Renee Baribeau, The Practical Shaman, joins us this week!

Renee Baribeau, shamanic healer, teacher, author, and wind-whisper, joins us this week to inspire us to develop a relationship with the wind to deepen our self-awareness, promote healing, and cut through illusions that keep us from seeing and accessing our truth. Noticing a subtle shift in the wind and how it inspires us is nothing short of a miracle.

I highly encourage you to purchase the soft copy or download the audible version of her book, The Winds of Spirit: Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, Health, and the Divine.  You can learn more about Renee Baribeau and her offerings at www.thepracticalshaman.com

You can watch this episode on our new YouTube channel @intuitiontalkspodcast!

Purchase her book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
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Listen (or watch) the podcast, The Shamans Cave, hosted by Renee Baribeau and Sandra Ingerman.

More about Renee:

Renee Baribeau is a Nautilus Gold Award winning  Hay House author of Winds of Spirit: Ancient Wisdom Tools for Navigating Relationships, Health, and the Divine. She is a wind whistler, inspirational speaker, and workshop leader, known and respected for her down-to-earth approach. During her life, the wind gods have steered Renee’s recovery journey in many directions. A former chef, in 1987 she opened the first farm-to-table restaurant in Central New York, Brown Bagger’s, in Syracuse. In 2005, Renee established the Desert Holistic Network in Palm Desert, California, an online regional resource directory. Renee served as the Resident Shaman at We Care Spa in Desert Hot Springs. Since 2013, Renee has worked for Foundations Recovery Network, a national system of residential treatment facilities.

As a writer, Renee is a featured contributing blogger for Elephant Journal. Renee has also contributed chapters to the anthologies Pearls of Wisdom: 30 Inspirational Ideas to Live Your Best Life Now (Hierophant Publishing, 2012) and The Five Principles of Everything (Five Birds Publishing, 2012). She makes her home in the CA Desert, and Whidbey Island.

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The intro song “To Meet the Light” and outro song “Where the Light Is” by lemonmusicstudio

Transcript

Kristen O'Meara: 0:44

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Intuition Talks. I am here today with the lovely Rene Barabao. And we, before we get into introductions, let's just start with your wind whistling.

Renee Baribeau: 1:00

What do you think? I think that's a great idea. So I love it. While we were starting, I pulled a card and for a wind spear card and we have, this is gonna be the nature of our talk today. We have Oya, the the, the Yuba Wind Goddess of Transformation, and it's about cutting through delusion. So I think we're gonna have a really honest talk here today. So let's, let's whistle in Oya to be part of this conversation for today. Oh, I love

Kristen O'Meara: 1:28

it. Thank you.

Renee Baribeau: 1:31

Invite everyone at home to close their eyes and make sure your feet are grounded on the earth and deep, bring a deep wind breath in all the way down to the bottom of your belly. That's what connects us. Hold it. And as you exhale, let it release into the earth. And feel into that emptiness. And now in the second wind breath, let's invite in Oya, the woman who cuts through delusion, who helps us transform. And then release. And we'll do one more wind breath in, and in this one we're going to bring in the winds of connection, connects us all to one another, those who are listening right now, and those who will listen two years down the road. And when you're ready, open your eyes. Oh, I love that.

Kristen O'Meara: 3:26

Thank you. So for everyone who is listening, I had a, a glitchy moment of trying to figure out my camera. And when you were talking about cutting through delusions, cause I spent a good, what, 15 minutes or so trying to figure that out. And having you hold on. And one thing that was racing through my mind is, Oh, it's just not going to work today. Oh, you know, maybe this conversation isn't meant to be. And oftentimes the delusions that we need to, to face perhaps and, and work through or cut through or ones of our own making and not allowing perhaps the, the opening of a possibility that, that there's something else that could happen to shift. To create that shift. And even when I was logging into Logitech and it kept telling me that I hadn't activated my email and it was just such a one thing after another, I, there was a little bit, not much though, but a little bit of, there's a possibility that this still can happen, that our conversation will take place. But I did feel more of a negative kind of a delusion because it's really just a perception that's not real. Mm hmm. A lot of cases.

Renee Baribeau: 4:52

It's funny, um, because Oya came really strong at the end with a message saying, you know, like, like charged in on her water buffalo saying, listen, ladies, and that she didn't mean just us, but listen, ladies, we need you and we need you to know that it's not going to be easy. Yeah, that that you're going to need that sword to cut through the delusion that's, you know, causing these cobwebs in our ideological, ideological cells and what's going on in the world. And don't take the distraction or the, you know, the, the delay as an indicator of, this is not where I'm supposed to be heading. You know, we're so used to like saying, oh, if the door's open wide, I'm going to walk through, but their doors are like slamming right now. And it's time to push them back open and say, no, I'm not taking a closed door for an answer. Absolutely. And to know when. And to know when that's, you know, makes sense.

Kristen O'Meara: 5:59

And also too, we need each other in a, in a lot of ways. So one delusion that I'm working through, which I feel like is, is really breaking open and apart for me, is that I can do everything on my own and I don't need help because I've, I'm a, you know, a survivor, like a lot of us and have been, um, doing a lot of stuff on my own as a single mom. And here you are, Renee, you hung on and you said, no, check this setting, do this and do that. And, and we also need to believe that the people are. Opening or holding those doors open for us to that. We don't have to be alone

Renee Baribeau: 6:41

in cutting our delusion. And what the listeners don't know is last week when I logged on to come to, you know, this, my computer crashed. Yeah. You know, I had a spiritual teacher once tell me sometimes the, the, there's always a counter wind when something big is about to happen. So we think like, again, that the doorway and the wind should blow us through to where we're going, but there's always this counterbalance of, is this for me? Is this for now? How much do I want it? All of those things. And so I think, I think we're into like a bumpy ride and. We're not going to just be able to rely upon the old belief systems to get us through because what did Einstein say, you know, sometimes we need new eyes for, you know, a new set of circumstances. And I think that we're needing to shift our own brain to what matters, what's important, and how do I proceed ahead with caution? And, and being a single mom is a, is a hard thing. It's not You know, I'm sure kids are coming in with their own set of circumstances at this time.

Kristen O'Meara: 7:56

Oh, sure. Sure. Well, I think this is a great time right now to introduce you. I can really just talk, you know, the whole time and not, not do this introduction, but I just want to make sure everyone, and I'm sure a lot of people know who you are. You are very well known shamanic healer and teacher and You are also, you're doing so much, you've been doing this work for decades and we're going to get into more of the meat of what you do. So folks can join you, um, online, or in person, or one on one, however that works. You're also the co host of the shaman's cave podcast, and that's how I found you, my lovely friend, Tina. I have been hooked ever since I love, love, love the podcast. I reached out to you and then I told you I was going to read your book. Well, I, I bought your book and I'm an ice. Yes, but I'll tell you, I don't know if it's some, it's not the mirror image I have to fix my camera because it's new people. No, no, it looks right on the camera. Oh, does. Oh, good. Of spirit, ancient wisdom tools for navigating relationships, health, and the divine. What I did Renee is I also got the audio because I really wanted to be outside. When I listened to your book, the, the weather's been kind of, you know, cold, rainy, sunny, calm. And here in Northern California, and fortunately the weekend that I chose, which I had the weekend free to do whatever I wanted. And I got the audio, which the narration is wonderful. Wonderful. Oh, I loved his, I love his voice. I know

Renee Baribeau: 9:50

me too. Listen to about 200 of voices before we picked him. Oh,

Kristen O'Meara: 9:55

And I noticed that on your website that you honored him wonderful voice and I chose the arboretum and Davis where I live. It's a beautiful arboretum. And I just told myself, I really want to be outside. I want to feel the air. I'm hoping that wind will come and go, but I didn't want any expectations. So I just did this wonderful walk around the Arboretum that I found a beautiful bench to sit. And then I found an Oak tree that I wanted to be with. And I just, I just had to be outside. So if any of you have the opportunity to be outside. Whether you're reading the book or listening to it, please do it because it opens your mind and your heart to the atmosphere, to the wind. It brings everything that you're saying to life. At least it did for me. So thank you. I love that. It was wonderful. There's so many things that I want to touch on. One thing that I noticed, or list or heard that you mentioned on your podcast is your, I believe it was right before you wrote this book. And you're like, Oh my gosh, the wind, a lot of people don't like the wind. And, and that's so interesting because. The wind does shake things up. And when I think about the wind and I think about what you wrote, so much of it reminds me of the unknown and the healing journey that We take when we're really stuck for whatever reason, folks who've listened to me before. And I know that we're just talking for the first time, but I've had a history of substance abuse. I've survived several traumatic events. I have a child with autism. I've been on several healing journeys. The. Most important thing I think for a healing journey is what you mentioned over and over in your book is to create awareness. And I'm going to let you talk more after this, but what I love about the wind is that creating an awareness of our Connection with the wind, with the breath, like you mentioned in the book, and also being aware of our inner winds and working with the outer winds. There's such a relationship of developing awareness and it's, it's as simple, but as, as complex as that on our journey.

Renee Baribeau: 12:29

It's true. It doesn't get any simpler. I always tell people, if you're listening to this conversation, your perception of the wind will be forever changed. Yes. And that's the guarantee is that, you know, the wind kind of got usurped, you know, thousands of years ago, all of a sudden. The wind, which was, you know, on the native tongue of so many tribes, you know, cultures of people, clans, people who spoke the same language, they all had their wind and their relationship with the wind. And then all of a sudden we try to organize this invisible force of nature into Holy Spirit and Ruach and Nirvana and, you know, Aum. They're all interpretations of what is invisible, what is nature, and what is wind. I think over time, you know, we've gotten complacent with those other definitions, and now we've gotten complacent about not, not aligning ourselves with those other definitions when we desperately are seeking something and we need something right now. And so why not go back outside and begin your direct experience with the wind, the invisible force of nature that is bigger, invisible, and can really help you navigate through these. You know, challenging times that we're in.

Kristen O'Meara: 13:56

Yes. And you mentioned in the book that without wind, there would be no life, there would be no life. So when I, when I hear you say the Holy Spirit and, and OM and the other, um, ways that we've categorized this, this, um, life giving energy. It, it reminds me of the human mind and kind of what you're going, uh, what you're speaking about with delusion. We can categorize things to try to make sense of them, but what if we just tried to just dissolve some of our ideas of, of what we think or perceive? Say the wind to be. And what I loved is a story that you shared in the book about the boy who, and I can't remember exactly what tribe, but the boy who wanted to control the wind, he trapped an eagle.

Renee Baribeau: 14:52

That's in a lot of different traditions, but that one in

Kristen O'Meara: 14:55

particular was really great. Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Can you share a little bit about that? Because I think that's so common when we feel that there's some chaos or there's some wind and we want to control and, and. And, uh, force.

Renee Baribeau: 15:10

I love that you picked that story. So the, the little boy, there's so many stories about, you know, people trying to control the wind, but this one is particularly good where, you know, he takes the wind bird and, you know, he kind of like he tries and tries. And so finally, it takes the wind bird and, you know, shoves it in a crack in the rock so that. You know, it doesn't move and it doesn't, it doesn't move anything. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, you know, the scum goes over the pond that he wants to fish in, you know, they're the crops start to die. You know, the planet starts to heat up and on unbelievable way. And he has to hike back up the mountain to take the Windberg back out of the rock. And it just, I think it just really goes to the point of how in our, in our lives we try to control everything, including nature.

Kristen O'Meara: 16:04

Yes. Yes. It's so true. So recognizing that wind inside of us, and I did that when I was listening to your book, I was aware of my breath and thinking, wow, I've spent so many years. working on grounding myself in my body and aware of my breath, but I was more aware of, I think the techniques that I was using and not so much connecting my breath with The air outside and, and I think it's, it's such an incredible gift that you're giving us because it's linking us to nature and in such a profound way, we can say that, yes, we're a part of nature, you know, the trees and the rocks. And we have those same elements within us. And even the stars, we have the element of the stars inside of us, but the simple practice of. Breathing and thinking, gosh, and you use such a great example in the book that that are inhale and exhale of our breath will circulate all over the world and it will touch everyone. So having these, these thoughts, these beautiful thoughts to open our mind. Is also another way to cut so many delusions or illusions that we're alone because we're not.

Renee Baribeau: 17:24

I think we forgot that we are nature. We're not like, we're not a separate, you know, weed over here growing. We are, we are in the matrix of, of nature and, and there's the fact that the wind does travel around the planet and that this is a closed universe that. The same wind that's been here for four and a half billion years is still here informing us. And I like to say that, you know, the, these people who spoke the same language needed different wind qualities in order to survive. And so it's not that there wasn't one aspect of wind wasn't blowing here or not, but if I live in the desert, You know, I, I get a certain wind to clear the air. There's, you know, other winds. Uh, if people live by the side of a cave, you know, there's, there's winds that come out from the caves. I mean, it's just a matter of the air that's moving throughout our lives and us becoming more and more at peace with it and aware of it. Yes. I was reading just recently, um, Adam Grant, my editor told me in Maria's book, um, he talks about the story about how There was some big forest fire years ago and the parachute jumpers jumped out and we're going to put out, you know, the fire and it was a place in our lives where we learned to start to manage and control fire and fire needed for us needs the fire. To to clear the path to clear the way. And you know, we've made fire a foe as well. And in fire really is what clears out a forest for new growth and new license for seeds to grow. And yet. We've overpopulated these areas. And so fires now become the enemy when actually if we were living more in harmony with the nature, there'd be more spaciousness for the fires that need to burn as well.

Kristen O'Meara: 19:24

That's so interesting. So letting the natural forces like the wind be. But when, like what you said, when there's overpopulation, there are too many people, houses are right there when really there should be acres of forest, then it's a matter again of trying to control.

Renee Baribeau: 19:45

Right. And so it's the same, it's the same element, you know, it's the same thing. It, and yet we'd like to blame the wind and the fire for all of our woes when actually it's humans that came in and. Overpopulated and put things too close together and did not consider the nature at all when they were, um, you know, designing these cities and towns and villages.

Kristen O'Meara: 20:07

That's so true. One thing that I was struck by with your book. Is when we're aware of a change in our life, or we're aware that we're, um, needing to make a change, I should say, how can we use the wind to help guide us. What are, what's your perspective?

Renee Baribeau: 20:37

There was just a moment of no wind in my life where all of a sudden I got frozen. And I, that's, that's an informative space too. So I'm happier now that, that I'm moving again and taking daily wind walks. And when I take a wind walk. You know, I get, I get informed and I think we've been looking for, we've been looking for esoteric information instead of how to turn right instead of left and, you know, uh, last week I had a silly incident where I tripped up the stairs at the mall and, and I had just gotten these new glasses. And the woman up above them, sitting on the top, it was like no one else was there, it was like this back staircase, she said to me, Are you okay? I said, yeah, I got these new glasses, and they're like, I go, I go, this is the second time this year I've fallen. And she looks at me, she goes, well, you know, I work at LensCrafters right in there. And she said, you know, but that's, we, we overlooked those, those situations where, you know, the nature speaking to us in a way that we weren't listening. Right. And, and, and she goes, you know, you might not be good for progressive glasses. Has it ever occurred to you that you should have a pair for long and a pair for short? She said, because we don't want you to get hurt. And so, but like, you know, we're like always looking for, you know, the answers. Yes. Here I am running up a set of stairs. Cause you know, that's how I like to get some exercise and get moving and I get the answer. And so the thing that it's not so much those always those profound answers, but it's the everyday answers that come always. In the wind because that's when the wind she spoke in her voice came over the wind to me. Yeah. And I heard it right in that moment and said, Oh yeah, that's I think you're

Kristen O'Meara: 22:49

right. And you know, that is what you, you teach in your book. And that's what. There's so many, there's so many things about this book, everyone, please, please, please get it. What I took from it, or one of the many things I took from it was that it's more simple than we realize. And that that subtle shift in awareness is a miracle. And I know that is used over and over, but I had the most profound memory when I was reading your, when I was listening to your book, it was a memory of getting lost as a child. And I grew up on a little island off the coast of Georgia, and we spent a lot of time at the beach, and I remembered. Getting lost. But what it was happening though, is I wanted to move away from the party and I wanted to explore. I wanted to be on my own and I was about five years old and I just was so happy just walking along the beach and just being by myself and exploring. I remember there were more adults than kids and I wanted to explore and I spent a lot of time exploring more than I realized because time just wasn't a factor in my experience. And then at one point I realized I was lost and I couldn't get back to the party. And eventually an adult found me and brought me back. But. What was significant about that memory is that I linked it with the wind and I thought because I had gotten lost quite a few times as a child because I wanted to wander. I wanted to explore. One thing that I took from that was that letting the wind carry me. And not being afraid of getting lost because being getting lost several times in my life as a child, I got afraid to explore. I got afraid to get lost as an adult. Do you know what I'm saying? So, I was Linking it to the wind and thinking, you know, it's okay for me to get outside of the boundaries. It's okay to explore. It's okay to allow the wind to take me where I need to go or want to go. I'm not five years old anymore. I can find my way back because we can let the wind carry us. And that's a funny thing. It's a, it's a tricky thing to trust something that we can't control.

Renee Baribeau: 25:28

And, and another thing for you who likes to go off wind walking and, and go into a place, you could start to navigate. Where the winds are blowing from in your life, so see, sailors navigate from their own wheelhouse. They have their own, you know, they have their own wheel, their own ship, and so we all navigate from our own wheelhouse. So the winds that blow from a certain direction for you might be a really good guidance to you. Oh yeah, let me just walk into that wind because I know that that wind blows from my house this way. Yeah. Or that wind comes, you know, so that you can actually You know, that's how people learned how to navigate and there's no small wonder that, you know, the cardinal wind points are how human beings from the get go have organized their consensual reality. They've learned to understand the winds that are blowing in their own. Landscape, and we've gotten so far away from from our knowing our own landscape well enough to know that there is no getting lost when you know how to navigate with ends.

Kristen O'Meara: 26:39

Yes. And what a wonderful map you give us what a wonderful guide to. As like a template because so I think so many of us are because we haven't been taught how to heal ourselves or we haven't been taught how to navigate big change or go through grief. What a wonderful opportunity to to connect with the wind and use. The, the metaphor and the reality as a guide to, to help trust ourselves is a big thing that I'm getting from the book is learning how to trust, in ourselves and in the, the life that we're living, which can ebb and flow.

Renee Baribeau: 27:22

We have a motto over at the wind clan on Facebook that says in winds we trust, because you know, it's like if spirit. Was the wind then adapted into the words of, you know, Holy Spirit and all of that, you know, and we're trusting in this God, what, what better way of trusting in nature and trusting in the wind because that is the constant that's been on this earth for four and a half billion years. If you look at every single creation story, the wind has its hand in it. There's not, you know, there's not one that I found whether. You know, it's a chaos story or, uh, you know, an, uh, an oppositional force, the wind is there and, you know, we, we learned, we just, we just took it away from the, the nature. That's

Kristen O'Meara: 28:14

right. That's right. So connecting, connecting with nature and, and allowing, allowing ourselves to be. With all of it, with all of it, the wind, the earth, well, it's just been, it's been such a, an incredible gift and I, I really appreciate your time talking with me today. And I want to hear what you have, that you're cooking as far as, what folks can, learn as far as the wind and wind work. How can people find you and what are you offering?

Renee Baribeau: 28:51

So you can find me over at The Practical Shaman and ThePracticalShaman. com and also on Facebook there's The Practical Shaman and there's also a private group called The Wind Clan and of course The Shaman's Cave is every other week with Sandra Ingraman and we're in year six and that's, that's its own windy adventure and The, um, this spring I'm going to be teaching for the College of Psychic Studies from London and it's going to, they're going to be evening classes, three hours. I'm very excited about it. Three hour classes so you can get a real, you know, a real good exploration into shamanic wind work. I'm one of them. Oh, I'm

Kristen O'Meara: 29:32

going to do that for me.

Renee Baribeau: 29:34

I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. Yeah. That's great. I've decided that I wanted to just put my energy towards promoting those classes with them this, this spring, because I've been in this real, I've been working on a new book for two years. And then all of a sudden when I, this is how if you've ever written a book, you know, or you're starting to write a book that it's always something other than what you think. And so I'm writing a book called The Practical Shaman, which is going to be great. But then in the middle of it, the wind spirit cards started to be revealing themselves to me. And I had waited for six years. I had tried several artists. I just couldn't get the drawings right. And then all of a sudden I started this exploration with um, AI. Oh! And people said, but that's not real art, Renan. And they're like, well I don't know. I'm a real artist and I'm having a grand old time with this, but I'm reading it, the information from my book. Yeah. It's coming out with these images that students and everyone are relating to more than like, like sometimes we'll get some and they'll say, yeah, yeah. Really? And then I'll people say, no, I didn't relate to that. But these are like consistently, they're re expressing it in a way that I want to express it in. And so I'm very excited. It's taking me down to learn, meet some new winds and some new intensities and all of that. And so I suspect by fall, I'll have a deck of wind spirit cards out. We have the wind spirit cards, the little ones that come with the wind whistlers toolkits. But this is like, this is going to be a visual story so that you can really relate it more to

Kristen O'Meara: 31:09

your lives. Oh, I love that. I love using cards. And one thing that I do want to learn and I'll learn it in your class, but I highly recommend folks to go to Renee's website. I believe it's the practical shaman. Yes. Um, you can get wind flag kits and there's so many evergreen courses to take. But I love the idea of learning to tie the knots, the wind knots and creating your own wind flag, which I'm going to be doing because what a wonderful way, just like listening to Renee's book outside, what a wonderful way to, to be in touch with the wind by creating your own wind flag. Cause you're, you're in relationship, you're developing a relationship with the wind. And I love those practical tools because we need those our mind and our body and our senses. We really, we feel like we, you know, we learn so much when we have those practical,

Renee Baribeau: 32:06

tools. Yes. In the, in my group, a lot of us pull cards for the year and, um, they poke, we pull cards for the year and we put them on the flags and we, you know, we, it's really exciting. So I

Kristen O'Meara: 32:20

love that. Well, Renee, hang on, because I told you I have A gift for you. Folks are usually, um, expecting a channeling. When my son was nonverbal, I unexpectedly learned how to channel his higher self. And that's been a journey that's been about 10 years now. But I have a channeling that I'm not going to share publicly because it's private and it's just Renee. So Renee, hang on and thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you, Renee and much love.