" Everyone is born a mystic and a lover who experiences the unity of things and all are called to keep this mystic or lover of life alive." Matthew Fox 95 Theses
Shamanic practices reach far back to ancient times and reach across cultures located all over the world. Shamanism is not a religion but instead a set of methods, practices and assumptions about the web of creation of which we are all a part. Shamanic practices provide a spiritual technology that connects a person directly to the invisible world of spirits and ancestors. A shaman is a man or woman who has been called to be a guide, to travel to the invisible world and bring back information relevant to an individual?s healing and purpose.
The basic underlying assumptions of Shamanic practice, that draw me to it, are these.
? Every person is capable of direct experience of the world of spirit and ancestors, the holy, the numinous
? In this invisible world are helpers, guardians, wise beings, ancestors who will guide us on our paths, help us know our purpose and how to actualize it
? Humans are brothers and sisters to the trees, rocks, animals and other beings of nature ? we are in a partnership that requires reverence and respect
The longing to heal, to know and actualize my purpose, to make my life meaningful and bring my gifts forward for the good of the whole, is what motivates me to sustain my practice. Shamanic practice allows an entrance and method for the great adventure of exploration of the invisible world. The purpose of this adventure is healing self, other and community.
For a scholarly work on Shamanism I recommend Mircea Eliade?s classic study, ?Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.? I caution you that his attention to academic detail can deaden the power and mystery that are still very much alive in Shamanic practices. Michael Harner?s ?The Way of the Shaman? is both scholarly and practical. Harner recognizes and uses the power of Shamanic techniques and gives suggestions on how to incorporate these practices into your own life. For a journey into the mysticism of the Inca and Q'ero of Peru, see Elizabeth Jenkins's "Return of the Inca."
My particular Shamanic training is rooted in two sources. In 2002, I began studying the cosmology of the Dagara people of Burkina Faso, Africa. with Malidoma Somé . In 2004 I became a Kontomble merged stick diviner through an initiation process in Burkina Faso, under the guidance of Malidoma and two local Shaman. This African gateway has allowed me to experience direct contact with some of my ancestors and with the wise beings called Kontombili that are willing and able to offer help, support and guidance.In the Dagara teachings as in many wisdom traditions, it is assumed that we each have a purpose that is agreed upon with the ancestors before we are born. When born, we almost immediately forget this sacred contract. Divination is one of the methods that we can use to connect with ancestors and spirits to get a course correction that helps us recognize and carry out our life purpose. To find out more about the Dagara beliefs and practices, read Malidoma Some?s ?The Healing Wisdom of Africa? and his autobiographical memoir, ?Of Water and the Spirit? or contact me
In 2008 I traveled to Hawaii, the home of Elizabeth Jenkin's Wiraqocha Foundation to meet and work with two Q'ero shaman, Don Umberto and Dona Bernadina. High in the Andes, the Q'ero people continued their ancient indigenous spiritual practices, uninterrupted by the Spanish conquest of the Inca people. Later I returned to learn from Don Juan Nunez Del Prado and his son Ivan. I am delighted and supported by the powerful energy concepts and practices of these loving teachers and bring these to my work. and we can talk further.
It is clear that once we return to the depth or core of religion we find much more than dogmas, concepts, institutions, commands. We find a striving for experience of the Divine, however that be spoken of, we find both form and formlessness, male and female, experience and practice. We also find that in their core and depth we do not encounter many different religions so much as one experience that is expressed variously and with great diversity and color flowing in the name of different traditions and cultures.
One River, Many Wells Matthew Fox
The ancient way is so powerful, and taps so deeply into the human mind, that one’s usual cultural belief systems and assumptions about reality are essentially irrelevant.
