Jodee Chizever wanted to be a senator. Instead she became a shaman. Along the way she
got a master’s degree in public administration and worked for a number of nonprofit
organizations, including serving as director of volunteer services for United Way.
She’s just got this thing about helping people. So now she helps them get in touch with themselves, and others, in ways they may not have thought possible.
As a child Chizever, who now lives in Raritan Township with her husband, said she realized she had a gift, but it was “squashed” by her family. As a teenager she used her connection with the spirit world to earn money, working as a psychic at fair. “It was me and a bunch of 50-year-old women,” she says with a ready laugh.
“I don’t see ghosts. I see spirits, spirit guides,” she says. “I am only a conduit, I am not special.”
Her gift, she said, wreaked havoc, tiring her out until she learned how to “open and close at my will” the “door” that puts spirits in touch.
She did that through study, which started at age 16 and has taken her far and wide. More than three years ago she retired from her management career — crediting her “wonderful” husband Brian for supporting the change — in order to increase her studies and become a self-employed shamanic energy healer and spiritual guide.
If you met Chizever in the grocery store aisle or walking through the neighborhood, you’d never guess her occupation. She doesn’t wear shawls or oversized hoop earrings. Her house is a white, two-story Colonial style in a development several decades old.
What she loved about the home is the ample basement she could arrange as a home “office,” as well as the back yard, which abuts a stream and woods beyond. It’s where she invites others to a monthly Full Moon Fire Ceremony, which she describes as a “time when you can let go of what no longer serves you and pray for what you feel would make you more whole,” a “time of healing and gratitude.”
It is a ceremony passed down from Incan times to the Andean people, she said. A way to bring our lives “back to the balance.”
Some people return regularly; others drop in just to learn more, said Chizever. The night is a pot-luck gathering and there is no charge, although many leave a donation at night’s end. She’s had as few as four and as many as 25 gather.
Drums and rattles are part of the ceremony, which is held around her suburban fire pit.
It can be moved indoors (sans fire pit) during inclement weather. Everyone brings an
“offering,” meaning a piece of nature such as a pine cone, stick, or leaf.
Inside she has a simple “shaman’s altar” covered with a Peruvian cloth. There are sacred stones and feathers and crystals, but it’s a small area. Around the space are candles, dried sage leaves, a shell, and pictures and statues of wolves - since the wolf is Chizever’s “power animal.”
An abalone shell holds natural materials such as the sage and tobacco, used to “smudge” herself and visitors. Smudging, she explained, clears away negativity that can result from problems big and small. To smudge, she wafts smoke.
“Tobacco is a sacred herb to Native Americans,” she said of a substance now banned in public places in New Jersey, linked to the prayers offered to the Creator. The rising smoke, she said, is an offering, much as prayers are put “into the fire” at the full moon ceremony.
Chizever also teaches workshops such as “Envision Your Future,” in which participants create a vision board to help them achieve a goal. “What’s your life’s purpose? How do you get there,” said the shaman.
Another workshop identifies everyone’s power animal, something that children, including Scout troops, seem to enjoy as much as adults.
Why know this? Chizever sighed, “You know yourself a little bit more; it’s a reflection of yourself that mirrors good and bad.”
Study your power animal’s behavior, she said, and you can learn something about yourself.
Then there’s “space clearing” in homes to remove negative energy left behind by a prior owner or absorbed by traumatic events such as a divorce or loss of a job. This takes several hours, she said, as she clears “sticky energy” from “every nook and cranny. It makes the space lighter.”
She finds that her purpose is to help people, whether it’s in finding direction, coping with a serious illness, or just looking to learn more about their world
“There’s so much more to realize than this physical reality,” she said. But she doesn’t suggest that shamanic healing is the only route. “Western therapy obviously works,” she said. “I’m a big proponent of balance.”
One-hour workshops start as $85. Chizever also offers private sessions. To learn more, including the schedule of upcoming workshops in Skillman and Plainsboro, visit MarahLight.com or call Chizever at (732) 406‑1922.