Shamanism

Written 3/1309

When I first read DJ's article on neo-shamans,
( http://www.reconnections.net/neo_shamans.htm )
I had much the same reaction as when I first read about Merlin and knew it was talking about Me: "Who the hell do You think You are?" Reading these pieces below would have felt the same a few years or maybe even months ago. But, now I know that We are All shamans, We are moving into an age where everyOne has access to these abilities. However, We are not in that age yet, We are just moving into it, still pioneering. The earliest explorers went before and blazed the shaman's trail, now We are homesteading the property and those who wish to remain in the shelter of the established settlements shake "their" heads in wonder. Soon, many will join Us in this wilderness and it will become common place to travel the many worlds.

A Second Real World
Soul Travel
"The pre-eminently shamanic technique is the passage from one cosmic region to another - from earth to the sky or from earth to the underworld. The shaman knows the mystery of the breakthrough in plane. This communication among the cosmic zones is made possible by the very structure of the universe." - Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
In lucid dreams "strange worlds and scenes seem to arise spontaneously, but we are usually able to control our responses to them and, if we wish, to awaken from the dream at any time. The shaman's control during journeys is similar, and lucid dreams may well have provided inspiration for early shamanic journeys." - Roger N. Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (1990), p. 220
"He commands the techniques of ecstasy - that is, because his soul can safely abandon his body and roam at vast distances, can penetrate the underworld and rise to the sky. Through his own ecstatic experience he knows the roads of the extraterrestrial regions. He can go below and above because he has already been there. The danger of losing his way in these forbidden regions is still great; but sanctified by his initiation and furnished with his guardian spirit, a shaman is the only human being able to challenge the danger and venture into a mystical geography." - Mircea Elliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
"In the ages of the rude beginnings of culture, man believed that he was discovering a second real world in dream, and here is the origin of metaphysics. Without dream, mankind would never have had occasion to invent such a division of the world. The parting of soul and body goes also with this way of interpreting dream; likewise, the idea of a soul's apparitional body: whence, all belief in ghosts, and apparently, too, in gods." - Neitzsche, Human, All-Too-Human
"We must recognize ourselves as beings of four dimensions. Do we not in sleep live in a fantastic fairy kingdom where everything is capable of transformation, where there is no stability belonging to the physical world, where one man can become another or two men at the same time, where the most improbable things look simple and natural, where events often occur in inverse order, from end to beginning, where we see the symbolical images of ideas and moods, where we talk with the dead, fly in the air, pass through walls, are drowned or burnt, die and remain alive?" - P. D. Ouspensky
The Cosmic Zones
"The main feature of the shamans' universe is...the cosmic center, a bond or axis connecting earth, heaven and hell. It is often pictured as a tree or a pole holding up the sky. In a trance state, a shaman can travel disembodied from one region to another, climbing the tree into the heavens or following its downward extension. By doing so he can meet and consult the gods. There is always a numerical factor. He climbs through a fixed number of celestial stages, or descends through a fixed number of infernal ones. His key number may be expressed in his costume - for example, in a set of bells which he attaches to it. The key number varies from shaman to shaman and from tribe to tribe." - Geoffrey Ashe, The Ancient Wisdom
"...There are three great cosmic regions, which can be successively transversed because they are linked together by a central axis. This axis, of course, passes through an 'opening', a 'hole'; it is through this hole that the gods descent to earth and the dead to the subterranean regions; it is through the same hole that the soul of the shaman in ecstasy can fly up or down in the course of his celestial or infernal journeys." - Mircea Ellade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (1964), p. 21
"The distinctive feature of the shamanic ecstasy is the experience of 'soul flight' or 'journeying' or 'out-of-body experience.' That is, in their ecstatic state shamans experience themselves, or their soul or spirit, flying through space and traveling either to other worlds or to distant parts of this world. In Ellade's words, 'The shaman specializes in a trance during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld.' "These flights reflect the shamanic view of the cosmos. This comprises a three-tiered universe of upper, middle, and lower worlds, the middle one corresponding to our earth. The shaman ranges throughout this threefold world system in order to learn, obtain power, or to diagnose and treat those who come for help and healing. During these journeys shamans may experience themselves exploring other worlds and meeting the people, animals, or spirits who inhabit them, seeing the cause and cure of a patient's 'illness, or interceding with friendly or demonic forces." - Roger N. Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (1990), p. 10
"Entrances into the Lower world commonly lead down into a tunnel or tube that conveys the shaman to an exit, which opens out upon bright and marvelous landscapes. From there the shaman travels wherever he desires for minutes or even hours, finally returning back up through the tube ... to emerge at the surface, where he entered." - Michael Harner, The Way of the Shaman (1982), p. 27
"Journeys to the middle or upper worlds have the same general features as those to the lower world. There are, however, some differences in purpose and in the types of entities likely to be encountered. The lower world is often a place of tests and challenges, but it is also a place where power animals are acquired and the shaman is guided and empowered to victory." "The middle world is our familiar world. In their visions shamans journey over it at will, unimpeded by barriers or distance, seeing far and wide, and returning with information about hunting, weather, or warfare. Middle-world journeys are particularly common in the near-Arctic areas of North America and Siberia. Here food supplies are precarious and migrating animal herds must be located." "The upper world is a place where teachers and guides may be found, and 'journeys here may be particularly ecstatic." - Roger N. Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (1990), p. 147
An Experience of Awe
There is "an ineffable joy in what he sees, an awe of the beautiful and mysterious worlds that open before him. His experiences are like dreams, but waking ones that feel real and in which he can control his actions and direct his adventures." - M. Harner, The Way of the Shaman (1982), p. 27
"The journey to the upper world usually begins from a raised area such as a mountain, treetop, or cliff, from which the shaman envisions himself ascending into the sky. At some stage of the journey there may be an experience of a kind of membrane that temporarily impedes the ascent. When this is pierced the shaman finds himself in the upper world, a world notably different from the middle world and perhaps populated with strange animals, plants, and people. Like the lower one, the upper world may have several levels, and the shaman can usually move between them at will, perhaps assisted by a helping spirit." - Roger N. Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (1990), p. 147
"During journeys awareness of the environment is significantly reduced. This is hardly surprising since the shaman is preoccupied with life-and-death dramas in other worlds. In spite of these other-world adventures, the shaman may be able to split her awareness between those worlds and this one sufficiently to communicate with her audience. In such cases the listeners may be treated to a blow-by-blow account of the worlds, spirits, and battles encountered by the shaman." - Roger N. Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (1990), p. 220
"Among religions, practitioners of Taoism, Islam, Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism may journey to other realms. Among Taoists visualizations were believed to help the adept ascend to paradise. In the course of the visualization he crossed the gates of the three celestial passes to enter the Yu-ching Heaven, where he undertook an excursion of paradise. Some Indian Muslims practice 'allowing the soul to explore the spirit world;' helped on its way with hashish, which they call the 'heavenly guide or poor man's heaven.' In contrast to shamanism, however, these traditions use journeying only occasionally; it is by no means a central practice." - Roger N. Walsh, The Spirit of Shamanism (1990), p. 90