Elizabeth Chanter of Honour Being is a Creatrix, Classical Homeopath and experienced shamanically trained Reiki Master in The Golden Reiki Way. She offers in-person and Remote Reiki Treatments, Attunement and Training, Honour Sacred Art Workshops and Retreats (Dreaming Your Inner Child), and conducts regular Moon Ceremonies in person and online.
What does the phrase “inner landscape” mean to you? What does your inner landscape look like? How has it been formed? Are you convinced it is set for your life, or do you believe it can change? Which landscapes are you drawn to?
“Deep in the heart of each of us, there is this imagining, imaginal capacity that we have…” – John O’Donohue (The Inner Landscape of Beauty)
We can never know the inner landscape of another human being, and it can be a lifetime’s journey to get to know our own.
For some, inner landscapes refer to the world of the imagination. This world will be stronger in some who have a vivid imagination than in others. For everyone, it will be characterised by circumstances and experiences that have occurred in their life, and in particular those with a high emotional charge. It is particularly influenced by the emotional wounds and hurts of childhood.
Your emotional landscape is the range of emotions that you normally feel, the ones that are familiar to you and in which you habitually reside. It's the place where you're emotionally spending time. Your emotional landscape, in turn, affects your mental landscape and, therefore, your beliefs about and expectations of life.
Ultimately, if left unhealed, early emotional traumas set themselves into your body or your physical landscape and can express themselves as illness and injury. Likewise, the landscapes of your heart and spirit will be affected.
To what external landscapes are you drawn?
You might like to visualise your emotions in relation to the deep ocean, a clear pool, stagnant water, or a rushing waterfall. How are you feeling right now? Which watery image conjures itself within you? There is information for you there when you tune into your inner landscapes.
In regard to the landscape of your heart, which relates to self-love and self-esteem, find an image of fire and warmth or a lotus blossom. Is there ice in your heart? Is it dry and dusty like a desert? How open or closed does your heart feel?
Some consider “love” to be an emotion. I suggest that it is otherwise. Emotions relate to watery feelings. Love relates to fire and energy. Love sub-divides itself into many forms: mother love, father love, sacred love, platonic love, heart love, eros or sexual love, and the love between friends and siblings. The list goes on.
What is happening in the landscape of your mind? Are there images of air, storm clouds, or high, clear mountains? Is it frenetic, with thoughts like a hamster on a wheel, or is it a
calm, clear space?
And what of your spiritual landscape? For you, does a sacred space mean a religious building, or is your temple the open sky above you and the ground beneath your feet? Is it out there inhabiting the cosmos? Does it link to a sense of your Ancestors, the ones who have gone before? Or do you have a sense of the eternity of your being, connecting you to all that has been, is or ever will be?
All of these landscapes make up your “invisible world,” which is constantly intertwining with what we can know and see. As within, so without. Out of this can arise a quest for wholeness.
Everyone has an imagination
“Everyone is involved, whether they like it or not, in the construction of their world. So, it’s never as given as it actually looks; you’re always shaping it and building it.” – John O’Donoghue
There are conversations ongoing between our inner and outer worlds, just as between the ocean and the land. That’s the secret of change: all of this goes on inside us, usually without a conscious knowledge. Then, sometimes when we come to a threshold, a crossing over, we need to become different, and so it comes into our awareness. Sometimes, this is secret work which has been done in us of which we’ve had no inkling.
Passing through thresholds
“The soul choreographs one’s biography and one’s destiny.“ – John O’Donohue
Our inner landscape changes when we pass through the thresholds of life, for example, giving birth, falling in love, losing a job, getting married, losing a loved one, or passing through serious illness. All of these offer the possibilities for inner realisations if one is awake and aware.
The influences can be more subtle, such as having an “ah hah” moment when reading a book, having a conversation, hearing a piece of music, studying new ideas, or taking up a new pursuit.
With this can sometimes come seismic changes in our inner landscapes, which affect everything in our lives, from our perspective on the world to how we feel about ourselves and others and questions about the nature of life itself.
Such transformations of our inner landscapes can lead us to discovering our true life purpose, new gifts, the healing of physical ailments, healing for the inner child, compassion for the self and others, healing of conflict within the self, forgiveness of the self, and a deeper understanding of who we are.
The role of shamanic reiki in our inner landscape
Shamanic wisdom teaches that:
Spirit corresponds to our spiritual landscape
Air corresponds to our mental landscape
Fire corresponds to the landscape of our hearts
Water corresponds to our emotional landscape
Earth corresponds to the physical landscape of our body
Just as these landscapes can be affected by external forces, so Shamanic Reiki has the ability to shift and change them from within as a natural outcome of its healing intelligence. Reiki enables us to do our inner work and to shift our inner landscapes with intention and awareness.
As this happens, one is offered the opportunity to leave the old stories of woundedness behind. One understands more about the true, eternally changing nature of life within and the way this manifests in the external world in sometimes seemingly magical ways.
And then both one’s external and inner landscapes can transform.
Discover more about how to transform your inner landscape
If you would like to know more, book a Discovery Call and find out about how you can work with Elizabeth both in person and online. Just send an email or go to her Honour Being Website.
To receive my beautifully illustrated “5 Step Guide to Wonder Without Overwhelm,” please click on the link.
Elizabeth Chanter is recognised as a leader in her chosen field of healing, energy medicine, and Golden Way Reiki. Since 2004, she has been assisting others to make transformational changes in their lives, leading to positive, lasting, and sometimes extraordinary results. She is passionate about helping her clients evolve and grow into the bright, beautiful beings they were always intended to be. Having passed through many personal dark nights of the soul, she combines empathy, deep compassion, and understanding with many years of professional expertise in her field. She believes in the regenerative power of hope, listening, and healing touch.
