Winds of Spirit is an inspired and inspirational book by Renee Baribeau. It provides a framework for working shamanically with the winds in order to navigate better through our lives and be of service to the spirits and others.
As far as I know, this book is unique, as it is the first to focus solely on working with the winds and to provide a modern wind-based divinatory system. This is based on a combination of historical and cultural research and phenomenological evidence based on personal and group experiences.
Baribeau speaks candidly about her spiritual awakening from drug and alcohol addiction and how this led to her training in shamanism in the Native American, Chilean, Mexican and Peruvian traditions. Whilst working as a shamanic healer, she received the name ‘the practical shaman’ on the basis of her talent for helping people to find the tools to improve their everyday lives.
It’s no surprise, then, that this book is very practical and accessible. The idea at its centre is ‘using the body as a compass for navigating through life.’ This is simple, intuitive, but something we too often neglect in our digital world. Thus, embodied presence in the here-and-now, provides the ground.
Baribeau echoes the wisdom of worldwide religious traditions, emphasising the importance of establishing a prayer and meditation practice and also practicing surrender, acceptance, devotion and mindfulness. Only when we have this grounding can we begin to work with the ungrounding forces of the winds.
Baribeau’s system is based around the cardinal winds of the four directions, which she associates with the cycles of life (‘birth, expansion, death and decay’) and to which she assigns the following resonances: East – mind, south – emotions, west – body, north – spirituality and community.
She goes on to describe both inner and outer winds and their different types. I particularly related to the section where she speaks of how tailwinds can drive you forward, headwinds can blow against you or be used for uplift, and crosswinds can blow you off course or bring detours that result in gifts. I found myself nodding along as I recognised these types of wind in my life.
Baribeau shares a variety of practices for working with the winds, such as wind baths, wind knots and the weather vane process. She also talks about taking a wind walk as a way of finding clarity and insight. Finally, she lists 29 winds from world-wide cultures and their meaning when they arrive in the four quadrants and the blessings they can bring when called in.
I live in Lancashire, in an area usually dominated by a strong, damp, west wind that blows in from the sea and up the Ribble estuary and is one I often find myself fighting against when I’m cycling in a westward direction. Less often, we experience a drier and airier wind from the east, a warmer wind from the south, or a bitterly cold wind from the north or from the north-west.
This book has inspired me to listen to them better, to think of my body as a compass, to tune in to what they’re saying and how they relate to my inner winds.
Overall, it is well-researched and contains an excellent blend of ancient and modern wisdom. It is profoundly accessible in its grounding in our shared experience, in the breath we share, in our inner winds, in the outer winds that blow across our lands and appear with different names in different cultures. I would recommend it to those on a shamanic or nature-based path and to all who seek understanding and communion with the winds in their lives and localities.