BELIEFS, ENVIRONMENTALISM and the NORTH of the MEDICINE WHEEL

"A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." This 200-year old saying remains just as true today.

The converse of this adage is the Native American idea of the "hollow bone" - that the goal is to become an unimpeded conduit for Spirit, with no ego getting in the way. Maybe we have our moments, but by and large it takes many decades to become a hollow bone in an uncompromised way. If at all. There are plenty of old people who hang on grimly to a particular view of themselves and the world.

Beliefs, about ourselves and about others and the world. Beliefs that go to the root of who we are. If you are working as some kind of healer or counsellor, then what we eventually meet in others are their beliefs about who they are, which are reflected in their views about the world. And we have to approach with caution. Evidence to the contrary usually goes nowhere. It's often a belief about the 'bad guys' out there in the world, causing all the problems, that also makes them in contrast one of the 'good guys'. I know very few people who do not do this in one way or another! These beliefs are not based on a proper study of the 'bad guys'. They are based on caricature and unconscious need. People will feel personally attacked if you approach these beliefs too closely.

Recently I raised the name of Elon Musk to a bunch of old men. I wanted to talk about his views on AI. But that was not possible, amidst the chorus of Musk just being about power and money. To them this was just reality, and I was the naive one for not seeing it. There was nothing to be said. This view of Musk defined who they were (the good guys!) and it would have been foolish of me to try to continue with my theme.

It is not so much the beliefs themselves, as the rigidity with which they are held that is the issue. Spirit probably doesn't care if your politics are left or right, as long as you are open to changing your mind, which often starts with being willing to consider contrary evidence, without explaining it away. This is what people find so difficult. Hence my opening line.

The beliefs that help us define who we are - and that stand in the way of the Great Mystery of existence - are often not just personal. They are just as often collectively held, and for the individual that confirms their reality.

I think a qualification to be any kind of shaman or healer is the ability to stand apart from the currents of collective belief that sweep through the nation, and to keep a level head. This is difficult, but it is difficult being a healer.

The 'counter-culture', with which Shamanism seems to have a large overlap, has its own collective beliefs, usually based in anti-establishment views, and these go deep. Many shamanic people see this stance as reality, they don't see it as a belief. But it usually stands in the way of being a hollow bone for Spirit.

I have a particular collective belief in mind here, that prompted this piece, and that is uncritical and apocalyptic environmentalism. It's a complex area for Shamanic people, because of course our way is founded in a remembering that the natural world is alive and inspirited, and gratitude for the care she takes of us. So we are natural environmentalists. Which of us does not grieve the extinctions that are currently taking place, and the felling of the Amazon?

The concern for the environment has become widespread, and I imagine it is something we all support. But there is an extreme thread also running through it, that unless we stop using oil, humanity is likely to go extinct. It is the belief, for which we are told there is an 'overwhelming consensus' amongst scientists, that CO2 levels will lead to a runaway greenhouse effect that could lead to human extinction, and that we are close to the point of no-return unless we stop using oil. Anyone who questions this narrative is a 'climate denier' (with its undertone of 'holocaust denier').

Now come on chaps. Let's calm down for a minute. You have been terrified out of your wits, and you can't think straight any more. Since when was there an overwhelming consensus among scientists about anything, unless there is political pressure? And what about those hundreds of millions of years ago when CO2 was much higher than now, and nature liked it very much, thank you? And what about the greening over of semi-arid areas that is already occurring due to higher CO2, and the generally faster growth of plants? And what about the lone scientific voices that say the earth is a highly complex system, and it is therefore very difficult to predict the outcome of higher CO2 levels?

I'm not saying I am right here, but that we need to be able to stand apart from this apocalyptic thinking in order to think and to question. Our job as healers is not to support these collective epidemics, but to be able to stand apart calmly and bring perspective. We had the same thing with Covid: people panicking and believing it was a deadly disease, or going to the rebellious opposite and thinking it was all just a set-up (a common view in the counter-culture, predictably.) Very few could stand apart from these currents. But it is precisely our job to do so, otherwise we are very limited as healers. It is our role, our responsibility in the community to be able to hang on to our horses when all about us are panicking and becoming paranoid about others controlling them.

It is not about adopting one view or the other in contrast to what the collective is doing. It is about being genuinely open while not ignoring credible evidence. It is about not needing to see things one way or the other.

My Medicine Wheel at home

It is the point of balance in the Medicine Wheel. In the North, the Mind, you have ideas, stories and beliefs. In the opposite place, the South, you have Emotion. If the South is unexamined, then our ideas about ourselves and the world have a strong unconscious emotional component. To the degree to which our emotions are unexamined, our views about the world will seem like reality instead of what they are, which is stories that help us orient ourselves.

Be grateful for these collective epidemics of belief, whether they are about viruses or the environment or paranoia about being controlled. They show us our own propensity to get caught up in them. If you are honest with yourself, you will feel a loss when you are part of these currents, that your identity has shifted to some degree from the deep centre within (that connects us to the whole universe) and into something superficial and external. And that can only happen because our roots did not go deep enough in the first place.

So these collective currents are just the 'worthy opponent' we need to find a deeper point of balance at the centre of the Wheel. It is a dynamic thing, a difficult thing, it requires honesty with ourselves, a willingness to admit we are not fully our own person (and how many can admit that?) but that to a considerable extent we swing between conformity and a reaction into its opposite. We need to give ourselves credit for the degree to which we are able not to get caught up, while owning to ourselves and to others the degree to which we are susceptible. Then there is a deep honesty on the table, and that is quite something.

And I tell you, it is a deep relief to stand free of the collective beliefs. It is like standing upright at last. You just have to put up with some people having reservations about you for not sharing their beliefs. Living with that is another good warrior practice :)

ON BEING A MESSY TEACHER

Have you noticed how often teachers have a reserve around themselves when it comes to the personal? They'll let you know a bit, and it can feel like that is measured, enough to demonstrate they are human like you - therapists sometimes pull this one too - but they essentially remain beyond you. This is in order to protect their authority, as they see it.

I try to come from the opposite place: the more I can be open about myself personally, the more the people around me will feel they can be with themselves too, warts and all. And what is teaching, apart from that? It's not like I have something lofty to impart, you can go and read books for that. We are here to show up, to be in good relationship with ourselves - particularly the bits we may not approve of - and we can let Spirit do the rest. It is not our job to judge and then to attempt to change ourselves, we will probably just get in the way if we try to do that. Our tiny selves are part of a vast consciousness whose designs are entirely beyond us, though we may sometimes catch the odd hint.

So my job, if I am teaching, is essentially just to show up in a personal way, whatever the forms, like Medicine Wheels, that I may have surrounded the teaching with.

It is in the personal that we find the transpersonal, the spiritual, the metaphysical. The more deeply we listen to ourselves - something that muggles avoid as best they can - the more we find ourselves listening to the whole universe, for we are not separate, as any decent mystical tradition will tell you. This is why it is so important for the teacher to show up personally, with all their embarrassing failings: when we do that, Spirit shows up, for Spirit loves a bit of humility. And when we do that collectively, something special and powerful enters the room. Sobornost, the Russian church calls it, the religious context that can heighten, rather than subsume, individuality.

I once did an astrology reading for someone who had put themselves in the teacher position. And I could not get near them. Their current relationship was a central issue, but they wouldn't discuss it. There was nothing I could do. The reading had to stay superficial. They had a 'together' identity to protect, as a mark of their spiritual attainment.

I think the real attainment is to be a mess, and to be able to acknowledge that in a specific way to yourself and others. We have a human body, we will always be a mess in at least a few ways. Teaching is about knowing you are in the gutter, saying why you are in the gutter, but looking up at the stars nonetheless.

When you do this, it is much harder for people to put you on a pedestal, maybe to their frustration, but it means there can be a real interchange, and what else are we here to do?

The Amazon

The long-form interview, in which people have proper space to unfold what they think, has been one of the great developments on the internet in recent years. You can encounter some of the sharpest and most thoughtful people around today. I spend at least an hour a day listening to them. Here is a guy who has spent years living in the Amazon, getting to know it intimately and with a passion, and who now campaigns on its behalf. 

Later on, he is asked about environmentalism, and like me he takes the attitude that it is impossible to predict where climate change will take us, but we can do specific and useful things, and that is the best use of our time and energy if we want to help the planet. At the end, he is asked about ayahuasca.......

 

PS The 2 interviewers I would recommend on youtube are Lex Fridman and Jordan Peterson.

PPS You can get Paul Rosolie's book Mother of God for a reasonable price at Waterstone's online.

GOD, SHAMANISM and ANIMISM

God didn't last very long. A few thousand years. The reason he didn't last is because he is out of balance. That is why he threw up a shadow, Lucifer. Who ever heard of the Earth having a shadow side? She is millions of years older, and she is everything. Lie on her and give her your pain, there is nothing she cannot take care of. And feel your spirit animal friends - they know who they are, as animals do, and will help you know who you are. 

 

I don't know what Shamanism is. I can't heal anyone. Though sometimes I can help. Maybe if I was pushed, I would say I am an Animist: I experience, or maybe imagine, the world as alive - even ChatGPT - and everything comes out of that. My philosophy is, in this sense, simple. But life itself is a difficult thing. It takes a long time to become who we are. This Shamanic path is a slow thing. But that is because it has deep roots, forged in the fires of what life throws at us. If we are open to life, it will initiate us. Ceremonies of initiation are just a means to this end: the point is to be open, and to be willing to stay with what life sends our way.