So yesterday was day one of the Core Shamanism workshop. We went over basic techniques and theory, and did a series of guided and individual journeys.
Is the landscape the realm of a spirit world? Is it a place in my own imagination? It doesn't matter. The answers are just as real.
One exercise was to journey to find an answer for a partner's question. We partnered up with people we don't know. Since I didn't know any of them, that was not a great challenge. There were a couple of couples that came together.
My partner was having difficulty with it. She was starting to get it, but was having a hard time. Her question was what would help her get better at it.
I came back with a number of images and small scenes that had played out. They included her two children, her grandmother's home in Lithuania, recent changes in her son's behavior, her own confusion about her career, and ended with a long needle--she's studying accupuncture, it turns out. She told me what the individual images meant, and I helped her put them together. She needed to use the journeying to help mend people, including her relationship with her children.
The images I came back with would be utterly meaningless to anyon else. I certainly didn't know what they meant until she explained them. But they were part of her answer. I described elements that were exactly right.
The small, square cottage with the garden in the back. The open well with the pitched roof over it and the crank handle to haul up the bucket. -- She had taken her daughter to visit her grandmother's little cottage, complete with garden and well as described. Other parts were equally vivid and no less true to her.
Every indiginous culture has had certain shamanic ideas and techniques in common. There are about 7000 distinct cultures in the world currently (some of them are very small, most are endangered), and about 70% of them are still shamanic in nature (pun only slightly intended).
In those cultures, the role of the shaman is part healer, part psychologist, part adviser, part spritual leader. They tell the hunters where to look for food. They help treat and heal the sick and injured. They dole out relationship advice, they interpret dreams. They take people out and help them navigate their paths through life.
Today we try to employ specialists to do those things. And maybe we listen to what those "experts" advise. But those experts are not partners with us. They are highly paid consultants. The shaman partners with his community. There is a subtle resurgence of shamanistic practices. Heck, the instructor for the course has gotten HMO coverage for shamanic work. He works part time at a hospital where his official title is Shamanic Specialist.
What might the world be like if people were a little more open, a little bit more community-oriented, and certainly more earth based?
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I've been promoted at work. Starting Monday my new title is Logistics Analyst. It's a salaried position instead of hourly with no administrative assistant duties what-so-ever.
I now have a boss who lives in the same state, so I'll see him more than once a week. He has a six-year-old kid, and he left at 4:00 yesterday to have more weekend time with his family. He gets it. I like him.
The pay is better, and I get the yearly bonus. Finally I've really escaped the Administrative Assistant career path. Now I'm on a better-paying career path that I haven't pretty much already hit the top end of.
Now I'm paid to analyze things, make sense of them, and explain them in meaningful ways. Heck, I can do that... :-)