I didn't know some of this and couldn't have said any of it better,
Thanks Tim
Light & Love
Jon
x
An article by Tim Strachan
©2005
Ask me about using this article on your site or publication—I will agree if the autobiographical tag at the bottom is kept exactly as it is.
A case could be made that shamanism is the blueprint of all spiritual paths. The amazing thing about shamanism is that across many cultures, across 300 centuries (yes, 30000 years!), across all continents, the methods, processes, beliefs and symbols used in shamanism have been pretty much the same. In other words, a Siberian shaman or initiate of 10000 years ago was performing rituals based on beliefs and undergoing ordeals which a Amazonian shaman of today would largely recognise. The similarities between these groups of people and their practices are much greater than the differences, in all cases. This suggests an internal human ‘landscape’ or ‘mentalscape’ which is not random or pathological, but which is hard wired into the human identity. We all share a common human spiritual heritage (as well as a genome and a psychological heritage), which is constantly urging us to go down those paths of spiritual development which are awaiting us with signposts along the way. Carl Jung’s version of this was called the ‘collective unconscious’ but it seems to go beyond what he had in mind.
Crazy like a shaman
The essence of the shamanic path is that only the shaman-to-be is crazy or wise enough to submit himself to the unavoidable ordeals that must await him (and we are all shamans-in-waiting!). Those ordeals are designed to use every trick in the book of the gods, including apparent banishment to the Underworld, to break the sense of self of the initiate, so that a greater sense of self can take its place along with a greater understanding and power in this world.
The Underworld
The archetype of the shaman/hero’s journey is essentially this: he has to descend to the Underworld, to be annihilated, to surrender, to seize certain gifts and re-emerge in this world with new powers of vision, healing and understanding. The shaman has spoken with the gods, and they have breathed a new life into him, and sent him back again. Unless he gets stuck…in the Underworld… If he’s lucky, he’ll eventually be ‘rescued’ as the myths describe (Orpheus, Osiris, etc.).
The shaman is known as the technician of ecstasy, the one who can change his state of mind at will, the seer, the one who sees further, the one who speaks with the gods and the animals, and … the crazy one. He is the one who identifies himself with the cosmos/universe, and not with the separate body-mind which we are all struggling with on a daily basis.
We are all shamans
The shaman’s way is a dramatic, public, mythic version of what happens to all of us, in different ways, at different paces. The essence of the spiritual path, at all its stops along the way, is this single fact – sooner or later, the life in us (the life that we are) forces us to grow beyond the constrictions of our current world (our beliefs, our practices, our sense of self, etc.). A crisis ensues. Our open-ended human system is thrown into a fertile chaos. In that chaos, we appear to be suffering, and we are! This creates the conditions for a letting go, a surrender of what we’ve been, and if we’re lucky then magically, we transform into a being which is somehow larger, more inclusive, able to identify with … more.
Said another way, we are constantly in the process of shedding skins, growing, whether we like it or not. We can learn the lesson of letting go gracefully of the old (including the old sense of self) and move smoothly through the levels which await us, or we can panic, become rigid, get stuck where we are. It is uncomfortable being stuck on a slippery dip, and it takes a lot of energy to maintain the grip! Can you imagine a child that decides it will not emerge from the womb at the appointed time? Mother and Doctor will surely help it along, the easy way or the hard way…
However, there is no doubt that fear causes us many times to panic, to hold on, and in short to become very stuck. This requires a lot of energy to maintain, energy that is being diverted from the proper channels of growth, and eventually something has got to give. Either we let go, or we get sick, dis-eased, and possibly die. And/or we become mentally unstable, neurotic, even psychotic as a way of applying pressure to ourselves to move on.
The times of death, dying, birth, giving birth are all chaotic moments, opportunities to move through that fertile chaos into an identification with the greater universe… But we are always being given opportunities, usually through crisis, to move to the next level of our journey. And often that appears at first to be downwards…into the Underworld where our shadows live and wait to be brought up into the light.
References
‘The Strong Eye of Shamanism - A Journey into the Caves of Consciousness’
By Robert E Ryan
The Stormy Search for the Self
by Stan and Christine Grof
‘Beyond Death’
by Stan and Christine Grof
Tim Strachan’s background includes a degree in Mathematics and Science, para-medical training, and much training and experience in alternative therapies and Energy Psychology. He has a natural therapy practice, and trains people to become proficient in dealing with their issues on the physical/mental/emotional levels and beyond.
Contact him at strachan@megadisc.com.au, and see his websites at www.energy-body-work.com , www.megadisc.com.au , and www.energystore.biz
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