Hello : An introduction

The journey of a modern Shamaness

My name is Katie Milne, I am a Shamanic Practitioner among many other things. I have always felt different to others, from a very young age (kindergarten) I had insights into human psychology and access to an ancient wisdom that set me as unusual. Looking back I realize now that I used magic to help me face the challenges of life.

Once I left school I developed a keen interest in social dynamics & mind-altering substances. 3 years later I found myself having exhausted the 'school of drug use', I had a serious opiate habit & was very unwell. I moved home to heal myself, to change my life & open to the next pathway of learning. As I healed from my drug abuse I studied addiction, mood management & spirituality. It was a hard time for me, but I'm so grateful to all the amazing strong women who supported me along the way.

Less then a year after detoxing I met a Medicine Women at a market. Great Spirit gave me clear messages to leave the recovery program I was doing & to join this women, Chalice Malcolm, in her women's circle. That was the beginning of what turned out to be a 6 year apprenticeship & life-long friendship.

Many of the years with Chalice sore me facing my demons, it was long road to spiritual wellness. Clearing & repairing my auric field after such intense drug abuse, plus a whole lot of soul retrieval. Shamanic tools & practices carried me through that and like so many others, my healing journey was my learning ground.

I stepped into teacher training with Chalice after 3 years, all the while seeing her for mentoring & Shamanic Core-Counselling. I knew that if I didn’t make it through this training I would die, I faced a lot of suicidal thoughts & struggled with the shadows. Life was hard & I came to learn that my psychic gifts were the reason behind a lot of my mental health challenges. I was dedicated & wanted to be able to share this pathway, that of shamanic practices, with others who were like me: experiencing their gifts as a curse.

Chalice also taught me much about gardening as I worked in her garden to help pay for my training. I was working in a nursery on and off, then went one to establish an organic gardening business servicing the central Auckland suburbs. I have  a deep love for the plant kingdom: that alongside my career in horticulture & shamanic training with a green thumb mentor resulted in mother earth becoming my ultimate teacher & support.

During this time I completed a Green Witch apprenticeship with Amy McComb. This was a catalyst for integrating plants into my everyday life in a deeper way. Plants as medicine, smoke, food & friend. It was a very rich apprenticeship, which has become the foundation of my walk with plant spirit medicine today.

There were highs & lows the whole way through. Really awful moments where my shadow ran rampant on me in circle & I was faced with the truthful, horrifc mirror of the medicine sphere & my peers. My first vision quest was hard. I journeyed into the west, to my sit spot deep in the bush underneath an ancient Puriri tree. By 4pm I was freezing cold & where I was had lost the sun completely. It was going to be a long cold night & I was not happy about it! Hadn't I faced enough challenges & hardships already? During my drug use I had been homeless for a good period of time & spent many nights cold & hungry in the Wellington winter. I was angry at God. I just wanted a fucking cup of tea & a cigarette. I closed my eyes, abandoning the practices I knew I was ment to be doing. I curled up into the fetal position on my sheepskin with a slab of pounamu beneath me. With out realizing it I entered into a dream trance where I moved like the arms of a clock, facing each direction  of the Medicine Sphere, following an inner knowing that was guideng me through the night. It was & wasn’t conscious. I dreamt & wailed & bet the earth with my fists. The night was long, & it got, the deeper I journed crevasses of the underworld. At one point a voice told me 'you have come from darkness into the light'. This then become my motto & my medicine: From Darkness to Light. In the morning as the sun rose a I found my self moving seamlessly between states of  dreamtime consciousness like I have never before.

Part of the reason I decided to get clean is because I wanted to access the same visionary states through training my psychic abilities as I did while high on substances. It took years but I got there, now my sight is far more clear, useful & translatable then it ever was when I was high.

In my 7th year of apprenticeship, by which time I had started to work with Leila Lees as my mentor, I undertook an masters project studying Darkness. My intention & what I was guided to do was to download a body of knowledge relating to darkness. It was a hectic year to say the least and one of the biggest initiations of my life. What was different this time is that I wasn’t turning to my mentors for help, I was facing the shadows, entities, tricksters & all that arised on my own. I really grounded into my self trust & spiritual practice in a new way that year. It was incredible.

At some point I realized that I work in service of the Goddess, the Dark Goddess in particular. In the beginning of my practice I facilitated Womxns circles on Aucklands Karangahape road. These circles were so rich with teachings for me. It was an honor, having grown up just down the road in Grey Lynn. Central Tamaki is truly my Turangawaewae. It’s a painful & proud love I have for this place. It has shaped me, the beings of the land have deeply supported & held me throughout my life; my childhood, my teen years, my recovery & the years of my training.

I spoke with the darkness and sickness that poisons the city. I explored the stories there & tried to find ways to heal or to bring that sickness to light. I was ambitious & naïve, but my intention was pure & true. I hope to one day to see that work through.

Now In my life the Arts call me, as does living closer to nature & the quiet. I have become increasingly sensitive or aware of the depth of my sensitivity. I have a strong spiritual practice that keeps me clear & able to do this work. I'm really devoted to the service of empowering others with their own medicine. I have been working with people, clients for some time now. Understanding more and more about the nature of healing & what my values are when it comes to my work as a practitioner & how I help people.

The Wild Womxn & returning to nature is a reoccurring theme in my work. I have been shown over and over again the unruly power we can access when standing in the force of our wild womxn. My work is a lot about disintegrating the subtle frameworks born of patriarchy. It is about cultural mending & creating more awareness about our power in the non-physical realms. I love the womxn I work with, they are my friends & teachers. They inspire me & remind me why I am walking this path.

I never planned to work primarily with womxn, it just unfolded that way. For now I am in service to the Goddess & her daughters, who knows one day that may change!

Thank you to Diana Baine, Saxon, Frances, Sue - the four bad bitch scorpio women whom become my recovery sisterhood. To Eden, Emily & Kate for being really good friends, always there for me. To Flo, Chalice Malcolm, Annaliese Kluegar, Carrie, Lottie,  my mum, Nita, Anna, Aiya, Hannah so many amazing strong women who stood by & supported me, finding ways to laugh & dance through it all.