How do you find your medicine?

Have you ever experienced the pure bliss of union with your Higher Self? Or merged with your own beautiful spirit and allowed yourself the ecstatic joy of expressing your True Nature?

This I believe is the allure of finding your medicine. And in many ways I think it is the thing we all seek. Whether conscious or unconscious, we long to be reunited with our True Self.

It might show up for you as a quest for the perfect job. Maybe you are searching for the love of your life, or a solution to your health crisis. Or maybe, like so many, you’re looking to make a difference in the world.

Whatever it is you might be seeking ‘out there’, however alluring the external chase might seem, I am reminded time and time again that it all starts ‘in here’.

The medicine you seek is within you. It always has been.

Your true calling, the love of your life, your ecstatic health, your impact. It’s all here for you, just waiting to be discovered.

But how do you find it?

I spent many years asking myself this question, searching for purpose and wondering what I was here to do. I sat in ceremonies, said prayers, wandered through the landscapes of my life listening, asking, and listening again.

Occasionally I’d get a chance to consult an elder on these matters, always so hopeful to get a clear answer. But without fail the responses that came back would go something like this:

Wake up every morning at dawn. Greet the sun and send your prayers out to the four directions. There you’ll find your medicine.

Become an empty bowl. Allow yourself to be filled by the Universe.

Sing a song to your Soul and listen for it to sing its song back to you.

In hindsight these responses are actually quite profound and meaningful. But at the time they were a bit maddening. I wanted a process to follow. Where’s my easy 4-step formula?

In true scholarly fashion, I set out to find one. And as Spirit would have it, that quest began to weave me into my own path of medicine.

Now I’d like to share just a few of the answers that came through my wanders.

For starters, what exactly is ‘your medicine’?

Your medicine is the way that Spirit manifests through you. It is the expression of your Soul, channeled through your body, in a unique creative way that only you can offer.

It is the thing that brings you the most joy and fulfillment, and simultaneously brings healing and beauty to our planet.

It is born through you when you are deeply connected to the present moment and in total alignment with your truth.

And, it is not just one thing. It can’t be pointed at, packaged, or put on a shelf. It is an ever evolving, multi-faceted expression of the Divine, so beautiful the world would be a better place to know it.

How do you find it?

On one hand, no one can answer such a thing for another person. The path of finding medicine is as unique as it is mysterious to each individual who chooses to seek it.

On the other hand, there do seem to be some common check points and threads of experience amongst those who walk this path.

First and foremost, the simple act of purely and fully committing yourself to finding your medicine seems to set the process in motion.

Beyond that, there are practices, ceremonies and ways of being that can accelerate and support this unfolding in a harmonious way.

I don’t pretend to know all of them, but the ones that have been shared with me have radically changed my life for the better. And my hope is to keep the medicine moving by offering some of those ways to you.

1. Open the channels of connection to Spirit

In order to make contact with your Higher Self, you have to first open the channels of communication with the unseen world. We’re all born with these innate abilities, but if you’ve grown up in a modern industrialized culture, you have likely been conditioned to ignore them, suppress them and even hide them from yourself and others.

It might take a little time and patience, but the simple act of becoming curious and opening to your intuitive centers seems to be a good starting place. Once you start to become attuned to the ways in which the unseen communicates with you, your next task might be to develop discernment and learn to trust in the information you receive. Doing this unlocks an immense amount of spiritual guidance and support as you continue on your path.

2. Uncover your innate gifts

You most likely have a sense of at least some of your innate gifts, but most of us have no idea of our true potential. That’s because the ego LOVES to keep that hidden. It’s safe to be ‘normal’ and like everybody else. And, more often than not your true power and magic, the wild beauty of your Soul, is mysteriously connected to your greatest fears and past hurts.

So you can see bringing the truth of your gifts forward isn’t exactly a light task to undertake. It usually requires deep work. Taking time to be with yourself, see yourself, face your greatest fears, and do your healing work. Because in order for your wild beauty to come through, your ego has to be on board with the process. It has to come into a state of wholeness in which it is able and willing to get out of the way and allow your Soul to lead.

This can at times feel like heart warrior work. It takes practice, patience, and often great sacrifice, but in the end is well worth it.

3. Align with your creative purpose

Once you have a sense of your true gifts and the ways that your Soul longs to express through you, the question of purpose becomes central. Another way I like to think of it— Where are you going to channel this beautiful creative energy that dwells within you? To what end? What matters most to you? What higher calling are you here to serve?

This is another deeply personal exploration. It could be connected to agreements you made prior to this lifetime, to your ancestors and the mission of your ancestral lines, or major themes and lessons that have come through your current incarnation.

One thing I’ve learned from working with clients is that most times the answer is hidden in plain sight. Your purpose tends to follow you around. It’s always there, even if it’s just beyond your sight.

Martha Beck has a great metaphor that tracking your purpose is like tracking a Rhino in the African Bush. Sometimes you’re hot on the trail and getting closer and closer with each step. And sometimes you lose your way and have to go back to the last hot track, the last time you felt truly connected.

Eventually, it starts to click in. And the closer you get to your purpose, the less doing anything besides that makes any sense.

4. Surrender into the act of service

With all systems go, the only thing left to do is surrender into the act, get out of the way and serve your medicine. This is a time of allowing yourself to be seen, releasing all attachments and ideas of who you think you are and what your life will look like. It’s a time of great vulnerability and courage. Because to truly serve medicine and allow Spirit to flow through you, you have to release all ideas of what you think is going to happen.

In doing this you might experience your power in new ways that you never imagined possible. You might also find yourself facing your greatest fears from an entirely new vantage point. You might be called deeper and deeper into your own path of healing and wholing so that you can continue to show up in a good way and serve your medicine with integrity.

5. Begin again

While what I’ve outlined might appear like a nice linear path, it’s actually a cyclical one. Just like the cycles of the day and the seasons in a year, the path of discovering medicine is ongoing. And it is the call to go deeper, which emerges through the act of service, that begins the process all over again.

Every once in awhile I’ll fool myself into thinking I’ve found my medicine and it’s time that I focus on other endeavors. And then Spirit so lovingly pulls me back down into the Underworld to do more healing, deepen further into the truth of who I am, and bring back more medicine to be shared.

What I now recognize is that there is always more medicine to be discovered. There is always opportunity to open into greater communication with Spirit, to get closer and closer to the wild beauty of my True Self, to remember my purpose and take another step towards mastery in the way I serve.

For me, discovering my medicine is no longer the elusive thing that it once was. Rather it has become a dedication and a way of life.

It also happens to be one of my favorite things to help others with. If you are interested, I offer Intuitive Astrology Readings, Shamanic Coaching, and a number of group courses and retreats.

Please feel free to reach out!

Megan