Oh hello, you!

Since my last email to you, I have been engrossed in reading and managed to finish five books by the end of January! Yay me, because I have not managed to read so much in one month in so many years.

I was also guided by my ancestors to go on a five-day-long fast from the first of February and yeah, it’s been challenging because I have not been having any solids. If anything, it has led to me sleeping more which is fine because in any case, some of my biggest breakthroughs happen when I am well-rested. Yesterday was double challenging because I was at book club and when the girls ordered their food, I had to fight many parts of me to not grab their chicken and chips. I am hanging in there. Strongly. Today is my official last day. 

Next week Sunday I will be launching a 7-day challenge to celebrate yourself. I am not as great as I wish to be at celebrating myself and I know many people are just like me. So as a collective, I'd love for us to do better by patting ourselves on the back more regularly as we achieve big and small things. No more jumping from one achievement to the next. It is time to pause and clap for ourselves. I know we will both benefit from this and I can't wait.

As part of my healing practice as a sangoma/ shaman, and in addition to the personal spiritual readings I offer, I also launched spiritual business readings for business owners, which has been wonderful and insightful. In my experience of running businesses, I always include God and my ancestors. Their support has helped me tremendously to a point where I have more clarity amongst other things and find that the strategies they give me align better with me and my lineage. This is something I know all businesses would benefit from. 

Speaking of being a sangoma/shaman, some of the things that have bothered me in my journey are the misconceptions and negative labels people have about us.  Unfortunately, I believed some of them before I was initiated a few years ago and see how my thinking was based on society’s projections.

Here are my top six:

1. All sangomas/ shamans look scary: This is not true. I am not sure why some people expect us to look like the sangomas/ shamans from that old Shaka Zulu TV show and I am glad that in the spirit of representation, we live in an age where there is more diversity.

2. Wearing your sangoma/ shaman regalia as in the clothes, beads etc. all the time is what makes you a sangoma/ shaman: This is also not true. If you have this gift, you were born with it. There is no need to jump through hoops to prove yourself. Many of us had to thwasa (that means to undergo ancestral training) and graduate from initiation school to make things officially official.

3. Being a sangoma/ shaman means you are a witch: There is a huge difference between the two just as there is a difference between good and bad. As a sangoma/ shaman, I am here to help people heal. Witches use witchcraft and bewitch people which is terrible!

4. All sangomas/ shamans are uneducated: This is misleading. Some of us are educated. I graduated cum laude from my post-grad. Anyway, your decision to consult with a sangoma/ shaman does not have to be based on whether they studied academically or not. Our gifts are bigger than that.

5. Sangomas/ shamans do not go to church: That’s another misconception. Many attend church. Many have baporofeta/ izithunya, which are the more prophetic ancestors.

6. The only type of work a sangoma/ shaman does is ancestral work: That’s also not true. We work in different spaces including corporate, academia, business etc. It’s all about where you are called.

So what are your misconceptions?

I’d love to hear from you.

Love,

Gogo Pabi

PS: If you would like to book a personal reading you can click here. Sangoma/ shaman, medium, prophetic and psychic readings are available.

If you are a business owner, you can book a spiritual business reading here.