Tiny blue flower dissolving in the August sunlight in Houston, Texas. Photo ©2009 by H. Kathleen Gresham

As healers we draw power from the Earth as well as the rest of the cosmos. Yet often we are not taught to think about that.

Older generations (and many people even today) were taught that we should live only for Heaven and wean ourselves away from the Earth. For healers that translates to what we call “living in your head,” “not being fully in your body most of the time,” or trying to shut down the lower chakras (which would kill you if you could actually do it) and trying to live from the upper chakras only.

But living on the Earth, as we are, means living in your body, balancing your chakras, and living with the energy of a particular place. If magic is defined as “causing change, using the mind,” then healing is a form of magic. And according to Dion Fortune, one of the greatest metaphysicians of the 2oth century, all magic is local magic.

Healers truly do use the power of the Earth as well as the heavens. But how well do most of us really know the part of the Earth where we live? To find out, take this short quiz to find out how well you know wild plants and animals native to your neighborhood:

http://www.examiner.com/x-16972-Houston-Shamanism-Examiner

You may be surprised.