SHAMANISM
IS A VERY practical spirituality. A modern-day shaman could
live next door to you and the only clues you might have are that they
get along well with people and animals and have a green thumb with plants.
Also, shamans have a knack for putting people at ease and for saying
and doing the right thing at the right time.
In his book, Urban Shaman, Serge Kahili King defines a
shaman as “a healer of relationships, between mind and body, between
people, between people and circumstances, between humans and Nature
and between matter and spirit.”
If you have a taste of divine ecstasy, shamanism can teach you how to
ground it, how to bring it into your everyday life through using your
natural gifts and talents. Shamanism can support you in translating
that experience, that creative energy, into physical form so it can
benefit you and everyone around you.
The essence of shamanism is not an esoteric, mysterious, ritualistic
tradition that can only be practiced by native peoples in a tribal environment.
This ancient spiritual perspective on life is a down-to-earth, pragmatic,
realistic way of living that anyone can use anywhere, anytime, including
in our modern world. Currently across the planet, the sacred knowledge
of the shaman is being translated into everyday street language in order
to create more healthy, harmonious and enriching lives for people.
The spirit of shamanism is more of an open, flexible attitude and approach
to living than a rigid set of rules, formulas and techniques. By applying
the basic principles of shamanism, people open themselves to new possibilities
and options for dealing with modern daily challenges.
From Alaska to the Andes, from Tibet to Tanzania, shamanism is a worldwide
phenomenon. Virtually every religion has its roots in shamanism, although
shamanism is not a religion. It’s a perspective—a way of
seeing all things as sacred. Shamanism does not preclude any religion.
It simply says that anyone can have a direct experience of the divine
without an intermediary. By honoring the sacred essence of everyone
and everything, one’s whole life can truly become a spiritual
adventure.
OMENS
AND SIGNS
The shaman relates to every form of life as being alive, filled with
energy and always communicating something to us. The key is in learning
how to receive the communication.
“Omens are a way Spirit communicates with us in the physical world,”
states shaman Ken Eagle Feather in Traveling with Power.
“You can decipher omens from virtually anything, but pay special
attention to unusual occurrences, whether it’s the strange behavior
of birds, or conversations in which someone says something that catches
your attention in a special way, or when a book falls off a shelf in
front of you. You might find that messages on billboards change right
in front of you, so that while others are reading an ordinary advertisement,
you end up reading a message from Spirit. Be careful about being too
strict in your interpretations, though. Remember, you are looking for
guidance, not assurance. An omen might be the same for several people,
or it might mean several different things. It’s up to you to create
your personal omen dictionary. This open-ended response is called nonpatterning,
and it provides the space for Spirit to communicate with you.”
Using personal experience as the means through which wisdom is gleaned
(rather than through reading, thinking or analyzing), the shaman presents
opportunities where people begin to sense a real, interactive connection
with everything else that exists, even those things believed to be inanimate
such as rocks, plastic, glass or metal.
EVERYTHING
IS ENERGY
The basis of shamanistic creation, healing and transformation has always
been the knowledge that the essential nature of everything is energy.
Modern science, specifically quantum physics, has only recently concluded
that every living thing is made of energy. The reason that walls and
rocks appear solid is because they vibrate at a low, dense rate. We
know that pictures travel invisibly through the air and arrive on our
TV screens. Is it such a stretch to open to the possibility that everything
has an invisible energy within it? And that communication can be transmitted
through this energy?
Shamans utilize the knowledge that everything is energy to create in
their world by using their conscious attention to direct the flow of
energy within all forms of life. Energy flows where attention goes.
Indeed, scientists are now reporting that the beliefs and thoughts of
the person conducting the experiments significantly affect the outcome
of their experiments.
Since we come to this planet to evolve our soul within the paradox of
this world of polarity (light and dark, inside and outside, body and
spirit), we must develop the skill to play consciously and creatively
with duality. If we are truly perceptive, we can see how the energies
of each opposing polarity are serving us. If we see how we are at effect
of all these dualistic energies, then we can make a choice of what to
keep and what to eliminate. This is an act of magic. True shamans are
those who can influence energy, whether it is inside them or in the
world outside them. If we have learned how energy moves and behaves,
we have opened ourselves up to our true selves. This is what the paradoxes
of our world teach us. Shamans know that humans are determiners of spirit,
and the choices, decisions and priorities that we set fashion the reality
of the world in which we live.
 SEEING
When shamans use their ability to “see” the underlying energy
dynamics of situations and relationships, they are able to “see”
cause and effect connections and forces that are not visible when viewing
the circumstances superficially, i.e., looking only at the outer form.
Perceiving the energy dynamics of life events reveals new alternatives
and possibilities not previously apparent.
“The art of the (shaman) is to be able to guide, to be able to
illuminate the path in such a way that the person hooks on to a greater
experience—that of freedom,” Eagle Feather shares. This
allows people the freedom to move beyond limits of past perceptions
into the realm of options, fresh creativity and natural magic.
A shaman would “see,” for example, that the anger of a supermarket
clerk resulted from the clerk’s inability to express their feelings.
The shaman could “see” how these emotions were adversely
affecting not only the clerk, but also the people in line. Consequently,
a shaman may choose to engage the angry clerk in a friendly, relaxing
conversation in order to shift the situation into flow and harmony.
Shamans also “see” the cause and effect between what they
allow into their energy systems and make practical choices to manage
their energy levels. The shaman takes in everything to gain energy and
maximize personal power—from sunlight and sound to conversations
and food. By consciously selecting everything she ingests, the shaman
maximizes health, creativity, enjoyment and life span.
The shaman’s intake strategy is to get as much energy as possible
from every life encounter with the least amount of energy expended.
A person should always have more, not less, energy after every life
interaction. The shaman applies this approach to all forms of nourishment
from the external environment—mental conversations, social relationships,
emotional interactions, spiritual meditations and physical food.
POWER
We have many powers within us that we can learn to use for our own benefit
and for the benefit of others. From the shamanistic point of view, all
power comes from within. Power comes from authorship (authority). Shamans
become the authors of the creations in their world by freeing themselves
of programmed and conditioned perceptions. In moving beyond customs,
manners, rules and techniques, the shaman embraces the practicality
of “What works, works.” The shaman has little concern for
how something works, only that it produces the results that one intends.
Shamans are the most flexible, utilitarian and efficient authors of
their world. They take the shortest, quickest route to their goals,
even if the path tramples on their own concepts or beliefs.
One way people can experience this power is to look for proof in their
own lives. Take love, for example. One way to increase the presence
and power of love in a person’s life is to decrease the presence
and power of judgment. Shamans notice that their attention cannot be
in both places at the same time, and, therefore choose where they want
to spend their energy. To spend energy judging that they harmed someone
or that another person caused them harm would be a misdirection and
waste of energy for a shaman.
Eagle Feather explains more about the true nature of power, “Anyone
looking for power over others or control over material processes is
probably going to be disappointed by the teaching, which essentially
define power as the ability to free oneself from one’s own perceptions
and habitual patterns. The message seems to be that once you align with
the energy, you’re no longer the master. Spirit is.”
HEALING
A shaman is a bridge between this world and the invisible world of the
spirit. A shaman is very anchored, very present in this world. Being
so centered and grounded, a shaman can assist a person to travel into
dimensions and see things from a much bigger perspective. Then people
can heal because there is more room for them to expand and open to fresh
new realities. This expanded awareness from the shaman creates a strong
foundation for people to awaken to their own healing power within. The
goal of the shaman is always to support the awakening of the soul. The
shaman acts as an anchor so the person can reach their own depth and
move through their own cellular transformation.
Shaman Frederick Wolf concurs. “People really know how to heal
themselves. It’s an illusion to think that someone is going to
come and heal them. But what will happen is, when they feel the support
and safety that the shaman can hold for them, they will have faith enough
to go into that place inside of them that knows how to heal. It’s
not some magical thing that happens. It’s very natural.”
WAY
OF LIVING
Shamanism is a way of living on the altar of Mother Earth. It’s
a way to live in balance on the earth, a way of finding not only peace
with yourself personally, but peace with nature and your environment.
Shamanism is bringing the two worlds together: your inner world—your
heart—with your outer world. It’s important to be balanced,
to be grounded in both worlds. We should be able to go anywhere and
be at home, whether it’s in a cave or a big city.
Shamanism is a pathway that can help us to realize the sacredness and
magic within and all around us. Birds that soar into the heavens, trees
whose roots reach deep into the earth, everything in nature reflects
an aspect of our souls. As the poet Rumi said, “You will see
stars and moons mirrored in your being.” Shamanism is letting
go of our limited ideas and concepts of who we are. As we abandon our
illusions of separateness, we open to the beauty and simplicity of our
true nature—our connectedness with all of life.
© Sulana Stone , 2004
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