Shamanic Meditation Article

Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

I wrote these thoughts for another website that has fallen off the Web. I am re-purposing the notes here.

There are many powerful ways of shamanic meditation! Many people who find eastern self-regulatory styles of meditation (where one focuses attention on the background of reality or on a single object, thought, or action) to be difficult, or next to impossible, often take readily to shamanizing, which can be considered to be an active way of meditating, though it is much more than that.

Shamans shift consciousness to shift reality and then they act out the changes they desire.Shamans enter aware, ecstatic trances called shamanic states of consciousness on purpose in order to shamanize. They quest for visions of beneficial changes alone in a wilderness sanctuary or in their rooms in the city or in group-consciousness shifting performances during community circle ceremonies.

The trances of shamanic meditation are easily and naturally induced through continuous (often monotonous) pulsing or droning sounds such as rattling, drumming, piping, chanting, or singing. Dancing and posture changes are other ways.

Many shamans use all of the above, and there are many more.

Some shamans use entheogenic (so named as "divine-experience generating") plant or chemical substances, or "teacher" plants and chemicals, to enter much deeper and longer trances. This kind of psychedelic shamanism receives a lot of attention these days but, really, it is one of the more unusual ways of shamanic meditation.

There are many ways to shamanize that do not involve the use of hallucinogenic plants or chemicals, that are safe and effective for almost everyone. I will list and describe some favorites.

Experiencing wilderness is natural way to shamanize. Urban shamans connect to life spirit in and as Nature by keeping company with trees, rocks, birds, and other city wild life for healing and transforming purposes.

Opening a shamanic circle: Shamans create a circle around themselves and situations in need of transformation. They use mental and physical symbols and act out through many expressive arts in individualistic rituals, that are also performances, to open the circle and connect with spirit or spirits.

The power symbols and objects used in opening and keeping a shamanic circle can be imaginary or material, tiny or huge. Usually it is a mix of both. The sacred circle might be painted on the shaman's drum or costume or spread out upon a cloth or blanket which then becomes a portable altar.

Non-ordinary non-journeys: Some shamans meditate into shamanic states of consciousness and non-ordinary reality through drumming or chanting or any of the other ways mentioned above that shamans use to shift themselves, or even sleep. They are then visited right where they are by spirit and spirits given gifts of knowledge and healing for the situation at hand, without any sense of soul-traveling through other realms.

Shamanic dreaming is another way of shamanic meditation. There are many methods and techniques of shamanizing through dreams. Lucid dreaming is only one method. Simply offering dreaming and sleeping to spirit for healing and transforming purposes before lying down for a night's rest works well for me, whether or not I remember any specifics.

Always, the overall goal of shamanizing is to bring helping knowledge and healing power from spirit and/or spirits, as the shaman understands these concepts, back to one's everyday life and family, community, and the situations that are calling out for healing or other change for the better. Shamans do not seek to transcend ordinary reality permanently, in contrast with the goal - or at least a major goal - of most religions and spiritual traditions.

It is not necessary to believe that life spirit and the spirits of life are supernatural in any way or divine at all in order to shamanize. Shamanic shifting may be most effective when practitioners let shamanism happen aside from theology and dogma and just call it by what they find themselves doing in the process, in the moment - dreaming, imagining, storytelling, expressive and creative arts, performing, or a dynamic synergy of several or all of the above.

Shamanic meditation involves body as much as psyche and soul - all levels of living and being are interconnected and one in the ways of shamans. Everyone is material, psychic, and spiritual at once and none of these is valued over the others.

Shamanic meditation begins and ends here and now on earth. Also, even though shamanic meditation can be fun and exciting, it is never undertaken for entertainment purposes only, or as a substitute for ordinary reality, in contrast to the more popular "astral travel" and recreational drug use.

There is always a purpose for shamaniziing, related to self, community, and world healing. I constructed my Shamanic Meditation lens on Squidoo to go with this article.

Crackpot shamans (poem)

Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

Crackpot shamans...
Shamanize with cracked pots:
Shamanic shifting extra changes through broken spiral shells...

Trickstering up the heat under simmering alchemical vessels,
shattering them into hatching new life early,
as uncountable, unintended consequences,

Acting-out crackpot dreams and schemes within a mess of carefully collected builder-rejected stone fragments...!

Crackpot shamans costume themselves in leftover pot-shards
and fling leftover pot-scrapings around,
starting unaccountable universal bread-dough starters...!

Crackpot shamans empower catastrophic, re-creative shaman-antic ecstasies 
with risky whiffs of fermenting fumes leftover at the bottom
of the cosmic, broken-open wine barrel...!

The original shamans had to open up new circles

Image via Wikipedia

...The Wise One assured me in a shamanic dream, a little while before Crow cawed me back into everyday life in ordinary reality.

I was dreaming I was kept outside an educational circle of scientists, artists and philosophers who were discussing the meaning of the words spirituality, humanist, atheist and agnostic. Occasionally the discussing heated into arguing, but most of this impressive convocation stayed amiable and I felt drawn to the edges where several outsiders, other travelers on the nearby road I was journeying, had paused to listen in.

My dream-scape had opened onto a windblown, grassy, wild-flowery field, and I found myself wandering among gigantic concentric circles of standing stones, on a plain surrounded by hillier terrain, with an Oak grove in the near distance and a woods of many kinds of trees much further away. The circle of esteemed experts beckoned enticingly.

But when I attempted to join in and play along, my suggestions were dismissed with impatient eye-rolls by most of the scientists, because they had already concluded that I practice superstitions, deal with paranormal beings or aim to promote pseudoscience.

But I am an ecstatic, paradox-embracing hylozoist, for whom the supernatural would be superfluous.

Many of the philosophers condescended to reply to my suggestions kindly "Thanks anyway, but of course you don't understand these matters are not nearly so simple!" Most of the artists were in favor granting me an audience, until I showed how inexpertly I drew likenesses, how weirdly I composed pictures and how amateurishly I performed songs and dances.

"But I know a thing or two about this and that, I really do!" I complained to the Wise One guiding me. "And why are science, art and philosophy professionals venturing so far afield to pick out these topics?" I asked.

"You'll do well to get used to being left out," this teacher advised me, "and these far fields have long fascinated visiting experts from all other fields of human experience, for many mysterious reasons."

The other travelers were turning away from me, too, striding back to the road, some calling "Come on now, it's about time to head home!"

The teaching continued: "The original shamans invented art, science and philosophy, but they had to open new circles to do it, over on the outskirts of popular gathering places, at the oddest hours, and then afterwards many of them had to hideout in the wilderness for extended whiles or suddenly hightail it away, trailblazing the next twists of the road onwards."

"Of course, the best shamans have usually been crackpots too..." my mentor called after me as this dream was dispersing.

Updated, next day, in response to inquiries: The signal was breaking up then, during the shamanic dream-journey crow cawing call-back, so I don't know if I heard the crackpot remark correctly or completely, or what it's supposed to mean. Soon, I will shamanic journey back to ask.

Shamanic questions and answers introduction

Image via Wikipedia

When asked to describe my shamanism, I reply with statements like these, usually:

As a neighborhood shaman (with a small-s, which means shamanizer, to me, not a title) I seek shamanic teachings and experiences as close to home as possible, instead of (but not as opposed to) traveling to exotic locations.

Because I experience the beings, places, and situations in my neighborhood interconnecting and reaching out into the spiraling, coiling, flowing and weaving of all-there-is, and because I adapt and innovate, as guided by spirit and spirits, from an expanding universal set of shamanic ways, I am a universal shaman too.

Shamanic ways connect inward, non-ordinary potential, possibilities and power with outward, everyday here and now challenges.

I live, practice and teach shamanic innovations for shifting life towards the better (and best) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and over the Net, so urban-shaman and cyber-shaman might fit, also. Besides an array of historic and new landmarks, museums and gardens offering inexhaustible (if often exhausting) self-educational opportunities, Milwaukee's east side and downtown, closest-by Shamanic Shift Center, teem with subtle, secret and some glaring shamanic teachers (for those with eyes focused and ears tuned to them).

I have been answering emailed questions about contemporary shamanic ways on Squidoo lenses, and shall continue. My destination lenses, without teaching shamanism, honor venues I call "sacred places" where I have experienced direct connecting to spirit and spirits.

This post promotes my lenses because I intend to keep teaching by publishing questions and answers though that platform, as well as this weblog, gradually grouping and linking lenses and blog posts together into a growing, non-linear ebook of my interpretation of contemporary shamanism and related topics.

A near-future post will list questions and link to answers, and be updated as an index. Gradually and steadily, this project will become better organized, more inter-linked and usefully comprehensive.

Lens earnings, like Amazon commissions and ad-revenue here, go to Companions Circle Church, Inc. directly, Shamanic Shift Center's parent corporation.

Sacrifice is necessary in shamanic work

Image by Shamanic Shift via Flickr

I receive mixed feedback for continuing to do shamanic work on a donation basis. Some express admiration, but just as many voice concerns.

I have concerns, too.

Offering services (and teaching) for a donation means there is no set fee list or scale, though I posted a few suggested amounts on the internet by request, or because of listing requirements. Requesting a donation does not make the sessions free.

While spiritual processes cannot be quantified, the space, time, matter and energy costs necessary to keep this practice available are totaled up regularly and presented to me by the universe, with due dates.

So far, overall, I am still paying to shamanize.

More than one visitor has gushed, "I'm so glad you don't charge anything, because now I can afford _____, _____, and _____!" These people also undervalued and underutilized the potentials and possibilities of their sessions, it turned out.

Before money was invented, no one would consider asking a shaman for assistance without giving generous donations "in kind" (in life sustaining stuff), at a sacrificial level.

Sacrifice is a prerequisite for successful shamanic shifting of self and reality towards the better.

It seems to me, some confusion and consternation around asking and accepting "payment for shamanic work" involves mix-ups about the nature of sacrifice and the meaning of the word.

Incorrectly, sacrifice has been linked to altruism or has come mean something like: being forced to give up something good now to get something worse in return (or nothing), or to get something nebulously or dubiously better, possibly after a long (even lifelong) delay, such as feel-good or "get into heaven with less hassle" points.

But sacrifice, or "making sacred" on purpose, is really: consciously and willingly giving up something significant now to receive something of greater value as soon as possible, as part of a meaningful, deliberate and focused working process. In many ceremonial spaces flowers symbolize the power released through sacrifice because they grow and give up their beautiful, blooming lives to generate new seeds.

Without sacrifice, there can be helpful technique-usage, but not sacrament, or the transformation of power from outer and ordinary into inward and non-ordinary (magnified infinitely) life shifting.

In this society, money has been the preferred exchange medium and "sacrifice stuff" for hundreds of years.

Money is required for non-profit (just as much as for profit-earning) businesses to pay for overhead and improvements. Money is on my short list of the most meaningful forms of energy-exchange.

Working on a donation basis, even though this shamanic practice requires money to continue, is another spiritual exercise for me, my current method (subject to change) of keeping spirit and spirits in the spiral-dancing loop, guiding transactions, so work and payment can flex naturally as different people, situations and circumstances show up.