Meeting the Inner Shaman

In this experiential journey, we explore the shaman-self as a source of wisdom regarding your life purpose, and regarding your health and wholeness. This guided experiential is pre-requisite to the journey to obtain a spirit-guide or power animal, for the inner shaman is also the one who does the shamanic journeying and consults with his or her spirit guides. You will learn to shift into this shaman-self to do shamanic journeying in subsequent workshop. This is the starting place.

Preparations:

• Before beginning:
  • Smudge yourself with sage or cedar,
  • Place your intent to meet your inner shaman in the space.
  • Decide on an issue or problem that you would like to explore in this journey.
• Do this in a dark room, perhaps with a candle on the floor.
  If done in the daytime, use a bandana or eye shade.
• It works best if you lie on the ground
• and listen to some one slowly read you this, pausing at each '…' for 15 seconds or so.
  You can also pre-record it for yourself and play it back.
• The accompaniment of light drumming or rattling is conducive.

Instructions

Close your eyes and begin taking slow, deep breaths...
Ground yourself by imagining gold or silver cords to wrap around your ankles and sink deeply, deeply into the bowels of Mother Earth...
Once you are well rooted, imagine yourself becoming smaller and smaller with each breath...
You gradually become so small that you find yourself standing on your belly, near the navel...

Your stomach gently undulates with each breath. .
You see the navel of your being, like a little . This hole is a little magical portal into a cave-like room...
You notice a ladder that leads into that room. Gather your courage, for you know that you have to now enter this room. You climb down the ladder into this underground and earthen room entering into your body...
There is a little fire on the floor, and the vague outline of spirit-beings dancing around the fire...
Through flickering flames you see ancient drawings of animals and some handprints on the cave walls, and a few small bones and pottery shards on the dusty floor...

Remove your shoes and socks and feel the cool softness earthen floor beneath your feet...

You notice an opening... It looks like passage way, illuminated by a flickering light...
You move into this passage, and begin to travel along it, feeling the coolness of earth on the bottoms of your feet...
You travel for some distance/time in this passage...
Until you arrive at a clearing...
In which you see a clear turquoise pool of water and an abundance lush green growth flourishing around it. You have arrived at the space of your heart...
You remain here to take in the peacefulness and beauty...
If you need a little refreshment you can cup your hand and drink from this pool of water...

After resting here a while, you see a small path leading up a hill. You follow it...
Until you come to a clearing where there is another cave...
Walk towards the cave..
As you come closer, you notice another fire off to the side, but in front of the cave...
You move towards the fire, and facing the cave, warm your hands...
You put a log on it. As it ignites, the aroma of cedar smoke wafts around your head...

The fire crackles loudly as it nourishes itself on the new log. The flame brightens enough for you to see the vague shape of the Shaman Inside, peering out at you...
The Inner shaman steps out of the cave and moves towards you... Are you afraid, excited, unsusre?.. Your senses are alert. Notice everything... How he is walking, the clothes he is wearing, his eyes...

The shaman is now standing beside you at the fire...
Muster your courage and ask him/her about the problem or issue...
Be as truthful as you can be. The depth of the response is determined by the authenticity of the question...
Wait silently for his respone. Pay careful attention to everything... His/her gestures, body language... everything...
For the response may come verbally but in other ways, perhaps even intuitions, or images, as fantastic or absurd as they may be. For in this sacred, inner heart space, there are many ways to communicate. Thus anything can be a reply, or part of a reply... Use your own felt sense to notice any stirring or sensation or response you feel in your body which might be a reply...

Then draw closer to your inner shaman, and let your bodies merge...

Now you can see the situation from the shaman's point of view...

What do you notice?...

How do you feel, now... towards this situation or problem?...

As this shaman, what would You say? What advice would you give?...

Take time to be with these questions and the answers...

Once you are satisfied...

Separate...
Return to yourself...
but be aware of the shaman who stands beside you now...

Do you understand what the shaman was trying to convey?... If not, ask for more clarity...

Now is the time to ask any other question you might have...

Pay attention to your intuition and felt-sense, and to observe all communication, including subtle gestures...

You can merge again, if necessary. Do the inner work, then separate and contemplate...

... Once the work is complete ..

Thank the shaman for his/her wisdom and help...

The shaman reaches into a little leather bag behind him/herself and offers you a gift - it could be a talisman or symbol - to help you remember and keep ahold of what you have just experienced and learned.

Receive this gift...

What is it? Explore it... What does it feel like? What does it look like?... What is its significance?

Tell the shaman how you feel...

Thank him for his/her gift... Say good-bye...
Return back down the path to the pool of the heart...
Pause to drink the greenish life and the turquoise beauty of the pool...
Thank the pool...
Return tow the Kiva in your belly...
When you arrive, thank the guardian spirits there...
Place another log on the fire...
Offer a little cedar or incense...
and thank the spirit of the fire...

Climb back up the ladder out of the Kiva and onto your undulating belly...

Take three full breaths and with each one increase by a third of your original size. One... Two... Three...
When you are your original size, stretch, yawn, sit up...

Write down the essentials in your journal.
Keep close to your felt sense of the Talisman gift as you write down the crux of your meeting with the Inner Shaman.

Comment

There are many life-paths, each with a particular authentic self. A shaman is called or quests for the life-path of a shaman-self. This inner figure is like an inspiring muse, helping you in your life. It is sometimes called a daemon, or the shaman's higher self. It is a potentiality a pattern to be lived as integral to individuation/communitialisation. We are each called to a certain kind of self, and we have all of them in us as a potentiality. Some are called to an artist-self, others to a teacher-self or a leader-self, and so on. There are many callings. For a life to be authentic it must find the kind of life it is called to. In this experiential we have been exploring the shaman-self as a source of wisdom regarding your life purpose, and regarding your health and wholeness. Since we have all these archetypal potentials within us, anyone can explore the shaman-self, even if it is not your life-path. Consulting it can give you great insight into your own problems and health issues. Keep in mind that your Inner Shaman is not a spirit-guide or a power animal, for a shaman has those already. What we are accessing and awakening is your inner shaman, so that you can directly experience it, interact with it. I often lead apprentices into this experience before teaching them to shamanic journey, as part of an introductory workshop I call “Awakening the Shaman Within.”