--- title: "How are Power-loss, soul loss and loss of personal power different?" description: "They are three different wounds. Power-loss is disconnection from nature and Mother Earth**Mother Earth.** The sacred Feminine pole: pure potential, from whom all the Peoples arise. The Lower-World is her realm, and she is all the realms: \"The Earth is…" url: "https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/wiki/how-are-power-loss-soul-loss-and-loss-of-personal-power-different/" updated: "2026-11-10" category: Why we get ill tags: - assertiveness - boundaries - culture - fire element - personal power - power animal - "power-from-within" - "power-loss" - "power-over" - psychotherapy - soul loss --- # How are Power-loss, soul loss and loss of personal power different? They are three different wounds. Power-loss is disconnection from nature and Mother Earth**Mother Earth.** The sacred Feminine pole: pure potential, from whom all the Peoples arise. The Lower-World is her realm, and she is all the realms: "The Earth is indeed our Mother." [More about this](/wiki/who-is-mother-earth/), which drains our life-force; soul loss is the loss of a part of ourselves; loss of personal power is about boundaries, assertiveness and handing our power to others in human life. They are healed in different ways: Power-loss by reconnecting, soul loss by soul retrieval**Soul retrieval.** Finding an exiled soul-part and inviting it home. In the modern psyche the fort-holder who sent it away must consent first, and the retrieval itself is a beginning: the real work is integration. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-soul-retrieval/), and personal power by reclaiming our own boundaries and authority. ## Is Power-loss the same as losing personal power? No. They are easily confused, which is why Power-loss is written with a capital P: it is not the same thing as the loss of personal power.^[1](#note-1) The 'power' in Power-loss is life-force: "By 'power', here, what shamans mean is essentially 'life-force'."^[2](#note-2) They are different wounds. 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Glossary, "Power-loss". 2. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Five, "How to Bond with Your Power Animal". ## What is Power-loss? Disconnection from the living world. "Power-loss occurs when we become disconnected from nature, from the interconnected web of life and our place in it. This disconnection weakens us."^[3](#note-3) It is healed by reconnecting, above all through the Power Animal**Power Animal.** The Oversoul of a wild species, met as a single Lower-World being and bonded with in a deep, committed, usually lifelong soul-bond of unconditional love. The practitioner's first and foremost Guide: Panther, not "my panther". [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-a-power-animal/). See [What is Power-loss?](/wiki/what-is-power-loss/) 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter One, "'Civilisation', Power-Loss and Soul-Loss". ## What is loss of personal power? Losing our ability to stand in our own authority. Healthy personal power is power-from-within**Power-from-within.** Starhawk's term for the healthy mode of power, as against power-over. Egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands held power this way; practising shamanism from power-over is 'just more Fall'. [More about this](/wiki/what-is-power-from-within/), a phrase from the writer [Starhawk](/wiki/who-is-starhawk/). People who have it do not unhealthily hand their power over to anyone else, nor do they want power over anyone else; they operate from a place of respectful relationship. "Characteristic of power-from-within is that, when someone has it, they have no wish to have power over others, nor are they willing to hand their power to others."^[4](#note-4) So loss of personal power shows up as weak boundaries, difficulty being assertive, and giving our authority away. One of the qualities of a true Adult is being "willing to step into and own their personal power and authority. Does not unhealthily hand their power over to others."^[5](#note-5) 1. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Six, "Power-From-Within". 2. Paul Francis, [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/), Chapter Four, "What an Adult Really Is". ## How do boundaries and the fire element fit in? Personal power is closely tied to boundaries and to fire. As adults, we mostly create our own boundaries, and we are in charge of them: the zip handle should always be on the inside. In the language of the five elements, the fire element in us is our power, the source of our ability to hold our healthy boundaries, to assert ourselves when needed, and to speak the truth as we see it. In 'depression', it is the fire element that is being de-pressed. See [What do earth, water, fire, air and ether represent?](/wiki/what-do-earth-water-fire-air-and-ether-represent/) ## How is soul loss different from both? Soul loss is the loss of a part of ourselves. Power-loss and soul loss share most of their symptoms, but "soul-loss is characterised by some (or even all) of the above, plus having a sense that part of you is missing somehow. Whereas power-loss is characterised by some or all of the above symptoms, plus a disconnection from the natural world."^[6](#note-6) See [What is soul loss?](/wiki/what-is-soul-loss/) Soul loss can also overlap with loss of personal power. The commonest modern cause of soul loss is sending parts of ourselves away to fit in, and amongst the things we send away are "confidence, assertiveness" and "anger".^[7](#note-7) So a lack of assertiveness can go with a part that has been lost. 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Seven, "How to Spot a Possession". 2. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Nine, "The Old Practices Do Not Work Like They Used To". ## How is each one healed? Differently, and that is why telling them apart matters. Power-loss is healed by reconnecting with the living world: "Anything that helps us to reconnect helps in healing power-loss. First and foremost in this is doing a Power Animal retrieval".^[8](#note-8) Soul loss is healed by [soul retrieval](/wiki/what-is-soul-retrieval/): "healing soul-loss that has already occurred tends to be marked by a series of events. These events are 'soul-retrievals'."^[9](#note-9) Personal power is reclaimed in our everyday human lives. As adults, we mostly create our own boundaries, and we are in charge of them. Healing Power-loss and loss of personal power is not an event; it is a process. 1. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Six, "What Shamanism Says about Why We Get Ill". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter Six, "What Shamanism Says about Why We Get Ill". ## Is Power-loss a personal issue or a cultural issue? Both. It is the normal state of our whole culture, and each of us carries it. "As a society as a whole, when we disconnected ourselves from the natural world and Mother Earth, we suffered massive, collective power-loss."^[10](#note-10) "We are suffering from severe and chronic power-loss, at a scale unprecedented in human history."^[11](#note-11) Yet healing it is personal: it is about how you live your life, day in, day out, for the rest of your life. It is both at once. 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Seven, "The Wetiko Epidemic". 2. Paul Francis, [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/), Chapter One, "'Civilisation', Power-Loss and Soul-Loss". ## Is loss of personal power cultural too? Yes. Our culture is built on power-over: modern culture is largely built on a hierarchical relationship with power, in contrast to hunter-gatherer cultures characterised by power-from-within. "At the time of the Fall**The Fall.** The catastrophe at the root of the whole diagnosis: the shift from animist, egalitarian hunter-gatherer life to owning, agricultural Taker culture. In domesticating other species we domesticated ourselves, cutting ourselves off from Mother Earth (Power-loss) and from parts of our own nature (soul-loss). When dated precisely, the Fall begins with the first city-state cultures, around 4000 BCE (Domestication begins earlier, with the Neolithic). A sickness, not our true nature. 'Fallen culture' is used interchangeably with Taker culture; the Great Rupture is a looser alternate name. [Read the full answer](/wiki/what-is-the-fall/), we handed our power over to psychopaths, and put them in charge of things."^[12](#note-12) Taking our power back is personal and collective work. 1. Paul Francis, [*The Shamanic Journey*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/the-shamanic-journey/), Chapter Seven, "Taking Power Back". - [What is Power-loss?](/wiki/what-is-power-loss/) - [What is soul loss?](/wiki/what-is-soul-loss/) - [How is Power-loss healed and what is Power retrieval?](/wiki/how-is-power-loss-healed-and-what-is-power-retrieval/) - [How does animism understand power and hierarchy?](/wiki/how-does-animism-understand-power-and-hierarchy/) - [What is the Adult and what does healthy inner leadership look like?](/wiki/what-is-the-adult-and-what-does-healthy-inner-leadership-look-like/) - [*Rewilding Yourself*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/rewilding-yourself/) (Chapter One on power-loss and soul-loss) - [*Finding Your Deep Soul*](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/book/finding-your-deep-soul/) (Chapter Six, power-from-within) - [all courses](https://www.therapeutic-shamanism.co.uk/shamanic-courses/)