THE PRIMACY OF DIRECT EXPERIENCE

Early people lived closer to their experience, and trusted it more, than we do. This became clear to me reading James David Audlin's 'The Circle of Life' (2012), based on his wide experience of Native American peoples. 

If for example, you saw an owl sitting on a tree, and as you got closer you saw a pine cone in the same place, you would not say, as we do, that you had been mistaken. No, you’d say that the Spirit of what was there presented itself to you first as an owl, then as a pine cone. And then you might read something into that.

And I think that metaphysically as well as practically, these people are right. Because what else do we have apart from our direct experience? Only abstractions. 

And these days, much of our ‘knowledge’ consists of abstractions, of realities that we do not experience, but which we are told are how things ‘really’ are. And that, to my mind, is a great cultural disempowerment. It leaves us weak, and vulnerable to manipulation and to control.

This is the bit where some of you might think I am being a bit crazy, or wilfully contrary, but I am not. Take the earth and the sun. Our EXPERIENCE is of the sun making a daily journey across the sky, of the sun going round the earth. But we are told that ‘REALLY’ the earth goes round the sun. Does it ‘really’ do this? 

If you went to space, it seems you would have the experience of the earth going round the sun. How interesting, I would say: from this perspective I see the earth going round the sun, yet back home I see it the other way round. Wow! In both cases I would give value to my experience, I would treat them both as equally real. I would not set one above the other.

I have worked with this one a lot, because I have been told all my life that other people with their equations and equipment and PhDs know how things ‘really’ are. That head knowledge is more real than experience; that authority for what is real lies, crucially, with others and not with myself. Just as it did with the medieval church - it is the same mindset.

I think this is so important, that we reclaim the power of our experience by treating it as real. Because without it, we have nothing.

Another example, perhaps, is the 'flat' earth. Which is closer to your direct experience, round or flat? 

There is no deeper reality behind our experience. There is just our experience. 

"In the seen, just the seen. In the heard, just the heard." (The Buddha)

This is the crazy wisdom of the shaman, the yogi, the mystic. But it is only crazy from the viewpoint of public reality and the tramlines along which we are trained to think.

IN DEFENCE OF THE NEW AGE and A COMMENT ON TRADITIONAL ELDERS

I had a very real dream recently in which I was going to be leading a Sweatlodge. It is about 14 years since I have done so, but it is in my mind and heart again, quite strongly. The dream lodge was what could be called ‘New Age’. The lodge itself was an inflatable, and no-one quite knew what they were doing. I was happy with that, because I knew it would work, because I knew what I was doing, even if not many others did. And people were coming in naked: I had reservations, I didn’t want others to feel pressured to be naked. But it also says that people were being real, open, genuine, spontaneous.

Then it all started to go wrong. The native teacher who used to come to my house turned up for the lodge, and took ages blessing and smudging everyone while the stones grew cold; and a pupil of his who can be quite rigid about what is respectful and what isn’t also turned up and would barely talk to me, and then the firekeeper got into a power struggle with me and wouldn’t talk about the stones: it is also about my own power.

So it brought up my unsurenesses around this Traditional vs New Age debate that you see so often on Facebook. I think the term New Age is now often used as an automatic derogatory. When what people are really trying to do is find their own way.

The teacher who used to come and stay with me was very good at what he did, he was a great source of wisdom about traditional ways. But he was very dismissive about the shamanism that we are trying to build here and particularly about the ‘New Age’. And that put me in something of a quandary, because I still have great respect for who he was and what he had to say.

So this dream was showing me the way out of that quandary, by being so real, and by having so much that was genuine and helpful going on in this ‘New Age’ situation. It is saying that I need to reject that aspect of the native teacher friend of mine that was not open or tolerant to how people actually are. Because if you are not open to that, if you can’t grasp after the good in people…… I do not need to elaborate. I need to purge this in a thoroughgoing way.

And you sometimes see native Elders being quoted, as though that is the last word on a subject. Well it isn’t. Here is my theory. What we have in the West is an upsurge of the individual and his/her own unique spirit, finding its way outside of a traditional framework. It has its strengths and its weaknesses. But it can be hard for those who only know a traditional framework to understand. And they can judge it unfairly. And that means Elders. I think this is potentially a very interesting area for discussion. Which includes my observation that those of us who do take a 'traditional' stance are often fantasists who are hiding from themselves; it becomes an identity that is rigid and intolerant, and we see the results on Facebook.

So take the beauty and depth of what they have to offer. But do not be afraid to translate and run with it in your own way. Keep your own authority.

TRADITION, CREATIVITY and LEARNING from the SPIRITS

I used to attend Sweatlodges in a field on Exmoor. run by a guy called Bethlehem Taylor.The guy had something, there was a power to the lodges. He said they were Lakota lodges. Now I'm not sure Bethlehem had been near a Lakota in his life. But what he said was that spirit guides who were Lakota turned up and showed him how to run it. And of course from some people's point of view, to do this is charlatanry, cultural appropriation and probably a host of other sins that we could enjoy damning him for. I was never quite sure what to make of it, all I did know was that the Sweats worked, which in my view is what matters.

And then more recently I was on the UK Shamanic Gathering, and someone there had been shown by her spirits how to perform a particular traditional healing ceremony over the last 2 years, one she knew nothing about, and then they suggested she run a workshop on it at the Gathering. Someone else who had grown up around this ceremony was at the workshop and said that it had indeed been done correctly.

So for me this adds another layer to the complex issue of what is traditional and authentic, and that the Spirits may well be intervening to move things along, and why not? 

I think there are 2 principles that need to be deeply honoured, and sometimes they can seem to be in conflict: on the one hand, there is the sense of tradition that indigenous people have, that has been built up over long periods, that has a lot of power and which we can learn from. And this takes a lot of time and a lot of self-knowledge, and any replication is not to be done lightly.

And on the other hand, we have no long-standing traditions of our own, and it would be wrong for all sorts of reasons to import foreign ways of doing things wholesale. We are in the early stages of creating something that is our own. And we need to honour our own creativity and openness in this, and really run with it.

And there is a pitfall from both sides: on the one hand, we have lost respect and understanding of tradition and its depth, and we can launch in as healers or whatever without the long training in self-knowledge that is needed, we can be too quick to make it up as we go along. But on the other hand, there are plenty of paralysing voices that tell us we can hardly breathe without the permission of a foreign elder, and that we must stick to tradition and certainly not adapt.

So we need both a feel for the integrity and power of tradition, and the message that this is a slow path that needs a lot of self-knowledge; and we need at the same time to be very open, to be creative, to do things that speak to people, that are indigenous for us. And part of this openness is the idea that the spirits will show us what to do, and they may even show us ways that originate in foreign cultures, and that it is fine to regard that training as authentic.

PIPE CEREMONY

Recently back from the UK Shamanic Gathering, where among other things I led a Pipe Ceremony. My main purpose in doing this was to introduce people to the traditional way I had been shown how to pray - which means 'a conversation with the natural world', quite a different thing to what we grew up with.

And in the prayer we talk about our lives and take our time and we may be humorous and informal and we give thanks for all the good things in our lives and we pray for all the things that are stuck or need to change, and we can do this for others too. Some descriptions of the Pipe Ceremony can get very hung up on the forms, as though this is the main thing. And of course those forms are from a foreign culture and may not mean an awful lot to us. So I keep it minimal in terms of the forms, aware that we need to build our own way of doing these things.

At the same time, the symbolism within the forms DOES matter, and I think it is good to bring in that which can be universalised. As Black Elk said, the power of a ceremony lies in the understanding of it.

And the central symbolism of this ceremony lies within the Pipe itself: the stem is male and the bowl is female, and the joining of the 2 shows us that a balance of these 2 principles is needed in both ourselves and in the world, and in performing the Pipe Ceremony we are bringing more balance in these ways. Indeed, it is said that we are not much use to anyone until we have begun to find a balance of male and female within ourselves. And if you read Jung, this is generally not something that happens until middle age. For me, it wasn't until my mid fifties that my 'other half' began to seriously show up!

At the Gathering, approx 20% of the people were men (which is what I have come to expect) yet 6 men and 6 women came to the Pipe Ceremony, perfectly reflecting the balance that the Ceremony is aimed at. And when we came to smoke the Pipe, the tobacco in the bowl lasted exactly once around the circle: it did not need re-filling, nor was there any left over.

May all the prayers in our Ceremony be answered 

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WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Now this may be fanciful. In fact, it most probably is. But that doesn't mean it's not true. About a year ago Andrew Steed put the idea in my head that it could be productive to dig around the meaning of my name. And my name was decided before I was born. I was going to be 'Barry' declared my father, who had no idea if I was going to be a boy or a girl. But I was the first born, and he had his ideas about who I would be, which developed over time, and were quite different to what I had in mind. But his ideas of who I was going to be began with my name.

And this was where the fairies bit him in the arse. Because my father was English and straight, and my mother was Irish and anything but straight. And what my father said, went. So I was Barry. And it turns out - from one source, at any rate - that Barry comes from Finvarra, who was a king of the fairies at Knockmaa, a mound near Tuam in Ireland, about an hour from where my Mum comes from.

"King Finvarra is the High King of the Daoine Sidhe in Irish folklore. In some legends, he is also the King of the Dead. Finvarra is a benevolent figure who ensures good harvests, a master at chess, strong horses, and great riches to those who will assist him. However, he also frequently kidnaps human women." I'm not known for kidnapping women - though sometimes I have felt kidnapped by them - and I'm good at bridge rather than chess. Apart from that, I'm happy with the description.

So I was named into a fairy lineage. And it was a trick. Which is also the nature of fairies. And 41 years later my son was born, and I knew nothing at that stage of Finvarra, and I called my son Finn. So the lineage continues.

 

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A NAVAJO GUIDE TO FINDING TRUE LOVE

Hosteen Begay didn't know how old he was exactly, but his memories stretched back at least 83 years, and he could easily have been 90. I asked his advice about a woman I had been dating. I wanted a companion badly. He put on his glasses and stared me directly in the eyes. Then he smiled and laughed. My ears turned red and my face flushed. "It must be the bellagana in you", Hosteen said, still laughing, but not without compassion. 'Bellagana' means 'white person' in the Dineh language. "Because I doubt you will listen to me. You must stop looking for love. When the spirits want you to have love, they will bring it to you. You must devote your life to your work and children. And though it won’t win them back, it will bring you peace within yourself. Shake my hand so I can feel your resolve.” 

He stood up and took my hand in his. We did not really shake, but rather he held on to my hand and studied me carefully. “You will not change. For all the other things you have learned, this is the one area where you prefer to remain stupid.”

“But Grandfather”, I said, “I need a companion, a half-side.”
Finally Hosteen Begay let go of my hand. He took off his glasses. “You have watched too many of those Hollywood movies, the kind my granddaughter acts in.” To him the matter was closed. But I needed to hear more. “Is it not right that a man and a woman come together in this way? Is this not what the elders teach us in the ancient stories and songs?”

“Only young men speak so stupidly and without wisdom.” He smiled at me gently. “Do not even bother to answer me,” he said. “I will be gone soon, before you see the wisdom of my words. You will keep trying to find this thing you call love, like a crazy teenager, until it bites you in the ass. Then maybe you will grow up.”

Coyote Medicine by Lewis Mehl-Medrona p227-8

Ayahuasca and the Shadow

When I took some ayahuasca 20 years ago, I became aware of a deep pain running through me. And I also became aware that it was that which kept me grounded and embodied and gave me a measure of humility. So I'm kind of a fan of the difficult stuff, the shadow stuff. I mean sometimes it can still kibosh me. Like I can feel overwhelmed and anxious in a disproportionate way when practical difficulties come up. Or I can start to panic if I think I'm not being listened to - like there's a law saying anyone has to? 

But the key thing is making friends with this stuff, and NOT JUDGING IT. That is the key. Being kind to it and not trying to change it. And seeing others in the same way. It is so easy and yet so difficult not to judge. But it makes all the difference. It takes us straight into spirit, into spaciousness and compassion and connectedness. Everything the yogis and mystics and shamans have always talked about.

Shamanism as Direct Experience vs Shamanism as Religion

"Few are happy living according to the postmodern stance of a world without absolute references. This position works for a shaman, however, because he is a rarity in the context of a traditional society. The majority of Native people live with a structured set of ideas, within which life is simple and meaning is rather fixed and concrete. The shaman lives in a different world from his people - this is what gives him a clear vision of what to do for those who are stuck somewhere in their lives." (Coyote Medicine by Lewis Mehl-Madrona p164)

This is why religion has always occurred. In my Buddhist youth, it was observable that Buddhism in the UK had divided itself up into a number of large groupings, all governed by a relatively fixed and particular set of ideas. It is the yogis and heretics and shamans who have the ability to make their own direct connection to the absolute, to spirit, and to live from that.

So we shouldn't be surprised when we see shamanism dividing itself up in this way into groupings of teachers and followers, all with perhaps relatively fixed, even narrow ways of seeing shamanism. And with teachers who maybe think too highly of themselves. And Facebook shamanic groups too. It is just what happens. 

I think it's good to point out the narrowness, but not to waste too much energy fighting it. It is kind of inevitable, and often serves a purpose. For some Shamanism-as-religion gives psychological stability, for others it can be a stepping stone to shamanism-as-direct-experience. And it is often precisely by giving our power away to a teacher - putting his/her judgement before our own as a matter of 'respect' and 'high regard' - that our being comes eventually to rebel and we find that power, that gold, within.

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HOW HEALING HAPPENS

AS POWERFUL AS A DEAD CHICKEN
"I have studied Native American healing for more than 20 years, and some people say I am a shaman. I'm reluctant, though, to claim the honorific for myself. One Apache shaman I revered told me, "I'm about as powerful as a dead chicken." At first I thought he was joking, or being modest; then I began to see why he was slow to take credit for healing. "The patient must do 70% of the work of getting well," he said. "The Creator does 20% and I do 10, which is barely worth mentioning." Most of what a patient can do to get well, he told me, is to make the firm decision to BE well. This is where the medicine person steps in, by taking seriously a vision of the sick person as healthy, when no-one else can or does. He or she creates with a patient a shared story of a mutual spiritual quest."
From 'Coyote Medicine' by Lewis Mehl-Medrona