Introduction to Soul Retrieval: What Is It?
At the core of each soul retrieval is the realization that some part of you is lost or missing. It’s rooted in ancient shamanic practices. This healing modality believes that something drastic – a trauma, a broken relationship, or a major life challenge on a health or financial level – causes your soul to fragment and split away from you, as though it were shot from a Monty Python Pie Thrower. Think of a plate hitting the concrete floor: it shatters, scattering in hundreds of pieces. Some emotions, memories, or aspects of your personality may have scattered like those shards. A soul retrieval search-and-recovery mission aims to find and return these pieces to you and your wholeness.
The practitioner, shamanic healer, undertakes the quest to retrieve the lost parts during a session. She or he does so through meditation, drumming, or other forms of practice developed by the particular cultural tradition. In this way, the practitioner seeks to recover these aspects of your soul and guide them back to you, perhaps restoring, at least in part, the integrity and health of your being.
Picture that this is about real magic, but not in the ‘woo-woo’ sense. It is about deep healing—plumbing the recessed psychic waters of your inner being and returning with what you have lost, repairing the fractures of your spirit. For many, this is a deep, moving experience that results in feeling more whole, earthbound, and connected to themselves and the world—energized, at one with things.
Understanding the Signs: Feeling Disconnected
It’s that feeling of being somehow detached and distant as if you’re looking at the world through a layer of glaze. Another marker of soul loss that those of us drawn to soul retrieval often find helpful is when a client tells me they feel out of touch—out of touch with themselves, their purpose, and those around them.
They might say something like: ‘I’m going through the motions. I don’t have the same response to experiences as I used to. I don’t feel the joy or pain as I once did.’ This, for me, is a strong indication that soul work might be helpful: the person has become cut off in some way and is no longer connected.
This disconnect seems to have many causes, whether the result of unresolved trauma following an accident, a significant life transition (such as marriage or divorce), or getting so caught up in daily busyness that they lose the more profound, more authentic sense of who they are.
A soul retrieval session is about reconnecting with those parts of you that have become lost and bringing your life and curiosity back to the front with more heart and energy.
We can help you come home to yourself and to the world. If this resonates with you, then I’d suggest following this sense of knowing. Don’t push it away or gaslight yourself if it truly feels right. Take a look at the odds, weigh them up, and give it a go.
Emotional Instability: A Key Indicator for Soul Retrieval
Are you riding an emotional rollercoaster? More than likely, it’s more than a lost day or two. Emotional instability can appear as mood swings, volatility, overwhelming and explosive emotions over things once considered minor, or flying off the handle.
If this rings any bells, or the disorientation, frustration, and instability echo within, you could be a candidate for a soul retrieval session! In some indigenous beliefs, aspects of the soul can literally become disintegrated during trauma or significant life events.
Soul retrieval is designed to restore lost or disconnected parts and reintegrate them into the whole person. If you are quickly triggered, having a tough time, feeling disoriented emotionally, and unable to manage your feelings, these aren’t ‘off’ days—they could be the soul or spirit’s cry for help. And needing help is not at all a bad thing.
Experiencing Persistent Negative Thought Patterns
If you find yourself locked into a negative spiral of thoughts that you can’t shake off, no matter how often you coax yourself with positive mantras, it might signal you’re a good candidate for a soul retrieval session. I’m not talking about your bad day at work or the fleeting moment of self-doubt. This level of manic negativity, when your dark moods drag on for days or weeks, impacting your relationships with those closest to you and your ability to enjoy life, is what soul retrieval practitioners would point to as rationale for engaging in a session.
Soul retrieval is meant to help those with deep, unrelenting negative thought patterns. These issues are generally attributed to past trauma or otherwise painful experiences that caused lost parts of one's soul to diverge from one's whole, an element of the mind and spirit beyond the realm of our everyday physical and sensory experience.
By carrying out a soul retrieval – a process that often involves sensory experiences such as receiving flowers or crystals – your rediscovered self can now more readily approach positivity with a clear mind and an increased sense of well-being.
Experiencing a little negativity might be a part of life, but if it feels persistent and overpowering, it might be time to consider healing options, including soul retrieval.
Lack of Enthusiasm and Joy: When It's Time for a Change
When the zest for life begins to dim, it's a signal. It's like your soul waves a big red flag, saying, "Hey, something's off here!" Feeling consistently unexcited or joyless about things that once lit you up or gave you pleasure is not just a phase. It's an alarm bell.
This isn't about the odd day here and there when you feel down; it's the ongoing, hard-to-shake malaise that clings like a shadow. Such a persistent lack of enthusiasm and joy might mean it's time to consider what your soul is trying to tell you.
Perhaps it's lost parts of itself along the way, bits eroded or left behind during life's tougher battles or more trying times. Soul retrieval might just be the process you need to consider, aimed at calling back those missing pieces. It's not magic. It's about realignment, about stepping back into your fullness. If you're at this point where joy seems like a memory rather than your daily state, it might just be the perfect time to explore what soul retrieval can do for you.
Physical Symptoms: The Body's Cry for Soul Retrieval
When your soul is fractured, your body doesn’t mince words—it shouts for help by displaying symptoms. These signs are your body begging you to pay attention since you obviously need a soul retrieval session.
First, extreme tiredness; no matter how much you sleep, it’s never enough. And when your alarm goes off a day later, it feels like you barely slept a wink.
Next, unexplained aches and pains. You’ve gone to multiple doctors, tried Eastern medicine, and tried Western acupuncture, but no matter what you try, your body doesn’t seem to be at ease. It’s literally screaming for you to climb out of your skin because it’s aching for wholeness. Unexplained illnesses join the orchestra, too—it’s as though your immune system has declared a white flag.
You catch colds and infections at a pace faster than you can change your underwear. Digestive issues make the list, too – it’s not the food this time, but what’s eating at you from the inside - your restless soul.
Lastly, you might feel uneasy about being in your body—as though you don’t belong here and that things just aren’t right in the world. Your body doesn’t feel like home. If you’re nodding your head at least to one of these, then consider soul retrieval your solace-finding plea. Here, it’s not so much about calming your mind or healing your heart—it’s about making your body your own home again.
How a Soul Retrieval Session Works
A soul retrieval session, then, is a homecoming. It is a process of retrieving those parts of your soul that have fragmented or become lost over time.
I sometimes like to think of the process as a detective mission. The practitioner is the detective, and they’re helping the client (you!) to find out what piece of the client is missing and what needs to be done to address that.
Typically, during a session, the practitioner will ask you to share your story: what part of you feels depleted or absent, what traumas have you experienced, and what part of you would lose the least if they were to vanish?
Then the practitioner will enter into a trance state, typically through drumming, rattling, or some other tool that helps them to enter what is sometimes referred to as a ‘non-ordinary reality’, where they can go on a soul retrieval expedition to find the fragmented soul part in question.
After finding that part of your soul, the practitioner will ‘bring it back’ and reintegrate it with the rest of who you are. In doing so, the assumption is that this ‘wound’ (whatever that might mean) will be healed, and qualities such as joy, courage, clarity of mind, and purpose that you’ve inadvertently lost along the way will be recuperated. It sounds straightforward: drum or rattle, enter into a trance state, journey or quest, bring back and reintegrate. But under the surface, several assumptions complicate matters, and this includes the widely held belief that lost soul parts are often site-specific and that the trauma associated with this loss can be geographically situated as well.
Preparing for Your Soul Retrieval Session
Are you ready to do soul retrieval? Preparing for a shamanic soul retrieval is all about opening the door to healing, making space in your life, and clearing the way for the journey ahead.
Here are the details on how to prepare. Clear your schedule: scheduling this session will mean you will need time to process what happens later that day.
This is a profound experience, and you need time to reflect. So, don’t schedule a studio class or a dinner date for later in the day.
Sit in meditation or in nature: not only will this help calm your mind, but simply getting into nature can connect you back to the earth, making you more able to receive healing. Light meal: eat lightly.
Going in for the Shamanic soul retrieval could make you uneasy, so you don’t want to feel bogged down by a big meal. Fruit, veggies, or light soup will do the trick. Dress comfortably: Wear something you feel good about, perhaps even comfortable clothing.
Set an intention: What do you want to achieve in this session? What do you want to release or let go of? Open to healing.
What to Expect After a Soul Retrieval Session
For many people, there is an immediate shift after a soul retrieval session; it’s not uncommon to experience a rollercoaster of emotions – someone once explained it to me as a ‘blowing open of the emotional valves.’
You can feel happier, lighter, more at peace. Sometimes, changes come more slowly, and sometimes, they are gradual. Perhaps you react differently to behaviors in others that used to really upset you. You may find it easier to let go of behavior patterns or habits you have wanted to drop from your life to make way for something new.
People sometimes tend to suddenly remember or know things that hold new relevance to their life direction; sometimes, they experience increased clarity of purpose. Everyone is different. I encourage you to remain open and let the process evolve organically. Healing is a journey – sometimes profound, dramatic, instantaneous, or immediate- but occasionally quiet and insidious.
Conclusion: Embracing Healing and Transformation
A soul retrieval session can feel like a leap of faith, but it will hopefully lead you toward healing and forward movement. If you’ve read through this and found yourself nodding – possibly even tearfully – then I’d like to believe something in you know the way.
It might be time to open the door to the wisdom of soul retrieval.
It can be an avenue to escaping the hamster wheel of singular issues and pursuing a more wholehearted, balanced, and integrated life.
Connecting the known to the unknown, painful memories to healing outcomes can lead to a deeper understanding of yourself and the values that have always guided you.
It can help you heal from past wounds and continue with greater clarity and strength. The ride might be bumpy, but reclaiming yourself feels good. Seeking healing is a deeply personal journey; soul retrieval is a unique potential avenue toward wholeness that complements many other Western and alternative holistic healing modalities very well. So, open your inner self to the dream that this might be yours.
DISCLAIMER: We always recommend you inquire with your medical professional to check that any of those practices are safe for any conditions you are experiencing. Angell Deer is a Shamanic Practitioner, not a medical doctor, and does not diagnose, prescribe for, treat, or claim to prevent, mitigate, or cure human diseases, ailments, or health issues. This content is only intended for educational purposes. Read the full disclaimer at https://www.thesanctuaryheal.com/disclaimer
