INTUITON 'VS' JOURNEYING

In a Shamanic Facebook group someone said to me: "I caution against discounting the power of journeying by equating it with intuitive knowing. The former uses our intuition but that's not where the information comes from."

I don't agree. The info I get from that 'knowing' place is of just as good quality as that which people get from journeying, and it feels like it comes from a 'bigger' place. I don't need to formally journey to do it, it is just there if I listen.

I think it is important to have a broad view of what constitutes Spirit or else we end up disempowering ourselves, and that is a bit tragic. And I think journeying, which is a great method, can sometimes make some slightly tyrannical claims for itself, that narrow down the field of Spirit. There are all sorts of ways of being in relationship to Spirit which, in the last analysis, is no different to who we essentially are.

FINDING MY OWN WAY TO THE SPIRITS

I've been of the opinion that in my journeying work, I am good at shifting energy but not so good at receiving information. And the reason I thought that is because all these years later I am still conditioned by my first experiences, which were the methods of 'core' shamanism. I don't want to knock them, because they helped me profoundly. But really we need to vigorously drive that word 'core' from the description, because it is nonsense and so misleading. It creates a very narrow perception of what Shamanism is, within the incredibly rich and multi-faceted landscape of what it actually is: this very broad approach to becoming a balanced human being.

Anyway, even my 'energy' work does not happen from 'formal' journeying. I embody the spirits, I move around with intensity and purpose, and there is added power: the involvement of the body allows the Spirits to incarnate more fully than they would otherwise have done. This seems to be fully traditional, and I view our lying down version as a compromise to keep it 'safe' for cerebral westerners. The work I do is fierce and uncompromising, it really deals with what needs to be dealt with.

But as I say, all these years later and when it came to info, I was still trapped in the methods of core shamanism, which of course work very well for some but not for me. So I'd do a journey and wait for a spirit helper to turn up and give me some info about the matter in hand, and it just never happened. Maybe I'd get the odd image that I'd work with to get some meaning from. Meanwhile I also trained myself as an astrologer, and I've become pretty good at it. And of course I'd regularly be saying stuff that hit the nail on the head for people....

And I realised what I was doing with journeying was that before the journey even started, I would immediately have a sense of what I wanted to say to the person, it takes no time at all, though it takes a few minutes to unfold once I start talking. And I was putting that to one side and waiting for a spirit guide to turn up and tell me something. OK, you can laugh at me now for my daftness . But there you go, it shows how much a method, put in a narrow way, can conceal us from Spirit, rather than guide us towards it.

So now I know I can get info for people, and usually I use the planets as an intermediary, but really the sense of what to say is just there and always has been, and it is usually pretty immediate.

MUSINGS ON SHAMANISM

Shamanism is not about shamanic journeying. It is much broader than that: journeying is a speciality. Shamanism is about becoming a balanced human being, in balance with ourselves and with the natural world. It begins with a simple acknowledgement of our own spirit and a sense of belonging to nature. 

There are no books, no beliefs, no teachers to revere. It brings us back to the basics of experience. And that is all we need. If we are true to our spirit, then our lives will unfold as they need to. When we are not true to ourselves, and maybe go along with what others expect us to be, then our life gets blocked. But that is often the path too. We can only give parts of ourselves away if they weren't truly ours to start with, and in reclaiming them we become more permanently whole.

An aspect of balance is taking care of all 4 elements within ourselves - earth, fire, air and water. My reservation about using journeying as a starting point - and I guess you have to start somewhere - is that it does not include the earth, the body. Not the way it is usually taught, anyway. It buys into our western prejudice of living in, and over-valuing, the head (air). But I think the body is where it needs to begin, especially for us. The ecstasy of dance, that aligns us with Spirit. And journeying in that context, where Spirit can incarnate, and the power that comes with that. We have old cultural baggage around physicality, and its control by the Church. In medieval times, people used to dance in churches, it gave them their own direct connection to Spirit.

In living shamanically, we move away from the rules and the shoulds and the fears that can dominate our lives, and keep us stuck in particular ways of being and living, and towards the freedom of living according to the promptings of Spirit. This can take courage, but it is the only way to live, and there is joy in it.

I think the best sort of teaching of shamanism comes from this place. The teacher responds to whatever is going on, rather than the programme of learning in his/her head. Just being around certain people and the way they are and the way they think, I observe and I learn.

The teaching of shamanism has in some places become like a franchise, a certain set of methods which any fool can learn and pass on. This is not teaching. Teaching is in many ways not deliberate, it is about who you are as a result of being true to your own spirit, and that rubs off onto other people. And that also means being normal and messy and everyday with people, so they don’t start to worship you and in-so-doing miss you. It is a two-way street, the ‘teacher’ learns from the ‘pupils’ too.

Our Shamanism needs to develop organically and always be up for modification. Yes, import from other cultures, but re-shape as necessary in ways that works for us. It is the spirit that matters. With the Pipe Ceremony, for example, what matters most is prayer, in the sense of a conversation with the natural world, rather than all the forms that can be placed around it. In this sense we have a freedom that, perhaps, many traditional cultures do not have; on the other hand, there is depth, egregore, in ceremonies that are old and imbued with symbolism, and we do not have that, by and large. But the overall principle is: if it works, it's real; if it's real, it works. (Jim Tree: The Sacred Way of the Pipe).

A SHOUT, A DECLARATION FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD

This is a bit of a thought experiment, and I'm going to be a bit controversial, so please take it in that spirit.

It is this. The way many of us have been taught to encounter the Spirit World is through 'shamanic journeying', as taught by Michael Harner. And it is safe. It suits cerebral westerners who don't want anything too physical or too expressive, and which can therefore achieve a kind of respectability in the worlds of academia (Harner's world) and therapy.

And it works. To some extent. It worked for me and it changed me, many years ago. But most of the raw power is missing. We don't do primordial. When I go to the Spirit world, it is these things. I am taken over physically by the Spirit and I am expressive both physically and verbally in a way that is all-consuming and entirely free-flowing. And it is therefore ecstatic. I have had dogs barking at me when I work, for they sense the animal presence that could dispatch them with a swipe of its claw. 

In the Harner method (which no indigenous person I have ever heard of uses) the body is not involved, and nor is speech/song. THE SPIRIT CANNOT INCARNATE. For Mongolians shamans, it is standard that the spirit comes into you physically. It is standard too in voodoo, and maybe that is why we are terrified of it. It is the power of the irrational, of the unconscious. Harner tries to tame it, to keep it in the service of the rational mind. But you can't do it. Spirit will erupt and destroy that puny edifice.

Trance dance is maybe the nearest we get to this true surrender to Spirit. That is where it began for me. It is such a deep encounter, because Spirit gets to use the whole of us.

And I would like to see the way we teach journeying change fundamentally so that it is geared towards this experience, and doing healing work on that basis. I might even say that if you can't let Spirit use you in this sort of way, then it's not your path. Let us have no more tame 'shamanic practitioners'. Let us have those who are able to be unashamedly possessed by Spirit. It's the real deal.