Shamanism: Connecting with Multiple Realities: Part 1
What is Shamanism? Are psychotropics or hallucinogens necessary for Shamanic Journeys?
Spiritual Connection with Two Worlds, Functioning Consciously with Both Third-Dimensional Reality and Spirit Realm Reality
A true shamanistic experience holds the potential for sheer terror because it intrinsically involves letting go of seeming reality and further, merging third-dimensional reality with other-realm reality without losing the ability to know which is which.
Enjoy reading this 2-part spiritual article on Shamanism.
What is a Shaman?
In my spiritual walk of faith, I have experienced Shamanistic journeying. There are those who would say this is not true, because my skin is too light and my eyes too blue. Some would say it is not true because I did not get to these other realms through the use of Peyote, Datura, Ayahuasca, etc. Some would say it is not true because I have not trained with a Shaman and do not, in this present incarnation, come from a lineage of known Medicine Men. Some would even say it is not true because I am a woman.
I no longer have any need to prove my experiences to anyone, anywhere. The information printed here is here for sharing and not at all open to debate. I really have no investment in what any reader may think of it. One is free to read or not read. Judge or not judge.
What is a Shaman? I guess it depends on who you ask. For many, Shamanism is a very mysterious and unknown journey and better left to the spiritually trained expert. For most, a true shamanistic experience holds the potential for sheer terror because it intrinsically involves letting go of seeming reality or rather, and even more frightening a prospect to some, merging third-dimensional reality with other-realm reality without losing the ability to know which is which.
To practice as a Shaman is to walk in two worlds, aware of both and functioning with awareness in both third-dimensional reality as well as the Spirit realm reality simultaneously.
Most Shamans spend a great deal of time alone, in ceremony. Particularly in the beginning stages of a Shamanistic initiation, the alone time is needed to integrate the energies, adjust to the higher frequency that results and walk in the new reality in a balanced way. I've probably spent more time completely alone since this all started for me in 1995, than most. I would guess that I've spend years alone by now. Weeks at a time, sometimes. The energies get so intense at times that there is really nothing to do but lay still. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days.
A Shamanistic Journey can be induced through the use of psychotropic drugs or hallucinogens. Some alteratives that are used to bring about a shamanistic experience include Peyote (mescaline), Ayahuasca, Daktura, Psilocin, Cohoba, Morning Glory Seeds, Jimson Weed, Iawaska and others.
By the way, in case you are thinking that Morning Glory Seeds or Jimson Weed might be an easy way to try a journey, be aware that both are toxic and you had better know what you are doing if you take them. My journeys did not come that way. Having experienced shamanism without drugs, and at a time when I was totally unfamiliar with the experience but spiritually ready for it, I strongly believe anyone can. I don't doubt that a properly guided Shaman Journey involving psychotropics can result in heightened awareness.
However, I very much doubt that it can be accomplished without risk to the mental, emotional and etheric stability of the being involved and, for me, that risk is too great. I've seen the holes that drugs leave in the aura. Particularly with marijuana, which is also used by some as a spiritual connector. The tendency is for the connector to become a crutch instead of a door opener.
Shamanic Journeying can also be induced through rhythmic, repetitive drumming. I've journeyed this way and it's a powerful vehicle for going into other realms of consciousness. Yet, the same tendency exist is for dependence. The drumbeat should open the door, not repeatedly have to open the same door over and over.
The imagery associated with the Sacred Initiations I've journey through make it almost impossible to walk and talk and function normally. They are intense, powerful and demand full focus and attention. On some occasions of receiving data, I can see images from around the world. Hundreds if not thousands of images, each encoded with some reason for finding me at that moment, some work to be done. It is done in an instant and the next image comes. It is sometimes tremendously difficult to keep the physical body comfortable.
I believe the training that a "recognized Shaman" receives may help them to better handle initiation than those like myself to whom Spirit brings the experience directly, but I'm not sure about that. Maybe any Shaman has to go through these periods of intense physical adjustment and times of dedicated isolation. I know Wallace Black Elk certainly takes the times of focused ceremony. Who knows what he and others really experience during those time s. Speaking only for myself, sometimes, I seem to experience the entire world, one person or animal at a time.
Excerpt from My Moon Lodge Journals: As part of my coming into "Oneness," and as a direct result of my connection with Native-American earth-based rituals, I went through an intense period of time when I experienced, in my actual body, the essence of many plants. They flashed through my consciousness and my veins, one after the other after the other.
The experience almost made me lose consciousness, and left me altered for several days. I've had a similar experience with the animals - my hand would suddenly be a claw, my chest covered with fur, my mouth a beak, etc. It felt like nothing I've ever experienced, and cannot be adequately described but I knew at the time that I was integrating the awareness of all these aspects. If you haven't experienced these "essence integrations," you will. You will also become the essence of all spiritual faiths, the Winged Ones, Insects, Star Nation, Earth, Water, Stone People and Creepy Crawlies.
A Shamanistic Experience in Georgia: I attended a metaphysical fair in Athens, Georgia. It was an incredibly slow event and I pondered why it was that I had come when I met a man who sat down for a reading. The reading was intense for both of us. He invited myself and my then-partner Mac to his home to speak with some of his circle. We accepted the invitation even though it was quite a drive from the event itself.
Going down the road to this man's home, I felt a lot of energy building. I felt it coming from the trees on either side of the road. Strong. Intense. When we pulled up at the door and I got out, I instinctively turned around and looked out at the yard. Just at that instant, I felt an ice cold energy surge up from the ground - colder than ice actually.
No words for how cold. Contrary to what some may be thinking, this did not frighten me at all but elated me. That colder than ice energy is the Divine Feminine and quite vastly different than the cold one feels in a spiritually dense area or when someone has congestion in their body. In other words, it was a wonderful moment although very difficult to handle physically.
Mac realized immediately what was happening and came up behind me, holding me in support. I began to shake and it literally felt as if I were glued to the earth. I could not have moved from that spot if I had wanted to move and oh, my dear, I certainly wanted to move shortly after. As I worked to receive the energies that would make it possible to for me to bridge the worlds there in that dimensional portal of time/nontime, I suddenly saw two groups of people. One group was to my left and the other to my right. They were definitely Native-American and definitely at war.
Suddenly, one brave wearing a headdress and carrying a hatchet in his left hand became aware of me. He ran toward me full force with the hatchet upraised. If I could have pulled my feet loose from the grip of the Mother, I would surely have knocked down trees getting away but I could not move.
Even though I was aware this was not "real" the imagery and energy were so strong that I was filled with terror. The brave ran toward me and at the very last instant before I would have felt the hatchet pierce my skull, everything shifted and was still. I was released from the earth and slumped backwards into Mac's arms.
When I shared this experience with the man who had invited us to his home, he shared with me that he had known there were two groups there, had heard them speaking to him about the disrespect that had been shown to the land in clearing it for building, etc. I knew that my witnessing of the events, the energy that was exchanged during that visioning and the later exchanges with this gentle man were all part of why we had been called to Georgia.
Click here for Part Two > The Way of the Shaman
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