Engaging the Imaginal Realm

Coast Salish Spindle Whorl

Shamanism is based on the principle that the spiritual world may be contacted through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. 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 always journey with a purpose, question, or intention. After the journey, you must then interpret the meaning of your trance experience.

Imagination is our portal to the spirit world. Internal imagery enables us to perceive and connect with the inner realms. If a shaman wants to retrieve information or a lost guardian spirit, "imagining what to look for" is the first step in achieving any result. According to C. Michael Smith, author of Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue, "The shaman's journey employs the imagination, and the use of myth as inner map gives the shaman a way of imagining non-ordinary reality, so that he or she may move about intentionally in it." By consciously interacting with the inner imagery, the shaman is able to communicate with spirit guides and power animals.

Communication in non-ordinary reality is characteristically archetypal, nonverbal and nonlinear in nature. The images we see during a shamanic journey have a universal, archetypical quality. Imagery from these experiences is a combination of our imagination and information conveyed to us by the spirits. Our imagination gives the journey a "container;" which helps us to understand the messages we receive. It provides us with a way to understand and articulate the experience for ourselves and to others.  

Coast Salish Spindle Whorls

The spindle whorl is how Coast Salish women from the Pacific Northwest Coast engaged the imaginal realm. Salish women were unrivaled in their ability to produce beautiful textiles that had social and spiritual significance. Many Salish spindle whorls have sophisticated and powerful carved designs -- human, animal and geometric. The whorl was placed on a wooden spindle to add the weight needed to maintain the spinning motion, and to prevent the wool from falling off the rod as it was being spun. As the whorl turned, the designs would blur together into a swirling kaleidoscope, entrancing the spinner. This shamanic trance state was considered vital: it gave the spinner the ability to create sacred textiles imbued with spirit power.

In the spindle whorl pictured above, the human figure’s hands converge at the center hole, where the spindle shaft would pierce the whorl. It’s at this point, say Coast Salish shamans that spirit power enters and leaves the body. The small two-dimensional image inside an oval in the man’s body may represent a spirit helper who dwells within. To learn more read The Spindle Whorl: An Activity Book.

Selecting a Shamanic Drum

One of the most useful drums for shamanic work is the frame drum. The single-headed frame drum originated in Siberia along with shamanism itself thousands of years ago. It has been associated worldwide with the practice of shamanism. The frame drum's resonance and versatility make it my drum of preference. Such drums are portable, affordable, and easy to play. They can easily be held in one hand, leaving the other hand free to stroke the drum. They are made by stretching a wet rawhide over a wooden frame, then allowing it to dry slowly. The frame or hoop is typically three inches or less in width and may vary from eight to twenty-four inches in diameter. They may be single-headed or double-headed. Like all rawhide drums, they do not have a fixed pitch. Heating and cooling the drumhead raises and lowers the tone.

Synthetic frame drums can also be used in shamanic work. Each has a unique sound, energy and spirit. Like rawhide drums, synthetic drums can be a vessel for spirit. The drum shell and polyester drumhead are composed of organic compounds that come from the living Earth. You can also infuse spirit into the drum by painting and decorating it. The Remo Company manufactures a Native American inspired "Buffalo" frame drum that comes with a rope handle, mallet, and a plain synthetic head that can be decorated. One great advantage to playing a synthetic drum is that it will hold a consistent tone, even in the pouring rain.

Though I highly recommend frame drums, any type of drum may be used in shamanic drumming. There is a myriad of styles and drum types to choose from. Congas, doumbeks, djembes, ashikos, tablas, and timbales are but a few of the drum types readily available in music stores. In selecting a suitable drum, play several and listen for the drum that calls to you. You will know it by its voice. It will strike a deep chord within you.

Drumming for Cancer Patients

Andrew Ecker, founder of "Drumming Sounds," facilitates a drum circle three times a month at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Goodyear, Arizona. According to Ecker, up to 30 participants come together each week to create a "sacred space" filled with a sense of community and empowerment. The drum circle is a unique and powerful opportunity for patients and caregivers to share their emotions while connecting with others in a musical environment. As Ecker puts it, "It is an opportunity to connect with our spirit. The spiritual nature of our existence is very apparent when we drum with intention. It's about being present with one's own connection to their spirituality."

Since there is no technical musical knowledge or expertise required to participate, the drum circle breaks down many of the barriers that might otherwise prevent a patient or caregiver from experiencing the healing power of music. For many patients music plays an important role in spiritual and emotional healing during cancer treatment. Ecker believes that healing begins with the soothing vibration that comes from the drums. "We all experience nine months of that type of rhythm -- connecting to our mother's heartbeat," Ecker explains. "The vibration in the drums is the result of joining our heart and mind and spirit in action. When we drum we give ourselves the ability to feel beyond words. We feel connected to something bigger than ourselves, and we feel love."

10 Ways You Can Change the World

Whether you realize it or not, you are creating your reality all the time. Quantum physics points out that this is a participatory universe in which the power to change reality is literally in our hands at every moment. When we are oblivious to the power that we all share to create our collective reality, that power slips away from us and our reality becomes a nightmare. We begin to feel like victims of a dark and chaotic creation that we are unable to influence or change. We are inundated with negative world events that create anxiety, fear and hopelessness. The only way to end this dreadful reality is to awaken to the fact that it is imaginary, and recognize our ability to imagine a better story, one that the universe will work with us to manifest. Here are 10 ways you can change the world:

1. Hold yourself accountable: Holding yourself accountable is the first step to realizing that your life is under your own control. Accept yourself and your circumstances. Accept responsibility for who you are right now. It's not other people who made you the way you are, but only your own choices, thoughts and actions.

2. Recognize your assumptions: Our perception includes a lot of assumptions which contribute to preconceived ideas that keep us stuck in a narrow perspective on our personal and social reality. The next big innovation for our species is not a new technology: it is a new way of seeing.

3. Cultivate positive thoughts: Your life experiences are the product of habitual beliefs and expectations or, in other words, your appetites. What you ingest or pay attention to becomes what you know as yourself and your world. If you are content with the current situation, that is great. If not, then you must refocus your attention toward more positive thoughts, opinions, and attitudes. Shifting your attention into a new pattern will revitalize and renew your life. Pay special attention to the information, ideas, and images you allow to enter your mind, for seemingly harmless thought forms shape your experience.

4. Silence your internal critic: Your internal critic is the subconscious part of you that influences your negative thoughts and actions against yourself. It seeks to destroy your self-esteem so that you remain ineffective, paralyzed by fear and indecision. Subdue your inner critic by developing the habit of self-reflection. 

5. Know your body: Your body is your compass. Both physical and emotional feelings are registered in the body. There is wholeness and groundedness in this way of perceiving that is more reliable than the mind. The mind doesn't really produce a feeling. It chatters incessantly and shows images, but there is no true feeling in it. You feel the truth in your body.

6. Learn how to deal with dissonant energy: Dissonant thought patterns such as hate, fear, and doubt set in motion the degradation of matter. Individual and collective thought forms of conquest, manipulation, and oppression are among the most destructive. We must learn to deal with this dissonant energy. We cannot make sense of it because it is entirely destructive. Instead we must hold steady within ourselves and observe its chaotic behavior from a place of power. If we do this, it will be unable to feed on us. We can transmute this dissonance by acknowledging the four directions, by renewing a holistic connection to the cosmos and participating directly in the evolution of creation.

7. 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. One powerful universal shamanic motif 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. 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.

8. Choose to see through your fear: Your fears distort your reality. Fear lulls us into inaction. All the so-called problems in the world are fed by the energy of fear. When you get caught in fear, you end up feeding the negative drama that's playing out on earth. So, each time fear arises, remember to return to what is happening in the present moment, not your imagined idea of what is or of what could happen.

9. Keep your heart open: One of the most important things you can do at this time is to keep your heart wide open. To keep your heart open, be willing to accept what life brings you. If there are challenges on your path, trust that there is a lesson to be learned and growth will occur as a result. We are always tested by the spirits from time to time to see if we have a clear and open heart. You must show the spirit world that you have passion and heart. You must be willing to take risks. It never really ends. You must prove yourself again and again. A meaningful path must have heart.

10. Know that you create your own reality: A fundamental principle of physics is that the observer creates the reality. As an observer, you are personally involved with the creation of your own reality. You are creating your own reality all the time. Every thought you think, every emotion you feel is creating your reality. Give yourself the permission to create the life you want. As responsible human beings, let us affirm a world of peace, harmony, and balance. Let us cultivate care for life and one another. See things as they are, in process of change, without fixation on imbalance; see the potential and call it forth.

Rainstick for the Shamanic Journey

The rainstick is one of my favorite musical instruments. I often use one to open sacred space for ritual or ceremony. The rainstick is a percussion instrument made from a dried hollowed out cactus section. Pebbles or other small objects are placed inside the tube, and the ends are sealed. The spines are removed, and then driven into the cavity like nails to form a lattice work for the pebbles to "rain" through. A sound reminiscent of gently falling rain is made when the rainstick is upended to a vertical position. Many indigenous cultures believe the sound of falling rain produced by rainsticks invokes the weather spirits to bring the rains and sustain the Earth. Origin of the rainstick is unclear but can be found today in different indigenous cultures including Africa, Central and South America, and in the desert regions of the United States. The rainstick can also be used to support the listener in making shamanic journeys. Try a rainstick shamanic journey.