Jeffery Olsen is a bestselling author who is fascinated by Indigenous spirituality and he has inspired a large audience with his story of perseverance and inner strength. In 1997 he lost his wife and young son in a horrific car accident. He himself nearly died and had a profound near-death experience because of it.
Indigenous spirituality and little Jeffery
Jeffery is very passionate about native American Indigenous culture. Even though he is mostly Norwegian he feels a strong connection to the Indigenous people of America. As a young child Jeffery met a native American man on his family’s farm. This man, Ben, worked with the horses on the farm and he did it in an energetic way. Little Jeffery was totally mesmerized by the way Ben connected with the horses. It was so profoundly different from the way his dad used to do it. Jeffery had had his first of many meetings with Indigenous spirituality.
The car accident was life changing
Following the severe car accident that changed his life forever, he started researching every major religion and he found himself mostly drawn to the American Indigenous spirituality. He met with medicine men and women, they call themselves Shamans, at a workshop up north, and even though he had never spoken publicly about his near-death experience, the head Shaman came up to him and told him that she knew he had been in the world of spirits. This left him baffled and thinking that the indigenous people had a true connection to the other side.
Lessons learned
He learned in his near-death experience, that life is an absolute gift and that every moment is sacred. He says you can meditate everywhere and even sit down next to a tree and if you’re open to it, you can learn from it and the things that surround you. You just have to listen.
The Indigeounus people always honour the divine masculine, father sky, and the divine feminine, mother earth. They honor the sun because they know things will grow in the light and that is a blessing. They’re living in a state of gratefulness, Jeffery says.
The medicine Wheel
A medicine wheel is meditation in motion, according to Jeffery. He’s built his medicine wheels on the Lakota tradition and they have seven sacred directions. There are many different traditions when it comes to building a medicine wheel though. When you walk the medicine wheel you are honoring your own life. There are 36 stones in a wheel and the creator stone resides in the middle. The intention of the wheel is to realize we’re here to learn and to honor our lives and everything around us. The medicine wheel also has color connected to it. Red, white, black and yellow.
Jeffrey says he’s here with the hope of, in any way, being a small manifestation of the unconditional love he experienced on the other side. If he can do that, that is his purpose in life.
If you’re interested in Indigenous spirituality and if this resonates with you, I recommend you check out this interview. Jeffery explains it all with great passion and love. He truly is a great advocate for the Indigenous people and their way of living and honoring mother earth.
Learn more about Jeffery on his homepage.
I’m honored to have Jeffery as one of our masterclass teachers in The Membership. In his class he focuses on two sacred rituals. The Medicine Wheel and The Mesa. The class gives us a glimpse into a world of indigenous spirituality and rituals. It teaches us that connection and unconditional love is the most important thing we can cultivate for ourselves and our surroundings. You are welcome to join us, and enjoy his class.
