About Shamanism

The term Shamanism comes from the Evenk people of Mongolia. Anthropologists began using the word Shaman in the last century to describe a certain type of indigenous healer. Today the term Shamanism is often used to describe a variety of healing, ceremonial and spiritual practices, that are facilitated by contemporary practitioners, not only by a shaman. According to one of the foremost Shamanologists and a Shaman in his own right, Micheal Harner, a shaman is someone who travels to other worlds in a visionary state and who has relationships with spirits. And a Shaman is someone who performs miracles, like healing, for example.

The shamanic path is a path of direct revelation. It is the world’s oldest spiritual path. It is not a religious or spiritual doctrine. In fact, people of all religious and spiritual backgrounds practice shamanism. Shamanism teaches us to live in harmony with everything, both seen and unseen, and to approach life from a state of gratitude, respect, and mutual regard. Shamanism and animism believe that all things: people, plants, a wooden spoon, animals, the internet, our world, everything, have a soul.

A shaman is given the distinction of being a shaman by the community they serve. They may also be chosen through trial or hardship like a life threatening illness or event through which they are bestowed healing powers. Being a shaman is a life long path of learning and service. No true shaman would ever claim to be a shaman. Shamans helped tribal people survive throughout the ages. They were able to see where the hunting would be good, to heal the sick, to guard against negative energies, entice the rain, and divine the future. Shamans were able to do these things in a variety of ways depending on their culture and belief systems. What is common in shamanism across the board is the ability to travel to other worlds in visionary states, what we call journeying, to work with allies of the animal, plant, and spirit worlds.

Today, although much has been lost, there are still indigenous shamans practicing the way they have for thousands of years. Healing and tribal knowledge were kept secret and protected from the conquerers for hundreds of years. Many of these cultures are now coming forth and sharing their practices with those who wish to learn. They feel it is the best hope to save our mother earth and all its inhabitants. The Q’ero and the Shipibo people of Peru have shared their knowledge extensively with the westerners; they feel it is from the West that healing will come.

Modern or Western Shamanism

Modern Shamanic practice as taught in the West and at HCH, teach what is common to all practices of shamanism, drawing on traditions from Native American, Central and South American, Siberian, Hawaiian, African and the druids and other tribal people of Europe and also include what these cultures would consider the practices of the medicine men and women. These shamanic healers specialize in a variety of healing techniques, plant medicine, art singing, dreams, prayer and ceremony they utilize journeying to unseen worlds but not in the almost exclusive way a true Shaman in the Evenke tradition does.

Shamanic practitioners in the West develop and refine their relationship with Spirit to help themselves and others reach their highest potential in this lifetime. The Shamans’ role is to be a bridge between the world of spirit and his or her community. There are a variety of techniques a shamanic practitioner may use to accomplish these goals. Primarily a shaman is adding energy, through retrieval in the spirit world of lost energies or extracting energy that is not beneficial to the client or community. They may work with tools such as crystals or stones by transferring the energies of those tools to the client or vice versa. Others may utilize the use of percussion, a rattle or drum, to guide the healing process. Still, others may work with herbs and plants or energetic fields, or use ceremony or their intuitive abilities to offer guidance. Many western shamanic practitioners use a combination of techniques and individualize shamanic sessions based on the needs of the client. All of these tools and techniques, like hypnosis, create focus, intuitive access, healing, and wisdom through non-ordinary states of consciousness.

Practices of Shamanism

The Practice of Shamanism can be traditionally passed down in long and complicated lineages with complex rules with years of study and apprenticeship or as spontaneous and unique as each individual who calls on spirit. It is important to choose carefully who your teacher and healers are some of the traits and best practices of shamanism are listed below;

Gratitude

Gratitude is an orientation and attitude designed to open the heart. Gratitude is a high level energy that is designed to open portals, windows and doorways into the spirit world. These openings are everywhere but the most accessible portal is in the heart, right there in each of us. The ego shuts off the heart and keeps our connection to spirit from shining through. Gratitude and humility allow the shamanic practitioner to access the portal to spirit that resides in the heart. Gratitude recognizes truth, transmits love and enhances energy.

Seeing

Seeing is the most powerful shamanic method of releasing blame, guilt and shame. When we truly see through the ignorance and false appearances of the world we are able to know compassion and forgiveness for our selves and all others. Seeing tells the truth, generates love, and liberates energy.

Blessing

Blessing is recognizing that spirit, being-ness is coming through all that there is, all around us. Being awake and aware that we have the power to transmit that energy of love and well being to everything around us. Blessing acknowledges the truth, radiates love and releases energy.

Storytelling

Storytelling and the use of metaphor is what connects us to the universal experience we all share, enabling us to recognize and heal traumas and life experiences, Shamans are great storytellers, allowing healing to radiate to all who listen.

Dreamwork

Dreamwork the dream world is often known as the spirit world in indigenous cultures and is as real to them as our waking dream. Many shamanic cultures believe we are dreaming all the time; some dreams are more real than others. Shamans use lucid dreaming to affect change and healing in themselves and others.

Singing, Dancing & Drumming

Singing, dancing, drumming are used in a variety of was in shamanic practices and healing. They are used to unite and raise energy during a ceremony; they are used as a hypnotic phenomenon to induce trance for journeying a drum or rattle beat of between 4 and 7 beats per second entrains both sides of the brain to create a theta sate. Shamans use the rattle as a tool to heal and release negative energies or seal and heal a person’s energy field.

Art

Art and the creative process is part of shamanic practices. Spiritual can be expressed into form in innumerable ways. Shamanic practices include creating power objects, such as rattles or drums, talismans, or paintings to anchor and strength a healing ceremony. The Shipibo people of the Amazon make beautiful tapestries that are representations of the healing songs they sing during ceremonies and the plants and animals that assist them.

Excerpted in part from Awakening to the spirit world by Sandra Ingerman and Hank Wesselman.

Ceremony and Ritual

Ceremony and ritual bring people together in gratitude, celebration, and healing. It creates and uplifts the community, and brings the sacred into our lives. A community coming together with gratitude and intention amplifies our healing powers which can heal our selves and our world.

Parts of Ceremony and Ritual

• Opening statement or song that greets everyone and clearly states the purpose of the ceremony or ritual.

• Gratitude to spirit for our good fortune at being together.

• Call on the four directions, the elements and mother earth and father sky to contribute, support and protect the gathering.

• Petitioning and welcoming other spirits and allies to join us “In the highest good of all things”

• Cleansing of all participants, sometimes this is done as people arrive as well. Cleansing can be done by burning sage, palo santo, sweetgrass or sprinkling rose water, a selenite wand, whatever works for you to purify your physical space and body.

• The heart of the matter more in depth discussion of the intention, each person might speak or only the person leading ask spirit for the guidance on this.

• A blessing for the whole community, including those who are not there.

• Join together in song or movement.

• Close the ceremony by thanking everyone, people, and spirits.

• Thanks to and release the directions, earth, sky, and elements. Written by Jose Stevens
  

Calling on the four directions, earth, sky and the elements.

Shamanic ceremony and all animistic, indigenous, nature based cultures begin and end ceremony by calling in and honoring the 4 directions, the elementals and the earth and sky. It is the container and the protection and recognition of the powerful forces we honor and have access to. This can be long or short, what is most important is that what is said represents gratitude and recognition of the power we are invoking. The names of animals, colors, or attributes of the direction or element may be spoken and praised. At the end of ceremony the directions or thanked and the ceremony is closed.

Calling in Sacred Space

To the winds of the South Great Serpent
Wrap your coils of light around us
Teach us to shed our past like you shed your skin
To walk softly on the Earth, in the Beauty Way.

To the winds of the West Mother Jaguar
Protect our medicine space
Teach us the way of peace, to live impeccably
Show us the way beyond death.

To the winds of the North Hummingbird,
Grandmothers and Grandfathers Ancient ones
Come and warm your hands by our fires
Whisper to us in the wind
We honor you who have come before us,
And you who will come after us, our children’s children.

To the winds of the East Great eagle, condor
Come to us from the place of the rising Sun
Keep us under your wing.
Show us the mountains we only dare to dream of.
Teach us to fly wing-to-wing with Great Spirit

Mother Earth,
We’ve gathered for the healing of all your children.
The Stone People, The Plant People,
The four-legged, the two-legged, the creepy crawlers.
The finned, the furred, and the winged ones. All our relations.

Father Sun, Grandmother Moon, to the Star Nations.
Great Spirit, you who are known by a thousand names
And you who are the unnamable One.
Thank you for bringing us together
And allowing us to sing the Song of Life

From Shaman, Healer Sage, by Alberto Villoldo.

Shamanic Journeying

Shamanic journeying is the basis of all shamanic work; it is the entrance to the unseen worlds. Practitioners enter a non-ordinary state using a repetitive sound like drumbeat or rattle, or movement such as dancing, walking, or singing. Many traditional cultures use plant medicines such as ayahuasca, peyote, san pedro or psilocybin for specific purposes and journeys, but they are not necessary to journey.

A journey can take many forms. Perhaps the most life changing is the journey to meet a power animal or ally. Working with helping spirits, elementals and imaginal guides is the foundation of shamanism. The practitioner sets the intention but it is the power animal or helping spirit that guides the journey and performs healing. The practitioner acts as what is often called the “Hollow Bone”, a clear tube or channel for spirit to work through.

IN SHAMANIC CULTURES THERE ARE THREE SPIRITUAL
WORLDS THAT WE JOURNEY TO

The Lower World

Reached through a hole in the earth, a cave, or tunnel that takes you below the earth. The lower world is the world of the spirits of nature, with great valleys and forrest, jungles, oceans and rivers. The spirit of animals, rocks, plants and other beings that may be magical or mythical reside here. This is where we first encounter our power animal.

The Upper World

Above where we are now, it is accessed by going up, flying with a spirit animal, climbing a tree, following a rainbow or floating up in a vapor or sunbeam. The upper world is not this world. You will pass through a barrier of some sort between this world and the upper world. The upper world can appear to be in pastel colors, with cloud-like reality. There are many levels to the upper world with unique settings This is where our teachers, and the higher gods and goddesses, ascended masters and angelic forces are. This is where our higher Self resides.

The Middle World

The seen and unseen aspects of the everyday world we live in. Here a we can communicate with the spirit of all things. A middle world journey is helpful in seeing this world differently so that we can do remote healings, help the dead to move on, find lost items or step outside of time. This is also the magical aspect of our world in which the ‘hidden folk”, fairies, elves trolls, live.

Power Animals, Guides and Teachers 

The upper and lower worlds are where  a variety of helping spirits and guides can be found. Power animals and helping spirits can take almost any form, they can be  animals or animal and human they can be mythical creatures or trees. Teachers most often have human form and often come as archetypical figures or gods and goddesses.

Shamanic cultures believe that when we are born an animal spirit or spirits  volunteer to stay with us and guide and protect us throughout our lives. This is the spirit of the animal as a species, not a particular animal and no power animal has more power than another they just have different qualities and teachings. Power animals can travel to all the worlds and come to you whenever you are in need. 

Teachers and guides from the upper world function as our intermediaries to the divine. They are compassionate souls willing to help and guide us in the earthly realms as well as seeing and knowing all that is and all that we are. 

It is recommended if you want to know what your power animals or guides qualities and teachings are you journey and ask, rather than look it up in a book or the internet.
The practice of Shamanism is one of direct revelation. Your helpers may have very specific teachings, lessons, and healing for you. It is better to journey to learn and deepen your relationship  directly than to take someone else's advice. This is a wonderful relationship that can deepen and enrich your life, and it is unique to you and the life you have dreamed for yourself. 

The Sacred Garden is a good place to start any journey. It is a place in this world, the middle world that you may know, and may or may not have been to it is a safe and healing place in nature. Over time you may transform this garden into anything you like, adding healing pools, clearing away dead brush, and putting in a nourishing garden, knowing that everything in the sacred garden is representative of your life. From the sacred garden, you can find the entrance to the lower and upper worlds or you can call your helping spirits to meet you there.

Techniques

There are limitless possibilities of the journeys that are possible for healing our past present and future. At HCH it is our priority to empower our students and clients by teaching them the techniques and tools to find their own answers, through direct revelation whether using Shamanic practices, hypnotherapy or another modality. There are times however when it is very helpful to use shamanic healing techniques or journey for a client or use Reiki energy to create a shift that will allow greater healing than is currently possible for the client. Traditional Shamanic practices are highly effective, that is why they have been practiced for thousands of years.

A few examples of the techniques taught at HCH Shamanic Practitioners Certification course:

Shamanic Resourcing

This is the practice of teaching and leading a client to find his or her own power animals, teacher and guides and creating a sacred garden. These are a powerful tool for those who suffer from depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviors, and trauma. Alternatively, the practitioner can journey for the client and retrieve the power animal and other helpers.

Illumination

This is a process of clearing the chakra energy systems of the body and illuminating them with divine light energy. Shamanic Illumination is helpful for anyone one is stuck, unable to move forward, who suffers from low energy or illness, addictions or trauma.

Spirit Releasement

This can also be done during the Shamanic illumination process. Spirits sometime attach themselves to other and need to be released. A person with a spirit attachment often feels depressed or has habits or addictions that are counterproductive

Spiritual Intrusions

These are caused by negative energy directed at a person that cause energetic wounding that saps personal power. These too can be cleared during shamanic illuminations or using crystals and shamanic tools to dislodge and remove the negative energy.

Soul Retrieval

This is a shamanic process in which we bring back the parts of the soul that have split off because of trauma, illness or overwhelming circumstances. Traditionally the Shamanic practitioner journeys with his/her power animal for the client to find and bring back the part or parts that has split off, if the part agrees to return the practitioner brings it back and blows it into the heart and head of the client.

Psychopomp

This is working with the dead or dying and is primarily a middle world task. This helps with learning to speak with and assist those who are in the process of dying. This shamanic technique includes learning about the landscape of death and deep listening as well as being able to journey to find and assist the recently dead.

     Six Traditional Shamanic Speciality Areas

Tools of a Shaman

The Drum

The Rattle

The Voice 

Mesa  

The mesa in Peruvian tradition is a portable alter container 13 stones given to the Maestro (Shaman) during his training, and other objects and tools added as his experience progresses.

Medicine Bundle

A sacred bundle or a medicine bundle is a wrapped collection of sacred items, held by a designated carrier, used in Indigenous American ceremonial cultures. According to Patricia Deveraux, a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta, "These are holy bundles given to us by the Creator to hold our people together...

Inside your Mesa or medicine bundle are the tools you personally use during your practice and healing work.

This may include but certainly is not limited to:

Dear Ones,

Navajo Blessings Way Prayer 
From the Anasazi Museum at Chaco Canyon

The word Beauty in Dine’ (Navajo) translate as a concept of Balance and Beauty. It is consideration of the nature of the universe, the world and man, and the nature of time and space, creation, growth, motion, order, control, and the life cycles.

It is being in a right relationship with the everything. It means living in “sacred reciprocity” with all things. Being in a mutually beneficial interchange as a sacred and holy way of life, essential to a shamanic way of living and learning shamanic practices. By “Walking in Beauty” we are more in alignment with the fundamental framework of existence.

This work is called Shamanic Practice for a reason. To follow this path it is necessary to make a commitment to practice. We meet only once a month. The more you do outside of class, the deeper your experience will be. The work we ask you to do outside of class should not take more than a couple hours a week.

You are investing in these classes, in the changes you would like to see in your life, and the world, so please anchor in these changes by doing the personal work it takes to shift your consciousness.

Each level or class will receive homework to be done before the next level, and each level will build on the last, so it is best to do your work before class and attend the Shamanic journeying and practice sessions we offer at HCH.

All that being said, above all else, this is a personal journey of healing. We are all on our own path. Do your best, trust that you know what you need, stay open to receiving, and participate in the learning community you have joined, and you will get just what you are meant to out of this experience.

LISTEN WITH YOUR HEART 

I encourage you to listen with your heart. Ground yourself, be open to the experience of being with another person or in community, meet others with love, compassion, and respect.

Get the feeling of what is being said allow the critical and comparative mind to take a break.

Listening well is not the ability to focus on what is being said, listening well is a reflection of our inner state. Only when our spirits mature and we listen with our hearts, do we truly hear.

When you talk you are only repeating something you know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.

His Holiness the Dali Lama

In our workshops, there will be many opportunities to share our experiences. It is the gift that we give each other and ourselves. Please be mindful that we have a lot of material to cover at each meeting and stay on topic as much as possible.

Notice if you are someone who always speaks, and give others a chance and encouragement to speak. If you are someone who does not often speak up, know that the depth of your learning and experience will increase exponentially when you are able to share and trust the learning community you have joined.

Love and light to you always,

Annie