Initiation into Shamanism

Shamanic initiation is a rite of passage, connecting the apprentice shaman intimately to Spirit. It is probably the most powerful and least understood of all forms of spiritual awakening. It is not achieved by having mastered a body of knowledge or having completed some long-term training program. Though it may be set in motion by an apprentice's human teachers as part of an ordered training process, authentic initiation can only be conveyed by the spirits themselves. Ultimately, shamanic initiation takes place between the initiate and the spirit world. It is the spirits who choose and make the shaman.
 

The most frequent and most genuine manner of shamanic initiation is that of crisis, often involving psychological and physical suffering. The encounter with illness, suffering, and death not only opens the world of the spirits to the shaman, it also provides an experiential ground for the healing work that the shaman will later be doing. Election can also occur through heredity, signs at birth, a proclivity or gift that is recognized in childhood, through a realization arising in the course of a ceremonial event, or in the experience of a vision quest.
 

Shamanic initiation is typically the final step in becoming a shamanic healer, a process that is facilitated by the aspirant's shamanic teachers as part of a training regimen. However, initiation may also be spontaneous, set in motion by Spirit's intervention into the initiate's life. To be initiated by a helping spirit forever transforms your life. For the uninitiated, this can be problematic to say the least. They may have no clear idea of what is happening to them, and may find themselves overwhelmed by fear of their nonordinary experience. 

The Dismemberment Journey

Initiation into shamanhood often involves the visionary experience of symbolic dismemberment--the experience of being taken apart, devoured, or torn to pieces. In a classic dismemberment journey, the apprentice witnesses their own body being torn apart and perhaps completely destroyed. The apprentice dies a symbolic death and is then restored and brought back to life, whole and empowered. At its deepest level, the dismemberment experience dismantles our old identity. It is a powerful death-and-rebirth process. The experience of being stripped layer by layer, down to bare bones forces us to examine the bare essence of what we truly are.
 

Anthropologist Felicitas Goodman, the modern discoverer of Ecstatic Body Postures, notes that Siberian shamans considered dismemberment to be an essential phase of initiation for healers. Goodman researched and explored ritual body postures as a means to achieve a bodily induced trance experience and discovered that this archetype appears to be universal. In her trance work with Westerners, those who experienced spontaneous dismemberment visions were invariably destined to become various kinds of healers.
 

Completing this restorative rite is precisely the task of the shaman. As Joan Halifax explains in her book Shamanic Voices, "The shaman is a healed healer who has retrieved the broken pieces of his or her body and psyche and, through a personal rite of transformation, has integrated many planes of life experience: the body and the spirit, the ordinary and nonordinary, the individual and the community, nature and supernature, the mythic and the historical, the past, the present and the future." The cure for dismemberment is remembering who we actually are. As Halifax puts it, "To bring back to an original state that which was in primordial times whole and is now broken and dismembered is not only an act of unification, but also a divine remembrance of a time when a complete reality existed."(1)
 

Shamanic initiation functions as a transformer--it causes a radical change in the initiate forever. An initiation marks a transition into a new way of being in the world. It informs us about the mystery of life and death. According to noted shamanic teacher and author Sandra Ingerman, "Initiation is the death, dismembering, and dissolving of old forms, structures, and ways of life. And I have come to understand that true initiation is allowing Spirit to sing into creation the new forms and new creations. Allowing Spirit to sing formlessness into form creates a new evolution of consciousness."(2)
 

Shamanic initiation is complicated, profound and nothing short of life-altering--in the best possible way. While it may not be easy, it will improve your life for the better with patience, trial and error, and the passage of time. If you find yourself in one, all you can do is trust the process, hang on tight, and get ready for a newly awakened life.
 

Global Dismemberment
 

There is so much more to discover and explore about shamanic initiations and the deep spiritual knowledge held in Indigenous cultures. Now that the present world-age during which all human civilization developed is ending, it might be time to pay more attention to the experience of those whose world has already ended: Indigenous peoples. Depending on how you count them, there may be up to three hundred million Indigenous people still on the planet. Most are survivors of colonialism. The genocide of the Indigenous peoples was the beginning of the modern world for Europeans, but the former remain as veritable end of the world experts. Models for restoring our relationship with the earth exist in the cultures of Indigenous peoples, whose values and skills have enabled them to survive centuries of invasion and exploitation.
 

From an Indigenous perspective, the global climate and ecological crisis represents a mass shamanic dismemberment--the experience of being taken apart, devoured, or torn to pieces on a global scale, allowing for a shift of awareness and transformation of collective consciousness. The acceleration of planetary crises can either provoke a planetary awakening and a shift into a regenerative planetary culture based on shamanic wisdom and sustainable principles, or a destruction of human civilization in its current form, and perhaps extinction for our species. We are all responsible, for better or worse.

 

As the global upheaval intensifies, our interest in shamanism represents an attempt to retrieve and include a part of our inner and outer lives that technology and civilization has consistently denied, suppressed, or destroyed since the advent of agriculture. The cultural imprinting of hierarchical, agriculturally based societies leaves the individual outside the realm of personal spiritual experience. Any sense of the Great Mystery is beyond the individual's grasp. In the contemporary world, where our rites of passage for young men mean going to war, in a world where social turmoil and environmental disaster induce fear, anxiety and despair, the way of the shaman, the one who is a master of the initiatic crisis, might well be of great value for all of us.

 

1. Joan Halifax, Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives (Penguin, 1991), pp. 18-22.
2. Sandra Ingerman. "Messages from Sandra Ingerman." Transmutation News (Mar. 2011): <https://www.sandraingerman.com/transmutation-news/english/english-2011/page/2/>.

Winter Solstice Blessings

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year and the first day of winter. This occurs December 20, 21, or 22, varying from year to year, dependent upon the elliptical path of the Earth around our Sun. Ancient peoples in our northern climes regarded Winter Solstice as the pivotal time of year. It is a time of transition in the annual cycle when the old year ends and our journey into the New Year begins. It is a sacred time to conduct ceremonies focused on the return of light and warmth. Rituals designed to divert nature from the path toward eternal winter and oblivion to one directed toward light and prosperity. Most cultures planned festivals and celebrations at or around the Winter Solstice to ensure that the Sun would return.
 
Winter Solstice is an affirmation of the continuation of life; that the cyclical order of time and the cosmos will continue intact. Fire and light have always played a central role in the Winter Solstice ceremonies. In much of northern Europe people ignited huge bonfires. Lighted candles were often placed on the branches of evergreen trees, which symbolized survival and eternal life. These symbols of warmth and lasting life were lit to hasten the "old" Sun's waning and the "new" Sun's rebirth. On the Winter Solstice we are all praying, on some level, for the darkness to end. "Just return the light!" the ceremonies seem to say. As we celebrate the return of the light, we affirm the continuation of life at the very moment of dissolution. To be sure, dark days lie ahead. But contained within each is the promise of brighter tomorrows.

On the Winter Solstice (Wednesday, December 21) we began a new cycle on the Medicine Wheel of Life, entering the North -- the home of winter, night, wisdom, clarity, renewal, rebirth, and the great Bison. Bison teaches us the importance of gratitude for all we have and giving for the greater good. As we join our hearts in prayer and sacred drumming, we participate in this season of renewal, attuning ourselves to the cyclical rhythms of nature. As we celebrate the return of the light, we affirm the continuation of life at the very moment of dissolution. Prayer, gratitude, and generosity at this time will clear the way for renewed growth and prosperity.

Black Horse Symbolism

I recently did a deep meditation, seeking guidance regarding a life-changing decision. I closed my eyes and stilled the chatter of my mind by focusing on my breath as I inhaled and exhaled. The first image that popped into my mind was the spinning vortex of a tornado in the distance. Tornadoes tend to represent worry and anxiety, spinning out of control. Tornados are a sign you must slow down and regain clarity and calmness in your life. Since tornadoes destroy everything they come in contact with, dreams and visions about them could represent your unacknowledged desire to carve a new path for yourself.
 

Next, I saw the Tashi Gomang Stupa, located about two miles from my Crestone, Colorado home. Since the time of the Buddha's death around 483 BCE, Buddhists have constructed stupas to contain the relics of enlightened teachers. A stupa is an architectural rendering of the Buddhist path, the stages and aspects of enlightenment. When a great Buddhist teacher leaves his or her physical existence, the body that remains is considered to be permeated with the very essence of awakened mind, possessing tremendous intrinsic power and blessings. The appropriate vessel for containing these relics is a stupa.
 

Each stupa is designed according to ancient sacred geometry; situated on land selected for its beneficial properties and graced with the sanction of the elemental forces. Through its design and contents, a stupa is regarded as having the power to transmit the essence of awakened mind, on the spot, to anyone ready to receive it. The Buddha said that whoever sees the stupa will be liberated by the sight of it. Feeling the breeze around the stupa liberates by its touch. Having thus seen or experienced the stupa, by thinking of one's experience of it, one is liberated through recollection.
 

Atop the golden spire in the center of the 42-foot-tall bell-shaped stupa, I saw a winged horse wind vane spinning in the wind. The wind vane represented my unsettled emotions; the weather of my mind. One cannot forcibly subdue an emotional struggle by an exertion of the will. If you attempt to force stillness upon restless emotions you will only create deep inner conflict. Equanimity must develop naturally out of the tranquility of a meditative state. I focused on the stupa and it instantly brought me calm and clarity.
 

The Black Horse
 

The next imagery that I saw was a galloping black horse. Black horses are messengers and carriers of positive, mysterious energy. Seeing a black horse in your meditation means there is an energy that is about to enter your life. This energy will have a positive effect on your life, though it may not be obvious at first. This energy can come into your life in a myriad of ways. It could be a person, a career change or an unexpected event. Actually, it could be anything. The key here is that the sequence of events that will be set into motion by this energy will have an overall positive effect. If you see a black horse, be on the lookout for something extraordinary on the horizon.
 

Black horses symbolize the ability to overcome obstacles and come out on the other side. It is also widely known to be a symbol for death. This does not always mean death in the literal sense; in this case it means leaving behind things which no longer serve you. The black steed symbolism is both death-defying and death-seeking. In other words, it is symbolic of death and rebirth. It signifies the closing of one door and the opening of another. It can also symbolize the need for you to take a leap of faith. Trust your intuition even if you can't see the reason or the result.
 

If a black horse appears in your life, you may need some reassurance that you are powerful enough to take on any challenge that comes your way. While many people hold on to things that no longer serve them out of fear, you must be brave enough to take the power and do what you need to do in order to come out on the other side. A black horse is an omen of powerful and courageous transformation. The notion of death and rebirth portends that the black horse will bring an end to things and relationships which no longer serve you. In doing this without fear or hesitation, the horse is transforming and creating a better version of you.
 

Horse medicine teaches you to be true to your authentic self. Though you may be quite attached to your plans, ideas, self-image, social position, security and relationships, it is time to strip away old ideas and habits; eliminate the outmoded or worn out. Dive into the problem without thought of immediate gain or purpose. This is the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one. Now is the time for bold action.

The Lost Art of Resurrection

An excerpt from my memoir, Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism.

 

Like a golden luminous jewel, Palenque perches above the lush tropical rainforest in the foothills of the Chiapas Highlands of southern Mexico. Humid air hangs heavy in this jungle acropolis overlooking the coastal plains of the state of Tabasco. Shrouded in morning jungle mists and echoing to a dawn chorus of howler monkeys and parrots, this temple city has a serene, mystical atmosphere. In antiquity, the Maya city was known as Lakamha, meaning "big waters." Tranquil spring-fed streams meander through the city and the temple summits offer spectacular views of the ruins and surrounding jungle. Flourishing in the seventh century, Palenque is an architectural masterpiece of unsurpassed beauty and spiritual force.

Palenque's most prominent structure is the Temple of the Inscriptions. The elegant temple crowns an imposing eight-stepped pyramid 75 feet above a great plaza. The temple gets its name from hieroglyphic inscriptions on three stone tablets, known as the East Tablet, the Central Tablet and the West Tablet, on the structure's inner walls. These large carved tablets emphasize the idea that events that happened in the past will be repeated on the same calendar date. The edifice was specifically built as the funerary monument for K'inich Janaab' Pakal, also known as Pakal the Great, ruler of Palenque in the seventh century.
 

Deep in the heart of the pyramid, Pakal's remains were found in a stone sarcophagus, wearing a mosaic jade death mask and elaborate jade jewelry. The intricate carving on the top of the seven-ton sarcophagus lid itself is an iconic piece of Classic Maya art and was crucial to understanding how the ancient Maya viewed death and rebirth. The magnificent bas-relief shows the cross-shaped World Tree -- which manifests in the dark night sky as the Milky Way or "White Road" to the Underworld -- and Pakal's relationship to it in death. The king is depicted at the moment of his divine resurrection in the unen or infant form of the lightning deity K'awiil, ascending from the Underworld on the starry Milky Way road to paradise and eternal life.
 

At Palenque, the Maya carefully encoded instructions for gaining eternal life in their architecture, art and hieroglyphic inscriptions. The Maya believed that the real purpose of our lives is to grow ourselves into godlike beings of power and beauty. Survival of the personal aspect of the soul was the goal for Maya shamans. They believed that there are two souls. Every human being has a "life soul," one that is linked to the body and that, should it depart the body, would cause death. It remains within the body until the moment of death. There is also a second soul, or "free soul." The free soul can roam free from the body without harming the person. It corresponds to the dream or astral body. Upon death, it journeys to the pool of souls from whence it may reach back to us and communicate with us through portals to the Underworld -- caves and pyramids.
 

The resurrection of the free soul was what the ancient Maya shamans hoped to achieve. The Maya believed the soul to be regenerative to its core; ultimately its purpose is to regenerate itself. The human soul manifested from the Otherworld paradise through the portal jaws of the great Vision Serpent. If it succeeded in growing into its divine potential by nurturing itself through education and ecstatic bonding with the gods, it could recreate itself after death wearing its own individual "face," then dance forever on the surface of the infinite otherworldly sea. The lightning-serpent energy that fueled the soul's resurrection came from the rain deity K'awiil.
 

The Maya shamans believed death is "behind the times," caught up in a previous and less advanced era, lacking knowledge of the art of resurrection. There is a dramatic difference between the idea of resurrection and a belief in the soul's immortality. Resurrection -- raising up again -- means that something has truly died and then brought back to life. Immortality, on the other hand, assumes unbroken continuity of the soul's existence after the death of the body.
 

The ancient shamans of Palenque built a resurrection generator on a large elevated plaza in the southeast corner of the city surrounded by jungle covered hills. Archaeologists call this ch'ulel "power plant" the Cross Group or Temple of the Cross complex. It is made up of three pyramid temples arranged in a triangular pattern. The shaman architects who designed the Cross Group believed they had discovered the earthly site of the three hearthstones of creation. In Maya cosmology, a triangle of three stars in the Orion constellation represents the hearthstones of the cosmic fire the gods had set to begin the present world age. Using geomantic divination, they detected the location of the invisible stones and built the temples over them, forming the shamanic infrastructure that powered the resurrection process.
 

The Temple of the Cross is the largest and most significant structure. They placed it on a hill at the northern apex of the cosmic hearth. On the inside back wall of the temple sanctuary, they installed a carved stone tablet depicting the branching World Tree at the moment the Maize God lifted it to the sky. At the western corner of the triangle, they constructed the Temple of the Sun and erected a tablet on the back wall portraying warfare, human sacrifice and a shield adorned with the Jaguar Sun God. At the eastern corner of the hearth, they built the Temple of the Foliated Cross honoring the deity Unen K'awiil, a personification of young maize, and placed within it a tablet showing the World Tree as a maize plant. It depicts King Pakal, wrapped in his death shroud, rising up from the Underworld in his "resurrection body."
 

The shaman-astronomers arranged the pyramids so that as the night sky wheeled through its yearly cycle to reenact the events of creation, the three temples would engage this celestial pattern and reactivate the sacred time of that first awakening. On August 13, a date the Maya associate with creation, the night sky goes through a cycle from dusk to dawn that recounts the story of the transition from the third world into the fourth world when humans were created. During that evening, when the stars and constellations took up their creation-resurrection positions, and the glowing Milky Way/World Tree rose in the heavens, the temple complex came alive with Otherworldly forces.

"Shamanic Journeys" Book Release

It is with great pleasure that I announce the release of my new book, Shamanic Journeys: An Anthology. This book is an anthology of shamanic journeys that I have taken over my 35-year exploration of shamanism, the most ancient and most enduring spiritual tradition known to humanity. Each inner journey has a unique story about what led up to the trance experience, and what I learned from it. They were powerful life-changing events for me. Journey work is therapeutic and liberating. My trance experiences were healing, insightful and empowering. They often triggered the cathartic release of suppressed emotions producing feelings of peace and well-being. The process restores emotional health through expression and integration of emotions.
 

Shamanism is based on the principle that innate wisdom and guidance can be accessed through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. We can engage the blueprint of our soul path through the vehicle of journeying. Shamanic journeying is a time-tested medium for individual self-realization. We can journey within to access wisdom and energies that can help awaken our soul calling and restore us to wholeness. It heightens our sense of mission and purpose, empowering our personal evolution. I invite you to journey with me into the inner realms of consciousness.

 

What is Shamanic Journeying?

Shamanism represents a universal conceptual framework found among indigenous tribal humans. It includes the belief that the natural world has two aspects: ordinary everyday awareness, formed by our habitual behaviors, patterns of belief, social norms, and cultural conditioning, and a second non-ordinary awareness accessed through altered states, or ecstatic trance, induced by shamanic practices such as repetitive drumming. The act of entering an ecstatic trance state is called the soul flight or shamanic journey, and it allows the journeyer to view life and life's problems from a detached, spiritual perspective, not easily achieved in a state of ordinary consciousness.

Basically, shamanic journeying is a way of communicating with your inner or spirit self and retrieving information. Your inner self is in constant communication with all aspects of your environment, seen and unseen. You need only journey within to find answers to your questions. You should have a question or objective in mind from the start. Shamanic journeying may be undertaken for purposes of divination, for personal healing, to meet one's power animal or spirit guide, or for any number of other reasons. After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.

The drum, sometimes called the shaman’s horse, provides a simple and effective way to induce ecstatic trance states. When a drum is played at an even tempo of three to four beats per second for at least fifteen minutes, most novices report that they can journey successfully even on their first attempt. Transported by the driving beat of the drum; the shamanic traveler journeys to the inner planes of consciousness.

Contents
Introduction
1. Meeting My Spirit Guide
2. The Moon Goddess
3. The Guardian Spirit
4. The Storm
5. Drumming in Boynton Canyon
6. The Navajo Storm Pattern Rug
7. The Sweat Lodge Ceremony
8. The Great Kiva
9. Healing the Land
10. The Medicine Tipi
11. Spirit Horse Falls
12. The Pyramid of the Magician
13. You are Kukulkan
14. The Mystery of Death and Rebirth
15. The Earth is a Drum
16. The Rainbow Bridge
17. The Feathered Serpent
18. The Snowy Owl
19. Breitenbush Hot Springs
20. Guardian of the Pipe
Appendix A. Taking the Shamanic Journey
Appendix B. Ten Good Reasons to Take a Shamanic Journey
About the Author

The Importance of Corn Deities

First grown in Mexico some 5,000 years ago, corn soon became the most important food crop in North and Central America. Throughout the region, Puebloans, Mayans, Aztecs, and other Indigenous peoples worshiped corn deities and developed a variety of myths about the origin, planting, growing, and harvesting of corn, also known as maize. Secular and ceremonial life centered around the growing cycle of corn. Corn became an archetype planted in our collective unconscious.  
 

In the process of writing my spiritual memoir, Riding Spirit Horse, I discovered a recurring theme. One motif that keeps repeating itself in my shamanic journey and trance experiences is that of corn. On my first shamanic journey into the spirit world in 1988, I met a spirit guide who became my lifelong mentor in the ways of the spirit world. Known as Corn Woman or Corn Mother, she is an important deity archetype in Pueblo mythology. She represents fertility, life and the feminine aspects of this world.
 
The importance of corn deities in Pueblo mythology reflects the importance of corn in the Pueblo diet. Each pueblo performs a ritual Corn Dance to honor Corn Woman and pray for rain, growth and fertility. A drummer and a chorus of chanting men support the lines of colorful dancers who move in a continually changing zigzag pattern. The graceful dancers turn and pause, then turn again, creating a sweep of movement that ripples through the line like a breath of wind through stalks of ripening corn. The dancers make gestures to indicate their requests to Corn Woman: lowering the arms depicts the lowering clouds, moving the arms in a zigzag motion denotes lightning, lowering the palms signifies rain, and lifting the hands symbolizes the growing stalks of corn. It is a dance that evokes the timeless Pueblo way of being.
 
On my first pilgrimage to the Maya pyramids and ceremonial centers of Mexico in 1995, I had a vision of the Maize God, giving me insight into the mystery of death and rebirth. The Maya Maize God is a mythical dying-and-reviving god who was killed by the Lords of the Underworld, brought back to life by his sons, the Hero Twins, and emerged from the Underworld as corn. For horticultural societies like the Mayans and Puebloans, maize is the substance of life. Its growing cycle is a metaphor for the death, burial and rebirth of humans. When the corn seed from the harvest is blessed and interred in the earth, it is as though a dead human is buried. The embryonic seed germinates in the dark, moist earth and begins to grow. The corn plant turns its leaves toward the light of the sun, growing taller and taller. At the end of the season, when the corn cobs are fully ripe, it is as if the dead person surfaces to join the living. Just as darkness gives rise to light, so life grows from death.

"Riding Spirit Horse" Book Release

Happy vernal equinox! I hope you're safe and remaining hopeful despite the horrific world events taking place. It's a head-spinning, anxiety-inducing time. The past two years of the coronavirus pandemic have been filled with unprecedented challenges and uncertainty. Immersing myself in a writing project was my way to cope with a global pandemic that has affected everything and everyone. The isolation and prodigious amount of free time provided fertile ground for writing my life story. So it is with great pleasure that I announce the release of my autobiography, Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism. 

 

In this spiritual memoir, I recount my journey into shamanic practice. It has been a lifelong process--a path that continues to unfold. I am sharing my journey and learnings because many people in today's world are being called by Spirit to become shamans or shamanic practitioners. A yearning exists deep within many of us to reconnect to the natural world. It is a call to a life lived in balance with awareness of Nature, of Spirit and of Self. We live in a culture that has severed itself from Nature and Spirit. Humans have lost touch with the spirit world and the wisdom of inner knowing. The spirits, however, have not forgotten us. They are calling us to a path of environmental sanity, to rejoining the miraculous cycle of Nature.
 

The narrative of my story moves from my first ecstatic experience as a youth at a church revival to my mystical shamanic awakening in the wilderness, transformational pilgrimages to sacred places, working with indigenous wisdom keepers, to the experiences that prompted my writing, particularly my trance experiences "riding the drum" or Spirit Horse. Studying with Native elders and shamans, I discovered my shamanic gifts as a drummer, storyteller and ceremonialist.
 
A journey into shamanism is a pilgrimage of the soul. My journey has taken me down many spiritual paths. As a youth growing up, I embraced the teachings of Christ; I later studied and practiced the teachings of Taoism and Buddhism, all of which have their roots in shamanic practices from the earliest tribal communities. Shared core principles and truths weave a common thread through all spiritual traditions. This golden thread runs through the lives and the teachings of all the great prophets, seers and sages in the world's history.
 
Ultimately, all contemplative spiritual practice leads to the evolution of conscious awareness and union with the divine in the present moment. The perennial wisdom traditions teach us that the "here and now" is eternal, unchanging and omnipresent; it should be the primary focus of our life. When we are not present in the moment, we become a victim of time. Our mind is pulled into the past or the future or both. The present moment is all we ever have. The eternal now is the fundamental ceremony of life. When we bring ourselves fully into the present moment, our life becomes a spiritual practice and an opportunity to ride in beauty on the windhorse of authentic presence! I invite you to look inside Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism and to view the official book trailer.

Solstice Blessings to Everyone

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year and the first day of winter. This occurs December 20, 21, or 22, varying from year to year, dependent upon the elliptical path of the Earth around our Sun. Ancient peoples in our northern climes regarded Winter Solstice as the pivotal time of year. It is a time of transition in the annual cycle when the old year ends and our journey into the New Year begins. It is a sacred time to conduct ceremonies focused on the return of light and warmth. Rituals designed to divert nature from the path toward eternal winter and oblivion to one directed toward light and prosperity. Most cultures planned festivals and celebrations at or around the Winter Solstice to ensure that the Sun would return.
 

Winter Solstice is an affirmation of the continuation of life; that the cyclical order of time and the cosmos will continue intact. Fire and light have always played a central role in the Winter Solstice ceremonies. In much of northern Europe people ignited huge bonfires. Lighted candles were often placed on the branches of evergreen trees, which symbolized survival and eternal life. These symbols of warmth and lasting life were lit to hasten the "old" Sun's waning and the "new" Sun's rebirth. On the Winter Solstice we are all praying, on some level, for the darkness to end. "Just return the light!" the ceremonies seem to say. As we celebrate the return of the light, we affirm the continuation of life at the very moment of dissolution. To be sure, dark days lie ahead. But contained within each is the promise of brighter tomorrows.

The Red Queen of Palenque

I made my first pilgrimage to the Maya ruins of Palenque in 1995. It is one of the most powerful and remarkable places I have ever been. Like a golden luminous jewel, the ancient city of Palenque perches above the lush tropical rainforest in the foothills of the Chiapas Highlands of southern Mexico. Shrouded in morning jungle mists and echoing to a dawn chorus of howler monkeys and parrots, this temple city has a serene, mystical atmosphere. Tranquil spring-fed streams meander through the city and the temple summits offer spectacular views of the ruins and surrounding jungle. Flourishing in the seventh century, Palenque is an architectural masterpiece of unsurpassed beauty and spiritual force.
 

In 1994, archaeologists discovered a hidden tomb in one of Palenque's small temple pyramids. The skeletal remains of a woman, identified as Lady Tz'akbu Ajaw, were still lying in her limestone sarcophagus. Her skeleton was covered and surrounded by a large collection of jade and pearl objects, bone needles and shells, which were originally pieces of necklaces, earspools and wristlets. The funeral assemblage of Lady Tz'akbu Ajaw, nicknamed the Red Queen because she was found covered in red cinnabar, is one of the richest known burials of a female Maya ruler. Embellished with jewels, gold, turquoise and jade, the tomb dates from about 600 A.D.
 

The Red Queen's ornate tomb was discovered in Temple XIII, next to the imposing Temple of the Inscriptions, where her husband and king, K'inich Janahb' Pakal, was entombed wearing a mosaic jade death mask and elaborate jade jewelry. Her malachite funerary mask echoes his jade version. She also wore a headdress ornamented with shell eyes and fangs, probably representing a deity, and a collar of multicolored stone and shell beads. Some archaeologists believe that the cinnabar covering her body and accompanying ornaments symbolizes blood, and thus life, and may have been instrumental in helping the Red Queen travel to the afterworld.

Why Do We Fear Death?

65 million people die each year in the world. That is 178,000 each day, 7425 each hour, and 120 each minute. Unfortunately, many people are so removed from death that they are unprepared for their own death and the deaths of loved ones. The stories we have been told about where we go when we die shape our reality about death. Millions of people are terrified of death because they have been told a story of hell and damnation. When a person fears retribution for misdeeds, the soul may turn away from the bright light. However, it is not the divine that judges us -- we judge ourselves and condemn ourselves to the hell of separation from the divine source.
 

The truth is that dying is part of life; it's just that simple. Death, as we understand it in scientific terminology, does not really exist. As Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a pioneer of the hospice movement, explains in her best-selling book On Death and Dying: "Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow." The only thing you lose is something that you don't need anymore: your physical body. That's virtually what death is all about.
 

Death is not an end; rather it is a new beginning. When death is accepted as a natural part of our journey, an extraordinary amount of previously diverted energy can be redirected toward finding your calling, following your heart and helping others. Shamanism shows us that the end of our life is just as important as our birth at the beginning. Living in fear of death distorts our lives, robbing us of death as a great ally for how to live well. "It is not death but an unlived life that should terrify us," explains shamanic teacher and author, Christina Pratt. "When we understand how our unlived lives and unreconciled relationships bind us here at death, we understand what is needed to live well."
 

Reincarnation is a key belief within Hinduism, Buddhism and other eastern religions. All life goes through birth, growth, death and rebirth, and this is known as the cycle of samsara. Life and death are a continuous circle. Through reincarnation and maintaining an open mind, our souls can evolve and grow without limit. We are each on a long journey of the soul, however we can't move forward on this continuous path without a free and open mind. As soon as we close our minds because of religious dogma, fundamentalism or fanaticism, we stop evolving.

Shamanic Initiation Dreams

Many people in today's world are being called by Spirit to become shamans or shamanic practitioners. A yearning exists deep within many of us to reconnect to the natural world. It is a call to a life lived in balance with awareness of Nature, of Spirit and of Self. We live in a culture that has severed itself from Nature and Spirit. Humans have lost touch with the spirit world and the wisdom of inner knowing. The spirits, however, have not forgotten us. They are calling us to a path of environmental sanity, to rejoining the miraculous cycle of Nature. 

Spirit calls us to a path of shamanism in many ways. It can be as dramatic as a life threatening illness or as simple as a dream. Some people receive signs of a shamanic calling through their dreams. Future shamans may dream of spirits and ancestors or hear their voices. Others may have recurring dreams in which they meet certain animal or teacher figures that are manifestations of the very spirits who are calling them. Also, in dreams the candidate is sometimes given initiatory directives and learns which objects will be needed to perform cures. These instructions are given by the spirits and by the older master shamans and are equivalent to an initiation.

 
During a shamanic dream initiation, the candidate usually experiences suffering, death, and resurrection, including a symbolic cutting up of the body, such as dismemberment or disembowelment by ancestral or animal spirits. The candidate dies a symbolic death and is then restored and brought back to life, whole and empowered. Sometimes initiation dreams begin even in childhood. Usually, the premonitory dreams of future shamans are followed by mortal illnesses if they are not rightly respected.
 

The souls of the dead are regarded as a source of shamanic powers among some tribes like the Paviotso, the Shoshone, the Paiute, the Lillooet, and the Thompson Salish. In northern California this method of bestowing shamanic powers is widespread. The Yurok shamans dream of a dead man, usually a shaman. Among the Sinkyone the power is sometimes received in dreams in which the candidate's deceased relatives appear; the Wintu also become shamans after such dreams, especially if they dream of their own dead children. In the Shasta tribe the first indication of shamanic power follows dreams of a departed mother, father, or ancestor.

 
Among the Mohave and the Yuma of southern California, power comes from the mythical beings who transmitted it to shamans at the beginning of the world. Transmission takes place in dreams and includes an initiation scenario. In their dreams the Yuma shamans witness the beginning of the world and experience mythical times. Such dreams may include a mystical journey to the archetypal Cosmic Tree or World Tree. Among the Maricopa, initiatory dreams involve a spirit taking the future shaman's soul and leading it from mountain to mountain, each time revealing songs and cures. Ultimately, it is the spirits who choose and make the shaman.

Finding Your Spiritual Dharma

The concept of dharma, or the "eternal spiritual path," is a key Hindu and Buddhist concept, referring to a law or principle which governs the universe. For an individual to live out their dharma, they must act in accordance with this law. In Hinduism dharma is both the eternal order that rules the universe and the duty or law that governs one's life. In Buddhism, dharma is the doctrine, the universal truth common to all individuals at all times, proclaimed by the Buddha. Dharma, the Buddha, and the sangha (community of believers) make up the Triratna, "Three Jewels," to which Buddhists go for refuge. In Buddhism, dharma additionally means acting in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha. The Buddha's teachings and the path to enlightenment are symbolized by the Wheel of Dharma.
 

On an individual level, dharma can refer to a personal mission or purpose. Fulfilling one's dharma or purpose in life is considered the way to transcend suffering and the cycle of birth and death. It is said that all beings must accept their dharma for order and harmony to exist in the world. If one is following their dharma, they are pursuing their true calling and serving all other beings in the universe by carrying out their authentic role. According to the Hindu scripture "Bhagavad Gita," it is better to do your own dharma poorly than to do another's well.
 

Finding your spiritual dharma, or purpose, is more about introspection and self-discovery than about following the same path as others. The most important thing you can do is to develop a spiritual practice. A spiritual practice is the regular performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual development. This is where you practice a variety of techniques on a daily basis that are designed to expand your awareness with the intention of achieving higher states of consciousness and spiritual enlightenment. Here are a three techniques to finding your spiritual path:
 

1. Mindful Meditation: Meditation is probably the most ancient and well known spiritual practice. To meditate means to focus the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity in order to train attention and awareness, and promote calm and clarity. Mindfulness is the idea of learning how to be fully present and engaged in the moment, aware of your thoughts and feelings without distraction or judgment. Combining meditation and mindfulness together into a single practice optimizes the effects of both.
 

To practice mindful meditation, sit or lie comfortably, and then close your eyes. Begin by silently asking yourself: "What is my dharma or purpose in life?" Then simply focus on your breath and observe whatever comes up without judgment or attachment. You do not need to do anything to your breath. Just breathe naturally and focus your attention on where you feel your breath in your body. It may be in your abdomen, chest, throat or nostrils. As you do this, your mind may start to wander. This is perfectly natural. Just notice that your mind has wandered, and then gently redirect your attention back to the breathing. Stay here for five to seven minutes. It helps to set aside a designated time for mindful meditation each day.
 

2. Mindful Drumming: Drumming is perhaps the oldest form of active meditation known to humanity. It is a simple and effortless way to still the mind's internal dialogue in order to access personal revelation from within. Combining these two ancient practices -- drumming and mindfulness -- can be life-altering. Just like a yogi or a monk, who exists in a spiritual state most of the time because of constant devotional practices, we can readily induce profound states of deep meditation and heightened awareness by using a drum as an aid to meditation. Mindful drumming is a way to connect straight to the heart. The energy that comes in from the source is directed through our hearts. The essence of mindful drumming is the experience of direct revelation, which comes through as a feeling, impression or intuition.
 

To practice mindful drumming, sit comfortably, and then close your eyes. Silently ask yourself: "What is my dharma -- my purpose in life?" Next begin drumming a steady, monotonous rhythm and simply focus on the beat. If your mind wanders, gently redirect your attention back to the beat. Drum for five to seven minutes, maintaining a nonjudgmental awareness of sensations, feelings and insights. The punctuated sound of a regularly beating drum stills the incessant chatter of the mind, enabling you to achieve a mindful state almost instantly -- the fast path to self-revelation. This ease of meditation with a drum contrasts significantly with the often long periods of isolation and practice required by many other meditative disciplines before significant effects are experienced.
 

3. Shamanic Journeying: When we are unaware of our soul's true purpose, or simply not aligned in our actions, we often experience a malaise of the spirit. We can engage the blueprint of our soul path through the vehicle of journeying. Shamanic journeying is a time-tested medium for individual self-realization. We can journey within to access wisdom and energies that can help awaken our soul calling and restore us to wholeness. Journey practice connects us with our deepest core values and our highest vision of who we are and why we are here. It heightens our sense of mission and purpose, empowering our personal evolution.
 

Shamanism is based on the principle that innate wisdom and guidance can be accessed through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. Basically, shamanic journeying is a way of communicating with your inner or true self and retrieving information. Your inner self is in constant communication with all aspects of your environment, seen and unseen. You need only journey within to find answers to your questions. You should have a question or objective in mind from the start such as identifying your innermost purpose in life. After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.
 

To enter a trance state and support your journey, you will need a drum or a shamanic drumming recording. The drum, sometimes called the shamans horse, provides a simple and effective way to induce ecstatic trance states. When a drum is played at an even tempo of three to four beats per second for at least fifteen minutes, most novices report that they can journey successfully even on their first attempt. Transported by the driving beat of the drum; the shamanic traveler journeys to the inner planes of consciousness. Try a shamanic journey.

Appropriate Destruction

From a shamanic perspective, all creation is based on some form of destruction. In order to create something new, something old first must be destroyed. The old form is taken apart and from its energetic source, something new arises. Nature offers the best examples of this constant destruction in the form of seasonal changes. As each season gives way to the next, something is destroyed in the process. Fall kills off the green leaves and lays the landscape bare. Winter kills off the insects and weakest animals. Spring destroys the snowpack and brings floods. Summer bakes the land, drying up the streams and plants. Everywhere in nature are examples of great destruction that reform the land, creating a new canvas for change. Earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, erupting volcanoes, and withering droughts destroy the landscape as it was, clearing the way for new life, new forms, new possibilities.
 

Shamans acknowledge the awesome power of transformation that comes with destruction and seek to harness that power. One powerful universal shamanic motif of appropriate destruction is the dismemberment of the apprentice during the initiation as a shaman. The individual dies a symbolic death and is then restored and brought back to life. Completing this restorative rite is precisely the task of the shaman. As anthropologist Joan Halifax explains in her book Shamanic Voices, "The shaman is a healed healer who has retrieved the broken pieces of his or her body and psyche and, through a personal rite of transformation, has integrated many planes of life experience: the body and the spirit, the ordinary and non-ordinary, the individual and the community, nature and supernature, the mythic and the historical, the past, the present and the future."
 

The viewpoint emerging from the shamanic community suggests the times we live in have a theme of planetary and cosmological initiation. Shamanic initiation is most often precipitated by physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual events that force the ego into submission. Who we believe ourselves to be is not who we truly are. No matter how many years one has been developing their consciousness, no one is exempt from this shamanic death-and-rebirth. This is a shamanic initiation on the grandest cosmological scale.
 

The times we find ourselves in are like a great river in flood. We can try to hold on to the shore to save ourselves from being swept along with the current. But this is a futile effort, for nothing can resist the great tide of change that is sweeping through and forever altering life as we have known it for millennia. Instead, we are being challenged to let go and go with the flow. We are being given the opportunity to surrender to the current of change so that new dreams and visions can emerge.
 

The cure for dismemberment is appropriate destruction. An appropriate destruction measure for anyone would be to get rid of anything that does not contribute to personal growth and learning. This would include the elimination of unnecessary possessions, ideas, habits and limiting beliefs that no longer serve you. Situations, careers or relationships that no longer resonate with you will eventually fall away from your life. When you clear out the old, you make way for the new.

Liberation Shamanism and Life's Purpose

By Jade Grigori

I practice Liberation Shamanism. Sovereignty, Autonomy and Self-Determination are the keynotes of the paradigm within which I operate. From this viewpoint, the Shamanic perspective of life's purpose is radically different than the psychotherapeutic or metaphysical way of looking at things. Try this on… I would bet that you look at life as being a school, a place in which you are here to learn? Correct? Let's say you were going to a University in order to learn something, a particular skill set. You ace the tests, get your diploma, yada yada. The U offers the exact same class next year. So do you repeat the class? No, of course not! You got what you went there to learn, so you are outta there!

Next example: Maybe you have, or know someone who has gone into a relationship in order to learn…to learn how to share, to be giving, accepting…whatever. What invariably happens to that relationship once you have 'gotten' what you went in to it to learn? Yep…it is over. You got what you went to learn, so it no longer serves a purpose. Ok, now the biggie…stay with my logic of examples… Do you hold that you are here in this life to learn? If so, What? "I am here in this life to learn ______." Fill in the blank, it matters not with what…compassion, acceptance, finding your true self…whatever. Now…what will happen once you learn that? (Stick with the flow of examples/logic progression I provided!) That's right, you are outta here. And what does 'outta here' in regards of life equate with? Yep…death.

Here's the rub…we each have an instinct for self-preservation. Its sole purpose is to keep us alive. Instincts are pre-conscious, and as such are incapable of rational discourse. You cannot argue or convince an instinct that you will not die just because you have moved into completion of your belief of what your purpose in life is. All that the instinct knows is that when you are nearing the achievement of what you are here in this life to learn, death will soon follow. The instinct for self-preservation then will do anything and everything in its power to keep you from 'getting it'. It will derail, destroy and sabotage all further attempts to succeed. The end result is that whatever the ideal is that you have been thinking you have to learn in order to succeed…fails. The effective way of contending with this is rather simple, really, but it requires of you an absolute, across the board paradigm shift. It is this: We are not here in this life to learn. We are here for the EXPERIENCE of life.

When, in the example, say, of the relationship, we are present in it not to learn, but for the experience of relationship, when, of necessity must that relationship end? Right…never! And during the course of that relationship we will, of course, learn much. But we are not setting ourselves up to learn, we are there for the experience of relationship. Even if that relationship should end, that becomes a part of the experience of relationship…not an end in and of itself.

Now, apply this to Life. If we are NOT here to learn, but rather are here for the experience of Life…when does that end? Again, never. Even death becomes, not a consequence, but a part of the experience of life itself! And, therefore, that instinct for self-preservation does not kick in, as the experience of life does not lead to completion and death. Get it? Ok then… Now, the task is to apply this to EVERY situation in life. Rather than asking, in a situation where you have suffered or been betrayed or whatever: "What do I have to learn…or what is the lesson for me here" (the answer, BTW, is going to be "Nothing!"), ask instead, "What can I learn from this experience of life?"

Doing thusly moves the onus from one of doing one's damnedest to pass the test that some external authority (God, Karma, etc) has placed before you, to one of owning your own creative intelligence and power in the situation you are experiencing. There is no set up. There is no test. Life is not a school of learning. This is the real thing. Live it, experience it in all its weirdness and awe. Live and experience life with gusto and passion and an acceptance that you will never figure it all out, nor do you have to. In summation: Release the belief that we are here in this life to 'learn'…that somehow life is a school, or that some deity is testing you, and if you please the deity with your deeds and supplications that deity will reward you with an easier life. Or that you are suffering from karma,…and if you just are good enough you won't have to suffer karmically (next lifetime!). Embrace life as experience. Oh, you will learn along the way. Probably you will learn lots. The reward comes from the results of your authentic and passionate engagement of Life…not from outside yourself!

Jade Grigori is an American Shaman who mentored me in shamanic drumming and helped me to find my own path of rhythm. Please visit his website to learn more.

Bat Medicine and the Coronavirus

I am not a medical professional or an expert on epidemics. I leave the critical information in those important fields for the experts who have the appropriate training to help us get through the coronavirus pandemic. Even though I do not possess medical knowledge, as a shamanic practitioner, I believe I can try to humbly offer some insight into the spiritual significance of the pandemic that is spreading rapidly through much of the world. We are all navigating challenges as a result of COVID-19. Whether those issues are health related, economically related, or otherwise, we are being given an opportunity for growth.

Scientists say that the bat is the likely origin of the coronavirus near Wuhan, China, but humans are to blame for the spread of the disease. In the shaman's world everything happens for a reason -- there are no accidents. Furthermore, everything that happens in the physical world has its ultimate cause in the spirit world. So, what is the spiritual significance of the bat coronavirus? Bat represents rebirth, transition, and intuition. Bats often represent death in the sense of letting go of the old, and bringing in the new. They are symbols of transition, of initiation, and the start of a new beginning.

The word "medicine" in shamanic practice refers to the healing aspects that a particular animal brings to our consciousness. When bat medicine appears in our life, it is a call for the end of a way of life and the new beginning of another. This transition can be very frightening for many. But we will not grow spiritually until we let go of those old parts of us that are no longer needed. Success depends on our willingness to plow old habits into the soil in order to cultivate new patterns that enhance our natural growth. By facing the darkness before us, we will find the light of rebirth.

The bat is a symbol of death and rebirth because it is an animal that lives in the dark underworld of the Earth. From caves in the Earth Mother's womb, it emerges every evening at twilight. Thus, from the womb it is symbolically reborn every evening. Bat medicine embraces the idea of symbolic death in which the personal ego identity and the old ways of life give way to the new.

The Dismemberment Journey

In shamanism, there is an archetypal visionary experience known as the dismemberment journey. The student or practitioner of shamanism recognizes an illusion or fear that impedes the expansion of their soul. The practitioner prays for this flaw to be healed and, in doing so, surrenders to the wisdom of the higher powers of the universe to remove the impediment. In a classic dismemberment journey, the petitioner witnesses their own body being torn apart and perhaps completely destroyed. The individual dies a symbolic death and is then restored and brought back to life, whole and empowered, the fear or illusion vanquished.

From a shamanic perspective, the global coronavirus pandemic represents a mass shamanic dismemberment -- the experience of being taken apart, devoured, or torn to pieces on a global scale, allowing for a shift of awareness and transformation of collective consciousness. At its deepest level, the dismemberment experience dismantles our old identity. It is a powerful death-and-rebirth process. The experience of being stripped, layer by layer, down to bare bones forces us to examine the bare essence of what we truly are.

The viewpoint emerging from the shamanic community suggests the times we live in have a theme of planetary and cosmological initiation. Shamanic initiation is most often precipitated by physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual events that force the ego into submission. Who we believe ourselves to be is not who we truly are. No matter how many years one has been developing their consciousness, no one is exempt from this shamanic death-and-rebirth. This is a shamanic initiation on the grandest cosmological scale.

The times we find ourselves in are like a great river in flood. We can try to hold on to the shore to save ourselves from being swept along with the current. But this is a futile effort, for nothing can resist the great tide of change that is sweeping through and forever altering life as we have known it for millennia. Instead, we are being challenged to let go and go with the flow. We are being given the opportunity to surrender to the current of change so that new dreams and visions can emerge.

As humans, we are being asked to go within and search our hearts in order to change those patterns of thought and behavior that work against us. It is necessary to still the mind and quiet the emotions so that inner knowing and intuition can emerge into our consciousness. Personal isolation and contemplation help us gain deeper insight and clarity of mind. Bat medicine gives us the wisdom required to make the appropriate changes for the birthing of our new identity.

Soul Flight: A Spiritual Prescription for Coronavirus

I am not a medical professional or an expert on epidemics. I leave the critical information in those important fields for the experts who have the appropriate training to help us get through the coronavirus pandemic. Even though I do not possess medical knowledge, as a shamanic practitioner, I believe I can try to humbly prescribe a vaccine that can heal the spirit -- the soul flight or shamanic journey. In the shamanic world, all healing begins with the spirit.

Shamanism is based on the principle that innate wisdom and guidance can be accessed through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. Basically, shamanic journeying is a way of communicating with your inner or true self and retrieving information. Your inner self is in constant communication with all aspects of your environment, seen and unseen. You need only journey within to find answers to your questions. You should have a question or objective in mind from the start. Shamanic journeying may be undertaken for purposes of divination, for personal healing, or for any number of other reasons. After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.

Drumming (or listening to a shamanic drumming recording) is a simple and effective way to induce this ecstatic trance state. When a drum is played at an even tempo of three to four beats per second for at least fifteen minutes, most novices report that they can journey successfully even on their first attempt. Transported by the driving beat of the drum; the shamanic traveler journeys to the inner planes of consciousness: the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds. You should always journey with a purpose, question or intention. Some good reasons to take a shamanic journey at this challenging time are….

1. To reconnect with your inner or spirit self: Shamanic journeying heightens the ability of perception and enables you to see into the deeper realms of the self. The moment you bond with your spirit is the moment your heart opens. The first time you glimpse your spirit self, you gasp and cry. You know who you are. That is the moment you begin to heal. Journey work reconnects us to our core, enhancing our sense of empowerment and stimulating our creative expression.

2. To clarify life purpose: When we are unaware of our soul's true purpose or simply not aligned in our actions, we often experience a malaise of the spirit. We can engage the blueprint of our soul path through the vehicle of journeying. Shamanic journeying is a time-tested medium for individual self-realization. We can journey within to access wisdom and energies that can help awaken our soul calling and restore us to wholeness. Journey work reconnects us with our deepest core values and our highest vision of who we are and why we are here. It heightens our sense of mission and purpose, empowering our personal evolution.

3. To access a higher power: Shamanism provides a secular approach to accessing a higher power. Shamanic methodology directly supports the introduction of spiritual factors found significant in the healing process. According to the American Journal of Public Health, "Shamanic activities bring people efficiently and directly into immediate encounters with spiritual forces, focusing the client on the whole body and integrating healing at physical and spiritual levels. This process allows them to connect with the power of the universe, to externalize their own knowledge, and to internalize their answers; it also enhances their sense of empowerment and responsibility. These experiences are healing, bringing the restorative powers of nature to clinical settings."

4. To divine information: You can journey within to obtain information about personal and community issues. Your helping spirits are a good resource when it comes to answering questions pertaining to relationships, health issues, or any issue. To divine information in a journey, begin with a clear question that you would like to ask of your helping spirits. Decide which of your helping spirits you would like to answer your question, and then journey to the place where you normally meet them in non-ordinary reality. Of course you can ask your question to as many of your helping spirits as you wish. When divining or healing on behalf of others, it is vital that you have their permission.

5. To develop relationships with the helping spirits who dwell in the three inner planes of consciousness -- the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds: Shamanism is a sacred call to build relationship with the caretakers in the unseen world who want to support the earth and her inhabitants at this time. These helping spirits might be the spirits of nature, animals, plants, the elements, or ancestors. The reason for developing personal relationships with spirit helpers is to gain wisdom, healing techniques, and other vital information that can benefit the community. Similar to the way friendships develop gradually, our relationships with spirits grow and deepen based on repeated interaction and building trust over time.

6. To reconnect with benevolent ancestors: Your ancestors and the collective spiritual power of all those who went before you reside in the spirit world. When your own time comes to pass on, you will become part of this vast collective unconscious. If you embark on a journey with the intention of connecting with those who have passed, they may come to meet you. Keep in mind that spirits choose to come into relationship with the person seeking. You can seek ancestral spirits, but the spirits must choose.

7. To prepare for death: Shamans believe that learning to leave the physical body is important, for without this experience, the soul may become confused after death and remain stuck in the Middle World. When a person dies, there is usually a smooth transition into the afterlife, but when a person suffers a traumatic death, they may not have an awareness of who and where they are. This makes it difficult for them to make their journey to the afterlife. Other souls linger in the space between life and the afterlife for fear of going to hell. Sadly, most of the psychopomp rites of passage that once helped prepare a person for death have disappeared. Hence, journeying is one of the most important shamanic skills that we can develop. By journeying to the Lower World, the place to which human souls travel upon physical death, we can prepare for our own death. That said, perhaps the most compelling reason to journey is...

8. To find ways to restore balance in the world: As anthropologist and author Felicitas Goodman points out, "One of the most pervasive traditions of shamanic cultures is the insight that there exists a patterned cosmological order, which can be disturbed by human activity." When harmony between the human realm and the original intended pattern is disturbed, the shaman makes a spirit journey to the Upper World to bring back the balance. Shamans also go there to acquire archetypal knowledge, to bring a vision into being, or to influence events in the material world. By interacting with the archetypes, the shaman interacts with their counterparts in the outer world.

Try a Shamanic Journey

To enter a trance state and support your journey, click here to listen to a track from my CD "Shamanic Journey Drumming." Reflect for a moment on the purpose of your journey, and then close your eyes. Focus your attention on the sound of the drum and feel yourself being carried away by the sound. If for any reason you want to return, just retrace your steps back. You will hear a call back signal near the end of the video, followed by a short period of slow heartbeat drumming to assist you in refocusing your awareness back to your physical body. Sit quietly for a few moments, and then open your eyes.

After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.  In some cases, your journey experiences will be clear and easy to understand. At other times, your journey may be dreamlike and full of symbolism. Interpret such journeys as you would any dream. Look for possible associations related to each symbol or image. The key is to observe whatever happens without trying to analyze the experience. Like developing any skill, journeying takes practice. Nothing may happen on your first journeys. You may only experience darkness. When this happens, simply try again at a different time. To learn more, read my article Shamanic Journeying.

Vajrayana Buddhism: The Blissful Drum

In the seventh century, a major movement within Mahayana Buddhism arose. This form of Buddhism, called the Vajrayana, is most prominent in Tibet and its surrounding regions, although variations of it are found in China and Japan. The term vajra (Sanskrit: "thunderbolt vehicle," or "diamond vehicle") is used to signify the absolutely real and indestructible in a human being, as opposed to the fictions an individual entertains about himself and his nature; yana is the spiritual pursuit of the ultimately valuable and indestructible. The Vajrayana understands itself to be an esoteric form of Mahayana Buddhism with an accelerated path to enlightenment. According to the Vajrayana view, enlightenment arises from the realization that seemingly opposite principles are in truth one.

Vajrayana Buddhism includes practices that make use of mantras, mudras, mandalas and the visualization of deities and Buddhas. All ritual in Vajrayana practice can be seen as aiding in this process of visualization and identification. The practitioner can use various hand implements such as the bell, vajra (dorje), and drum (damaru), each with an elaborate symbolic meaning to create a special environment for practice. At its simplest, or most profound distillation, the bell can be said to represent "the wisdom of emptiness," the vajra embodies "compassion," while the drum -- such as damaru or Chod drums -- express "bliss." Ultimately, together they express "the compassionate wisdom of blissful emptiness."

Chod Drum: The Voice of Emptiness

Chöd is a Vajrayana practice that combines Buddhist meditation with ancient Tibetan Shamanic ritual. Chod combines the path of Enlightenment and Shamanism into one. In Chod practice, the practitioner journeys into the night world -- the dangerous regions of ghosts, spirits and the damned, to bless all souls lost for a time on the wheel of existence. The selflessness of the practitioner's compassion, his or her contact with spirits of the otherworld, and the making of himself into a vehicle of healing, provide a quick method to realize emptiness and achieve perfect enlightenment. Emptiness is the true nature of reality and the goal of all meditative practice.

The iconic symbol of Chod is the Chod drum. The Chod drum's sound, often with small bells attached to the drum, are said to be the "voice of the Dakinis (tantric deities)" and carry blessings, but also help propel the intense meditation visualization of Chod practice. The sound of the drum also reaches beyond the mundane, calling out to (or blessing) all sentient beings of all realms. When you play a drum, the sound can be heard by the spirits throughout all realms of existence. Sound is regarded as one of the most effective ways of establishing connections with other realms, since it travels through space, permeates visual and physical barriers, and conveys information from the unseen world. Sound, therefore, is a means of "relationship" as well as a "transformation" of energy.

Due to it's complexity, Chod practice generally requires a teacher and instruction to perform. Playing the drum, in any of its forms, does not, and is of immense help to meditators around the world. Using the drum for mindfulness practice does not require a teacher or extensive learning, and in fact could be considered easier to practice than meditation on the breath. Mindful drumming could not be simpler: take a good seat, focus on the beat, and when your attention wanders, return. Even one session of mindful drumming demonstrates how powerful this meditation method can be in our stressful modern lives. The powerful and compelling rhythm of the drum can still and focus the mind -- the fast path to mindfulness and well-being.

Trevor Hall - The Fruitful Darkness

Joan Halifax's 2004 book The Fruitful Darkness is a great inspiration behind singer-songwriter Trevor Hall's latest album of its namesake, which is currently in the midst of a four-part release. Hall was in the middle of recording the album when he discovered Halifax's insightful book. Her deep study of shamanism, Buddhism, tribal wisdom, and their interconnections resonated with Hall on many levels. "The book really helped me finish the album," Hall said in an interview.

In her book, Halifax delves into the fruitful darkness -- the shadow side of being, found in the root truths of shamanic traditions and the stillness of meditation. In The Fruitful Darkness, Halifax writes: "Both Buddhism and shamanism are based in the psychological grammar that says we cannot eliminate the so-called negative forces of afflictive emotions. The only way to work with them is to encounter them directly, enter their world, and transform them. They then become manifestations of wisdom. Our weaknesses become our strengths, the source of our compassion for others and the basis of our awakened nature."

Shamans, Halifax notes, develop mystical abilities by surrendering to darkness and that which attacks them. Her reflections on the Buddhist path and the shamanic journey -- a spiritual journey of learning to befriend darkness -- spoke to Hall's own difficult walk through darkness. Hall's latest album tells the story of his own journey through darkness in song. Nearly three years ago, his health deteriorated as the result of a staph infection, leading to his hospitalization and many canceled tour dates.

Hall says he became completely disconnected from the beliefs and inspirations he had previously based his life on. As his idea of himself disintegrated, he found himself feeling alone in the dark, filled with doubt, asking "Who am I? What do I believe?" It was a feeling he couldn't shake.

Halifax's reflections on the Buddhist path and the shamanic journey immediately spoke to Hall's own difficult walk through darkness -- his own shamanic initiation. Initiation is the death, dismembering, and dissolving of old forms/structures/ways of life. Shamanic initiation serves as a transformer -- it causes a radical change in the initiate forever. An initiation marks a transition into a new way of being in the world. It tells us something about the mystery of life and death.

Completing this restorative rite is precisely the task of the shaman. As Joan Halifax explains in her book Shamanic Voices, "The shaman is a healed healer who has retrieved the broken pieces of his or her body and psyche and, through a personal rite of transformation, has integrated many planes of life experience: the body and the spirit, the ordinary and non-ordinary, the individual and the community, nature and supernature, the mythic and the historical, the past, the present and the future."

While writing an album reflecting on the wisdom he'd gained navigating a period of hardship, Halifax's message was the very guidance Hall needed. When it came time to title his record, Hall knew he wanted the album to share the same name as Halifax's book. He wrote to Halifax, who serves as the Abbot of Upaya Zen Center, requesting her permission to title his project The Fruitful Darkness. She gave him permission to use the title for his album, which echoes many of the book's themes in its lyrics. On the title track of the album, Hall sings:

The dark within my dark
Is where I found my light
The fruit became the doorway
And now it's open wide
The fruitful darkness
Is all around us

On "Arrows," the eighth track that Hall has released from The Fruitful Darkness, he sings:

The dark is all around me
But I'm so glad it found me

Hall has come to know the fruits of darkness well. In a recent interview Hall said, "It's been a journey to get to this point. The spiritual path is like a razor's edge. Every tradition says that -- Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Jewish. It's not a walk in the park."

Shamanic Initiation

Buryat Shaman's Initiation Staff *

In his classic work, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Mircea Eliade discusses the three stages of becoming a shaman: the Call, Training, and Initiation. The first stage to becoming a healer, as described by Eliade, is that of the calling -- this call comes from the family, the community, or from the world beyond. Some are called, initiated and trained by spirit guides and/or human teachers from childhood.

Shamans are called, and then receive rigorous instruction. Training may follow an ordered tradition or take a spontaneous course guided by the shaman's spirit helpers. The function of training is to develop the skills and talents so that shamanic practitioners don't unintentionally hurt themselves or others. Though the spirits give shamans their healing powers, shamans must learn the technique of invoking them.

Then there is Initiation. Shamanic initiation is a rite of passage, connecting the apprentice shaman intimately to the spirit world. It is typically the final step in shamanic training, though Mongolian Buryat apprentices go through a sequence of initiation rituals to become shamans. Buryat shamans having completed more initiation rituals are believed to have more power and more experience. However, initiation may be spontaneous, set in motion at any time by spirit's intervention into the initiate's life. Ultimately, shamanic initiation takes place between the initiate and the spirit world. It is the spirits who choose and make the shaman.

Shamanic initiation is probably the most powerful and least understood of all forms of spiritual awakening. It is not achieved by having mastered a body of knowledge or having completed some long-term training program. Though it may be set in motion by an apprentice's human teachers as part of an ordered, training process, authentic initiation can only be conveyed by the spirits themselves.

Initiation into shamanhood often involves shamanic dismemberment -- the experience of being taken apart, devoured, or torn to pieces. In a shamanic dismemberment, the individual dies the little death, which is the surrender of the ego. At its deepest level, the dismemberment experience dismantles our old identity. It is a powerful death-and-rebirth process. The experience of being stripped layer by layer, down to bare bones forces us to examine the bare essence of what we truly are.

Shamanic initiation functions as a transformer -- it causes a radical change in the initiate forever. An initiation marks a transition into a new way of being in the world. It tells us something about the mystery of life and death. According to shamanic teacher and author Sandra Ingerman, "Initiation is the death, dismembering, and dissolving of old forms/structures/ways of life. And I have come to understand that true initiation is allowing spirit to sing into creation the new forms and new creations. Allowing spirit to sing formlessness into form creates a new evolution of consciousness." To learn more, look inside my guide to becoming a shamanic healer, Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits. 

* Photo of Buryat Shaman's Initiation Staff by Arkady Zarubin.