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From Darkness Into Light: The Invitation of the Spring Equinox
From Darkness Into Light: The Invitation of the Spring Equinox
September brings with it a shift. The days begin to stretch a little longer. The air starts to warm. New growth appears in places that, only weeks before, seemed dormant.... Read more...
The World Is Waking Up. The Question Is — Are You Ready To?
The World Is Waking Up. The Question Is — Are You Ready To?
There’s something in the air right now that is difficult to name but impossible to ignore.You can feel it in the conversations that are happening — the ones that used... Read more...
After the Longest Night: What the winter solstice revealed — and where the returning light is calling us next
After the Longest Night: What the winter solstice revealed — and where the returning light is calling us next
The winter solstice is not merely an astronomical event. It is the Earth's own initiation — the moment our world willingly surrenders to its deepest darkness so that light may... Read more...
What the Winter Solstice Symbolises in Shamanic Traditions
What the Winter Solstice Symbolises in Shamanic Traditions
For thousands of years, ancient cultures across the world honoured the Winter Solstice as a sacredturning point.It marked the longest night of the year — a threshold between darkness and... Read more...
The Shadow Side of Your Totem Animal (And Why It’s Blocking Your Purpose)
The Shadow Side of Your Totem Animal (And Why It’s Blocking Your Purpose)
 Most people have only been given a surface-level understanding of what totem animals are.A totem animal is a guide, sure, but a guide in a deeply mulit-faceted capacity.  Your totem... Read more...
The Animal You Keep Noticing Isn’t Random: How Your Totem Is Trying to Reach You
The Animal You Keep Noticing Isn’t Random: How Your Totem Is Trying to Reach You
Have you ever had the feeling that a certain animal just… keeps appearing?Not once. Not twice. But over and over again.Maybe it’s: a bird that crosses your path repeatedly a... Read more...
Autumn Equinox: Why This Is the Most Powerful Time to Reset Your Life
Autumn Equinox: Why This Is the Most Powerful Time to Reset Your Life
Twice a year, nature offers us a rare moment of perfect balance.A day when light and dark stand equal.When neither is dominant.When everything pauses — just for a moment.This is... Read more...
The Fire Horse Is Blazing Its Trail — It’s Time to Take the Reins
The Fire Horse Is Blazing Its Trail — It’s Time to Take the Reins
The Fire Horse Is Blazing Its Trail — It’s Time to Take the ReinsThere is a moment in every cycle where preparation ends and momentum takes over.Where watching, waiting, refining,... Read more...
2026: The Year of the Fire Horse & Your New 9-Year Cycle
2026: The Year of the Fire Horse & Your New 9-Year Cycle
2026 marks a powerful transition—the start of a new 9-year cycle. In numerology, a Year 1 signals beginnings, new energy, and the opportunity to step fully into your personal path.... Read more...
The Medicine of the Snake in the Number 9 Year: How 2025 Helped Us Peel Away Old Identities
The Medicine of the Snake in the Number 9 Year: How 2025 Helped Us Peel Away Old Identities
Across 2025, many of us experienced deeply powerful shifts. Old emotions resurfaced. Familiar patterns no longer fit. Ways of being that once felt protective, once necessary, began to feel heavy... Read more...
The Most Underrated Spiritual Practice: Why Journalling Changes Everything
The Most Underrated Spiritual Practice: Why Journalling Changes Everything
When we think of spiritual practice, our minds often go to meditation, ceremony, or time in nature. Yet one of the most powerful and most overlooked spiritual tools we have... Read more...
Midlife Awakening: Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Step Into Your Healing Gifts
Midlife Awakening: Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Step Into Your Healing Gifts
There comes a time in many women’s lives when the roles that once defined us begin to feel like clothes that no longer fit. They’ve stretched, frayed, and worn thin... Read more...
Why the Spring Equinox is the Perfect Time to Reclaim Your Purpose
Why the Spring Equinox is the Perfect Time to Reclaim Your Purpose
The Spring Equinox is more than just a change in season—it’s an invitation from nature itself to align with balance, renewal, and purpose. As the light and dark meet in... Read more...
What Are Plant Allies? And How Do You Know When One Is Calling You?
What Are Plant Allies? And How Do You Know When One Is Calling You?
In many Earth-based traditions, it’s said that plants are not just alive—they are aware. They breathe, feel, and communicate in ways science is only beginning to explore. But long before... Read more...
Walking with Totems: Deepening the Sacred Connection Between Human and Spirit Animal
Walking with Totems: Deepening the Sacred Connection Between Human and Spirit Animal
After emerging from our powerful Module 2 retreat, many in our community have been stirred by a deeper awareness of the unseen forces that guide us—especially through the work we’ve... Read more...
Beyond the Vision Quest: What Mongolia Truly Taught Us
Beyond the Vision Quest: What Mongolia Truly Taught Us
This year’s Vision Quest was nothing short of transformative. From both my personal experience and the perspective of the container that Ankara has carefully held over the years, it felt... Read more...
Vision Quest Explained: What They Are, Why They Matter
Vision Quest Explained: What They Are, Why They Matter
There’s something profoundly stirring about stepping away from the noise of everyday life and entering the quiet, vast stillness of nature—with nothing but your intention, your spirit team, and the... Read more...
Wealth Beliefs That Keep Us Stuck: Make the Shift from Scarcity to Abundance
Wealth Beliefs That Keep Us Stuck: Make the Shift from Scarcity to Abundance
Understanding Limiting Beliefs and Woundings Around WealthWealth generates competing feelings and various mental processes and convictions among people. For many, wealth signifies freedom, security, and new opportunities. While some associate... Read more...
Why is Synaptic Evolution Crucial for Everyday Living and Intuition Development?
Why is Synaptic Evolution Crucial for Everyday Living and Intuition Development?
Modern life requires people to evolve their skills for adaptation alongside progression. The dynamic process of synaptic evolution enables understanding of why brain connection adjustments throughout life matter for surviving... Read more...
2025 as a Year of Completion: The Year of the Wood Snake
2025 as a Year of Completion: The Year of the Wood Snake
The Year of the Wood SnakeWe prepare to embrace a year imbued with powerful themes of transformation, renewal, and growth. According to the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the Year of... Read more...
What Does It Mean to Be A Cycle Breaker?
What Does It Mean to Be A Cycle Breaker?
A truly profound journey—unique, challenging, and often solitary. Many of us begin to notice the footprints of our ancestors in our lives, like echoes of those who've walked before us.... Read more...
How Shadow Work Can Change Your Ancestral Programming
How Shadow Work Can Change Your Ancestral Programming
There are not many people who would get excited about doing their own shadow work...well not in the beginning anyway. It might bring about feelings of discomfort, fear, worry or... Read more...
Will you thrive after your spiritual awakening?
Will you thrive after your spiritual awakening?
I believe there comes a time in the recovery phases of a spiritual awakening, where we have a conscious choice to make. Are we going to return to stability after... Read more...
Am I Going Crazy or Is It a Spiritual Awakening?
Am I Going Crazy or Is It a Spiritual Awakening?
When it comes to a spiritual awakening, where is the line between sane and insane, or stable and unstable? With so many individuals reaching new states of awareness in a... Read more...
What is a Spiritual Ego?
What is a Spiritual Ego?
I wanted to express some ideas about the various "ego traps" that can occur when embarking on a spiritual path. As we move towards a more awakened state, the passage... Read more...
Do Tarot Cards Predict the Future?
Do Tarot Cards Predict the Future?
Hello Ankara Academy Readers & Friends of Heather!   I'm Chris Bennett and it's a delight to guest post on this esteemed platform. Welcome to my world, where tarot cards, psychic insights,... Read more...
The Spiritual Steppes of Mongolia
The Spiritual Steppes of Mongolia
Since ancient times, it has been a rite of passage to travel to sacred sites to experience a change in perspective and a deeper connection to spirit. In modern times,... Read more...
Are you actually cursed?
Are you actually cursed?
There's been a lot of interest in the topic of ancestral curses lately, so I thought I would speak to my own experience within this important conversation. This particular thought... Read more...
Could neurodivergence be the breakdown of ancestral curses?
Could neurodivergence be the breakdown of ancestral curses?
We have an emerging trend in those that are being diagnosed with neurodivergent conditions. Whether it's ADHD, Dyslexia, Bipolar or Autism, these patterns in our brains are emerging with some... Read more...
“Crazy times” are what we incarnated for
“Crazy times” are what we incarnated for
There’s no doubt in the increasing levels of weather events, chaos and unstable patterns all around us. Yet, our programming still has us hanging on for a sense of "normal".... Read more...
The truth shall set you free
The truth shall set you free
When I was in my early twenties and studying Chinese Medicine, I was working with a client in the student clinic who suffered from Fibromyalgia. This condition is characterised by... Read more...
How I went from unmotivated and powerless, to abundantly creative
How I went from unmotivated and powerless, to abundantly creative
Motivation seems like an elusive concept for most, like a sporadic visitor that never plans their arrival and won't stick around long enough to share their secret wisdom. We get... Read more...
Vision Quests: An ancient tradition
Vision Quests: An ancient tradition
One of the oldest traditions of Shamanism has been the self-guided training of a Vision Quest.   This ritual of self-realisation can provide a modern remedy to our lives of... Read more...
The Transformative Power of Shamanic Soul Retrieval: A Journey to Self-Expansion and Healing
The Transformative Power of Shamanic Soul Retrieval: A Journey to Self-Expansion and Healing
Rediscovering Wholeness:The retrieval of fragmented aspects of the soul initiates a profound reunion with one’s true self. It’s akin to gathering the scattered pieces of a puzzle and witnessing the... Read more...
Justice, at what cost?
Justice, at what cost?
As I allow the ancient wisdom of Eora to wash over me, I have gazed into a dear relative eyes that tell me a story of long-term suffering. As the... Read more...
The Alchemy of an Empath and a Narcissist
The Alchemy of an Empath and a Narcissist
We have all heard of the phrase, "opposites attract", but what are the soul-level implications of such a dynamic?  When we are discovering ourselves, the most potent lens of self-discovery... Read more...
The land and our Earth element
The land and our Earth element
Have you ever visited drought-ridden land and felt unsettled or nervous? Have you ever visited places that have recently flooded and felt overwhelmed or highly emotional? The ultimate charging system for our... Read more...
Could our wheat allergies relate to the Earth's need for better farming?
Could our wheat allergies relate to the Earth's need for better farming?
Wherever you go in the world currently, everywhere has been exposed to the rising number of people suffering from an allergy to wheat. We can all relate to how much... Read more...
The ancient dynamic of Master & disciple
The ancient dynamic of Master & disciple
Within many traditional shamanic cultures, there still remains the old tradition of Master and disciple. For Mongolian shamans, when they are called to a path of Shamanism, they must first... Read more...
What is the fuss about Surrender anyway?
What is the fuss about Surrender anyway?
It is becoming something that we're hearing all over the place. Not only in hype culture, new age rants and by spiritual leaders; but also within our own narratives. The... Read more...
Your intuition is more than a voice in your head
Your intuition is more than a voice in your head
When it comes to intuition development, the most common question I’m asked is, “How do I distinguish between my intuition and my fear?” The most important part of intuition development is... Read more...
A potent teacher: loneliness
A potent teacher: loneliness
There is an increasing sense of loneliness in our world, especially prominent within the post-pandemic reflection. Have we become so busy in our modern lives as a means to avoid... Read more...
Stagnation: a modern syndrome
Stagnation: a modern syndrome
In Chinese Medicine, we talk a lot about something called "stagnation". This happens when the body's Qi (or life force energy) is not moving freely. Qi Stagnation is a helpful... Read more...
Shamanic reflections of Depression
Shamanic reflections of Depression
There is a lot that can be experienced within the modern declarations of mental health states. Our societal systems have created support bases for what can be now identified as... Read more...
When the fire starts to dwindle
When the fire starts to dwindle
When the fire burns and blazes, change comes quickly and with force. When that very same fire begins to dwindle and smoulder, we are being asked to slow down.  I've been... Read more...