things about my life he could not possibly have known or heard from someone else. Some of the things he told me about myself I had never even shared with another person. I was amazed, to say the least.

Then he began to divine my future, telling me things that would happen to me. Most of them have turned out to be true. When I asked him about how he reads the lightning in the blood, he told me, When I was a young man I was riding my paso (Peruvian horse) through a field, and lightning came down and killed my horse. I was injured also by the lightning. I was ill for more than a year and had to be seen by a healer every day to keep my soul from leaving me. When I finally got better, the healer told me I must train to become a curandero (shaman/healer), because now I had the power of the lightning in my blood extra strong. Everyone has lightning in the blood, and that is why I can know what they need to be healed when I read them. But some people have more lightning than others. People with only a little lightning I sometimes have to read by touching them and then reading my own pulse because their lightning is too weak to read.

It was very easy for me to read you, James, because even though you have not been struck by lightning, you have it strong in your blood from your ancestorswho were powerful medicine people of the Magyarsand from all the powerful places in nature you have traveled, the medicine teachers who have taught you, and the sacred plants you have eaten. You are not ready just yet to learn to read the lightning of other people. But you have many other important tasks the apus (mountain spirits) have given you. The blood in your left calf muscles told me that.

I have one question for you, son. Why do you resist using your power and knowledge? Why are you reluctant? Now is your time, my son. The end of this world is less than ten years away, then comes a new epoch for humanity. You have been given the task to be an usher for people into this new stage. It is time for you to own your power, to set free the lightning in your blood!