Whenever I receive an email that we’re having a call with my teacher, bestselling author and mystic Lynn V. Andrews, I suddenly feel grounded, grounded by her continuous ancient teachings and by my previous four-year apprenticeship in her school.

In Book One the four-part memoir series, Healing Wisdom for a Wounded World: My Life-Changing Journey Through a Shamanic School, I write about my first encounter with Lynn. She’d recommended I enroll in the Mystery School as it could help me make the right decisions regarding my writing career.

“What’s the Mystery School?” I asked, wiping away tears triggered by her tapping into a deep wound that had prevented me from writing my truth.

“It’s a four-year school that will teach and awaken the beauty and power within you,” she said. “It will give you the direction you need.”

Four years? I thought. It didn’t take me that long to get my bachelor’s degree.

“I have children,” I said. “I can’t leave my home to go study somewhere.”

“This is a school without walls. I created it so that anyone, anywhere in the world could do this work without having to move to a campus. I wanted to create a learning environment where people could learn through their own experiences, not to try to be their teacher.”

“I’ll check it out on your website and consider it,” I lied. Yes, she said some profound things that stirred me and yes, I cried, and yes, I felt a connection with her that was ignited as easily as one lit a match, like when two people fell in love at first sight, but no, I was not going to fall for this gimmick. I had no idea who Lynn was at the time, only called her because I’d read her book Writing Spirit and had been very moved by it.

She then said a prayer that wrapped around me like a blanket. After we hung up, I tried to disengage from the powerful energy of that conversation. I didn’t want to invest in a school. I wanted to move my writing career forward despite my tons of responsibility, particularly having to raise a young family. Yet I kept getting drawn to the beauty and depth of Lynn’s words, and to a feeling of authenticity that I didn’t easily see in the world around me. I eventually went online to learn more about it.

I learned that the Mystery School is a spiritual school that has, for over 25 years, passed down shamanic teachings of 44 women known as the Sisterhood of the Shields. These women are healers from various cultures such as Panama, Guatemala, Australia, Nepal, North American and the Yucatan. Their teachings have been passed from one generation to the next for thousands of years. They initiated Lynn as a member of The Sisterhood and appointed her as their public messenger. Lynn’s study began with Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs, Native American healers in northern Canada. Lynn wrote about her own experience in Medicine Woman, and later, as she met with more of the women of the Sisterhood, wrote over a dozen more books. Lynn’s website describes her “as a major link between the ancient world of shamanism and modern societies’ thirst for profound personal healing and a deeper understanding of the pathway to enlightenment.”

So I signed up, and that one decision transformed my life.

Lynn’s books and teachings resonated with me and thousands of others from around the world, linking us with the ancient healing and magic of long ago, thus bringing to life, through experiential learning, a connection to spirit and the earth.While my graduation seems like ages ago – so much has happened since then, including my writing a four-part memoir series about the experience – I only started the school in February 2012. The school is still available for people to learn from. With all the chaos in the world, this is truly a unique opportunity that provides ancient skills and tools for a sacred way of life.

To learn more about these teachings, visit http://lynnandrews.com/lacsat/