SPIRITUAL SHAMANISM

(2006)

The practice of spiritual shamanism is dedicated to the evolutionary manifestation of light and consciousness within humanity. In Tibetan Buddhism and Vedanta, the teachings of non-dualism help us to realize that separation is an illusion, that we are all connected in Oneness. The shaman uses this interconnectedness, this unified field, to receive impressions from the unseen worlds and to be of service to humanity in the seen world. Non-ordinary states of consciousness are accessed through shamanic journeying, in order to counsel, to heal, and to receive visions that will guide our actions and improve our lives. In order to prepare ourselves for the gift of power that comes through this work, we must cleanse ourselves of impurities that could distort the use of that power. As part of this purification process, we become sovereign within ourselves. This entails becoming the masters of our own energy field, of our thoughts, our desires. True sovereignty has very defined boundaries, and, as a result, we are not effected by the vicissitudes of external forces, nor are we extending ourselves beyond a point of balance.

Shamanism gifts us with two jewels: healing and visioning. Ralph Metzner has developed the shamanic model of Janus, the two-faced Roman god. One face looks into the past in order to heal, the other into the future in order to vision. To heal our past, we must look backward, to where we come from, first letting ourselves be dis-membered and then put back together, or re-membered. And so, in the truest sense, we are ‘remembering’ our past. The other face is looking forward into the future, and this is where we ask for vision. We enlist the help of unseen forces that may include our spirit guides, deities, teachers, and power animals. If we are presented with a vision, we can then use our power of intention to bring this vision into manifestation. It is important to be working in both directions, healing the past so that we can be a clearer vehicle for the light and energy of the higher realms. And so we purify, we heal, we align. It is from this state of wholeness that we are able to be present to receive images of a future that will be for the greatest good of all.

The first step in healing is to be attentive to the body, the temple of the indwelling spirit. The body is the repository for the entire consciousness. A psychological or emotional block can be accessed by finding out where it is held in the body, and then focusing on the physical symptom, but on a multi-dimensional level. In my shamanic healing work, I stress the importance of discovering one’s primal wound, an area in the body that seeks to gain one’s attention through pain or discomfort, but which is related to a larger scenario of emotional turmoil and pschological suffering. The location of the wound very often turns out to hold an underlying well of power. Sometimes it is necessary to revisit traumatic events that are held in place by the body’s memory. The shamanic technique of soul retrieval can help us to gather parts of our identity that have become trapped in the past, that have not grown and moved forward, leaving us without the use of an essential quality of our souls. By retrieving and assimilating this lost part, we are integrating into a wholeness that allows us to be present and in our power, to be more fully ourselves. In the process, we learn to surrender, to let go of energy blocks and the conditioned egoic structures that would limit us. We begin to awaken to what’s there beyond these limitations, which is Oneness with all life, peace, bliss. But one cannot hang out in bliss all the time. Just as the shaman stands with one foot in each world, the light and consciousness need to be grounded in this physical world that we live in.

In looking toward the future, it is helpful to be acquainted with the Mayan Calendar. The ancient Mayans were able to attune to the evolutionary course and put together a pyramid-like calendar, whereby evolution brings in specific qualities at the appropriate time. The Planetary Age, which started with the Industrial Revolution and ended with the creation of the internet, brought in the theme of power. Through this period, the consciousness grew of one interrelated planet, and the quality of power was grounded into the mindfield of the earth. But this was raw power and had nothing to do with its proper use. The next evolutionary step was to bring in the theme of ethics, and this fell to the current period, known as the Galactic Age, which started in 1999 and goes through the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2011. This year we are in the midpoint of this age, and what we see is the collision of power and ethics. Lack of integrity is being revealed, both in individuals and in nations. Evolution moves forward regardless, and the Mayan Calendar would say that the only way to survive this period is to live ethically and finetune our integrity. Otherwise, we will burn out as, more and more, we will experience that living a life without integrity in unsustainable. Where is all this headed? The culmination of the Calendar is the ability to co-create existence and experience by being aligned with the universal forces. But we can only earn this gift of co-creative manifestation by evolving to an ethical use of power.