About Shamanism

Throughout time, shamanic practitioners are known for their ability to enter an altered state of consciousness, called “shamanic journeying” to visit the spirit worlds. These initiated, trained and chosen spiritual leaders practice as mediators between community members, the spirit realms and the natural world. Understanding the mechanisms for how energy moves, how illness operates, and how healing is bestowed are all the domain of the shamanic practitioner. A lot falls under the umbrella of the shaman. Many get caught up in web of…

The Power of Imagination The power of imagination is devalued in our culture. We are told to leave our imaginations behind in our childhood. The saying, “it is just your imagination” becomes a way to dismiss experiences we can’t explain via route of the five senses. We do everything we can to avoid talking about our imaginations and instead we brainstorm, practice creative visualization, dream up, and go on guided meditations. It’s all a silly ruse of semantics. We cannot not imagine. It…

Crossing the Return Threshold So far we have seen that a person embarking on a shamanic journey follows the path of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. In this last stage, the parallels remain. You may have noticed that we moved from a basic shamanic journey in Part 1 of this series on The Shamanic Journey & Hero’s Journey where any traveler or adventurer begins with the call, finding assistance from guides, and experiencing the road of trials, to a shamanic journey undertaken…

One of the main techniques of shamanism, and the method I use the most, is called “Soul Retrieval”, but to understand why you might want or need a soul retrieval you first need to understand “Soul Loss”. In this video of a portion of my talk to the Luminosity Group in Pagosa Springs, CO, I tell a story of soul loss and relate it to Dr. Stuart Brown’s “7 Properties of Play.” This is a simple way to see how soul loss…

Delving deep for the last few months into Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, I am astounded by the overwhelming wealth of information Mr. Campbell amassed in his studies. He did this all before the age of the internet. I picture him pouring over ancient texts, seeking myths across continents, sifting through shelves of books, and placing more than one inter-library loan. How he accessed the myths he did and was able to cite every work is beyond…