HAVE YOU EVER FOUND yourself trying to describe the energy of a ritual or a place to someone else? Assuming they are likeminded in considering energy a valid and meaningful topic of conversation, there is still a significant challenge to convey more detailed information than “intense” or “amazing”. I believe the most profound spiritual experiences touch us at many levels of our being: there is emotion and physical sensation plus an evocative sense of a powerful dream or sense of ecstasy. To then narrow that experience into the confines of words is beyond difficult.

This became particularly clear to me following my first trip abroad. I experienced a number of places of power in England and Wales, a land where leylines and vortices abound. I even experienced my body becoming attuned to them, such that I can now call up the energy of each place by focusing on it. Yet while the energy of each place was palpably different, I struggle with words to articulate how it differs.

The highlight of my trip was Glastonbury; the energy was powerful, ancient and healing. Glastonbury has rich traditions of myth and legend. They say it is the site of Camelot and Avalon, that King Arthur was buried here. The Chalice Well, associated with the Holy Grail, was sacred long before Christianity came to this part of the world. Atop the Tor, one may visit the king of the fairies and pay homage to Archangel Michael. Having been there, it’s easy to understand why people attached their most powerful myths and legends to this place. I find the evocative stories of Avalon better captured the feel of the place than the discussions of leylines and vortices. As I lay atop the Tor, I could well imagine it as the gateway to fairyland, for I felt myself slip into another world. Poetically, Glastonbury is a perfect location for the final resting place of King Arthur, for it has the feel of infinite stillness.

I came away with a new perspective of myth and legend. The taste, the feel, the intensity of Glastonbury were evoked by the stories of Avalon and Camelot, long before I had heard of Glastonbury. Yet, my experience there had little to do with those myths. I rested and danced and soaked up the energy of the place. In my shamanic journeys to meet with the guardians of those places, the myths were never mentioned. Where fact and fiction blend was utterly irrelevant. Being in the place, I no longer had need of the gateway afforded in legend. Yet, the energy of the place goes forth into the world in the form of myths that evoke the feel of that place.

Likewise, I have found myself struggling to articulate the experience of shamanic journeying to a group of students new to the process. My experience of shamanic reality includes physical sensations of energy moment, images, and colors as well as emotions, intuition, and dreams. In fact, shamanic reality has been described as a level of being where the language is one of symbols, myths and archetypes rather than words.

In a shamanic journey to meet a spiritual ancestor, I met an old man with a long gray beard. He gave me something to drink that turned me into a hawk. As I flew upward, I cried out, “You’re Merlin!” He laughed and agreed that it was so. I can not explain what it felt like to become a hawk and soar above the land, but I did note that energy of the man was exactly the energy I found so evocative when reading the stories of Merlin. One of the gifts of shamanic reality is the chance to engage with exactly the aspect or flavor of the myth or archetype that captured the attention of the heart and soul in the first place.

So, I can’t tell you what the experience of shamanic reality is like for me or how it felt to be in Great Britain. But somehow myths and archetypes can be used express that which defies direct description. So, if you reflect on your most beloved myth or archetypal figure and experience the energy this invokes, you may taste the flavor of the experiences I yearn to share.

© Katie Weatherup, 2005

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Reiki Master and a Shamanic Practitioner, Katie Weatherup offers energetic healing sessions, using a blend of Reiki, Seichim, and heart focused energy combined with rocks and crystals. She also offers Shamanic healing work, including soul retrieval. Katie teaches classes in shamanic journeying as well as in Reiki and other energetic healing styles. For more information, check out her website at www.handsoverheart.com, email her at katie@handsoverheart.com, or call 619-518-7658.