Leila Lees

Waiheke Island

Founder, Lasavia Healing
New Zealand, Aotearoa artist, writer and teacher

leilalees.com

Teaching – Leila Lees

I remember when I first engaged in teaching shamanic practice, I felt afraid, because when you teach shamanism, there are many aspects to attend to. It takes keen observation of both the temporal world and the metaphysical. I developed an acute capacity to listen. In teaching mysticism and shamanic practice, one needs to interface with an unknown quality or mystery. In reflection my training in open form improvisation and years of healing practice were crucial in building the trust required to listen to the rustling and pressing against the edges of my senses. I became aware of the importance of being grounded and to have the capacity to move rapidly between the whole group, the individual and the
spiritual enquiry.

When I was training in shamanism one of my specialist subjects that I researched was the medicine wheel. I spent many years exploring this subject and deepening my personal practice in it. Through this I became aware how this deep and simple structure could hold, in a grounded way, diversity, enquiry, emotions and multi-dimensional experiences. I renamed the medicine wheel the medicine sphere and this is the structural foundation of all our teaching in Lasavia Healing. My approach to teaching is to create an environment that recognises the way new knowledge and understanding grows. I see this occurring through shared learning experiences. The medicine sphere supports this form of teaching.

Throughout my teaching of mystical and shamanic practice, which has spanned twenty years, I have been through a remarkable journey of rigorous apprenticeship. I see it as that. I experience that whatever I am teaching works me. The human experience is layered and evolutionary. To teach this work is to weave. I acknowledge in this weave the land, the people, elemental, nature and the spirit. Through teaching I have learnt the value of language and the beauty of osmosis that can happen simply by being present. I value how I communicate and connect, at the same time knowing the timing to step back to allow integration through practice. I am curious. I love the enquiries that arise when teaching, these make me relook at the material I am sharing and they so often move me to perceive things differently.

I am here doing this work through the kindness, dedication and gifts of a diverse range of people. I would like to give many thanks to all the people who have dedicated their time and joined me in exploration. I acknowledge the lineage that taps at my shoulder and the elemental teachers who keep turning up despite, at times, my resistance.