Last Updated 17 March 2009 |
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Shamanic healing is a path that has come to be explored widely during the latter stage of this century. Through studies by people such as Mircea Eliade and Marija Gimbutas, shamanism and shamanic healing have become somewhat accessible.
There is a hesitancy, however, in some quarters to explore the depth and truth of shamanic healing. To really heal ourselves, it is often necessary to dig deep into those aspects of life and ourselves which are not always loving, not always pleasant to observe and feel - to truly touch them. This is what makes shamanic healing so powerful and potent: that it addresses all aspects of life, the uncomfortable as well as the comfortable, the hidden as well as the superficial. This is its strength, its honesty and truth if we will acknowledge it and see it. The question to ask ourselves is how genuine is our desire to delve in and explore that which has remained untouched for, in many cases, decades?
Healing, in shamanic terms, is interactive. It is not possible to 'lie back and be healed'. It is about taking responsibility for our own healing, for our own sickness and imbalance. When we face sickness, we face our own fears, our own doubts and issues. By facing them we see them for what they really are. This is itself empowering, although also difficult. The next step is to address the means by which that difficulty, that imbalance may become a situation of balance, a body in balance, a spirit in balance.
Trust is a huge part of self-healing, as is forgiveness. Trust in ourselves and our ability to make positive choices; trust in our ability to transform and grow; trust in the universe to support and sustain us. Forgiveness is also, by its very nature, healing. It is not a question of forgetting, rather of releasing pain and resentment and restoring our own power to ourselves - not giving away our power to others through hate, bitterness or regret. To forgive is to move on, to say "this is my life and I want to live it". So much energy goes into hatred - energy that can be better used for positive actions and emotions. We need to learn from every emotion, be it anger, hatred, jealously. But, in order to learn from those emotions, we need to address them - to face up to them. Only then can we be free to move on.
It is also important to remember, at this juncture, that these are not 'new' techniques. People often advertise shamanic healing as 'new pathways to healing', or 'new pathways to self-discovery'. This is not the case. Shamanic healing has been around for at least 40,000 years. This is what history and archaeology attests to. It is embedded in our psyche - although for people in the West it can often be difficult to break through societal structures and tap into that essence, that part of ourselves that is innately spiritual. Shamanic healing can take many forms. It encompasses land, animal, human and spiritual healing. Its broad base is reflective of the animistic nature of the practice - the recognition that spirit exists in all , and all things should be balanced and true.
A person seeking shamanic healing should consider how much they really want to be healed. Often people hold onto sickness as it serves a purpose, perhaps providing them with attention and care they feel they would not otherwise receive. If the person is to be healed successfully, then they must address such issues and find their root cause. For sickness or imbalance do not occur without good reason. They are reflective of the manner in which we live - be it physically, emotionally or spiritually. It is not necessary to blame ourselves, rather acknowledge why the imbalance occurred and seek ways in which the balance may be restored.
Sickness serves its purpose - whether it be to remind us to take care of our bodies, to rest, to acknowledge emotional pain. If we are serious about wanting to become balanced, physically/emotionally etc. then, possibly, shamanic healing will help. There needs to be respect for the work and a desire to face those issues which may cause pain or discomfort. There is no need, however, for an individual to face these problems alone. A person pursuing shamanic healing should have a wide support network - be that friends, family, therapists, homeopathic/medical doctors. Thus, when the need arises they will have someone to lean on and discuss what has arisen for them. If they are receiving medical advice/treatment, be it physical or mental, then they should check with their doctor to ensure that the shamanic healing is conducive to their treatment programme.
Power loss may occur in a person's life when there is a breach in our emotional, vitality or self-respect boundaries. The healing restoration of power/soul after a person experiences shock or trauma is common within shamanic practice. Power loss may be restored through the help of a "power animal". A power animal may be contacted in the Otherworld by the shamanic practitioner and restored to the client. It is important to note that the term "power" used here does not indicate "power over", rather it indicates the individual 'soul' or life energy of the person. While experiencing power retrieval, it is important that those seeking help are open to receiving the animal and allow themselves to re-experience self-respect and to accept the new help which is available to them through the restoration process.
Fragmentation of the soul may occur after a person experiences severe shock or trauma. Common reasons for such shock may be illness/surgery, abuse, rape, bereavement, loss or redundancy. Soul-parts which are missing are retrieved by the shamanic practitioner by means of shamanic journey and are restored to the client so that they may live a more complete life. As soul retrieval deals with spirit, the client may feel a strong and renewed sense of balance in their life.
by Jonathan Horwitz ©
The word "shaman" (pronounced SHAH-MAN) has become a new age catchword, used by many but understood by few. Originally, it comes from the Evinki people of Siberia, and literally means "the one who knows." Today, in the western world, some mean that a shaman is any kind of native medicine man or woman, while others think it is anyone with a strong personality and an intense stare. But, in fact, a shaman is defined by the way she or he works. Quite simply, a shaman is a woman or man who changes his or her state of consciousness, at will, in order to contact and/or travel to another reality to obtain power and knowledge. Mission accomplished, the shaman journeys home to use this power and knowledge to help either himself or others.
Using rhythmic drumming, dance, and song the shaman experiences a consciousnessshift which enables her to let her soul journey to what is traditionally known as the Spirit World. In many cultures, this alternate universe is divided into three main areas: The Upperworld, the Middleworld, and the Lowerworld.
The journey to the Lowerworld is started by the shaman by sending his own soul through an opening in the Earth - for example a cave, a spring, the hole at the base of a beech-tree, a foxhole, or even a man made hole such as a well or a mineshaft. The hole continues as a tunnel, further and further down, and, finally, the tunnel opens out into the landscape of the Lowerworld. The appearance of the Lowerworld is greatly varied. For some it may be a tropical, or woodland or mountainous landscape, while others may come into a fairytale-like country, with two suns. Be that as it may, it is here where the shaman meets his spirit-helpers, and it is the spirit-helpers who give the power or knowledge the shaman must have to return to ordinary reality to fight the illness of his patient, give advice for serious problems, or reestablish the balance of the community.
As the American anthropologist Michael Harner points out in his book, The Way of the Shaman, the key classic shamanic technique traditionally practiced all over the world, the journey to non-ordinary reality, can easily be learned and used by people with a western cultural background.
Many, if not most, of our modern psychotherapeutic methods have their roots in shamanism, and for this reason it is possible for shamanism to superficially resemble many current therapy forms. Because of this, I have often heard people with a psychological background try to explain the shamanic journey as an "inner " journey to the unconscious or the "higher self." This explanation is based on the western point of view which sees humans as the crown of creation, and, in opposition to shamanic knowledge, does not give other lifeforms credit for consciousness. Fortunately, there is more to the Universe than the human mind. From the shaman's point of view, the non-ordinary reality of the spirit world exists parallel to the ordinary reality of our consciousness, and independent of our minds. The shaman, knowing that all things created have a soul, also knows that it is possible to communicate with these other spiritual essences by journeying to them, breaking through the boundaries of Time and Space.
The shamanic techniques are powerful, no matter how they are explained, but if we accept the reduced psychological explanation we risk separating ourselves from most of the shaman's power. The power of the shamanic journey resides in the fact that it is a journey of the soul, and that the shaman's soul returns with the power of the Universe, which is the strongest medicine be found.
One of the most widespread misunderstandings about shamanism is that it is a religion with the shaman in the role of priest. This is not the case. In some traditional societies, the shaman serves as both shaman and ceremonial leader, but the two activities are carried out at different times. In the shamanic ceremony, the purpose is to build a bridge between the world of the spirits and the everyday world as we know it, and often all the participants in the ritual become intimately involved with the power present. That which separates shamanism from most religions is the direct spiritual experience without middle-men, for example, priests, who attempt to establish a monopoly on the sacred. There are no gurus in shamanism, except in the spirit world, where the shaman receives her knowledge.
Shamanism goes hand in hand with the animist's experience of the world: first, all that is alive, and being alive embodies a spirit; second, all that is alive is connected by these spirits. Therefore we all - humans, trees, dogs, cats, bees, stones, mountains, seas, Earth and Sky - we all are connected. Even though shamanism itself is based on first-hand experience and is not religious belief, many religions - including certain Christian, Buddhist, and Islamic sects - have strong shamanic influences and leanings. One need not believe in anything to use shamanism, not even that it works. But people who don't believe in anything risk believing in many things, and those who hold dogmatic positions risk having to radically revise their ideas after having experienced the non-ordinary world of the shaman. It is also very normal for those practicing shamanism to have life- changing experiences, experiences which in everyday language are called religious experiences, which provide him with a set of values and practices to live by.
Traditionally, the would-be shaman is most often initiated spontaneously by the spirits. In our culture, these experiences are sometimes referred to as out-of-body experiences, psychotic episodes, revelations, or even very powerful dreams, depending on ow they occur and how they are viewed. Sometimes these experiences are also accompanied by illness, as in the famous example of Black Elk (see Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt). In any case, when this happens, an experienced shaman is consulted and asked to teach the way of the shaman to the newly initiated one. Indeed, sometimes the teaching is the only cure for the illness. The teachings of the experienced shaman consist mainly of setting up learning situations for the neophyte, because the shaman realizes that the Universe is the real teacher.
Of course each culture has it's own traditions, but whereas priests and ceremonial leaders are strictly restricted in their rituals by the preestablished cultural rules of their traditions, in many cases the information received by the shaman goes beyond the traditions. And this is respected, because it is recognized that each shaman has his own direct contact to the wisdom of the spirits. For example, in some traditional cultures, it was felt that East was the direction of new beginnings. The apprentice shaman, returning from a journey to the spirit world, may announce to his ordinary reality teacher that he had learned that East was the home of endings, and that the Land of the Dead lay to the East. His teacher would not argue with him, but rather ask questions which would help his pupil to understand the deeper meanings of the non-ordinary teachings. In other words, the shaman knows that there are no fixed teachings from the spirit world, and the Universe teaches us all according to our needs and according to our ability to understand. And sometimes it pushes us.
The apparently simple practice of the shaman has been used for at least 20.000 - and perhaps as much as 200.000 - years over the whole world, including Europe, and is by no means a "new-age" system, even though it is experiencing a renaissance in our time. The most usual way to learn to do shamanic work in our culture is by getting the basic teachings on a course, although many people in our society do have spontanious initiatory experiences. By setting up learning situations for course participants so that they can experience for themselves the power of the shamanic journey to the world of the spirits, and to learn how to use that power safely and ethically is what we teach on our courses. As a teacher of shamanism, people often ask me, "How long does it take to become a shaman?" I generally answer that it only takes a few minutes to have a shamanic experience, but to become a shaman takes a lifetime, and if you ever catch yourself saying " Now, I am a shaman!" it is a clear sign that you're still an apprentice. It is not the shaman who decides if he's shaman or not: it is the people who come to him for help, and the spirits, for the shaman knows that it is the spirits who do the real work. No Spirits, no shaman.
People are often attracted to shamanism because they need to feel more power-filled, to feel more in contact with their lives and with what is going on around them. What happens with them is often more than they expect. As the basic techniques of shamanism are relatively easy to learn to use, even beginners experience feeling stronger and more powerful with their spirit-helpers by their sides. It is also typical that people get the desire to share that power and use it to help others. One of the differences between a shaman and a "normal" person is that the shaman knows who his spirit-helpers are, how he can come into contact with them, and how they can work together. A shaman is only a shaman when he is shamanizing. Otherwise, he is a "normal" member of the society he lives in. In our society, people doing shamanic work have all kinds of ordinary reality jobs, for example, computer programmers, teachers, construction or office workers, doctors, actors, parents and grandparents, to name a few. Indeed, many shamans are peering out at us from behind the most "ordinary" facades.
One of the drawbacks of our life today is that we are so caught up in our daily routines that we have lost contact with the basic simple joys of living on this planet. How often do we stop to smell that special scent of the fallen leaves in the Autumn, or feel the warmth of the earth in the Spring? One of the results of coming into contact with the spirit world is that one feels much more connected with one's everyday surroundings, the Earth, and the Universe. The reason for this is that one is more connected. In traditional societies, the shaman was able to talk with the plants, animals, rocks, and the rest of Creation with which we humans share the Earth. As a result, the humans lived in harmony with their surroundings. Now most people have forgotten how to communicate with the other inhabitants of the planet, and the most obvious result of this today is the threat of total destruction of life on the Earth as we know it, by our own so-called "higher" civilization.
For me, this connection with our surroundings is of paramount importance, not only for the sake of the planet and everything on it, but also, obviously, for each of us as individuals, materially and spiritually. Just as everything we use, from wooden kitchen spoons to the microchips of our most advanced computers, comes from Nature, the shaman is aware that much of our spiritual power also comes from the spirits found in Nature. It is clear then, that living carelessly on our beautiful planet not only depletes our possibilities, and harms the source of our nourishment, but it also damages the well-spring of our spiritual foundation. When we kill nature in the myriad ways we do it, we kill ourselves, physically and spiritually. In attempt to remedy this I teach a course called Spiritual Ecology, the main idea of which is to put humans back into contact with the non-human population of the planet, on a one to one basis. During this course, I send all the participants into the forest to talk with a tree, any tree. Their mission is to ask Tree what their own personal role is in the destruction of the Earth. Once, one of the participants told the following: " I chose a birch tree. Or perhaps it chose me. After we had talked a bit together in a friendly way, it said to me: "By the way, you don't really need your car." " Oh, yes, I do!" I responded, and started to list a lot of good reasons. But the Tree had its own arguments, and pointed out that there are shops a few minutes walk from my home, and half-empty busses that drive past my door all day long. And do you know what? I don't really need my car!" As I see it, one of the greatest challenges to the new generation of shamans is to re-establish the contact between human beings and the other inhabitants of the Earth, to network nature, to stop the slaughter of the environment we share, to find out what can be done - spiritually, ritually, and practically - with the damage which has already been done, and to learn once again that the Earth will nourish us - physically and spiritually - if we allow her to do it.
Healing is, and always has been, the main work of the shaman. Central to the understanding of shamanism, and especially shamanic healing, is the concept of power. Essentially, power in shamanism is not power as might, but rather power as energy. Traditionally, the shaman sees two main reasons for illness. The patient either has something inside which should not be there (an unwanted power intrusion), or is missing something that should be there (power-loss). As all things have a spirit or soul from the shaman's point of view, this holds true for illnesses as well. In the case of a power intrusion it is the shaman's job to remove the spirit of the unwanted power.
In my work over the years, I have found that the main cause of illness is separation, both literally and metaphorically, to the degree that the two words could almost be considered to be synonymous. By separation, I mean being cut off from one's surroundings, loved ones, or even - perhaps, especially, - oneself. We've all heard friends say: "I have this horrible job that gives me no satisfaction and takes all my energy." The shaman is aware that all things are connected, and, as such, influence each other to some degree or another, just as you are influenced by your family, your friends, the things you read, the weather, the Earth and the Moon, and even the stars.
Think of the healthiest, happiest person you know. In all probability, she or he is well connected - that is, aware of what is going on around her, as well as being receptive and responsive. Now think about the person you are most worried about.
In shamanism the idea of separation is expressed in the term power-loss . In fact, it is generally trough power-loss that power intrusions can, literally, take place - that is, fill up room. From the shaman's way of looking at things, when you are feeling powerful (that is, full of power) it is when you are in good contact with the rest of the Universe, and, being filled with that power, there is no room for illness. Your spirit-helpers, power animals, and non-ordinary teachers are close at hand, you are listening to what they are saying, and following their advice. In everyday English, we might call this following our intuition, or trusting. Conversely, one of the greatest symptoms of power-loss is lack of trust. Fear is another. Power-loss may manifest itself as things "going wrong." You have often heard someone say, "It was just one of those days when nothing worked." Of course, we all have days like that, and they can be seen as warning signals. But if they continue, it would indicate power-loss, along with accompanying depression and a proneness to illness. This kind of power loss often occurs when one of your power animals wanders away for one reason or another. To remedy this, the shaman undertakes a journey to find and restore the lost power to the suffering patient. This restoration of power is often enough to not only put the patient back on his feet, but also to knock out any unwanted illness intrusions.
Another, and, in many cases much more serious, form of power-loss is what shamans call soul-loss. Soul-loss is seen as the major cause of much serious illness, and this separation from our own soul can also result in making us feel separated from our bodies, our relationships, our surroundings, and Life itself. Most of us have experienced this to one degree or another in our lives. If we are lucky, the soul parts we have lost return again to us quickly after their departure. But we are not always so lucky. Sometimes they can't find their way back home.
How does soul loss happen? It generally happens when we have a traumatic experience or are going through something which, for us, is untenable. Unfortunately, traumatic experiences and untenable situations arise constantly in our society, and we are faced with them from the time we are children, in some cases even before we are born. For example, most of us know people who were beaten, sometimes regularly, even as small children. Oppressive schooling or work experiences can also lead to soul-loss. There are many other reasons for soul loss, (and very often there are well known standard phrases in our language which express this as well), for example, with the death of a loved one ("When my husband died, I felt that part of myself went with him."), an accident ("I was scared to death"), physical or psychic abuse of any kind ("My spirit was broken"), divorce, or the end of an important relationship ("She stole my soul"). In English, we sometimes express extreme sadness by saying, "I just wanted to die." Even a violent argument can lead to soul-loss ("I was beside myself with rage").
These are some of the ways soul-loss occurs. Why it happens, as Sandra Ingerman points out in her book Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self , is generally a matter of survival. We all have our limits as to how much we can take. But what happens when we reach our limits, when we can't back any further into the corner? Then it is time for action. But sometimes, especially if we are in a weakened condition, to take the appropriate action, for example, leaving a violent partner, just isn't possible. When this is the case, that piece of the soul which reacts most to the situation knows it is time to leave, and does so, both for it's own survival and for the survival of the organism, its self, as a whole.
In my work I've found that the most normal way that soul-loss occurs is when we give a piece of our soul away. This is often done in a vain attempt to maintain contact with another person. For example, I recently made a diagnostic journey for a woman and discovered that her long-dead father had a very important piece of her soul. After the journey she told me that her father had died when she was seventeen and she was almost out of her mind with sadness. Her aunt, in an attempt to comfort her, had told her to put a picture of herself in her father's pocket at the wake, and in that way she would always be with him. She did it, and lost a piece of her soul, until the journey was undertaken to retrieve it. The double tragedy of it was that the burden of her love had prevented her father's soul from going on until it was lifted from his shoulders. As in this case, soul-loss may often be connected with death, and in these instances the shaman is often called to work with the spirits of the dead as well as the living.
When we finally reach a point in our lives where we realize that not everything is as it should be, and we decide to do something about it, it is often impossible to see where to begin. I believe this is the main reason that people in this "new age" are searching. If you ask one of your friends "What are you searching for?" in many cases the answer will be "For myself." For thousands of years, shaman's have been helping others literally to find themselves, and soul retrieval has been one of the main tools in the shaman's kit.
For several years I have been working together with psychotherapists, finding missing pieces of their clients, and bringing them back. This is especially helpful if the therapist is trying to work with "the child within," and no child is there! One therapist friend was almost complaining when she told me that many of her clients showed such incredible recovery after the soul retrieval that it only took a few weeks to re-integrate the newly returned soul parts, and then their work together was finished, and she'd lost a client!
The re-integrating can be a trying process, as in many cases the person who gets a piece of soul back is confronted with the pain dating from the time of the soul-loss. But having that missing piece back gives the power again to make the work possible. Painful as it may be, it is also wonderfully and beautifully rewarding, because we need to be whole to be healthy in the deepest sense of the word, we need to be whole to move as we should in this life, we need to be whole before we can know who we are. And it is not necessary to wait.
The shaman has often been referred to as "the wounded healer." What this means is that the shaman has passed through some terrible illness or crisis, or has even been to the land of the dead, and has survived, but not only survived: she has also come back, stronger and wiser, with the help of the spirits. It also means that most of the people reading this article have the potential for doing shamanic work, for we have all faced, and gone through, times of pain and crisis.
However, the way of the "healer" is not the way all would choose, so many people work shamanically without worrying themselves about becoming a shaman, but rather take a journey to get help to make a difficult decision in times of trouble, or to help a friend in need. Others combine shamanism with their other spiritual or practical work. For example, I know a social worker who journeys to get advice for clients who are having extreme difficulties, a doctor who journeys to ask about the best possible treatment for his patients. Most people I know who work shamanically do so for the power to be that person they know they are, even in times of crisis.
Shamanic work gives each individual the possibility of contacting the powers of the Universe directly, and to receive that power and wisdom without the interference of a middleman. This is both a humbling and an empowering experience, and the true shaman is a humble person, who recognizes that his power is on loan from the Universe, and that it is his mission to use that power in the best possible way for this beautiful planet we call Home, and all of its creations. And this is just the beginning.
Suggested reading:
Joan Halifax: Shaman - The Wounded Healer (Thames and Hudson)
Joan Halifax (editor): Shamanic Voices (Dutton)
Michael Harner: The Way of the Shaman: a Guide to Power and Healing (Harper).
Michael Harner: Shamanens Vej (Bogan. In Danish).
Sandra Ingerman: Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self (Harper)
Gary Doore (ed.): The Shaman's Path (Shambhala)
Shirley Nicholson (ed.): Shamanism: An Expanded View of Reality (Quest)
Mercia Eliade: Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Princeton)
Nevill Drury: The Elements of Shamanism (Element)
by Jonathan Horwitz ©
My introduction to soul retrieval came rather abruptly some years ago when I was in Inari, Finnish Sapmi (Lapland). A Sam¡ woman I was talking with said to me: "Someone has stolen my soul. Can you get it back?" For some time I had been working shamanically with power loss, but I had never gotten the job, either from someone seeking help or from my spirit helpers, to go out and search for a soul. Even though shaman's all over the world have been doing it since before the beginning of time, this was something new for me.
We are all born with the power we need for our lives. Some of this power is in the form of soul. While we are all brought up with the concept of "soul", many people are in doubt as to what soul is, or even if it really does exist. I generally think of soul as being our life spark, our essence, our life energy. From the animistic experience of the universe, all things have a soul, and by definition are alive. The shaman is aware of this, and, by altering her state of consciousness, is able to come into contact with these soul essences. By communicating with these spirits, the shaman can learn many things, and perhaps even ask them for help in healing.
Most traditional peoples are aware that animals, including humans, have at least two souls. One of these souls is the fixed soul , the soul that belongs to the physical body and takes care of the normal body functions, for example growing, breathing, digestion, heartbeat and the circulation of blood, reproduction, and all of our natural bodily cycles. The second soul is often referred to as the free soul , or spirit, that which feels and has emotions, that which leaves the body at night during dreaming, or during a shamanic soul-flight. Indeed, some peoples, including the Inuit, are aware that each part of the body has its own soul, and the Evinki, the people whose language gives us the word shaman, were aware that human beings had up to seven souls, each with its own function.
Soul-loss is when some of this vital, free-soul essence leaves our body, thereby depriving us of our full power. Soul-loss can be seen as a built-in adaptive/ survival mechanism. Many wild animals, for example foxes and wolves, are known to chew off their own leg in order to escape from a trap . The human psyche (Greek for soul) will do the same. If life is too difficult, the part of the soul which is most affected will leave us. The main organism will survive, while the lost part drifts off. If we are lucky, it will quickly return. If not, we may never see it again. This is soul-loss.
It has been my experience in working with people that in most cases soul-loss occurs because we give our souls away. As stated before, each of us are born with the amount of power we need to live, but, in the process of growing up, of being socialized, something happens. We are taught. We are taught how to "fit-in", and our teachers, be they our parents and family, or school teachers, or playmates, or even the family dog or cat, all show us how the world is put together - in the way that they see it . Some of them try to teach us well, taking into account as much as possible who we already are. Others of them try merely to form us or control us after their own wishes. At a very early age we learn that if we respond to our environment in certain ways we will most likely obtain certain results, both positive and negative. In many cases, this leads to healthy patterns of personal interaction and development, if those who raise us are well-balanced, aware individuals. However, in other cases, the desire to please others can often lead us to be untrue to ourselves.
Already in early childhood many children start to give over their power to their parents who have forgotten or never heard Kahlil Gibran's words: " Your children are not your children. " If the parents are not well balanced, or if they have deep troubles of their own, it is often up to the child at an early age to attempt to achieve balance in the home. Sometimes this is impossible to begin with, and, sometimes, to be the way we think others want us to be, it means that we cannot be ourselves. If these conditions persist, that part of our soul which is ignored, or deprived, will leave. This is soul-loss. In school the desire to be accepted by our classmates will often cause us to do things which may not natural for us to do, for example, ganging up on the "different" one. This desire to be accepted all too often turns to fear of being left out. And later in life, to keep a lover or friend we ignore ourselves and our feelings in an attempt to keep the relationship in tact, because we have learned that being true to ourselves threatens the relationship. We suffer in silence, and by doing so we throw water on our own fire. What then happens to the heat? This, too, is soul loss.
I once worked with a woman whose father had died when she was a young girl. Such a situation in itself often leads to soul-loss, but in this case the problem was further complicated by the mother's deep grief and resultant alcoholism. The daughter, in an effort to restore as much as possible the former secure family situation, tried in her own childish way to fill her father's shoes. Though she herself was also heartbroken, she was never able to express it for fear that her mother would totally fall apart, taking with her what little family structure there was left. This developed into a behavior pattern as an adult in which she was always helping other people, while ignoring her own needs, what psychologists today call co-dependant behavior . The shaman calls it soul-loss.
Soul-loss often happens in a vain attempt to maintain contact with someone who is leaving or has left us, for example when someone close to us dies. We hear stories of people who cast themselves into the open grave of a loved one at the funeral, that they, too, may go. And they often do, as a part of their soul leaves with the dead one. This was the case of one person I worked with who as a teenager put her picture in her dead father's pocket as he lay in the coffin at the wake, so that she could be with him always.
We have all experienced the sadness of parting, leaving someone we love dearly, knowing that perhaps we would never see them again. In an effort to ease the pain we say: "A part of me will always be with you." And we mean it. We give that loved one a piece of our soul. But the sad part of it is that the object of your love can't use your soul. Indeed, it may add to her pain or even cause illness. And you are left with less power to handle the pain of parting, and many other situations to come after as well. Although heart transplants may work, soul transplants do not. A much wiser, and more loving, form of parting is to give back any pieces soul you may have collected from each other, thus, by saying good-bye to the other you say hello to yourself.
Soul-loss can also occur due to traumatic experiences, for example accidents (both witnessed and experienced), surgery, or physical and emotional abuse, incest, or intense pain. Violence in the home is also a major cause of soul loss, as are extended periods of anxiety. Many people have had out of body experiences, especially during traumatic experiences. The reason these are remembered is because the soul comes back. If the soul doesn't come back, there is no acute memory of the pain, only the dull knowledge that the incident happened, if any memory at all.
Although many actions taken by one person can lead to soul-loss in another, the purposeful taking of another's soul is rare, though common enough. These acts are generally undertaken by people whose own soul is so damaged and depleted that the only way they know to get power is by taking it from someone else. These people often die at a young age, but generally not before they have caused great damage to others.
Warfare is probably the single greatest cause for soul-loss on a global scale. Everyone loses. The civilians caught in the crossfire, their families and loved ones, to say nothing of the soldiers themselves, and their loved ones. Even the "victorious" soldiers returning home from war often have extreme difficulty in adjusting to civilian life again, and frequently try to fill up the hole in their soul with drugs and alcohol, sometimes turning again to violent behavior in their frustration.
It is interesting to note that the Navajo have a special ceremony, The Enemy Way, for the returning warrior. It is designed to cleanse him of his experiences and reunite his spirit with his body so that he may come into balance and take his place in the community once more.
There are many other reasons for soul-loss. Very often there are well known standard phrases in our language which indicate this as well, for example, with the death of a loved one ("When my husband died, I felt that part of myself went with him."), an accident ("I was scared to death"), a failed project ("I put my soul into this work"), physical or psychic abuse of any kind ("My spirit was broken"), divorce, or the end of an important relationship ("She stole my soul"). Even a violent argument can lead to soul-loss ("I was beside myself with rage"). Indeed, our lives today at the end of the twentieth century in overcrowded cities with incompetent politicians and seemingly uncaring bureaucrats, runaway technology, and global pollution seem rife with possibilities for either receiving soul-loss or inflicting it.
Why does soul-loss happen? As Sandra Ingerman points out in her book Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self , soul-loss is generally a matter of surviving and/or adapting. We all have our limits as to how much we can take. But what happens when we reach our limits, when we can't back any further into the corner? Then it is time for action. But sometimes it just doesn't seem possible to take the appropriate action. We don't have the power. "If I try to do something, he'll leave me. Then where will I be?" Or, "If I say anything, I'll get fired! Then what?" When this is the case, that part of the soul which reacts most heavily to the situation knows it is time to leave for some place safe, and does so, both for it's own survival and for the survival of the organism as a whole.
An excellent example of this in my own life happened when I was drafted into the army in 1964. I had been actively trying to avoid the draft for two years, but finally I gave up. To my surprise, I was able to adapt to the army with relative ease. Twenty years later, when I had a soul retrieval done, I found out why: the day I became a soldier was the day I lost a very important part of my soul, a part which perhaps could not have survived in uniform. It was a part which I did not have, but could have used, for twenty years.
The most extreme and dramatic form of soul-loss is coma. Otherwise, symptoms of soul-loss may or may not be immediately apparent. The first symptoms are often a felt loss of connection with one surroundings. Soon it becomes a felt loss of connection with oneself, a loss of being in touch with the body, a feeling of being empty, feeling numb, or not feeling anything, but seeing life go by as if it were a film starring someone else.
Very often when people come to me for the first time they express it quite clearly. "I don't know what the matter is, but I feel as though I've lost touch with myself." If they have, it is a very serious matter, because it often means that they have also lost touch with their own internal back-up system, their hopes and dreams, their beliefs, their self confidence, and their own code of ethics. People who suffer from soul-loss often have a difficult time being honest with themselves, blaming other people where the solution to the issues in their lives often lies with their own actions. Lack of grounding is often a clear indication of soul-loss.
Another important symptom is memory loss. A woman once said to me, "The only thing I remember about the last two years of my marriage is signing the separation papers." Repetitive negative behavior patterns, for example becoming evolved with the same type of partner with disastrous results, time and time again, often points at severe soul loss. People who suffer from soul loss often are attracted to powerful people in hopes that some of the power will rub off and fill the hole, instead of seeking to regain their own power. It is also a normal reaction for people who are suffering severe soul-loss to try to fill the empty space by taking soul from others. This often happens under the guise of repeatedly falling in love in an attempt to find a new life, or at least new energy to continue with the old life. The inability to find joy in life is a major clue to soul-loss.
People who always have a reason for not being able to do the things they want to do, whose way is blocked, who feel fear instead of love - these people could easily be suffering from soul loss. People with soul loss are often looking for substitutes for life. Be it career, drugs, internet, sex, role-play, or alcohol, addictions are often used in an attempt to fill the gap left by the departed soul. Constantly seeking the quick fix is another hallmark of soul loss, as is, of course, the opposite: total apathy. As we all have seen, if not from our own lives then from the lives of others we know, these patterns of behavior almost never help the situation in the long run, and generally make matters worse.
Although all of the symptoms described above sound like normal fare for the psychologist or psychotherapist, shaman's have been taking on cases like this in other cultures for generations, and are beginning to do so again in our society. The shaman's way of working, however, is quite different than the modern therapist's. The shaman does not try to use his own knowledge, abilities, cleverness or power to help his client. The shaman relies on her spirit helpers and guides to bring the power (energy) to do the work, and to bring her into contact with the client's own spirit power (soul) in order that it may be brought back home to the client's body. This means that the shaman must know her way around the land of the spirits, and that she has a powerful and clear working relationship with her spirit contacts there. This comes through having experience and trust. Once she has contacted her spirit helpers, the shaman explains her mission, and then follows directions. Finally, if all goes well, the shaman finds the lost soul essence and is able to bring it back, whereupon the soul is returned to its proper home.
While this may sound very simple, in fact it is not, and there are many pitfalls. One of the most important things for the shaman to remember is to follow the instructions of the spirits. A classic case of shamanic soul retrieval which failed because of instructions not being followed is the story of Orpheus and Euridice. Interestingly enough, the very same story, almost to the smallest details, was well known amongst many native American groups before the arrival of European culture.
Sometimes the events of a journey may be confusing for the one doing the shamanic work. I once did a soul retrieval for a friend in Denmark. One of his complaints was extreme memory loss from his childhood. All of his knowledge of that time of his life came from other people. On my journey for him, my spirits took me to a house that was burning. They took me into a room where there was a small boy, trapped by the flames. After we finally got him outside, it was clear that he wanted to show us something, and we followed him to the top of a nearby burial mound. Then my spirits said that I should take this child-soul back home to my friend. I did this, even though I had no clear idea about what was going on.
As I told my experiences, my friend was clearly amazed. "When I was a boy, I didn't really like being in the home. I had a favorite place where I used to play, and that was an old burial mound from the stone age on my father's land. I was always going up there. Then, when I was about six, my mother accidentally set the house on fire. I was rescued in the last minute." After the soul retrieval he made a pilgrimage to his childhood home. Other people were living there, but it was the burial mound he went to, and standing there he felt complete, with his feet well planted on the Earth. And he began to remember.
Some years ago, a woman who had been on an introductory course with me called to ask if I would do a soul retrieval for her. I replied that I would try. When she came for the appointment, we had a long talk. It turned out that even though she was a mature woman she still had a difficult relationship with her mother, and was sure that her mother had taken some of her soul. When I made my journey to the world of the spirits, I was sent out to what is sometimes referred to as The Void, which could be described as a black hole in the universe of the Spirit World. I found her there, floating in a dream-like state. Aiding my spirit helpers, we brought her to consciousness. She seemed much younger, around twenty, and she seemed very satisfied to be where she was, and had no desire to return. "No one hurts me here," she said. Through talking with this spirit I found out that my client had fallen in love and quickly married at a young age in order to escape home, but it had been out of the pan and into the fire, and her rescuer soon had her in another prison. To survive, an important part of her soul left her. Eventually, I was able to convince this young spirit to return to its middle-aged body.
In talking with the woman about this afterwards, she was surprised. "How could you know about that? Yes, it was a disaster, but I thought I'd gotten over that years ago. But it did change my life. I've never had a lasting relationship since then. I've always blamed it on my mother's pestering." My spirit helpers had told me that she should have two more soul retrievals done, and we did them over the following year. It turned out that her mother did have a piece of her soul, and she had a piece of her mother's which were exchanged. The last piece I found in the non-ordinary reality of the middle-world on the street where she lived, looking for her home.
There were several lessons here for me. The first was that one doesn't always find what one is looking for, but sometimes something else entirely. Often people will want a certain spirit essence returned. Soul retrieval is not commission work. The spirits decide. Sometimes I have felt that the person coming to me badly needed a soul retrieval, but my teachers in the spirit world made it clear that the time wasn't right, that other work needed to be done first. Another lesson was that it sometimes happens that someone who comes to have a soul retrieval done is carrying around spirit parts of someone else. This is useless baggage which has to be removed - and returned! Finally, people who are on the mend, for example after the first or second soul retrieval, or some other successful spiritual work, often start to live their lives in a more aware way. The results of this are that their spirit starts to "call home" the rest of the missing soul power.
Often when people hear about soul retrieval it immediately rings a bell. Almost as often they ask, "Can I do it myself?" I feel this attitude reflects one of the major illness of our time - the illusion that we, as individuals, exist in a vacuum, independent of the rest of the community, the rest of the world, and the rest of the universe. It is this attitude which in the end cuts down rain forests for capital gain without thinking about ecological debt. The shaman works by asking for help. The person suffering from soul-loss must also ask for help.
While it is possible to have a spontaneous soul retrieval, for example in a dream or on a shamanic journey, it seems difficult in most cases to purposefully do a soul retrieval for oneself, perhaps because what we call the ego so eagerly gets in the way. One client came to me complaining of fearfulness and an unnatural timidity. She was sure that she experienced soul loss after an recent automobile accident. She had made a shamanic journey to the site of the accident, and had fleeting glimpses of herself, but contact was impossible. When I journeyed to the site, I found her sitting in the tree her car had smashed into, swinging her legs. Her spirit complained that her host had been reckless, and was in the habit of taking un-necessary risks, and refused to come back. However, by promising on my client's behalf that changes would be made, I was able to get the soul to return.
The most surprising aspect of soul retrieval is how powerfully it works. In most cases, the returning soul brings with it the power of the situation which caused it to leave, and this power must be welcomed home. This means that the client is forced to deal with those issues after the soul retrieval, and it is important to tell people this before they have the work done. For this reason it is also important to find out if the person coming for help has a support system, be it friends, family, or a therapist. If he doesn't, then perhaps some other form of treatment is advisable.
I once did a soul retrieval for a client of a therapist I know. The woman and her sister had been victims of incest over a six year period from when she was eight to fourteen years old. Finally, she told her mother. Eventually it had gone to court, and the step-father had been found guilty. Both the therapist and the woman felt that they had gotten stuck in their work, and both felt that it was necessary to go deeper. The therapist suggested soul retrieval. I was able to bring back this woman's eight year old soul captured by her step-father, the vital innocent essence she had lost at his first intrusions. The therapist later told me, " It seemed as though we had to start from the beginning. Even though she had been over it a thousand times before, the depth of actually experiencing it all over again with the awareness of the eight year-old self was more than agonizing at times. It was hard, but it was worth it, and the work went much faster because of the eight year old's power."
Fortunately, most of the people who come to me for help do not have such terrible stories to tell, but I am constantly amazed by what people can survive. Sadly, the way they have survived is through soul-loss, and surviving is not the same as living fully. To live fully, we must be whole, that is, to have all of our soul. To make sure that the returned soul stays, it is important that it is made welcome, and that the issues which arise as a result are dealt with in a positive way. To this end, it is helpful if the receiver of the soul retrieval is able to make a shamanic journey to the returned soul, so that they can get to know each other. If this is not possible, then it may be up to the shamanic practitioner, or a psychotherapist with knowledge of shamanism, to help with the reintegration.
My own experience was that after my soul retrieval I began to have war dreams again. For some ten years after my return from the war in Viet Nam, I would often awaken from violent dreams which centered around my experiences there. However, I wasn't able to cope with these dreams, and finally they stopped. But after my soul retrieval they started again, and soon I began remembering events I hadn't thought about since they had happened. The difference was that, with the help of my wife and my returned soul, I was able to look at them, and take the teachings they had to offer me twenty years later. This series of dreams culminated after eight months, the length of time I had been in the war, with a key dream which opened the door to a new chapter in my life.
One of the major teachings many people mention to me after soul retrieval is what a valuable gift life is, no matter how difficult. They no longer feel that they have to indulge in substitutes for living. One woman half-jokingly told me, "It's really terrible! I have a much harder time lying to myself. I'm afraid she'll leave me again if I do." Many find that their returned selves will not suffer the abuse that they were subjected to before, and that they subjected themselves to before. Suddenly people, find the strength to start to look at their lives realistically, and to start to make the changes needed so that they can actually enjoy themselves.
Another important teaching I've often observed is what I'd call "the step beyond forgiveness." The realization that the thing which caused so much pain, perhaps for years, no longer matters. Most importantly, people start to see how the things they do fit together and are connected with not only their immediate surroundings, but with the rest of the Universe as well.
Soul retrieval, despite its power, is not a quick fix. Nor is it the automatic answer for all problems, and many of the symptoms of soul-loss could also be symptoms of something else. Perhaps the central idea of shamanic soul retrieval is to put people back into touch with their spirit power, and by doing so put them back in touch with the power of the Universe. Just because this happens does not mean that you will have a trouble-free life. What it does mean is that you will be equipped to face what comes your way. Recently, one man told me a month after his soul retrieval, "I feel that I'm here for a reason. I don't know what it is, and maybe I'll never find out. But I'm no longer afraid of trying to find out."
by Annette Høst ©
Seidr - the written sources
The old written sources about seidr are found in the Edda and the sagas, and often it is not at all clear if they describe myth or this reality or both. Some key points in the seidr practise are never mentioned, and the descriptions are often heavily biased. I will briefly introduce here the bare bones of seidr, enough for a basic understanding.
In its blooming days, a thousand years ago and more, the Northern shamanic tradition of seidr was practised mostly by women, called volvas, seidr-wives, sp -wives, or wise women. The volva is often described as being past her fertile years, and unlike other women she has no clan- or lineage-name. The Seidr has its roots in the fertility cult around the goddess Freya, and the ceremonial form of a seidr seance is quite unique. The volva does her shamanic work sitting with her staff on a highseat, or platform, a seidrhiallr. The staff is important, but it is never said what for. The volva is surrounded by a circle of people, who sing the seidr songs, the spirit-calling songs, the magic chants, but no chants are written down. It is this ecstatic song which changes her state of consciousness, carries her into trance on a journey. When the song ends, and the volva is still suspended between the worlds, she is in a state to prophesy, to divine, to answer questions about future and fate, receiving her knowledge from the spirit realm.
Seidr has been used mainly for divination, but in some accounts the volva's close link to Freya and the powers of fertility shines clearly through: In the story of Thorbi"rg Lillvolva, the volva is called because of the famine and the barrenness of the land. In Landn mab¢k another volva gets named "Filler of the Sound" because she made the herring return to a fjord they had disappeared from. The seidr is thus used to bring plenty, to restore balance between people and nature.
In some accounts seidr is used for harmful magic, to send somebody illness or misfortune. Here we must remember that the literature is very biased, written by christian sholars often opposed to this heathen practise. But of course the seidr practitioners have been faced with the same fundamental ethical choice between using or abusing power as shamans are everywhere. What we can read between the lines is: If one can send harm, one can also send healing. In short, seidr can be used to gather and send power.
We can learn only so much from books. The stories, short side remarks, and mere hints form only a sketchy picture of seidr, a puzzle with big pieces still missing. Still, I have been determined to pick up my heritage and learn from the volva. And so I have tried to reach over this vast gap of time, of stories twisted and knowledge forgotten, hidden and lost.
It is possible! With a basis in our own shamanic experience, we can pick up the ancient track and see where the path takes us. We can try out that part of the volva's recipes which transcend the difference in time and life conditions. And most important, we can go to the same sources that guided and empowered our ancestors: the spirit teachers, and the power and knowledge stored in the land.
And so I have picked up the volvas track and worked with seidr in this experiential way over quite a few years now, and taught it too. Broken pieces have been sung together, and the big holes in the picture of seidr get slowly filled out with patterns emerging from our experiences. (3) This is the first I publish about this work, and I want to focus on the magic use of song. Seidr has first and foremost taught me that song has an ability to open doors and carry power that is beyond my wildest expectations.
The seidr song as portrayed in the literature is unmistakably shamanic and has shown me a lot about magic singing in general. Song and chanting has been a dimension in shamanic practise always and everywhere, and song shows up all by itself for anyone who starts on the path of shamanism.
It is said that the seidrsong was ecstatic song. To me ecstasy means a state where you have let go so much of ego, control, and convention that the power of the universe flushes through you unhindered. And that is the first trait of shamanic singing: that you sing from a source that is bigger than yourself, and let power flow through you as song. In other words, the song is sung in an altered state of awareness, or in trance. And when we start to sing like that, we can experience a marvellous shift in our voice, our breathing and endurance, the power and effect of our utterance. The song sings us.
There is a second trait of the ecstatic song that makes it shamanic: the song has a definite purpose. We sing open the doors to the otherworld. We sing out to our spirithelpers, so they may know we're calling them. We sing to a tree to honour its beautiful power. We sing the invisible threads between us and our spirithelpers stronger. We sing a mound open, so we can talk with our ancestors. We sing pains and spirits of illness away. We sing thanks to the plants we harvest.
This gets us to the third trait. Shamanic songs or chants are not composed or constructed. They are found, heard, gotten, when we are in-spired. They arrive, arise, unfold. And then they burst from me, when I am full, full, and cannot contain them any longer. The songs visit us. Sometimes they stay with us for a long time, sometimes they leave again fast. Sometimes they have words, sometimes just sounds.
One of the first verses in Finlands great magic song cycle "The Kalevala" expresses beautifully where the magic songs live, where the source of power is:
The song is central to seidr, but magic song also had its own independent tradition called galdr. In some sources the seidr song is even called galdr. Galdr stands for sung spells and incantations, used in highly skillful and differentiated ways. A galdr is directed at something or somebody, and can have all the purposes and traits that shamanic songs in general have. Sometimes a new one is born out of the need and the moment, sometimes a galdr is passed on for centuries.
In the prose Edda it is told how the god Thor once got hit by a whetstone, which embedded itself firmly in his forehead. Thor went to the giant volva Groa for help, and she sung her spells (gol sine galdre) over him. When Thor felt the whetstone loosening, he wanted to reward her for the healing, and told her that her husband, long lost, would soon come home again. This made Groa so happy, that she couldn't galdre any more, and the whetstone never came further loose. Otherwise it is a fine account of galdr used as healing song for extracting an intrusion, singing an illness out. The story also illustrates how it is only possible to galdre effectively in a certain state of awareness.
In "Oddruns Lament" galdr is used in midwifing. Not until "Oddrun sang powerful, sharp, biting galdrs at Borgny's bed" was the child delivered.
You can still hear the galdr sung. Listen to the wild haunting wails of a Gale, and to the enchanting trills of a NightinGale. Then you know the power of the galdr, and you know where to find the true teachers of the art.
No seidr songs or galdr tunes are handed down to us from back then, but enough is said so we know what to listen for. And our new seidr songs work in basically the same way as the old ones. The volva sits as in a dome of song, which carries her to other worlds.
I have found, though, that the purpose and effect of a good seidr song is not only to transport the volva, it is just as much to transform the singers. Even for the terribly many of us, who as children were told that we could not sing, and wouldn't we please shut up, magic singing offers healing and new voice. The secret is to strip off, to un-do all that you were taught about "right" singing. And then let the power flow through you. I have heard the most heavenly music, piercing bird calls, the cackling of old hags, growling of fierce four-leggeds, coming from the throats of people who "can't sing".
People sensitive to power can fear being swept totally off their feet when magic song starts growing. But I have seen more than once that even powerful trance inducing chanting is only "dangerous" if done without intent. As soon as the shamanic attitude of intent and focus in the work is added, all disorientation evaporates, and the song empowers and grounds. I soar on the song, but it is the scent of earth, that pours from my mouth.
To let the seidr reveal its secrets and inherent qualities, we have started out with only the necessary background information, to avoid shaping the result and experience. However two main conditions have seemed indispensable in practising the craft of seidr:
First, we have used the basic physical framework consistently mentioned in the literature, that is the song, the highseat, the staff and the circle of singers. This unique ceremonial form of a seidr seance seems to strongly influence the quality and flow of power, for example it seems to facilitate embodiment of spirithelpers.
Second, the seidr is clearly a shamanic practise, and so we have emphasized that it is done in a shamanic way. Both the volva and the singers have a clear mission. The volva lets the song transport her into a shamanic state of awareness and close contact with her spirithelpers, and then she lets go in trust.
When we begin a seidr ritual today, the volva steps out of the old myths and into this reality. Modern women take their place on the seat and they change in front of our very eyes: They sit, with a glow, with the authority of a mountain, and as long as the enchantment of the seance lasts, we see the figure of the Norne, goddess of fate, sitting in our middle. The visual impact of this shapeshift is often a mirror of the volvas own experience. As the song grows in power, it does happen that she experiences embodiment, and she merges with the spirit source of her knowledge, she becomes her spirit guide. When the song dies out she talks to us with a voice as from far away, or with the licence of an irreverent old hag.
The staff must be part of the core of seidr, as it has given the volva her name: She who carries the magic staff, or just staff carrier. But we are never told, how this magic wand is used. In the account of Thorbi"rg Lillvolva, her staff is adorned with stones and metal. That is on the outside, but what is inside? What is the staff for?
When the people I have worked with have chosen or cut their staffs, their guidance have been this scanty information plus spirit instruction or intuition. It is peculiar, how the very most of the staffs turn out being of the same length.
And off they go on the journey, holding onto their staffs. What do they tell upon returning? That the staff is a power antenna, it is a lightningrod, it grows hot, it comes alive and vibrates, it moves like a snake in the hands, it keeps the focus and direction of flight clear, at the same time as it grounds. It is the tree of life, connecting the lower world and the sky world, power flowing through it.
The fertility deities Frey and Freya were members of a clan of gods and spirits called the Vanir. The earth centered Vanir-religion is a spirituality of peace and plenty, including sexuality and magic in the sacred realm. It is much closer to animism and non-duality than the later Viking gods, the Aesir, where the most well known are Odin, Thor, Balder. The Vanir goddesses and gods of fertility are inseparable from a vast omnipresent population of nature spirits, powers of fruitfulness, and elemental forces.
People of that time were always aware of these beings. They were in daily communication and exchanged help with their spirit neighbours, to ensure that both the land, the spirits and humans would prosper.. This is the spiritual foundation of the seidr, and obviously the volva works within an intimate relationship with nature: It is from there she draws her power. Thus the volva represents the world view of this older, fertility and earth oriented spirituality, and this shows in her seidr.
The saga accounts often depict a conflict between the old volva and a young man representing the newer, militant Viking culture. The written sources testify that the men of the Viking age, even before Christianity, experienced more and more difficulty with the valuesystem personified by the volva, in fact it provoked them and enraged them. Whereas women were the keepers of the old cult and spirituality, since it allowed them more power and freedom.
It is tempting to read this conflict exclusively as "male" vs. "female" values, men vs. women, but if we do we're likely to miss the point. The heart of this conflict is the choice between staying in harmony with nature, or trying to conquer and dominate it. It was a vital choice then, it is a vital choice today, and it will show in our shamanic work.
One of the questions that arises for a modern practitioner of shamanism or earth spirituality is: How much of the ancient seidr is inseparable from its specific time and place? What aspects can we use of the seidr tradition today in a genuine way without becoming wanna-be-Vikings? The key here is to take inspiration from the content of seidr, rather than imitate the form of the ceremonial details.
This is closely connected to another issue. How much knowledge does it take to do a complete seidr ritual, respectful and safely? In this introductory article there are still many important elements of the craft of seidr not touched upon. I think it is sound advice that you read the literature on seidr, are familiar with its spiritual roots, and have a firm basis of practical shamanic experience before jumping into the deep water of a full seidr ritual. But the heart, or the essential lore of the seidr tradition is a heritage for all of us to take inspiration from, and start using here and now.
This heart of seidr shows first of all, that song has an incredible potential for healing and empowering, in our daily life and spiritual practise, in so many ways. For example, you can sing yourself or a partner on a journey instead of using a drum, or a circle of people can bathe someone in the center with healing song.
Also, the seidr tradition teaches us, as do native shamanic traditions from other parts of the world, about the importance of staying in harmony, in good relationship with the land and its spirits - the source of power. Finally, the story of the volva makes a female shamanic tradition visible, adding more depth and colour to our knowledge of North European shamanism. Hearing her story, and maybe even picking up her work, helps us build up a native shamanic identity and a spiritual sense of belonging.
We stand more firmly planted on our soil now, the song flowing through us with voices we didn't know we had. The song changes us, it touches and heals and changes the world around us - as it has always done.
Notes:
See also Brian Bates' more detailed description of a saga seidr seance in Sacred Hoop, issue 15.
Scholarly literature on seidr and its background: H.R. Ellis Davidsson: "Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe" and "Gods and Myths of Northern Europe", an M. Eliade: "Shamanism, - Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy." THE source book on seidr:"Sejd" by Dag Str"mb„ck, from 1935 is in Swedish and Norse.
I know of two other groups who have worked with seidr for years, from a slightly different angle than mine: People in the shamanic network "Yggdrasil" in Sweden, to whom I owe my first introduction to seidr. And the group "Hrafnar" with Diana L. Paxson in California. Both have published articles about their work.
See also "Sacred Plant Song" by Stephen H. Buhner in Sacred Hoop issue 15.
However quite a few texts of galdrs and spells are written down, attesting to the very popular use of the power of the word, which has survived in North European magic tradition long after the song tradition degenerated.
The volva's oracular or prophetic soothsaying is a long story in itself to be told another time. However it has strong links to the Celtic prophetic tradition. See Matthews in Sacred Hoop issue 15 and 16. and Davidsson: "Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe"
See also Karen Kelly: The World Tree. Sacred.Hoop. issue 12
See also Jonathan Horwitz on Animism in Sacred Hoop issue 9.
Therefore there are so many specified names for nature spirits, both in my land and in yours, see fairy lore in Sacred Hoop issue 15.
by Jonathan Horwitz ©
Introduction
"Shamanic States of Consciousness" is more than just a label to describe the changing states of consciousness the shaman experiences as he travels on his journey to, through, and from the Spirit World . It is also the consciousness that resides within the shaman at all times. It is also a part of the greater consciousness to which we are all connected at all times. One of the great and beautiful mysteries of life is that we all share the same consciousness, and each of us manifests it so differently. The shaman's path is but one way to consciously come closer with awareness to that consciousness.
Preparing for the Journey
The shamanic seance, as I and many others have experienced it, has basically three phases: the preparation , the journey , and the return . Already from the first steps of the preparation, the shaman's state of consciousness starts to change, as awareness of the intimacy of the Spirits expands. I use the word "expand" because, for me, that is what it feels like, as if there is more in my chest, in my body, than there is room for, and yet, at the same time, there is room enough. It is in this deepening consciousness that the would-be journeyer to the Spirits formulates precisely why she is going to the Other World. What is the errand, the mission, what is the reason for contacting the Spirits? Although my ordinary reality consciousness has only started to change, this change is enough for me to clear away much of the everyday busyness which could otherwise clutter my vision, cutting down on my concentration for the mission at hand.
Lighting the sacred fire, setting up the alter, and washing the sacred objects in smoke are all a part of the preparation, but what is also going on is that I am becoming more and more aware of the Spirits, and as their nearness becomes more and more tangible, so does my mission, whether I be asking for help for others, or for myself. It is my experience that I should be as clear as possible in my intentions: without clarity of intention, one can easily return from a journey knowing that something has happened, but not knowing what it was, as Alice experienced with her adventures in Wonderland. This is also what can happen when the goal is simply to experience the ecstasy of the shaman, but the ecstasy is only the doorway to the world of the Spirits, while the intention is the key to understanding.
However, there are some interesting and seemingly paradoxical aspects to this. For example, sometimes when I get to my spirit helpers and tell them why I have come, the mission which comes out of my mouth is not necessarily the same as the one that I so carefully formulated before I left my body. The reasons for this are mainly that when I first formulate the mission, even though my consciousness has already started to change, I am still in fairly close contact with, and influenced by, my own personal desires concerning my life, my hopes, my fears, or, if I am working for someone else, the life circumstances of that person who has come to me for help. However, when I cross the threshold into the spirit world there is a shift, and for each threshold I cross after that there are further shifts. The deeper I get away from my own ordinary reality the further I leave my ego-self behind. The result being that when finally I get to my teachers and helpers in the spirit world to ask my question, my original and mundane view of the situation is changed into a more universal perspective, and I am shown what I need to see instead of what I thought I wanted to know.
It often happens that the mission I start with is very appropriate, but even so, the response of the Spirits can be very surprising, as I once experienced in a healing ceremony. Illness can happen when what seems to be separation, or blockage, comes into the flow of life. The shaman works together with his spirits to remove those blockages. In this particular case, I was working with a woman who had been suffering from colitis, and unsuccessfully treated medically, for two years. Doing the diagnostic work I could see that there was a huge python coiled in her lower intestine. The python told me that it was the woman's spirit-helper, and that it had been unsuccessfully trying to get her attention for some time. I was told by my teacher to remove the python and put it into a special stone I had, and then give the stone to the woman. This I did. Thereby the woman not only became aware of the python and its benevolent intentions, but she could also communicate directly with it by holding the stone in her hand. While removing the python from her intestine, it told me that it wanted the woman to seek and to come into contact with her own spiritual path. I delivered this message to her. At the time of the work, I had no personal knowledge of the woman. After the healing, she told me that her parents were from India. She had been raised a Hindu, but did not have a serious religious or spiritual practice, and was in fact a psychologist working in the psychiatric ward of a hospital in an industrial city. Two months later I received a letter from her, telling me that that since the healing ceremony she had had absolutely no symptoms of the illness. She also wrote that during her holiday she had visited an uncle who was a guru . Her uncle had giver her the same message as the python - to seek her spiritual path.
The Spirits
At this point, it is fitting that we look at "the Spirits," especially as we are examining something so unknown as consciousness, the Great Mystery. In the past I have often described "spirits" as being bundles of the energy/power of the Universe which present themselves to us in ways which we can understand (if we are so inclined). To this, I would like to add Richard Noll's comment that Spirits "can be thought of as ego-alien currents that step forward from the shadows of the 'not-I' to introduce new information to the individual who cannot access this information while in an ordinary state of waking consciousness (1987:48-49)." Spirits are certainly agents of change, as many of us come to find out sooner or later, and the change which the shaman undergoes at initiation is certainly testimony of this. But most importantly, the spirits are the agents of the change which make shamanism possible: no spirits, no shamanism. I feel that it is especially important to remember this in this day and "new" age where so many would try to make shamanism socially acceptable, and turn it into another form of psychotherapy. Of course, it is a form of psychotherapy, the oldest form that exists, but that is only the surface. Beneath the surface is the spiritual discipline and practice which come from the teachings of the Spirits.
The Journey
The shaman's journey is often seen as a metaphor. This point of view is handy for those with no direct experience of the shamanic journey, or who wish to explain or understand the shamanic journey from within the narrow framework of our time and culture, and, indeed, it is clear that the Spirits often seem to communicate with what we call metaphor. However, the shamanic journey is much more than metaphor.
The shaman has spirit helpers. The Spirits are not metaphors of anything. The shaman works by asking the spirits for help. Some of the keys for doing shamanic work are knowing how to ask for help, knowing what to ask for, being able to receive the help offered, and being able to bring the help back home with all its power and depth. The journey begins when the shaman steps into the spirit world, and this generally happens while the shaman calls to her spirit helpers, guides, and teachers, asking for their help, as in this incantation of Ghindia, a shaman of the Orochee of eastern Siberia:
"I am a poor woman. There is nothing that would distinguish me from any other woman in our village. I was a poor orphan. I was a deserted girl. My parents died very early. I do not remember my mother. My youth was hard; my childhood was without joy and my girlhood lonely. My relatives reared me. I have always worked hard. I was just a poor woman, but thou noticed me. Thou, powerful spirit, chose me, a poor woman. I became thy servant . thy humble worker. Thou didst not dislike to enter into me. My body was pleasant for thee . Thou didst choose me and I became a shamaness. Without thee I am only a poor woman. With thy assistance I am powerful. All people respect me; all buseu [lesser evil spirits] fear me. I am thy servant . thy messenger, thy worker. I have entertained thee with my singing and dancing. My drum frightens thine enemies. The clanging of my belt scares them away. . I have prepared food for thee. Thy favorite dishes are ready. Come, my master, I am ready to receive thee. Come, come!" (Lopatin , 1940-41. Anthropos 35-36:354-55. Italics added).
The deeper the shaman journeys, the closer he comes to the essence of his power - the power of the Universe - both metaphorically and literally. Metaphorically in that the journey takes him further and further away from the reality of his daily life where he started, literally because the experienced separation between him and the essential Power of the Universe dissolves, until, in some cases, there is no separation.
The World of the Spirits
In accounts gathered from shamans in traditional cultures and experiences of shamanic practitioners in modern western societies, it is clear that the geography of the spirit world is extensive. These areas are often referred to as the Upper World, Middle World, and Lower World of the shaman's universe. Changes in them, which can be horizontal, vertical, multi-directional, and even multi-dimensional, often seem to be synchronous with ever deepening changes in the journeyer's consciousness. Some practitioners feel that one travels to the Lower World to get power, healing knowledge or primal energy, to the Middle World for practical advice and help, and to the Upper World for answers to the great or existential questions which Life gives us. These guidelines should be looked at as rules of thumb, as even in traditional societies there are shaman specialists who journey only to certain areas of the spirit world under specific circumstances and for specific reasons.
The shaman experiences many shifts in consciousness during the journey. As mentioned before, these shifts can occur with changes of location and/or dimension in the spirit world, but there is no limit to the depth of the shamanic journey, or to the changes of consciousness experienced by the journeyer. For example, embodying a spirit helper is a wonderfully empowering experience and involves a total reorientation. It can also happen that the shaman enters into the body of one of his spirit helpers and experiences the Universe from that spirit's being, while at the same time maintaining her own awareness. With each of these changes the shaman's experience of consciousness expands. Some people even experience dying and death during the journey. Once, on one of my courses, an anthropologist, close to seventy years old, died. Fortunately, his wife, who had died some years before, knew that his time was not at hand and, after a deeply moving reunion, sent him back. When he finally returned to the world of the living he told us that when he realized that he was dead he did feel a detached concern because of all the trouble his death would cause for me and the course organizer. But now he was dead and that was that. But for him, there was no question - he had died and gone to heaven: it was not a "near-death experience", it was an experience of death.
But even deeper changes in consciousness than death are possible, and these are not unheard of, even for practitioners with a modern western cultural background. These experiences go beyond what we call today "visualization" or "imagery." They include all the senses, and sometimes even go way beyond the senses, for example, the experience of becoming unified with what I refer to as the Power of the Universe. To experience this is to go beyond knowing, beyond awareness, and beyond death. This is to go into the essence of being, into what some would call consciousness .
Animism
The animistic way of moving through life - that is, recognizing that everything is alive - is the foundation of shamanism. It is also the basis for understanding consciousness. Jaime de Angulo quotes one of his Pit River Indian friends as saying to him,
"Every thing is alive, even the rocks, even that bench you are sitting on. Somebody made that bench for a purpose , didn't he. Well, then, it's alive , isn't it? Everything is alive. That's what we Indians believe. White people think everything is dead.." (Indian Tales. P.242).
To further the point de Angulo noted:
"The spirit of wonder, the recognition of life as power, as a mysterious, ubiquitous concentrated form of non-material energy, of something loose about the world and contained in a more or less condensed degree by every object, - that is the credo of the Pit River Indian (AA, ns, 28, 1926:354. The Background of the Religious Feeling in a Primitive Tribe)."
These two statement capture the essence of the animistic experience of life.
Further, to the point, Frank Cushing points out that
"The Ashiwi, or Zuñis, suppose the sun, moon, and stars, the sky, earth, and sea . and all inanimate objects, as well as plants, animals, and men, to belong to one great system of all-conscious and interrelated life (italics added).. In this system of life the starting point is man, the most finished, yet the lowest organism; at least, the lowest because the most dependent and least mysterious.. all supernatural beings, men, animals, plants, and many objects in nature are regarded as personal existences, and are included in the one term á-hâ-i = Life, [or] the Beings" (Cushing, Frank, 1883: 9 bid.11)."
Surrender
At this point in my life, I define shamanism as a spiritual discipline which enables one to directly contact, use, and willingly be used by the spirit power of the Universe , generally for the purpose of healing or restoring balance in some way. Although shamanism is defined by culture, the ability to shamanize is a natural human endowment . The shaman is someone who is chosen by the Spirits to represent them in the material world. The shaman learns to call his spirit helpers and teachers when necessary, and to send his soul out to journey to the world of the spirits. The shaman's mission is to ask for help from his spirits and to bring the help back to the material world.
Thus, the shaman is a servant of the people and a servant of the Spirits at the same time. Being a servant of the people and a servant of the Spirits at the same time is not an easy job, as Ghindia's invocation indicates. It often does not leave much room for the individualism we pay so much homage to in the western world. The shaman is often required to make a pact with the spirits, which often contains certain taboos. If one will be a powerful shaman, this can only happen with the participation of the Spirits, and this calls for surrender.
The Return
But what happens to the shaman after his return from the spirit world? Up until now, we have been talking about shamanic states of consciousness only in relation to the shamanic journey. My first teacher (in ordinary reality) of shamanism used to say that a shaman is a shaman only when he is shamanising. From one point of view this is true enough, but it is not the only truth. The path of the shaman is a spiritual path, no matter which state of consciousness he is in. If the shaman wanders too far from the path, from the dictates of his spirit helpers and teachers, he risks losing them. The Spirits are constantly a part of his daily awareness, and this has an effect on his ordinary reality consciousness. It also has an effect on how others regard him. As Don Handelman (1972) so perspicaciously points out, most people who do not have direct recourse to the spirit world fear the shaman simply on the basis of his ready access to the Spirits (84-101).
The more the power of the Spirits flows through her, the more powerful the shaman becomes, as long as the power is used properly; that is, as defined by the Spirits. After initiation, perhaps the most important teaching from the Spirits for the would-be shaman is how to live with power in her own daily life in a way which is acceptable to the shaman and acceptable to the society she lives in. Without learning these teachings, the neophyte risks insanity, or, perhaps worse, being feared as a lunatic, or merely dismissed as a neurotic. These teachings are necessary because the more she works with the Spirits, the more conscious the shaman becomes: more conscious of the spirits as entities, or containers, of the power of the universe, and therefore more conscious of the energy/power of the Universe, and more aware that the energy/power of the Universe is the power that is in her, and that it is the source of - and the same as - her own power, her own deep consciousness . With this realization comes the knowing that there is no separation between the power of the individual, the individual's consciousness, the power of the Universe, and Universal consciousness. They are one and the same. In other words, as one of my teachers in this reality once told me, "Everything that's me isn't ME."
Conclusion
Non-recognition of the animistic nature of the Universe is one of the major stumbling blocks which keeps western science from understanding consciousness. If we think everything is dead, we separate everything from us. With this point of view it is very difficult to investigate consciousness except as something removed from our own being. From the very little I've learned it seems clear that the place to start to study consciousness is from the inside, that is, from my own connection to consciousness. Something so beautiful, so deep, so all-encompassing as consciousness cannot be fully studied with only a western scientific approach. The scientists of the East have been studying consciousness for several thousands of years, and shamans, by moving into and with shamanic states of consciousness, have been studying consciousness for perhaps a hundred thousand years or more. The results of these studies clearly show the inter-relationship of life and consciousness. Life is consciousness. Everything is alive. Everything has consciousness, and it is this consciousness which joins us all together.
This paper was originally written for the meeting of
the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness
held in Tucson, Arizona, April, 2000
Literature cited:
Cushing, Frank H. (1883): Zuñi Fetiches. Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington, DC. (Reprinted KC Publications, Las Vegas, Nevada. 1987)
Di Angulo, Jaimi (1926): The Background of Religious Feeling in a Primitive Tribe. American Anthropologist, ns.
Di Angulo, Jaimi (1953): Indian Tales. New York
Handelman, Don (1972): Aspects of the Moral Compact of a Washo Shaman. Anthropological Quarterly, 45,2. Washinton DC
Lopatin, Ivan A. (1940-41): A Shamanistic Performance to Regain the Favor of the Spirit. Anthropos 35-36. Freiburg
Noll, Richard (1987): The Presence of Spirits in Magic and Madness. In Nicholson, Shirley (ed.) Shamanism, An Expanded View of Reality. Wheaton, Ill.
By Annette Høst ©
I am standing with both feet in my own time and soil and society. Trying to learn things that were forgotten and forbidden for a long time. Then some people come and call me names. Or they call what I do names. I think you know the situation.
Depending on if they are anthropologists or Christians, or Americans or new age booksellers they call what we practise for neo shamanism, core shamanism or urban shamanism or something else. But none of those names or labels seems to sit really right. This makes me ask: What is really characteristic of our shamanic practice here and now , of our shamanic tradition? And which name or label would fit? This essay is some personal thoughts on this question. I will try to look under the surface of those labels and see what they indicate or contain.
Core shamanism
When I was more innocent and less experienced in shamanism, in the new age scene, and in the academic disputes, I used to call what I did for Core shamanism , as I had learned from Michael Harner (of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in USA). Then once I went to Holland to teach a course, and they called what I did for Harner Shamanism. That gave me something to think about.
Literally core shamanism means the core, the essence of shamanism, stripped of cultural form or clothing, stripped to that part which is timeless, cross cultural, and plain human. The elements of this cross cultural essence are the change of consciousness, the soul flight/journey, the relationship with spirit helpers and powers of nature, the tasks of healing, divination, and mediating between the spirit world and the community.
This idea - to practise just the essence - is a beautiful thought, and maybe partly true as well. But we fool ourselves if we are not aware that as soon as we have stripped the shamanic practice of Lakota, or Nepalese or Yakut clothing, we don our own. We clothe it inevitably in our own cultural form, outlooks, habits, and biases. Even if we could learn just the core, as soon as we practise it, it grows roots in and is flavoured by our own culture, time, and spiritual outlook- as it should. And then it is not core anymore.
However, for most people the term core shamanism is synonymous with Michael Harner's and the Foundation for Shamanic Studies' way of shamanism, and that Way is not "core" in the literal sense of the word. It is Michael Harner's "own personal distillation and interpretation of some of the millennia-old shamanic methods." adapted to Western people, as Michael himself writes in his book The Way of the Shaman . Which is to say, it is chosen and presented in a form, which is Western enough for Western people to accept and handle. Of course! Why not? We are many who have benefited from this. However, seen now with my Nordic and somewhat shamanically experienced eyes, Harner's way of shamanism seems rather, well, American. That is, it is adapted to the American Christian, spiritual-fast-food culture. In addition, it shares with present-day European shamanism the predicaments of urbanity, superficiality and the tendency to psychologize the spirits.
All in all, the way I see it, "Core" is a beautiful sounding name. But used as a term it is a product of wishful thinking rather than a description of content of the Foundation's particular trend of modern Western shamanism.
Urban shamanism
The term Urban shamanism is an interesting combination of concepts. To me it is a paradox. If shamanic practice is "urban" in the literal sense of removed from the country, the raw earth, nature, then it will be stunted. This is a painful fact for all those who live in the city and try to practise shamanism. It is one of the conditions of modern Western shamanic practice, that we have to look in the eye and deal with, try to remedy or compensate for, but not gloss over.
So much for Urban shamanism in the literal sense. Some authors, for example Serge King have used the term to designate their particular way of shamanism. I think it is noteworthy that in this kind of shamanism the psychologizing of spirit(s) has gone so far that there is no talk of spirits or spirit helpers other than as predesigned visualisations. In the classical sense of shamanism, both the powers of nature, and personally known spirit helpers are indispensable.
Neo shamanism
When the students of History of Religion or Anthropology come to study us to write papers, they call what we do Neo shamanism . They call it Neo shamanism as opposed to "real" shamanism practised in the countless cultures in which the shamans have functions acknowledged by their own, mainstream culture. The label contains a critical attitude to our practice, and sometimes it is clearly used as a pejorative label, often followed by remarks about how one can go on a workshop and become a shaman, ha, ha.
In the papers and studies on Neo shamanism there are discussions on modern people's romantic seeking to imitate the noble savage. The academic authors maintain how the education, initiation, suffering and spiritual foundation of a modern practitioner is a mere shadow of the same in "real" , traditional shamanism. And sometimes they comment on the illusion of modern practitioners of being able to do shamanism that is not embedded in their own particular culture.
Often I think the academics have a good point. They do call attention to some of our modern, Western challenges, to which I will return below. Their criticism comes partly from their perspective of not having any shamanic experience themselves, but also from a greater knowledge of other cultures' shamanic practice than most modern practitioners have. To me it points to the importance for modern practitioners of seeking perspective, knowledge, humbleness and patience by studying the written testimonies of shamans of other times and cultures, available to us now as never before.
What I do not like about the term Neo shamanism and its application is that it sets what we do apart from the rest of shamanism. "Neo shamanism" is a category all by itself, alien and different. And all the other traditions are joined under the common category "Shamanism". Rather, I see what we do as yet another expression of shamanism, yet another branch on the ancient world tree of shamanism. Different in many aspects, of course, from the branches of say 18th century Saami, contemporary Tuvan, Viking age Nordic, or modern American shamanism - but sharing the same trunk and nourishment.
Modern Western shamanism?
So what can we call what we do? First and foremost I call what I do shamanism . If I must relate our practise to other traditions, I prefer to call what I, or some of us, do Modern Western shamanism or even Modern European shamanism .
It is modern and it is Western /European shamanism meaning that its form, its practice, is rooted in and shaped by our own (modern) time and our North European culture, with its spiritual, material, political conditions and traits.
What, then, are the characteristics of Modern Western conditions seen from the perspective of millennia of shamanic practise? Some of these conditions are so unconscious or deep in our bones, that I cannot even think of them. However, I can think of some traits in our culture and life conditions that are special and important for our pursuit of shamanism, and which set us apart from other traditions, times and peoples. (This is of course not a complete list, just what I - almost off hand - can think of.)
The strong emphasis on, almost worship of, individuality.
Urbanity. A great separateness from nature, in many cases bordering on earth-phobia. Ignorance about the life of plants, animals, seasons, landscapes etc.
A worldview strongly shaped by Christianity, Western science and psychology.
Impatience, a need for quick results. A lost ability to wait, be still, and take one's time to go deeper
Atrophy of oral narration/ tradition, a dwindling ability to remember and memorise without written aids.
Freedom to legally practise magic, pagan/heathen spirituality and shamanism.
Access to a vast body of shamanic knowledge from other times and cultures.
Far be it from me to complain or cry about those conditions. They are not to be judged, just acknowledged. They all deeply influence the way we practise shamanism. Some of them are great privileges, to be treated as gift - who knows how long they will last? Others are stunting of abilities or gifts that are taken for granted by other cultures. They are often accompanied by a hunger for the lost, which can lead to romantic projections on other peoples and traditions. Therefore they need both our keen eyes and our compassion for ourselves - and then action.
I think it is important for the integrity of our practice that we try to be really aware of what our unique cultural background means to our approach to shamanism. That we try to have a conscious look at what we bring with us as our baggage, when we start out on the great shamanic adventure.
I believe we can find a centered beauty, and an empowering and sober presence in acknowledging what our weak and strong sides are, what we need to learn and do. We will be able to own both our difference from and our likeness with the other branches on the shamanic world tree. And then we might be able to practise with deeper authenticity.
First written for the shamanic newsletter "Spirit Talk",
issue 14, spring 2001 , with the title "What's in a name"
Shaman (pronounced SHAH-maan) is a word from the language of the Tungus people of Siberia. A Shaman is a man or woman who enters an altered state of consciousness at will. The Shaman does this to contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality to acquire knowledge, power and to help others. The Shaman usually has at least one or more spirits in his or her personal service. The trance or "ecstatic" state of consciousness the Shaman enters can be termed as the Shamanistic State of Consciousness (SSC). The Shaman does not enter this state for play, but only for serious purposes.
The Shaman must also know the basic methods of accomplishing the work in the SSC before entering such a state. For example, if the Shaman wishes to recover a patient's guardian animal, he must know the techniques for reaching the Lowerworld, entering it, finding the spirit animal and bringing it back safely. Subsequently, he must know what instructions to give the patient in the Ordinary State of Consciousness (OSC). The Shaman is an accomplished see-er who works in the dark, or at least with the eyes covered, in order to see clearly. For this reason, the Shaman usually engages in such practises at night. Some kind of Shamanistic seeing can be done with the eyes open, but that kind of perception is usually less profound. In darkness, the distractions of ordinary reality are less, making it possible for the Shaman to concentrate on aspects of non-ordinary reality essential for the Shaman's work.
The SSC must also be entered with the assistance of drumming, singing, dancing and the use of rattles. Shamanistic Enlightenment is the literal ability to lighten the darkness and see what others cannot perceive.
This is a simple exploration down through the tunnel into the Lowerworld. The only mission is to travel the tunnel and perhaps see what lies beyond. Make sure you thoroughly understand the instructions before beginning the journey. To carry out the exercise, you will need a second person to act as a drummer, or a cassette recording of Shamanistic drumming. Wait until you are calm and relaxed before undertaking any Shamanistic journey. Avoid alcohol or any psychedelic substances for at least four hours before the exercise. Eat only lightly, or not at all during the preceding four hours. Choose a dark and quite room. Loosen or remove your clothing and lie comfortably on the floor without a pillow. Take a few deep breaths and relax your arms and legs. Lie there and contemplate your forth coming mission. Then close your eyes, placing a hand or forearm over them to keep out any light. Now visualize an opening into the earth that you remember from sometime in your life. It can be one you remember from childhood, or one you saw yesterday. Any kind of entry into the ground will do. It may be a hole made by a burrowed animal, a hollow tree stump, a spring or even a swamp. It can even be man-made.
The right opening is one that feels comfortable to you, and one which you can visualize. Spend a couple of minutes seeing the hole, without going into it. Note it's details clearly. Now either start the cassette recording, or instruct your companion to begin drumming. The drumming should be a strong, monotonous, unvarying, rapid beat. There should be no contrast in the intensity of the drum beats, or the intervals between them. A drumming tempo of about 205 to 220 beats per minute is usually effective for this kind of journey. Allow yourself ten minutes for the journey.
At the end of that time, the drummer should indicate that your time is up by striking four sharp beats to signal that it is time for your return. The drummer should then beat the drum very rapidly for about half a minute to accompany you on the return journey, concluding with four more sharp beats to signal the end of the journey. When the drumming begins, enter your opening into the earth. Go down through the opening and enter the tunnel. At first the tunnel might be dark and dim. It might go underground at a slight angle, or it might descend steeply. Sometimes the tunnel appears ribbed, and often it bends. Occasionally one passes through the tunnel so fast that it is not even seen. In following the tunnel, you may run right up against a natural wall of stone, or some other obstacle. If this happens, just go around it, or through a crack in it. If this fails, simply come back and try again. At the end of the tunnel, you will emerge out of doors. Examine the landscape in detail. Travel through it and remember it's features. Explore until you are signaled to come back, and then return through the tunnel the same way you went down.
DO NOT BRING ANYTHING BACK WITH YOU. POWER ANIMALS: Shaman's have long believed that their powers were of animals, plants, the Sun etc... the basic energies of the universe. Long before Charles Darwin, people in Shamanistic cultures were convinced that human and animal were related. In myth, animals were depicted in human physical form, but were distinguished by certain characteristics that are familiar to the species. In North and South American Indian Mythology, animal characters are not referred to as 'a coyote', 'a raven' or 'a bear'. Instead these animals are referred to as Coyote, Raven or Bear. In other words, these individual characters represent the entire species. Every Shaman has at least one Guardian Spirit or Power animal. It is through this animal, that the Shaman connects with the power of the entire species of that animal. The power animal can also appear to the Shaman in human form. Appearing in human form, is often indicative of the animal's power. Another indication of this, is when, the animal is seen moving through an element that is not their own, such as snakes flying through the air, or birds swimming. When a Power Animal is in a Shaman's possession, it acts as an alter ego for the Shaman, giving the Shaman the power of transformation. Specially the power to transform from human to animal, and back again. It is important to remember that there are no mythical animals in the SSC. For example, a Dragon is just as real as any other animal. It is possible for a person to have a power animal, and not be aware of it. Thus many people, specially children have at some point had the protection of a guardian spirit, and have lost it. The following are exercises which will help you get in touch with one or more of your unknown power animals. CALLING THE BEASTS: There are different names for this exercise in different cultures. It is a way for a person to get in touch with their animal aspects through dance. Keep in mind that a Guardian spirit can appear in animal or human form. Undertake this exercise in a quite, half darkened room, which is free from furniture that can hamper your movements. It is helpful if you have the use of one or two rattles, but these are not necessary. There are two parts to this exercise. (1)The starting dance, and (2)Dancing your animal. In both dances, you loudly shake a rattle in each hand, and dance in time to the rattle. In all dancing, you keep your eyes half closed. This allows you to cut down on the light, and at the same time enables you to know where you are in the room. The Starting Dance: Standing still and erect, face east and shake one rattle very rapidly four times. This is the signal that you are starting, ending or making an important transition in serious shamanistic work. Think of the rising Sun and the power it brings to all living things. Still standing in place, start shaking on rattle at a steady pace of about 150 beast per second. Do this for about half a minute in each cardinal direction, while thinking of the element or power animals of that direction. For example, you can think of an Eagle in the East, a Lion in the South, a Serpent or Dolphin in the West, and a Bull in the North. Move clockwise. Return to the East, and shake the rattle above your head at the same rate for about half a minute. Think of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and the entire universe above. Now, shake the rattle towards the ground, and think of the Earth, our home and the gifts she gives to us. Still facing East, begin shaking both rattles at the same rate, and dancing along with the beat, as if you were jogging in place. In this starting dance, you are giving proof of your sincerity to the power animals, wherever they may be, by making a sacrifice to them, of your own energy in the form of dance. Dancing is a form of praying and evoking the sympathy of the guardian spirit. Stop dancing, and stand still. Shake one rattle four times to signal that you are about to make an important transition. Dancing Your Animal: Start shaking your rattles loudly, but in a slow tempo of about 60 beats per minute. Start dancing around the room in time to the rattle. Move slowly and in a free form. Try to pick up the feeling of some kind of mammal, bird, fish, reptile or a combination of these. Once you feel the sense of something, concentrate on it and slowly move your body in accordance with the creature. Be open to the experience and emotions of the creature. Don't hesitate to make noises or cries of it. By keeping your eyes half closed, you might be able to see the non-ordinary environment in which the animal is living. You may even be able to see the animal. Do this for about 5 minutes. Without pausing, shift to a higher state of rattle-shaking and movement. Do this for about 4 minutes. Another shift to a still faster pace of rattle and body movement. Do this for about 4 minutes. Stop dancing, and mentally welcome the animal into your body. To do this, shake the rattle four times, and draw it and the animal towards your solar plexus. Face the East, and shake the rattle four times, while standing still. This is the signal that your work has ended. Once you have successfully gained your power animal, you make it content enough to stay with you. This is done through exercising your animal through dancing, and singing songs of the animal. Guardian animals usually only stay with a person for a few years, and then depart. So, in the course of a life-long shamanistic practise, a person will have a number of animals. HUNTING A POWER SONG: Every Shaman has at least one power song, which is used to "wake-up" the guardian and other helpers to assist in healing and other shamanistic work. To get a power song, plan to spend a day alone in a wild, natural area. Choose a location which is free of people, and unaltered by people. You must fast for the entire day before your excursion through Mother Nature. Stroll quietly, and sometimes sit. Just wander wherever your feet take you. As you walk around, discover what animal you feel like. It may or may not be an animal you have danced before. Take on it's feelings, and enjoy it's identity during the day. On your first excursion, you may only encounter a melody. Subsequent trips will unveil the words for your melody. Power songs can also be found anywhere quite by accident. It is possible to encounter one on a Shamanistic journey through the Lowerworld, and even in dreaming. Power songs do not have to have elaborate verses, although they can. Many power songs are quite simple, made up few words, which are repeated over and over, and simple ideas. Use your power songs to trigger a mild state of trance in any Shamanistic work you undertake. MAKING THE JOURNEY TO RECOVER A POWER ANIMAL: In order to restore a Power Animal to a person, it is not necessary that the person be lacking one at the time. A person can have up to two Guardian Spirits at a time. A third Power Animal, however, cannot enter the body with two already present. It will simply drift away to be made available at a later time. Power Animals usually come and go unexpectedly from a person, especially after a few years. If a person shows power loss, through depression or illness, such work should be immediately undertaken, in addition to whatever medical treatment is being applied. In any case, the regular practise of this exercise is an important way to assure a person of possessing power. It is better to have your own drummer for this exercise. The Journey: Keep aside an evening that you intend to do the work in. Eat a light lunch that day, but do not have any dinner. Abstain from drugs and alcohol all day. Use a quite, dark room, and remove all furniture, or at least, clear a wide area for movement. Light a candle on the floor, where it will not throw too much light. Go through the steps of the Starting Dance, and Dancing Your Animal. If you have a drummer, have him beat the drum in time to your rattle. If you are using a cassette, shake your rattle in time to the drum. Do this only when you are actually dancing. Shake your rattle four times in each of the six directions - East, South, West, North, Heaven and Earth). This is done to draw the attention of the spirits of the particular realms. Next, walk very slowly around your 'patient' four times. Shake the rattle in a slow, but strong and steady tempo. Return to stand besides the patient. Begin to whistle or hum your power song, and shake your rattle in accompany with it. Do this until you are aware of a slight alteration of consciousness. Now begin to sing the words to your song, still shaking the rattle along with the beat. Do this until your consciousness alters more. Keep on doing this until you have a strong urge to collapse and lie down on the floor. Once you are on the floor, push your body against the patient, shoulder-to-shoulder, hip-to-hip, and foot-to-foot. Without delay, cover your eyes with your hand, and begin to shake your rattle just above your chest. The drummer begins beating in time to it. Shake your rattle at a very fast rate, until you see the entrance to the Lowerworld. When you go into the entrance, stop shaking your rattle, but your drummer must keep on accompanying you on your journey. Once you are in the Lowerworld, avoid any non-mammals you might encounter. Specially spiders or swarming insects, or any serpents or fish whose teeth are visible. If you cannot pass by these things, you must return immediately, and try again another time. Search the landscape of the Lowerworld with your eyes closed, for the power animal you seek. The secret of discovering a power animal, is that it will show itself at least four times in different aspects, or different angles. Do not strain yourself you find the animal. If it is going to show itself to you it will. After seeing the animal four times, clasp it to your chest immediately with one hand. The animal will come willingly. Holding the animal, pick up your rattle and shake it sharply four times. This signals the drummer to stop drumming for a moment. Now shake your rattle very rapidly, while the drummer keeps up the tempo set by you. When you return, set the rattle aside, while still holding the animal to your chest. Rise to your knees, and face the patient. The drummer should stop drumming, as soon as you rise to your knees. Place your cupped hands on the patients solar plexus, and blow through you hands with all your might to send the spirit into your patient. Then, with your left hand, raise your patient to a sitting position, and, place your cupped hands on the top rear of the patient's head. Once again, forcefully blow, to send any residue of the power into the head. Pick up the rattle, and shake it rapidly and sharply in a circle four times around the whole length of the patient's body. This is done to make a unity of the power with the body. Quietly tell your partner of the identity of the animal you brought back. If the animal is one you do not know, describe it's appearance. Describe all the details of the journey. Assist the patient to dance the animal that you have just retrieved. As you shake the rattle, gradually increase the tempo in accordance with the patient's movements. The drummer should follow the Shaman's lead. After a while, shake the rattle four times to end the drumming and the dance. Gently assist your patient to a sitting position on the floor, with a reminder to dance the animal regularly to encourage it to stay. POWER PRACTISES: Consulting a Power Animal: The Power Animal can be consulted in order to obtain advise on problems. This is commonly called "divination". To do this, simply journey to the Lowerworld to see your animal. Your Power Animal is usually quite close by, and you won't have to journey far, before you see it. Quite often, it is at the end of the tunnel. When you see your power animal, silently greet it, and pose your question. Most often, the power animal will provide the answer by moving it's body in an unusual way. However, sometimes, it may lead you on a journey. The experiences on the journey will be relevant to your answer. The first few times you do this, it is best to keep your answers simple, so that they may be answered in a 'yes' or 'no' form. When you become more experienced in understanding the animal's language, the questions can be more complicated. You should keep some form of dairy in which to record your shamanistic experiences. These you should record as soon as you finish a journey, so that the memory is still clear. You need not wait until you have a problem before you undertake a journey to see your animal guardian. It is beneficial to visit without posting questions. You will find positive things happening in your life around such visits. Keeping Power: When a Power Animal is restored, one usually begins to feel better immediately, and then begins to feel a power flowing through the body, gradually over the next few days. When this happens to you, it is important no to become complacent. Your Guardian Spirit has entered your body, not only to help you, but also to help itself, by experiencing the material form. Therefore, you should dance your animal at least once a week, even just for a few minutes, using the aid of rattles. This helps keep the power with you. Even if you dance or exercise your animal regularly, you can still expect it to grow restless, and to start travelling long distances. This usually happens while you are asleep. Even if your guardian Spirit is not with you, the power remains. However, if you start waking up in the middle of the night feeling dispirited and depressed, it is a sign that your Guardian Spirit has left you. If this should happen, you should immediately seek a companion to make the journey to restore power. Since one's Guardian Spirit can be off wandering while you are asleep, it is common practise not to wake up a sleeping Shaman, suddenly. In many cultures, this is considered dangerous. Big Dreams: Dreams from a Shamanistic point of view are of two types. 'Ordinary' and 'non-ordinary' or 'Big Dreams'. Big dreams are ones that occur several times, or ones that are so vivid, that they almost seem real. Big Dreams are considered to be communications from your Guardian. These are not symbolic, but are literal. Should you have a Big Dream that has negative connotations- e.g. an automobile accident. You should immediately enact the dream once you are awake. The dream is not symbolic, but your enacting of it is. Just go through the motions of the incident in a simple way, and get it over with. THE BONE GAME: This games is known by Western North American Indians, as the 'Stick Game', the 'hand game' or the Bone Game. Shamanistic power and seeing are utilized in this game. It may be played by only two individuals, but most commonly, there are two opposing teams of at least sic members each. In the game, the teams take turns attempting to 'see' the location of a bone or bones hidden by the opposing team. A person designated as the 'see-er' or 'pointer' tries to locate the marked bone within the hands of the opposing team, while the opposing team tries to prevent the person from seeing the hidden bone. Before beginning the game, the teams should select a first 'see-er' and back-up 'see-ers' should the first not be successful. Next 'hiders' and back-up 'hiders' should be selected. It is a good idea also to appoint a referee to ensure all of the rules are adhered to and to keep tract of the scoring process. Before the game begins, team members may decide to sing their power songs to help awaken their guardians, however, once the actual game begins, no talking or singing is not allowed between team members. Non-verbal communication must be used to indicate when someone is volunteering to be a new see-er or hider. See-ers often work with their eyes closed. Sometimes a see-er may even turn his back on the opposing team, in order to see more clearly. Experience is the best teacher to find out which way you see best. Team members must also decide on how they can help the seeing process. For example, all the members might touch bodies, leading to the see-er, to create a cone of power. The team that is hiding, must disrupt the seeing process, by singing, shouting, dancing or whatever else they wish to do to disrupt the see-er. When both teams are ready to play, they line up facing each other, about four feet apart. A line should be indicated between the teams. If indoors, this can be a cord, or lighted candles. It is against the rules for any part of a team member's body, to cross the line. If this occurs, a counter is awarded to the opposing team. Any object can be used as counters - from feathers to sticks. Each team has three or four counters, and this is placed inside the line in front of the team. The object of the game is to win all the counters. A team has to win not only the opposing teams counters, but also it's own. Two bones or sticks are used. These must be as much alike each other as possible. Chicken wish-bones are good for this. Wrap a black thread or string around one bone. This is the bone that the see-er must pick out. When the game begins, the hider must turn his back on the opposing team and shuffle the bones around in his hands. When he is done, he should turn back to face the opposing team, and stick out both of his hands in front of him. His team then starts a disruptive process to prevent the other team from seeing clearly. When the hider is ready, the referee should begin beating a drum. The seeing team remains quite, and concentrates on providing a shield of tranquility around the see-er, and sends him power to help his seeing. The see-er must pick out the marked bone in the hiders hand. This is done by the see-er pointing to one of the hiders hands. If the see-er is correct, the team wins one of the opposing teams counters. If the see-er is wrong, his team looses a turn, but does not surrender a counter to the opposing team. In other words, counters can only be won by successful seeing, not unsuccessful seeing. * Compiled by the Silver Circle Blessed Be
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The practice of shamanism is derived from ancient teachings and is practised throughout the five continents of the planet. Although ancient, (it is estimated that shamanism may have originated over 10,000 years ago) its practice is also contemporary, surviving in areas such as Tibet, North & South America and within various African tribes. Shamanism is used to restore balance and healing to both people and the planet we live in. The practice of shamanism involves shamanic practitioners making journeys or soul-flights to other realities in order to bring back advice, help or soul-parts for the individual/community. As such, the practitioner acts as a medium through which help is channelled.
Shamanism has existed since the beginning of time on every continent of the planet. A shaman/shamanka (feminine) is an individual that can alter his/her state of consciousness and travel at will between this world and otherworlds to find healing, guidance and knowledge for themselves, the community and the environment.
Shamanism makes use of energy and power and the guidance/help of Spirit and otherworldly beings. In one respect, Shamanism differs from other magical and visionary techniques in that part of the shaman's soul makes a spiritual journey/flight between the worlds. Methods of mediumship, divination etc. may contain elements of shamanism, however they are not actually shamanism unless the soul flight takes place.
Aspects of shamanic practice developed according to the way of life of the various races of people, ie. nomadic, hunting, settled etc. In Irish society, as in other "Celtic" societies, shamanism was practiced. However, the role became somewhat fragmented upon various people such as the filidh, healers, the brehon and priests. On the whole, the essential component of shamanism was lost, although certain families retained knowledge and teachings which were held and guarded. Practices such as spiritual healing, poetic invocation, second sight and communication with otherworldly beings have been maintained.
In Celtic society the shaman's cosmos may be divided into three levels/tiers: The Upper, Middle and Lower Worlds. These worlds may be accessed through the Tree of Life, or the Great Tree as it is otherwise known. If we view the Tree as being the central pole, the centre and core of the cosmos, and the shaman with sitting with her back to the tree, then it follows on that the shaman is at the centre. Each individual, in fact, is at the centre of their universe, their cosmos. From this point the directions stretch out in eight cardinal points (N,S,W,E,NW,NE,SW,SE) and form the sacred wheel or circle. The circle has long been of importance to the Celts and the Irish, enclosing within it the cross which indicates the four sacred directions (NSWE). When working in a spiritual way, the creation of a circle helps to focus the mind and the spirit of the individual, enabling them to work in a deeper and stronger way. It defines the boundary between the mundane world and the spiritual world, in that the shaman 'leaves outside the circle' that which is not necessary for the work; namely, worries, problems etc. It creates a sacred space within which the shaman is protected. It also acts as a magnifier, as the energy moves to the outer limits of the circle, so does it return back to the shaman, multiplied and stronger.
Upperworld: The Upper World is the spiritual realm which contains the realm of the stars. It is the world where the blueprints of life may be seen. Teachings about healing and identity are derived with the help of guides and the lessons of mutual responsibility are found. Middleworld: The Middle World is that world in which we live and breathe. This world is shadowed by the otherworld, which constantly overlaps, so that we may move from one dimension to another. The Underworld: The Under World is the realm of ancestors and spirits - the root of our deepest thoughts and emotions, the depths of our psyche. It is the place where the light within the earth may be accessed to bring healing and growth.Within Irish tradition these realms are linked, encapsulated within the shell of a hazelnut which stands on the lip of the Well of Segais - from this well the seven rivers of life are said to stream forth, and from it, all knowledge is derived.
Although at times the discussion of the sacred wheel or circle may seem vague or theoretical its incorporation into everyday life is vital. We are all at the centre of the universe, all life moves around and within us, while at the same time we are only one thread in a whole tapestry of life. It is for this reason that grounding is so vital when working with shamanism, being firmly rooted. Work with the four elements of life (earth, air, fire and water) is extremely beneficial and is, in one sense, intrinsic to the practice of shamanism. The relationship, both physical and spiritual, which we maintain with the elements, what lessons may be learned etc., this all leads us towards a deeper understanding of our physical selves and our spiritual role in life, albeit constantly transforming as we change and grow.
There are may traces and elements of shamanism to be found within Celtic, and more specifically, Irish, Society. One very familiar image is that of the Lord of the Beasts which is found on the Gundestrup Cauldron. This image shows a figure in a posture which is familiar to shamans the world over. He is surrounded by animals of all kinds and wears antlers. This figure has long been associated with Cernunnos, however, on a broader level, he would have been widely known as a walker between the worlds - a shaman.
Within Irish culture there are a wide range of sources to draw on. The Song of Amergin, perhaps, is one of the most obvious. The transformations that he experiences, his power over the elements, all betray a shamanic level of practice. Images such as these would have been easily recognised by other indigenous shamans for their shapeshifting nature. Another famous example is the Voyage of Maelduin, and the later Voyage of Brendan, which describes "immrama" or journeys to the Many Coloured Lands/Islands. By studying these stories the shamanic elements are found immediately (journeys over seas were generally meant to indicate journeys to the otherworld). The lessons to be learned about balance, rejuvenation, respect and honour are all to be found in the descriptions.
Although there is a lot to be learned from traditional/indigenous shamanic practices, it is important to realise and accept that we cannot go back in time and exist as our ancestors. So many things have changed ranging from the Industrial Age, the Advancement of Civilisation and the installation of Orthodox Religious practices into society on a broad level.
Shamanism may be in danger of becoming somewhat warped due to these changes. In Western Society we have become so separated from the original life force or spirit that people do not grasp the depth of practice and understanding that is necessary to follow a shamanic path. People feel that if they go to a workshop they can leave having become instant shamans or can integrate shamanic techniques into their therapeutic training without proper understanding of those techniques. You won't leave a workshop as a shaman. What we are trying to do is connect, to develop a spiritual practice that is shamanic in its nature and can bring us to a closer understanding of the nature of Spirit and our connection to it. A firm spiritual grounding is vital as is an acknowledgement of the responsibility that comes with the knowledge.
Animals have played a tremendous role in the life of humans throughout time, whether it be in terms of physical need ie. food, clothing or companionship or transportation. On a psychic level they have also had a huge impact. They live naturally and spontaneously, never having separated from their innate nature. There is an almost unspoken recognition that they have long been here before us.
When we speak of power animals, we are not speaking about physical strength/size but inherent spiritual power which is derived from knowledge, wisdom and understanding. A shaman would understand that an animal would seek out a particular person if there is a mutual lesson/need which may be served, they may offer each other support through the various realms of existence. A power animal guards our power and resonates to our own distinct nature/energy vibration. They are the guardians of human memory, inheritors of wisdom and teachers in their own right.
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