Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology for Our Time

Part 5: Shamans, Midwives, and Hospice Workers

by Dianne Monroe, author of Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths for Turbulent Times

Beyond the edge where what we know and don't know meets lies the Unknown (with a capital U). It's a wild place that stretches the capacity of our human consciousness. This edge space is inhabited by a very particular kind of Edge-Dweller -- those willing to hold the hugeness of even our ability to know, the horizon of human consciousness.

This is the place inhabited by Shamans, Midwives, Hospice Workers (and perhaps others). Midwives hold the edge place between birth and whatever exists or does not exist before. They hold the process of bringing a human into being, welcoming them to their place on this magnificent planet. Hospice Workers hold the edge place between human life and whatever exists or does not exist after our time as humans on Earth is done. Shamans hold and navigate that huge edge space between the human world and that world that exists just beyond the edge of our consciousness -- that some may call the Divine or Holy, Spirit, Mystery or simply our Cosmos. 

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Business Shamanism

Imagine this: You're asked to deliver a memo to your CEO in the boardroom. As you approach you hear the sound of drumming. You cautiously open the door and on the floor, surrounded by burning candles, you behold the CEO and board of directors lying, flat with their eyes closed, being drawn into the rhythmic beat of the drum. Are you hallucinating? No. All is well. Richard Whiteley, bestselling author of The Corporate Shaman, is leading them on a journey to find their power animals. The corporate culture as we have come to know it may never be the same. An MBA graduate of the Harvard Business School, Whiteley is a successful management consultant and urban shaman who uses drumming and shamanic techniques to restore spirit to the business community. 

Daniel Pinchbeck, co-founder of Evolver, a lifestyle community platform that publishes Reality Sandwich, an online magazine centered around spirituality, philosophy and activism, proposes "Business Shamanism" as a new avant-garde art form. According to Pinchbeck, "business shamanism is the repurposing of the tools and instruments of the corporate culture and the mainstream economy to bring about social change, archaic revival, planetary regeneration, deeper initiation. The goal is to build a platform for radical revision, for a fundamental shift in perception and behavior, so that the alternative -- what author Charles Eisenstein calls 'the more beautiful world we know in our hearts is possible' -- manifests in our time."

Shamanism Without Borders

Shamanism Without Borders is an emerging movement initiated by the Society for Shamanic Practitioners to effectively respond to the world's natural disasters and crises. Even if we can't physically travel to a disaster site, shamanism allows us to work remotely to alleviate suffering. Shamanism literally has no borders except the ones we construct for ourselves. The SSP has now produced a handbook titled, Shamanism Without Borders: A Guide to Shamanic Tending for Trauma and Disasters. In this manual, experienced practitioners explain techniques and principles used by shamans throughout time to deal with trauma and disasters and how these practices are still applied today. The guidebook is just that -- a guidebook, not a blueprint, nor a set of rules and regulations. Every disaster is unique and requires the right action for its uniqueness. The book is simply a collection of philosophies and possibilities that can be a foundation for others to do similar work. The book urges readers to "read between the lines and listen between the words for Spirit to speak and comment."