Part 1: Empowerment : The 7 Keys to Accessing Shamanic Consciousness:

The 7 Keys to Accessing Shamanic Consciousness:
1. Empowerment
2. Divination
3. Psychopomp
4. Weather Working
5. Hunting Magic
6. Shamanic Healing
7. Shamanic States of Consciousness and the Technology of Transcendence

Shamans still exist in some form in every culture on the planet, including our own modernized Western world. Engaging with the shamanic tradition is not about cultural appropriation or ripping off the spirituality of any indigenous peoples. We all come from indigenous ancestors if we go back far enough, and they all had great shamans. Thus, the shamanic path is one of our birthrights and the ancestral precursor of all of our spiritual and religious traditions.

In the Western world, when we hear the word shamanism, many of us think of a costumed tribal person dancing around a fire in the dark, involved in some sort of mysterious ritual, accompanied by drum beats and singing. But inside that costume and ritual there is a woman or a man with a set of very real skills.

All true shamans are distinguished by their ability to achieve visionary states of consciousness in which they can redirect their focused awareness away from everyday physical reality and into the hidden, inner worlds, all while very much awake. This conscious shifting of awareness is called shamanic journeywork in the Western world, and it’s an ancient form of meditation that improves with practice. It has been my experience that most of us in the West can do this to some extent, and some of us are real naturals at it. In shamanistic journeywork, we quiet ourselves, focus our intentions upon the inner worlds, and watch. Shamanic practice thus begins with intention, and we trust that the rest just happens.

The first thing those with shamanic abilities discover is that the hidden inner worlds are inhabited by transpersonal forces that the traditional peoples call spirits—the spirits of nature, the spirits of the elementals, the spirits of our ancestors, the spirits of the dead, as well as higher angelic forces, many of whom serve humanity as helpers and guardians, teachers and guides, and there are others. The imaginary friends many of us had as children most likely fall into one or more of these categories.

It is this extraordinary ability to connect with the inner worlds of things hidden and the beings that reside there that sets shamans apart from all other religious practitioners. I remember asking Michael Harner long ago what qualities revealed someone as an authentic practitioner of shamanism. He replied, “Do they journey to other worlds? Do they have relationships with spirits? And do they perform miracles?” It is through their relationship with the spirits that shamans are able to do various things, initially on behalf of themselves and then increasingly on behalf of others.

And of the things shamans can do, many could be said to fall into the realm of the miraculous. What sorts of things are these, you might ask?

Empowerment

Working with the assistance of their helping spirits, those transpersonal forces with whom they establish relationship, shamans are able to restore power to persons who have been dramatically disempowered and diminished by their life experiences.

This is what I experienced when Sandra Ingerman reconnected me with my childhood spirit friend. Through the lens of shamanism, the rest of my life then began to unfold in an empowered way, and nothing has ever been quite the same.

Recently I had the opportunity to be of service in this way for an old friend from high school who attended a workshop on shamanism I was offering in Oregon. Mark and I had seen each other only twice in the past fifty years or so, but there was still a heart connection. As part of a demonstration for the group, I invited Mark to volunteer for an empowerment exercise known as a power-animal retrieval, in which I as the giver would attempt to find a spirit helper for him as the receiver. In the process I would ask the shaman spirit to provide him with power, protection, and support.

As we lay down on the floor of the workshop room side by side, the other participants watching, Mark was uncertain about what was going on, yet I settled myself beside him and brought my conscious awareness into an inner-world place in the dreaming of nature that I call my sacred garden. I allowed myself to just be there for long moments, then I simply set my intention to invite a helping shamanic spirit to reveal itself to me for my friend. My job was simply to watch and to listen.

My attention was drawn to a large tree overhanging a pond.

In the tree I saw a good-sized snake, a python or boa, perhaps.

I have always been fond of serpents, so I focused my attention upon it and asked the snake, “Are you here for my old friend Mark?” The response came in the form of an emotional pulse—one that I perceived as affection. I took that as a yes. I approached it and gathered the snake into my arms, then transferred my awareness back to the workshop room, holding the serpent in a bundle next to my heart. I then conveyed the snake and its medicine to my friend’s heart center with my breath, the way Sandra had done for me so many years earlier.

I didn’t know how Mark would respond, as he is a professor of education, very mental. But as I related the journey to him, a funny look came over his face. He then told me that several weeks earlier he had been at the Oregon Country Fair, where he had encountered someone walking around with a large boa draped around himself. This individual then wrapped this big snake around my friend’s shoulders. Mark felt the connection with the serpent, and it felt good. He didn’t know what to make of it, as he had never been particularly fond of snakes, and when I perceived the serpent in a relationship with him as a power animal, he was amazed. He now possesses the shamanic snake medicine, and he will find out through direct experience what that means.