The concept of soul restoration comes from the wisdom of Indigenous peoples. The soul restoration methods I’ve been taught have been informed by indigenous practices, however they are not based on any specific culture or tradition.

Soul restoration was developed from deep animist practices over 25+ years by my teacher, Fátúnmíbì (formerly known as Fabeku Fatunmise). This lineage has many shaping influences. Including his extensive training and initiation in the West African Yoruba spiritual tradition. His lifelong study of divination, both traditional and non-traditional. And his practice as a talismanic artist, amongst other influences.

I completed a 2-year intensive training on soul restoration with Fátúnmíbì, and continue with ongoing extended training and support on this deep and potent work. We respect the lineage of this work, and give thanks to the wisdom-keepers who kept their spiritual knowledge alive in the face of colonisation and oppression. 

This work is not related to core shamanism or the practice of soul retrieval. It's rooted in a very different worldview, and works at a different level of skillfulness and potency.

As we see it, your soul is never lost or fragmented. Your soul is the biggest, deepest, most powerful and fundamental part of who you are. It’s impossible to lose parts of your soul, so there’s nothing to retrieve. 

What happens instead, in response to significant or persistent pain or trauma, is that your connections with parts of your soul get eclipsed or obscured. Something moves in between your day-to-day self and that particular part of your soul. 

We call this soul eclipsing. Soul restoration shifts the things that obscure the connections to your soul, one piece at a time.

Being on this planet even for a minute makes it harder to maintain your full connection to your soul. Like the moon eclipses the sun, difficult life experiences cast shadows so that the light, love, strength, vastness, and power of your soul can no longer reach you. 

Sometimes this is in response to big pain or trauma. Often, it’s a slow dimming of the lights in response to many smaller hurts - not being seen, held, lifted or nurtured in the ways you needed. 

Soul eclipsing is a kind of defence mechanism. An attempt to protect your human self by shutting down your connection with the core of who you are. 

Your soul is always there, waiting for you to reconnect. Wanting to plug you back into the vast source of support that is your spiritual birthright. 

Soul eclipsing strips away resources, leaving you feeling depleted and unsupported on a fundamental level. Things feel hard. Moving forward is two steps forward and one step back, at best.

When your connection to your soul is restored, it also restores your access to resources, like creative expression, more ease and flow, feeling safe in your body, more lifting relationships, healing old wounds, and moving forward in wanted ways. 

No, that would be too much. Your soul knows what you need and which obstacles to shift next, piece by essential piece.

Soul restoration can be repeated, to work on different facets of eclipsing. I've had many soul restorations, each one unique.

Unfortunately, soul eclipsing comes with the territory of living a normal human life in our modern world. Pain, trauma, loss, illness, depression, loneliness, exhaustion, stress, breakups, disillusionment, disappointment - especially when there’s not enough support - can create more soul eclipsing.

So it's helpful to have more than one soul restoration. Especially if you’ve been through something hard in your life, or are affected by the {increasing} intensity of our human world.

Most people benefit from having a soul restoration every year or two. It’s recommended to wait at least 6 months after your restoration completes, to allow time for that to integrate, before receiving another one.

Your soul restoration begins the moment you say Yes to doing a restoration, when your soul knows it has access to this support. 

The restoration deepens once I begin a conversation with your soul through divination, and again when your soul restoration talisman is made. It deepens further when you receive and work with your talisman, including any support practices. 

You may notice shifts at any of these phases. And the shifts continue after your soul restoration completes, during the integration phase.

This work is deep and effective, but I don't promise fast. Sometimes it is, absolutely. But it operates on soul time. Often, slow shifts are kinder, deeper, and longer lasting. 

Your soul restoration is complete when you stop wearing or carrying your talisman. More information on that will be sent to you along with your unique talisman.

Sometimes, most of your soul restoration work has been done by the time you receive your talisman. If your soul has received what it needs, your talisman-wearing phase may be very short. Or it may take a longer time to complete.

Each restoration takes as long as it takes. It could be minutes, days, weeks, months, or (rarely) years. It's never too short or too long. It depends on what is most supportive for you, your capacity, and your relationship with your soul.

Some people will notice even more shifts in the integration phase, during the months after your talisman completes. This is when the new seeds planted by your restoration take root and grow.

Sometimes it’s obvious and you will have a clear sense of what your soul restoration has shifted. At other times, it’s subtle and you may only notice when you look back later.

There are times when small, incremental changes are kindest. Your soul may nudge you forward with a hundred tiny steps. Or fling new doors wide open in obvious ways. At other times, the work is shifting tectonic plates deep beneath the surface. Whatever is most helpful for you, even if you don’t understand it at the time. 

Your soul decides where {which area of your life}, as well as when and how, to apply the medicine of each soul restoration you receive. It knows which piece of soul eclipsing to heal next, even if that may not {immediately} line up with what you hope for. 

It can be very helpful to look back and notice what has shifted for you. Areas of life that used to feel hard but are now easier. Read through the list of how soul restoration helps above every so often and see what you notice.