Lora Jansson spends a lot of time explaining what she does. Her business card, plain type on a white background, says shamanic services, which is where she loses most people. Some confuse it with New Age beliefs, but Jansson said shamanic practices go back hundreds of thousands of years, nothing new about it.
Some think shamanism is Native American, but the word shamanism originates from Siberia where it has been practiced for centuries. She has studied cross-cultural shamanism and is careful to present herself respectfully, while clarifying some of the misconceptions about her work.
Jansson’s work pivots on her relationship with animals. She instituted the Moon Bear Project three years ago, working remotely with Chinese bears who are held in life-long captivity, their bile extracted for Chinese medicine. Animals Asia Foundation has rescued handfuls of these bears and Jansson provides long-distance shamanic work on their behalf. The survival rate for rescued bears has risen to 85 percent for those adopted by Jansson and her team of shamanic practitioners.
Shamanic work, said Jannson, entails entering an “altered state of consciousness,” sometimes called a trance, or “journey work,” where she entreats the assistance of animal spirits or power animals. These animals, Jansson said, offer information that is beneficial to humans.
Every human has helping spirits and power animals dedicated to them, and are delighted to assist the person toward wholeness, Jansson said, if only they are asked. Jansson’s work is a combination of accessing a person’s power animal on their behalf, acting as a go-between, or preferably, teaching people how to access their own power animals for themselves. For those who are curious about shamanism, Jansson offers a six-week introductory course out of her home on Kallgreen Road.
Jansson has immense gratitude, she said, for her own power animal, crediting guidance acquired from journey work with curing her of a debilitating 11-year immune disorder.
It was clear to her that the experience had prepared her to share the shamanic work with others. And she knows it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Some practioners keep a low profile, but Jansson thinks more people need to know about it.
Still, she manages to support herself from the number of clients who do find their way to her door. About two-thirds are from Bainbridge, the rest coming from Port Townsend or Seattle.
In fact, last year, she and her husband, artist Don Hazeltine, bought a house on Bainbridge, which, when you think of it, that a shamanic practitioner and an artist were able to get financing in 2009 is a bit of magic in and of itself.
For more information, call Jannson at (206) 661-3875 or visit her blog at http://shamansjourneyworkshop.blogspot.com
