by Amanda Hamilton

The first time I read The Voice of the Four Elements, I did so in one sitting.  I simply fell through what I would describe as the most important portal of my life, like Alice through the Looking Glass.  

I couldn’t think of anything else.  The pages turned themselves as I lived every word.  Every cell of my body vibrated with a recurring “YES!” I felt as if my cells knew this story, and my being reverberated with recognition.  

Climate change, social collapse, economic disaster – the how’s, the why’s, the when’s – all these impending and occurring catastrophes needed to hold their breath while I learned to breathe in a different way.  I was energised as I walked beside this self-realising being through the words she was guided to write for us by the Four Sacred Elements and the Mother Goddess.  

She was showing me, through her unique style of writing that whispered beyond my rational mind or my clouded emotions, that there is another way.  Another way to live, to relate, to think, to surrender – and all in perfect and absolute harmony with the earth, Our Mother.  The invitation is that this path is available to each of us, and more so now than ever.

This tiny, salt and pepper haired, brown eyed Brazilian woman, XamAM Alba Maria, sees a picture so vast it goes beyond anything most of us could ever envisage, let alone encounter.  She sees beyond it all while remaining fully rooted and present in the reality and the grit of it.  There is not one ounce of denial in her or any of her work.  It’s quite the opposite; her life is profoundly immersed in the daily reality of living in a country that has more than its fair share of corruption, genocide, colonialisation and betrayal.  And yet she embodies her truth that daily life is a waking prayer, an opportunity to dive into ourselves, and that how we live each second of our daily lives determines our experience.  

I first met XamAM in 2016, sitting cross legged in a yurt that had been transformed into a Temple in deepest Somerset, England.  I was attending and teaching at one of the many spiritually anchored camps I have been involved with over the years.  Camps where the collapse narrative is not just known, it’s almost welcomed, in that there is a strong support for the extinction of this modern-day dinosaur – elitist capitalism and dissociation from the earth.  In reality, for those of us who dance barefoot in those fields, it is not just a possibility; it is a reality that is unfolding in front of our eyes and to which many of us feel a calling to midwife and husband into existence.  The world where Pachamama, Gaia, our beautiful Earth is revered in Her rightful place as Mother of All Life and Giver of All.  

And this is XamAM’s lived reality.

In her book, she repeatedly opens portals that we might otherwise never even consider possible.  Setting free the incarcerated and imprisoned wild animal that is your true nature …. Coming into communion with the Four Sacred Elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water and discovering that they are, and have always been, there for you, communicating directly with you all the time, answering your doubts, your anxieties, your fears, your traumas.  XamAM’s book speaks of this interrelationship between human and land, being and animal, heart and sap, footstep and falling leaf.  There is no place on this earth where communication is not happening continually – and she lives it with exquisite integrity and shares the wonders of how it changes the lived reality of each of us.

Imagine … instead of waking up in the morning and going through your same routine, without necessarily giving a thought for what you are doing, you were to wake up and live each and every second in complete conscious awareness.  Giving thanks for the water coming out of your tap, praying to it, singing to it.  Giving thanks for each grape, each grain of coffee, knowing that you are in direct communion with the Being, the Plant Spirit, that inhabits each particle of food with which you are going to nourish your body.

Imagine how it would be if this reverential way of life became something that each of us, within our own limits, drew into our daily life.

Would so many animals be tortured for our benefit, I wonder?  Would we feel the need to light our houses like Christmas trees, or would we feel able to be more modest and humble in our consumption, sharing what we have with gratitude, generosity and devotion?  Would we feel a little more motivated to plant a seed and nurture that seed into life, into joy, into a flower, a shrub, a tree, honouring the cyclical nature of life?

XamAM’s lived experiences offer us the opportunity to fly with her into mythical and cosmic time where we can make these and many other necessary and honourable changes to our very DNA coding and our collective consciousness.  It’s the place beyond, where spontaneous healing is normal, miracles are moment to moment occurrences, and the matrix of societal rules and restrictions are as ridiculous as the Emperor who wears no clothes.  XamAM was taken one element at a time into parallel existences, paranormal worlds and past lives to see through the eyes of an initiated Shaman the truth of humanity.  This reality is available to us all, and has never been more important for us to see the truth of our own destiny, our own immenseness, our own capacity to overcome whatever is thrown at us, including death.

Her book The Voice of the Four Elements has been translated into English so that hundreds of thousands more souls trying to find their way in this complex matrix can benefit – including you.

It offers hope and determination. It brings an absolute clarity that it is all ‘down to me’ and how I behave.  Every step of the way we are offered the chance to experience the absolute clarity that XamAM brings to every situation, every conversation, every sharing circle and every piece of writing, of which there are thousands of texts.  Nothing is done to please the other.  Everything is done to fully bring into being the sentence that is known but little understood : The Truth Sets Us Free.

She speaks to us of the changes coming, the changes underway, reminding us over and over that we must hold onto our strength, our purpose, our Divine Mission.  And every teaching she brings to light has this at its heart.

XamAM’s journey has led her all around the world, sharing her Voice, as The Voice of the Four Elements, to people of many languages and many cultures.  The differences melt away as she speaks from the heart of the Mother Goddess, bringing determination, power and guidance as well as compassion, patience and certainty.  Sitting in circle with her, asking the questions burning holes in our hearts and souls provokes her profound guidance that gives clear directives, clear understanding, hypercommunicating beyond our rational minds into our unconscious and mysterious depths where real change unfolds.  I have often asked planetary collapse-based questions and her answers are always in the same vein … ‘what you can do, here and now, is where ALL the power lies.  What are you doing, here and now, to change the narrative, to create a new story, to bring beauty and love to the earth?’.

I am one of the luckiest people I know.  I have navigated Covid and lockdown from within Terra Mirim where XamAM lives and works tirelessly for the greater good.  This thriving, conscious Shamanic community that lives lightly and in collaboration with and reverence for the Earth, gives of itself in every moment in service to the planet, in service to the Four Elements and the Mother Goddess.  Here we follow XamAM’s guidance, bringing the best of ourselves to whatever situation, whatever fear, whatever news comes our way.  We dance consciously, bringing music to the shadows, lightness to the despair, love to the unlovable.  And in this way of devotion, discipline and a determination we emanate the energy, strength and power of indigenous living in harmony with Mother Nature, Pachamama.  

No matter what you are feeling, no matter how afraid you are of what’s coming, XamAM’s words will bring comfort.  Death is only another portal after all – and we all survived the first death didn’t we?   We all survived the collapse of the womb around us, the crashing and crushing waves of expulsion that forced us out of our tiny uterine comfort zone into the world of form … and one day we will need to lay our bodies down so our spirits can fly free again.  But between now and that unknown moment?  XamAM’s example to us all comes from one very simple but deeply moving phrase I heard her share after I had returned from a life changing Vision Quest.  I was broken, unable to see the point of life if it was all going to fall apart at some unknown future anyway.  Why bother?  Why do you bother XamAM?  She responded as if the whole world was speaking through her : “For as long as the sun continues to rise, the flowers continue to blossom and the birds continue to sing, I will serve the Mother Goddess, the Four Elements, and those who need me”.

Terra Mirim is a conscious Shamanic Community with more than 50 residents, each carving their own path through and around the breakdown process, while living and supporting each other in non-competitive, honest and creative ways.  Each one shines in their own bright and unique strength, each supported when needed.

Every year she leads a XamAM School for both beginners and initiates and energetically holds hundreds of students around the world as they work through their initiations into the Sacred Medicines of Shamanism.  Monthly volunteer programmes are offered, immersions, Ayahuasca Ceremonies, Cabana Rituals, Full Moon Ceremonies as well as a once per month week Introducing Community Shamanism.  For further information please follow :

@xamaalbamaria Instagram

www.xamam.org

www.terrmirim.org.br

Amanda Hamilton began her journey into Shamanism in her early twenties in the UK and knew immediately and intuitively that this was her Divine Calling and Path to the Sacred.  Many years of walking in a teacherless wilderness, she worked with Jamie Sams’ Clan Mothers, the Medicine of the Four Directions and Ted Andrews’ inspired book Animal Speak, weaving these teachings into her lifelong yoga practice and yoga classes.  Her ‘chance meeting’ – as nothing is by chance really – with XamAM Alba Maria was a meeting of Souls.  In that moment, Amanda knew that there had never been a life when she and XamAM had been separate.  From that day onwards, she committed her life to one of self discovery, trust and surrender, giving herself to the Mother Goddess and the teachings of the Four Sacred Elements.  She spends her time between the UK and Brazil, holding space both online and in person for fellow seekers.  She leads retreats in both countries offering Functional Shamanic Yoga Classes and Yoga Nidra practices via her Patreon page (www.patreon.com/AmandaHamilton).