Shamanic Visioning

One of the most crucial aspects of power practice in all shamanic cultures is the development of inner vision. In altered states, shamans develop such vivid internal imagery that external sensory input and bodily sensations are blocked out. Once vivid life like imagery is experienced, the next phase of practice is to develop control over the internal imagery. By orchestrating the inner imagery, the shaman is able to contact spirit guides and power animals. Over a period of time, the shaman develops the ability to see past, present, and future events. In these altered states, the shaman accumulates knowledge and inner power and is capable of influencing events for social benefit.

 

Shamanic visioning is a technique that uses imagination to create mental pictures in a multidimensional way by using all of the senses. Shamans form mental images using sound, smell, taste, and touch, as well as sight. For example, if you were to envision an apple, you would see it, hold and feel it, smell it, and hear the crunch as you took a bite and tasted it. The ability to create multidimensional images is vital to successful journeying. Like developing any skill, visioning takes practice. Exercising your imagination through visioning develops your ability to journey. The following exercise is designed to acquaint you with the basics of shamanic visioning. The steps are as follows:
 
1. First, select an object in your home.
2. Sit comfortably with the object in your line of sight.
3. Take several deep breaths and exhale any tension you might feel.
4. Gaze at the object for a few moments.
5. Close your eyes and visualize the object as clearly as possible, including every detail that you can remember. If you need to refresh your memory, open your eyes and look at the object again.
6. When you have created the most vivid image that you can, begin to focus on each part of it, using all of the senses. Observe every quality: size, shape, color, texture, feel, sound, smell, taste.
7. Now vividly imagine with every sense making changes to the object. Change the feel, sound, scent, flavor, and appearance of the object. Spend as much time with this imagery as you would like. 

Experiencing Rhythms in the Body

Rhythm is a universal vibrational language. We respond to rhythm whenever we sense it and seek it out when it is not present, for we are innately rhythmic. Every rhythm has its own quality and touches you in a unique way. To experience this for yourself, try playing some different rhythms. Whether you drum or merely tap your fingers, learn to "feel the beat" by allowing it to sink into your body and consciousness. Notice how your body responds to each pattern. Keep in mind that the manner in which you play or shape a rhythm will affect your response. One of the paradoxes of rhythm is that it has both the capacity to move your awareness out of your body into realms beyond time and space and to ground you firmly in the present moment.
 

Begin by playing a steady, metronome-like rhythm with uniform time intervals. A clockwork drum beat generates a dynamic energy that is yang, creative, and expansive in nature. Dynamic energies are ascending forces that carry consciousness into higher realms. At a rapid tempo of three to four beats per second, a steady, rhythmic pattern, or "eagle-beat," will arouse and vitalize you. It creates the sensation of inner movement, which, if you allow it, will carry you along. As you continue to drum, you will become more ecstatic. You and your drum will seem to merge. You may speed up or slow down. That is perfectly normal. Shamanic trance is characterized by its range and flexibility, so don't get hung up on trying to maintain a certain speed. It can be distracting and your hands may get tired. Follow your inner sense of timing as to both tempo and duration.
 

After drumming the eagle-beat, simply relax and bathe in the sonic afterglow of physical and spiritual well-being. When the final drumbeat fades into silence, an inaudible, yet perceptible pulsation persists for a brief period. This silent pulse is ever-present within each of us, but our awareness is rarely in sync with it. Sense this silent pulse resonating within your body. You may experience the sensation of every particle in your body pulsing in sync with the rhythm you just played. This inner pulse entrains to the rhythmic pattern as soon as you begin to drum.
 

Next, try playing the steady pulse of a heartbeat rhythm. A two-beat rhythm produces a different sonic experience. The soft, steady lub-dub, lub-dub of a heartbeat rhythm has a calming and centering affect. It reconnects us to the warmth and safety of the first sound we ever heard -- the nurturing pulse of our mother's heartbeat melding with our own. According to Ted Andrews, author of Animal Speak, "a rhythm of two is a rhythm that helps connect you to the feminine energies of creative imagination, birth, and intuition." At a more rapid tempo, the heartbeat rhythm stimulates a downward flow of energy within the body. It generates a magnetic energy that is yin, intuitive, and receptive in nature. Magnetic energies are descending forces conducive to great healing, mind, and regenerative powers.
 

These two simple drum patterns are the healing rhythms I use most often in my shamanic work. Moreover, they are rhythm archetypes representing yin -- the form giving principle of energy, and yang -- the principle of life and consciousness immanent in all phenomena. Yin and yang are the binary elements that generate between them the totality of existence. A binary progression underlies the structure of reality. At a fundamental level, the laws of the universe are written in a binary code. The binary mathematical system forms the basis of computer languages and applies to nearly everything from crystalline structures to the genetic code. The binary basis of the genetic code is formed by the plus and minus strands of DNA.
 

The human experience is a microcosm and reflection of binary progression. The archetypes of rhythm are the fundamental patterns that underlie our resonant field of reality. Entraining to these archetypal rhythms, we experience them directly and discover our rhythmic interconnections. Each pattern pulsates specific qualities of energy that give inherent structure and meaning to the possibilities of being. They exist in every human being from the moment of conception to the final breath. Each human being is an integral composite of the archetypes of rhythm. Each of us is a series of rhythmic patterns summed up as a single inner pulse, the essential aspect of our being.

Words Are Monuments

A national reckoning with American history and racial injustice has been playing out on the terrain of monuments, museums, school curricula, and increasingly -- maps. While the Department of the Interior plans to rename 660 place-names with the derogatory term "sq**w," a new study published in the journal People and Nature shows that misogynist and racist slurs are the tip of the iceberg. Violence in place-names can take many forms, including the erasure of Indigenous knowledge and languages.
 

Titled "Words Are Monuments," the study reveals a system-scale pattern of place-names that perpetuate settler colonial mythologies, including white supremacy. Through a quantitative analysis of 2,200 place-names in 16 National Parks, researchers identified:

• 10 racial slurs

• 52 places named for settlers who committed acts of violence against Indigenous peoples. For example, Mt. Doane, in Yellowstone, and Harney River, in the Everglades, commemorate individuals who led massacres of Indigenous peoples, including women and children.

• 107 natural features that retained traditional Indigenous names, compared with 205 names given by settlers that replaced traditional names found on record.

While the Department of the Interior has established a task force to address derogatory place-names, the agency has faced some criticism for what Washington State officials and area tribes are calling a rushed process, with proposed replacement names that are largely colonial.

Calls to re-Indigenize place-names in national parks and monuments have been gathering steam, from the Blackfeet Nation's recent petition to return traditional names to mountains in Glacier National Park, to the Puyallup Tribe's campaign to rename Mount Rainier to Təqʷuʔməʔ, or Mount Tahoma.
 

A new website and national campaign inspired by these efforts and the place-names study launches today at WordsAreMonuments.org. Created by the pop-up social justice museum The Natural History Museum, the site features an interactive map with stories from problematic place-names cited in the study; a step-by-step guide from the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers on how to officially change place-names; video interviews with cultural geographers and Tribal leaders; and ways to take action to support renaming campaigns.
 

The Natural History Museum will also host a free series of online events featuring Indigenous leaders, artists, activists and scholars that explores:

• Why place names matter and how the movement to 'undo the colonial map' relates to other movements that reckon with American history -- to topple Confederate and colonial monuments, decolonize museums, and overhaul school curricula;

• The relationship between language and ideology, and the power of place names in encoding a way of seeing, understanding, and relating to the land;

• How campaigns to re-Indigenize place names on federal lands are not just about making public lands more inclusive, but are stepping stones on the path to Indigenous co-governance and land rematriation;

• The global reckoning with colonial and imperialist history, including successful and ongoing efforts to replace colonial place-names in New Zealand, India, Palestine, South Africa, and beyond.