“A shaman is someone who is already dead and thus has no fear of death or life.”
Peruvian shaman Don Eduardo Calderon
The weeks have slipped by and my monthly newsletters have become innocent victims of the apparent speeding up of time - caused by the increase in consciousness of course – and my own unconsciousness.
Let me explain!
“ You've been doing a type of Vision Quest right here in our home!” Ronnie said.
It was my ever-wise wife who first realized what had happened. And she was right. For the better part of 3 months I had been “shutting down” from everything around me. I sat around doing nothing most of the time; I put on weight; the expensive advertising I had placed wasn't working; I had physical aches and pains all over my body; I didn’t even switch on my computer, let alone answer emails for weeks at a time; and I actually wondered if I was dying.
“See
(With apologies to the Italians!)
And in a way I was dying.
But it wasn’t a physical death – it was a type of Shamanic Death.
So what do I mean by a Shamanic Death? I understand it as a formal or informal rite of passage wherein one confronts one’s shadow side - the dark within – and then moves into a place of complete emptiness and receptivity. In so doing you leave behind your old personal identity and way of life. It is a rebirthing of the spirit.
A ritual death was, and still is, one of the rites that an initiate goes through on his or her way to becoming a healer or Shaman. These rituals have taken many forms over the centuries, and some were even quite brutal – designed as they were to break down the ego and the individual’s previous idea of “self”. Teasing, humiliating and spitting at the novice were common practices, as were various forms of sensory deprivation. For example, Wicca’s of old used something called a Witches Cradle - a custom made garment which covered the entire head and body. The initiate was suspended from a wooden beam for a time in this “body bag”.
Another more drastic ritual involved the novice digging his own grave in a remote area of countryside, and then having to lay in the hole overnight covered only with a blanket. The initiate’s deepest fears were brought to the fore as he lay in the darkness with wild animals and creepy-crawlies all around. An even more extreme version involved the initiate actually being covered with sand – except for a thin pipe through which he could breathe.
It may have been safer from prowling animals, but was certainly not for the claustrophobic!
One of the Shamans most important tools is “journeying”, wherein he travels to an alternate reality while in a trance, which is usually created by the repetitive beating of a drum. The Shamanic Death experience can also play out in this reality, where the initiate experiences himself being “dismembered” by the spirits. Wild animals may then arrive to eat his body parts and entrails – again symbolizing the “death” of the physical altered ego personality.
Shamanic tribes in North East China and many other cultures across the globe place great significant on the role illnesses, such as epilepsy, play in the calling of a Shaman. Others believe that when a child experiences a coma, it also marks the arrival of a new Shaman. Even in our modern Western culture we sometimes see people change dramatically after a life threatening illness. More striking transformations can occur when someone has a Near Death Experience, and there are loads of books now available which document these experiences from all over the world.
Preparing for A Vision Quest and Sweat Lodge
Less life threatening rituals that can be used for creating these Shamanic Death experiences are the Sweat Lodge (or Sweat Hut) and the Vision Quest (or Solo). The Vision Quest is basically spending time alone in a remote area, within a confined circle and without any food or water, for a period ranging from 24 hours to 4 days. The traditional Native American Vision Quest is usually 4 days – honouring the 4 directions of the Medicine wheel – but that is far too long for most of us Western weaklings! We usually do one or two days in the bush, allow water, and even an acceptable activity – such as making prayer ties. It is sometimes surprising to see how difficult it is for people to sit by themselves even from sunrise to sunset – so accustomed are we to the business of the modern world.
However long the Solo, its objective remains the same as many of the rituals mentioned above – to go inward and explore our darker nature and our own mortality. There is an enormous fear of death in our Western society – it is often seen as something dark, or even undesirable. Many ancient cultures did not regard “Death” as the enemy, but developed ways of making it an ally. I believe it is only by facing one’s shadow and overcoming one’s fear of death that one can live fearlessly.
Perhaps this is what Christ was doing when he went “solo” in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights and came up against “Satan”.
The Sweat Lodge is an even more challenging ritual for many. The Lodge is usually a low dome, in which a group of people sit shoulder to shoulder in total darkness while water is poured onto hot coals to create steam. It symbolically recreates a womb on the earth, and the opportunity for a physical, emotional and spiritual cleansing. It is a ceremony that has been practiced for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years, all over the world. The Native American version, and in particular that of the Lakota tradition, has enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent decades. The adoption of this very sacred ceremony by the White Tribe, and particularly its abuse by some, has caused much pain for the indigenous people of Turtle Island (USA).
Preparing to enter the Sweat Lodge
Because so many of our religious constructs have traditionally made someone outside of ourselves the “authority”, many people are still drawn to teachers and spiritual leaders. But the ultimate authority can only be found within - and one way of doing that is by passing through the “threshold” experiences described earlier, so that we as novices can be “resurrected”.
A life threatening crisis is sometimes what calls a person to the way of the Shaman, but we don’t have to wait for some sort of threat – we can do it more elegantly! Perhaps the starting point is to recognise that we are in the midst of life and death all the time. Plants and animals are sacrificing their life force for us so that we can eat; we kill insects and bugs in our own homes, gardens and farms all the time; and even the cells within our own bodies are constantly dying or transforming. We also experience the death of family members, friends and our pet animals, and our very existence is a continuous process of life moving towards death. While we all know this to be a truth, we most often choose to ignore it - and we certainly don’t want to confront it if we possibly can. Death is usually hidden from sight in our Western world and the terminally ill are tucked away to avoid us any discomfort.
But for the Shaman death is a teacher the teacher of life and to know Life you must know Death. The Shaman is the mediator between the world of ordinary reality (which we call Life); alternate reality (which we call Death); the spaces between Life and Death and the unseen worlds that lie beyond our everyday awareness, yet are all around us! To the Shaman all these worlds are merely constructs because, because he or she is able to between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead. In the Shaman’s reality they are both “alive”.
Going through a Shamanic Death enables one to return to the world with an altered view and understanding of reality, and often with an expanded ability to communicate and interact with non physical beings in a more direct way.
But back to my story!
During the months that I spent “hovering” between life and death, I found the only thing I really felt like doing was meditation. I started meditating every morning for at least an hour, then it went to 2hours, then 3 hours, and one day even 6 hours. It was insane! After all those years of trying different meditations with various levels of success – and a very irregular meditation regime – now I couldn’t get enough of it. Most of the time I used drumming CDs because they “knock out” the monkey-mind.
During this time I also reacquainted myself with the Angels. As my friend and colleague Kats Swanepoel will attest to, I was not a big fan of these discarnate helpers in my “past life”. I discovered this was because of an old hangover from when I rejected the Catholic Church in which I had been raised.
Somewhere deep within I must have believed that “if the Catholics have to go, so to do the Angels!”
The only time I really came alive was when we traveled, so Ronnie and I took every opportunity to jump into the car and head somewhere new – which means we’ve seen quite a bit of
And talking about caves, reminds me of bats!
Bat medicine actually symbolizes the shamanic death and has been a symbol of rebirth in
Now being in the Northern Hemisphere as opposed to the Southern Hemisphere, I registered this at a very physical level and was totally disorientated. The Sun seemed to be coming up in the wrong place; it was far too low in the sky; and my normally excellent sense of direction was nowhere to be found. This added to my overall feelings of uncertainty and alienation.
But just as bats do come out of the cave, I too came out of mine. It was only then that I realized what had been happening – this had all been a ritualistic death in which I had been invited to let go of old beliefs and patterns. I couldn't believe how many new insights I had actually had, and was finally ready to embrace my destiny and start becoming my future – even if I wasn't yet sure what that was going to look like.
What was clearer, was how this all related to my Family Constellations and Ancestral work, and I have started developing an approach which is more integrated with Shamanic Ritual – which I have been drawn too for a long time. Next month I attend the UK Shamanic Gathering where I will meet and work with Shamans and Shamanic practitioners from all over the
