more about me

There is an artisanship I have been given.

An artisanship woven together from
     the years of formal shamanic apprenticeship, trained shamanic practice
     the years of scholarship in educational psychology
     the years of Jewish religious training
     the years my soul has lived.

An artisanship of easier access to Source,

     readier access to the vibrant
          swift-running currents
               of the Sacred

          through which, I gratefully found self-trust.

And now you.

               Now you come,
                    here,
                         following the pull of your own currents

     to this site, to this page
               to ask
     about me
                         about my artisanship.

     What can I tell you?

                                             * * *

               I can tell you of
the childhood when I saw, when I knew
               shamanic skills I was born to
          things that supposedly didn’t exist
     instincts I learned to trust, instincts for knowing what lay within.

Methods for tracking
          the scent trail
     the prints in the earth
               the spoor of the quarry.

     Methods for tracing
               the leylines of energy
          that flow through the world
                    the currents that pull through us all.

Methods for being in the home
     –the self in the world–
                                      that I was.

But it was yet a path lived inside out
     seeing what I wasn’t supposed to see
     knowing what I wasn’t supposed to know
                         a life’s training of yet-to-be-revealed gifts.

                                             * * *

               I can tell you of
the grad school years when I received training in educational psychology research
          those painful years when I figured it had to be me that was wrong
     and I tried to make sense of my own inside-out-ness
                    with the methods of psycho-logy
                                                       the logic of the psyche.

But I did it outside-in.
          I was closer kin to the language of the psyche than the language of the logic
     yet I distanced myself from my ken
               my knowing of what lay within.

          Dry, stranded upstream
I spent many more years in grad school than I should have,
     trying to succeed in a language not my own, battling against my instincts,
                                                                                                                        stuck.

Estranged from the home
     –the self in the world–
                                      as I was.

Eventually I washed out. Extensions expired, doctorate unfinished, they asked me to leave
     giving me a masters degree on the way out

                                                  Karen Sharp, M.Ed.,
                                                            Harvard University.

A path lived outside-in
     not seeing what I saw
     not knowing what I knew
                              an education’s training of yet-to-be-transformed gifts

                                             * * *

               I can tell you of the years
          spent crafting a new relationship
               and a new approach to my cultural and religous heritage
                    my Jewish tradition
     the only approach I could use
     an approach I now would describe as inescapably shamanic.
               The years
          when I thought that I could fit into traditional Jewish clergy roles
               when I pursued possibilities
                    cantor,
                         rabbi
                    as a channel for the currents I rode.

     It was a path that had seemed closer to home
          a clearer vessel for the clearer energy.
But as a familiar stranger in a familiar land
          what I saw, what I knew
                    were not at home in that world either.
                                   A religion’s training of yet-to-be-transformed gifts.

                                             * * *

I can tell you of
the years following, working my way back to my long-rejected instincts.
The long hard years I spent working at the grocery store.
     All inside out and outside in
               a path lived the hard way
                              lost
                    aching
                         searching
                    for that deep home
               –self in the world–
     that I had been.

An inescapable training of hard but strong gifts.

     And finally, I can tell you of
the formal shamanic apprenticeship
          the gifts that clarified and unified all the disparate paths prior.
     The years of skill cultivation
               of refinement
               of resiliency
               of strength
          becoming an artisan
               of energy
               of flow
                         of the sacred.

In every culture the shamanic pathway requires
     that the self is healed first.
          physician, heal thyself

                    I have received a deep training of profound and powerful gifts
                    fed by the deep-running currents of life

                    A training of transformation
                    how to receive from the currents
                         and give from them on again.

                    I have learned how to heal.

                    How to reconnect.
                         To refind trust
                              to rehear heart
                                   to rewalk path
                    to heal and to heal onwards
                         to offer it again to others.

to all of us making our way
               home
                    –selves in the world–
          as we all are.

                                             * * *

Now,
     I can offer you
          the fruit of my formal training
          the benefit of my lived artisanship

               so we can share together the trusted instincts of our path
               and the trusted gleanings of our heart.

Now,
     I can invite you
          to join me on the road
          to walk with me for a while

               so we can come together as traveling-companions
               as we make our way through the world we are given.

Now,
     I can ride
          for myself, and for you,
          the deep-running currents that flow through the world.

               Vibrant.
               Sacred.
          
               Alive.

Now,
     I can give it back out, to you.

Now,
     I can invoke,
          for myself, for you, for all self-beings in the world

          that we can all
                    find our cherished way home
this deep sustaining current that flows through all of us
               into this sacred world.

                              If any of this be of use to you, drink.

contact me:
karen@trustyourself.biz
@karen_sharp