Accessing and Downloading: “The Shaman Within” A Multifaceted Reality

The shaman within, as I am defining it, is a complex term having several facets or components derived from the synthesis of shamanism and Jungian and post-Jungian psychology.

1. It is an archetypal image, charged with numen in our time, and drawing larger numbers of people towards an interest in, or awakening to shamanism and the shamanic. The question as to why it is arising with such compelling force and hooks our attention on a large scale is embedded in our place in history, the global crisis, and the need for a heart-open and ecologically sustainable earth-honoring path and practice. We each have an inner shaman who can help us develop our shamanic potentiality.

2. It is an ideal Self image, awaiting actualization or incarnation in life; – a process that takes time, intention, courage and persistence. It may be thought of as your Future Self, inviting you to let go your old self-limitations and identifications, awaiting your action to download it, incarnate it, and share it with the world. As such, it is a lure to your becoming, and may be personified and accesses as your “spiritus rector” inner guidance, or inner shaman (similar to a Merlin figure, or fairy godmother of folk lore personifications).

3. It knows and holds your daimon, inspiring genius, or “acorn” awaiting your planting it in the soil of life and nurturing, honoring it, and protecting its growth. It is holding your life purpose and destiny, a specific acorn for you to realize, perhaps that of guardian, healer, wise elder, prophetic leader, teacher, executive organizer, community builder, hope inspirer, visionary story teller, etc. It also knows how to help you find where and how to express it in your life-situation.

4. It is an “artist of the spirit”—inherently and overflowingly creative, able to re-vision and inspire you to shape-shift your reality; break beyond the egoic limitations of self (ego) and belief systems.

5. It is an observer consciousness.

6. It is your Inner Healer, knowing what you need to move towards and embrace in order to become whole (holo-tropic)…, and knowing the way back to your original selfhood.

7. It is part of the Greater Reality that is within you and it knows how to help you maintain a conduit between the ordinary and non-ordinary realities.

8. It is a set of archetypal potentials awaiting realization. We may think of this as a multifaceted crystal, with various facets being: experience of non ordinary reality, grounding in ordinary reality and maintaining the conduit between. Heart-openness, earth-honoring living, intuition and use of your instincts, somatic expression, movement and dance, following the movement of tao or flow, following synchronicities…standing courageous in your truth, presence and newness… Over the course of developing one’s shamanic life and practice, more and more of these potentials are awakened to and come on line—expressing your core shamanic nature, much as a Zen-practitioner expresses his or her Buddha-nature in a concrete life situation and context.

I use many practices for accessing and developing the Shaman Within. This guided journey is one of them. Once you know how to find the Shaman Within, you can take intentional unguided journeys on your own. I have developed the Four Acts of Power, Core Questions for Journaling, and Sacred Breath & Dance as further practices for awakening to, accessing, and download or incarnating these shamanic potentialities that are in us all. Sacred Ceremonies of various kinds are also portals of access. The important thing is to access and download (incarnate and embody in life) what is revealed in your journeying.

Once you are walking this path with depth of intent and persistence, you will be manifesting progressively, the various facets of the Shaman Within –much as a persisting Zen-practitioner will be manifesting Buddha-nature in many ways in his or her living, and working, day by day, moment by moment.

This journey is intended to initiate you into the multifaceted reality of the shaman within you so you may begin the process of embodying it in your life and work.

Take a few minutes to prepare by creating a list of questions about your life, your healing, or your initiation and growth on the shamanic path—whatever you feel you need insight or direction on, to find a way for ward right now. Here are some examples:

Ask about how to awaken and live your shamanic potentials
Inquire into your life-purpose
Ask how to get on or stay on the heart-path…
Ask what you can do to become more whole, more earth-honoring
Ask about a recent dream you do not understand
Ask about a problem or difficulty you are experiencing
Ask what you can do to become more grounded or courageous
Ask how you can maintain a conduit between the ordinary and non-ordinary worlds.
Ask about where you need healing now, and what you can do to self-heal
Ask about how to become more shamanic in your life and work

There are so many possible questions.

Select one or two questions and write it down in your journal, and then begin the journey process. Here is the protocol, which follows the three stages of rites of passage and the hero’s journey: 1) Separation 2) Initiation/Decent, 3) Return with the Gift and put it to use.

1) Separation (from ordinary consciousness)
Instructions
Close your eyes and begin taking slow, deep breaths. …Ground yourself by imagining gold or silver cords to wrap around your ankles and sink deep, hundreds of feet deep into the bowels of Mother Earth…

Once you are well rooted, imagine yourself becoming smaller and smaller with each breath. You gradually become so small that you find yourself standing on your belly, near the navel.

2) Initiation/Descent

Your stomach gently undulates with each breath… and you see the navel of your being, like a little Hopi Kiva sipapu. This hole is a little magical portal into a cave-like room…Gather your courage and let yourself climb on down a ladder into this underground and earthen room in your body… There is a little fire on the floor, and the thin outline of spirits dancing around the fire…As the flames flicker on the cave walls you see ancient drawings of animals and some handprints…a few small bones and pottery shards on the dusty floor.

You take off your shoes and socks and feel the cool softness earthen floor beneath your feet… .

…On one of the walls you notice an opening….it is passage way…. illuminated by the flickering light. You move into this passage and travel some distance, feeling the coolness of earth on the bottoms of your feet. …You journey to a the space of the heart, a clearing in which you first see a turqoise pool of water and an abundance of lush green growth flourishing around it. You pause for a moment to take in the peacefulness and beauty… and if you need a little refreshment you can cup your hand and drink from this pool of water…

…Eventually you notice another little path leading up a hill and follow it until you come to a clearing where there is another cave in the heart area. …Walk in towards the cave, and as you do so…you notice a little campfire off to the side, but in front of the cave. You go on over to the campfire, and facing the cave, warm your hands…and put a new log on it. As it ignites you smell the aroma cedar smoke wafting around your head.

…Notice how the fire crackles and the light brightens and flickers so that you can see into the cave just enough to see the Shaman Inside, peering out at you. As the Inner shaman steps out of the cave and moves towards you, your senses are alert. …notice everything, …the walking, …the clothing, the eyes….

As the shaman comes and stands beside you at the fire, ask him or her about some problem or issue or dream you’ve selected (perhaps about life purpose, or how to become more shamanic, or how to get beyond your fear). Muster your courage, be as open as you can be. ….Then give the shaman a little space to take it in and pay careful attention to everything…his or her other gestures,… body language, …eyes….for the response may come not in words but in nonverbal ways, perhaps even ESP and gut intuitions, or fantasy images…..in this sacred place anything can be a reply, or part of the reply…

Use your own gut, your own felt sense to notice any stirring or sensation or response you feel in your body which might be a reply…

Then draw physically close and let your bodies magically merge… so that you can see the situation from the shaman’s larger and more resourceful point of view…

…What do you notice now…?

…How do you feel, now, ..towards this question or problem? …

As this Inner Shaman, what will You say to you? … What direct advice can you give now?

Take some time to be with these questions and responses….

…Now you may separate…and become yourself again…, but continuing the back and forth interaction….

Ask yourself: “Do I understand what the shaman is trying to convey? “…If not, you may ask the Inner Shaman for more clarity.

You can have some time to ask any other question as well… Be sure to pay attention to gut-intuition and felt-sense, and to observe all gestures…

You can magically merge again…and then separate and contemplate…

…In a gesture of gratitude and respect, you may thank the Inner Shaman for this wisdom and help…

…and just as you are about to say “Goodbye” for now, the Inner Shaman reaches into a little leather bag behind -his or -her self and offers you a little gift to bring back with you, a talisman or symbol to help you remember and keep a hold of what you have just experienced, learned, and plant it firmly in the soil of your everyday reality.

Receive this gift. … What is it? You can explore it….What does it feel like? What does it look like? How does it signify this conversation with the shaman?

3) Return with the Gift

Tell the shaman how you feel. …Express your gratitude…then say good bye and return back down the path to the pool of the heart. Again pause and drink the greenish life and the turqoise beauty. Thank the pool and return towards the Kiva in your belly. When you arrive, offer a “Thank You” to the spirits there, and throw another stick of wood onto the fire, offer a little cedar or incense and Give Thanks to the spirit of the fire. Climb back up the ladder out of the Kiva and again stand on your undulating belly.

Take three full breaths and with each one increase by a third of your original size. One….Two….Three… . When you are your original size, …you may stretch, …yawn, sit up.

Integration work

After sitting up, immediate write down the essentials in your journal. Keep close to your felt sense of the Talisman gift as you write down the crux of your meeting with the Inner Shaman. This may be followed by mandalic art or mask making, and that followed by group processing of the experience, where you share what you wish to, of your experience. Keep your mandalic art and review your journal as talismans to remind you daily, for awhile, of your new insight.