Releasing the Victim

I recently learned about a shamanic ritual to release the pattern of "victim" energy. I love rituals. I have been training with a shamanic healer for awhile and have learned first hand how powerful rituals and ceremonies can be. Many rituals have disappeared in our society, but the ceremony of rituals have been used for centuries across the globe in various religions and cultures. Rituals can be a rite of passage, releasing old patterns and helping the individual transform emotionally. This ritual is about releasing the generations of victim energy into a stone. That stone is then brought to a sacred place in nature and left behind, thus releasing the individual from that energy forever. Pretty powerful! Without going into too much detail, I completed the ceremony and had to bring my victim stone to nature to release it once and for all. This ritual is really an affirmation of self love. How many people can say that they carry some victim pattern with them no matter how many levels and layers of self worth they have addressed and healed. That old victim energy can hang around like an old pair of jeans, completely worn out, but you hang onto them anyway because they somehow still feel comfortable. So I am on my journey, my pilgrimage to get rid of the stone. I bring it to my favorite mountain in Vermont. I am hiking and half way up...... I freeze, realizing that I left that stone in the car!! Okay, I cleared my mind and meditated for a moment. Then the message came to me, the stone is to go into the lake at the base of the mountain not ON the mountain. Cool, I am reminded that everything happens for a reason. I am in the clear so I continue my climb to the top. Sitting at the top of the mountain taking in the view, I realized that I had ended up more like my mom than I ever wanted to admit. How does that happen? No matter how much we try, we still repeat those patterns we witnessed again and again growing up. Like a magnet, we draw those patterns into our lives, like it or not. Each generation is offered a chance to change it, improve it or to make it worse. My mission in this life..... transform those family patterns and teach others to do the same. So, I was ready to wave good-bye to that victim shadow and I said a silent blessing to my mom and to all of the family members that paved the way for me. I realized that we are all the same and that no matter where we are on our journey, we are all learning. Some lessons are of pain, some of loss, regret, some of gratitude, isolation or of hope. But no matter what, love connects us all. On some level aren't we are all striving to love ourselves, be loved, find love and to share love. With those insights on my mind, when I reached the lake at the bottom of the mountain, I was ready once and for all to throw that stone into the water. I said a prayer of thanks to that old victim energy and I realized that I learned much about life from the lessons that victim hood taught. I learned to assert myself, to find my voice and it taught me to never put my self worth into an others hands. As I threw that stone in the water a feeling of peace came over me and I realized that this was the ultimate gift I was giving myself......... What a release!