WHAT IS A VIRUS? THINK FAIRIES

A daimon, according to Patrick Harpur, is an entity that is both material and non-material. A fairy would be an example. Regarding viruses, he writes: "The tiny agents of disease such as bacteria and viruses are, like subatomic particles, daimonic entities whose existence was postulated hypothetically - that is, imagined - before they were 'discovered'. This is not to say that they do not exist; it is only to say that their existence is not only literal, even though we demonise them, ward them off and exorcize them in the literalised rituals we call vaccination, disinfection etc.

THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THINKING MYTHOLOGICALLY

Viruses in particular have been fashionable in recent times. They are blamed for more and more diseases whose causes are uncertain. They may be different viruses - or, more alarmingly, they may be the same viruses which have mutated. The elusive, shape-changing nature of viruses suggests they are the usual daimons. Moreover, there is a dark suspicion that the mass of 'wonder-drugs' we have invented do not necessarily cure diseases but suppress them...."

GLOBAL SHAMANISMS

Today our Shamanism needs to be global as well as local. The land we belong to is the whole earth, and we are inheritors of all the Shamanisms around the world. Humanity is one.

 

We draw inspiration from those ancient traditions, while freely creating something that is our own, that works in the world as it is now.

I have these 2 books waiting to be read:

 

THE SHAMAN and SOCIETY

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So this is a follow-up to my April 17 piece in which I was talking about the difficult process of finding one's own authority: that balanced place within, that strong foundation from which to view the world, in which we are neither going along with the rules unquestioningly, nor rebelling against them.

I think there is a particular issue if you are Shamanic, or in any way 'spiritual', which is that there is little room for Spirit nowadays in the conventional view of the world. At least in the Middle Ages Spirit officially existed, though how it was viewed was very circumscribed. So if you had your own connection to Spirit, it could be a problem, particularly if you were vocal about it. But at least its very existence was not denied. This is religion.

 

Nowadays you just have to look at conventional medicine to see the establishment view: humans are so much inert matter, operating according to physical/chemical laws. The Spirit, which in my view is the most fundamental part of any healing process, is not seriously considered.

We grow up as creatures of convention, we need that, it provides our early protection and our education. But what if we later find that who we are is not to be found within those constraints that are part of any society?

I am circling round my point here, so maybe I will go autobiographical. I grew up in aspirational surroundings in which there was no room for Spirit. By my late teens it was becoming clear to me that Spirit was what I was fundamentally about. I did not, however, have the solidity in myself to feel confident in that, in the face of so much else that was denying it. So I created, for my own psychological survival, a new self, based not just on an affirmation of Spirit, but also on a rejection of all convention as nonsense, as inferior, as meaningless, as out to deny who I was. Any kind of external authority was suspect.

This was an unconscious process of survival. And, up to a point, it served me. It gave me the space for my connection to Spirit to deepen and unfold. But, as the Native Americans say, 'Don't tell me about your visions unless they grow corn.' Spirit has to be integrated with ordinary life, with society as it is, or we are not much use to anyone.

So at a certain point - and it was not until I was in my 50s - I made a deliberate decision to stop assuming that external authority was acting against my interests and those of everyone else, and that anyone in a position of authority was suspect. And this applied even to those arch embodiments of authority and the status quo, the police and members of the Tory Party. This decision immediately had a big impact on me. I became much more at ease with who I am, less on the defensive, less divided against myself. More part of society. And more able to see clearly the mixture of things going on when eg a Tory politician was speaking. And able to see the genuine desire to be of service that is usually in that mix.

The reason I am going on about this, is that I have frequently observed this reflex opposition to the establishment and to authority in 'spiritual' circles. As I said earlier, it can serve us at the start of our path, but it becomes a hindrance later on. It contains an inherent paranoia, and makes us susceptible to fantastical ideas about being controlled by dark forces. It makes us mean-spirited in our assessment of those in authority. It does not have true agency.

If you think about a medicine person or a shaman in a traditional society, would they have lived in opposition to the more 'worldly' powers within their society? That is not my reading of how those societies worked/work. Of course they would have advice to give at times, particularly if the voice of Spirit was not being heeded, which humans with their egos are always prey to :) But a Shaman is both integrated within society, as well as having a loyalty to Spirit, which can come from somewhere quite different.

I think it is difficult for many of us not to have, at least to some degree, a false self that is defined by its opposition to external authority, because we live in a society that often denies the very existence of Spirit. The way out lies NOT in creating a self that bows down to authority. The way out lies in not having a self at all, in letting go of that unconscious energy-consuming process of defining who we are, and allowing reality in without judgment. Then we can be the hollow bone that Spirit needs us to be, so that we can do the work that Spirit needs us to do.

HERD IMMUNITY and COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

There are always a number of layers - or stories - to an illness, and I think this applies collectively as well as individually. For science is a story no less than is the idea of burying a piece of meat to get rid of a verruca. And the stories science has around viruses and drugs with which to fight them depend, like the efficacy of all stories, on the spirit of the patient.

So maybe the winding down of this pandemic is dependent on where humanity has moved to in its spirit. This could well be a layer of the idea of 'herd immunity' that is not usually considered - the energetic level. On this level, there is a negotiation occurring between the collective consciousness of coronavirus and the collective consciousness of humanity: they are getting to know one another.

It is like when you start a new relationship. You don't really want to dive straight in at the deep end. You need time to let your spirits talk to each other, because they will decide whether you are going to be together or not. 

So this is maybe another way of looking at the idea of 'herd immunity': it is a bit of a hundredth monkey thing, where suddenly many people are unlikely to get the disease because the collective spirits of humans and of the virus have got to know each other. And that may well translate into antibody protection, but it may not have happened for the literal reason we think. And when people do fall ill from the virus, it will tend to be less severe. It will normalise. Just thinking out loud :)

WHERE ARE YOU ON THE MEDICINE WHEEL?

This might not make me very popular 🤣 but I have been wondering why it is that so many people in the Shamanic world are prepared to believe videos such as 'Plandemic' (a documentary recently taken down from youtube, purporting to show that behind Coronoavirus is a secret plan to control the world), whereas the average person in the street, as far as I can tell, isn't. They may even not be very polite about it.

Now you may notice that I have not made a judgment in either direction here, and as you know I never make those sorts of judgments, do I? 🤣 

So I have been pondering this, and thinking about the Medicine Wheel, and suddenly it seemed clearer. We can use systems such as these to box ourselves if we take them too literally, but if we treat it lightly, as a story, then it can serve us. 

And rather like Jung's 4 personality types, if you are strong in one element, you will often be less adept at the opposing element.

So I'd say my weakest element is, or used to be, Water or Feeling. Typical bloke. In my fifties that changed a lot, I had always been aware of a gap, so it is better than it used to be. But sometimes I leave feeling behind in my headlong rush, particularly when encountering opposition, and have to do a bit of catch-up, and sometimes some apologies, later.

So here comes a generalisation, which is that in the Shamanic world we often primarily value Fire/Spirit and Water/Feeling. And this means that we often undervalue Air/Theory and Earth/Physicality.

The world, and particularly Science, tends to be the other way round. In this respect, we are each the other's shadow, and it is important to become aware of this before we do any science-bashing.

So you can see, from this point of view, why Shamanic people might be more prepared than average to give credence to something that from the point of view of Air and Earth, doesn't add up very well, which the above documentary does not.

I was kind of despairing about this a few days ago, but with this Medicine Wheel perspective I feel happier about it. Yes, we value Feeling and Spirit, they are far too undervalued in the world and we are doing something very valuable in attempting to live from these qualities. But we often also need, by the same token, to encounter and develop Earth and Air.

As I said, I am making a generalisation which will not apply to a load of us. So where are you on the Wheel? And what do others think?

HOW TO BECOME INDIGENOUS DURING LOCKDOWN (Part 1)

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A traditionally trained Native American friend of mine was, as a young girl, told to watch the TV as politicians spoke, but with the sound turned off, so that she could learn to tell when they were lying.

An English friend had been living with the NAs for many years, and she told me they learned to read people very quickly after meeting them: and you can see why, because one's safety could depend on it.

Most of us no longer have those skills. So we are easily taken in when someone is sincere. The politicians and others who believe what they are saying are the ones who will convince people. They are not lying in the obvious sense, but they are arguing from a very partial place, and being (unconsciously) selective with their facts. And it is important to be able to see and feel that, even when, especially when, we like their message. Sincerity is very seductive, it is often enough to convince, and others may see you as the perverse guy for not buying into it.

Maybe another way of putting it is that you can often see when someone does not know deeply who they are, so what they say needs to be treated with caution.

So people are hoodwinked left, right and centre by plausible presentations. 

There is a story of an American farmer who was proud of his prize bull, and laid bets on it in a fight against a much smaller wild bison. The prize bull was all might and no sense, and it took one swerve and casual swipe from the bison's horns as they charged to disembowel the bull.

Many of us too are domesticated and have lost that innate knowing. I see people attempting it frequently, they will know something 'in their gut', but it may easily prejudice, feeling the world is the way they want it to be. We often don't know any more which feelings to trust and which not to trust. There is no simple path to sorting this, often we have to come unstuck, maybe painfully over many years, before we can know what to listen to in ourselves - what is genuine knowing, and what is the voice of the child, or even the wounded child. All the faculties need to come together - mind, body, feeling, intuition - gut instinct alone is not enough. We would not have these other faculties if they were not needed for knowing.

So this is maybe a lockdown exercise. Study those people you find appealing and plausible, maybe turn the volume off, create a fine awareness. Study also those politicians you have come to see as awful people, get a sense of them as simple humans, a sense of where they are really coming from. Re-wild yourself.

THE NORTH OF THE MEDICINE WHEEL

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Clear thinking is not a quality that seems particularly valued in the Shamanic World. If anything, it has become the shadow of the emotionality that was rightly reclaimed in the 1960s from a society that was excessively rationalistic and materialistic.

One consequence of this is that many of us are easily hoodwinked by claims that have the appearance of rationality, but are in fact emotionally manipulative. I soldier on amidst this foolishness, I put my head in my hands and I pray that we can collectively have more wisdom, so that we can be apart from, instead of contributing to, the various madnesses that will always possess the world.

I've just been watching one of those pieces, shared by shamanic people, that purport to show a conspiracy around Covid 19. I won't say which conspiracy, because I don't want to get into a Punch and Judy Show over it.

What to watch closely for is sourced FACTS out of which you can form an opinion. What you usually get instead is an assertion of fact, or an appearance of fact, quickly overlaid with an emotional appeal about how someone is being bullied, or denied free speech etc. And you have protagonists who know how to appear sincere and truthful. If you don't know how to spot proper facts and their lack - if your strengths lie elsewhere than rationality - then you may well be taken in and take sides. 

Snopes does a good job of fact checking, please do this before you press share and pass on the delusions - it is the opposite of what we are meant to be doing.

The North of the Medicine Wheel is the place of the Mind. It is the last point we reach in the journey of life, which shows how difficult most of us find this place. It is NOT about flashy logic and being good at schoolwork. That does not teach you the North. It is a place any of us can cultivate, and it concerns disinterested judgement. By that I do not mean cold: you find passion here, a passion for truthfulness and fairness that will on principle always try to look at all sides of a question, out of which comes the good judgement of the Elder, who also lives in the North.

A slightly sharper way of making my point is to say that so many people are not interested in truth, they are far more interested in positions that support their emotional biases, such as that the world is really ruled by such and such a dark force that is out to oppress them, and maybe they can see themselves as a warrior for standing up to this.

The opposite point of the Wheel, the South, also needs to be addressed, the child that feels powerless, that, to an irrational degree, feels more acted upon than acting. The emotionality of the South is a remedy for the cold rationality of the wounded North that you find in our culture; and the disinterestedness and desire for truth of the North is a remedy for the wounded or childish emotionality of the South, which thinks that because they feel something is so, it therefore is so.

SHAMANISM, RATIONALITY and THE SHAMANIC BOOK GROUP

Shamanism is rightly experientially based. After centuries of being told what to think and to worship a holy book - or scientific theories, which isn't entirely different - shamanism brings us back to the earth and to our feelings and to our bodies. And that is where wisdom begins. Our modern shamanism has much of its origins in the counter-culture of the 60s, which was a protest against the materialism and excessive rationality of the day. And rightly so.

However, humans collectively tend to be black and white, and when we move against something it becomes shadow. And I sometimes think that we need more rationality in our shamanism. It doesn't make you 'in your head' to appreciate ideas and their importance. And we have to be able to question what spirit guides say, our own and other peoples.

We are driven by ideas whether we like it or not, so it is best to be conscious of them and to explore them. This is the North of the Medicine Wheel. The place not so much of logic - though that has its place - but of the ability to stand back disinterestedly, to not judge, to appreciate and consider both sides of a matter. That is why it is the final point on the Wheel, the place of the Elder, because most of us find this very difficult. Look at the immediate polarisation into good guys and bad guys that arises as soon as politics comes up, including - or maybe especially - amongst 'spiritual' people.

So these considerations are behind my beginning The Shamanic Book Group on Facebook. Apart from the fact that I love books anyway and love to talk about them and want to share that. We haven't had our 1st meeting yet - it is on 9th May - and for that we are reading The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich. It may be a bit late to read it now, but I am giving plenty of notice for the following meeting on 6th June. Below is the book we shall be discussing, and the Zoom details. It's not a rigid thing: if you don't finish the books, you can still come along.

Barry Goddard is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Shamanic Book Group
Time: Jun 6, 2020 07:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83513788584?pwd=RXlQakdEcHMyVGsvTnBlUFJ1RTQzQT09

Meeting ID: 835 1378 8584
Password: 719822