Shamans teach that there are three means by which "reality" can be perceived: the known, the unknown and that which can be experienced but never known.

Birth and death are not polar opposites, they are more akin to wife and husband or day and night - a complementary pairing.

The shaman knows from experience that everything is permeated by spirit...therefore, everything - from rocks to babbling brooks, protozoa to humans - is regarded to be alive. Perhaps not consciously evolved but, where there is spirit, there is life.

Shamans do not view humans as standing above and apart from Nature. Our species is regarded as but one strand woven into the much larger tapestry of life.

All things are bound together. All things connect. What happens to the earth happens to the children of the Earth. Man has not woven the web of life. He is but one thread. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
~ Anonymous 19th Century Native American

The 20,000+ foot snow-capped mountain towered before us, sunlight reflecting off of the glistening glacial ice with a blinding radiance. Normally, I would linger to drink in this beauty, but a combination of dysentery and altitude sickness left me feeling sick, weak and depressed. Now I lingered because I had to; the rest of our group was well ahead. As my wife, Gail, stared starry-eyed at Ausangate Mountain she unconsciously uttered a quiet sigh. She felt as if she were coming home. As she turned to share the moment with me, she couldn't help but notice that I had fallen to my knees with my head in my hands, weeping. A master of understatement, Gail observed, "You don't look so good." Weighing all of 110 pounds, she offered to carry my backpack (in addition to her own). Being an enlightened male not bound to false displays of machismo, I grunted my reply. "Take whatever you want, just leave me here to die." She smiled, thinking I was kidding.…

So began one of my first expeditions to Peru. It is said that one should "walk humbly in powerful places." On that particular journey, being humble was no problem. Walking constituted much more of a challenge. That was six years ago, and since then Gail and I have made many trips to South America - first as expedition participants, later as tour planners and facilitators. But the combination of awe and humility that arises when walking on land and throughout ancient temples which have been home to ritual and sacrifice, adventure and contemplation for millennia, has never left. Whereas visiting and conducting ceremony in such sacred places is incredibly energizing and inspirational, I believe that - for most of us - it is the manner in which we conduct ourselves during our daily lives that transforms ordinariness into enchantment. Living with loving compassion for all life, offering prayer, participating in ceremony and engaging in energetic practices to "light up" our mind-emotions-body-spirit is what ultimately transforms looking into Seeing, feeling into Devotion, words into Good Deeds and eventually dissolves the "I" into a state of consciousness that doesn't have boundaries or form.

A World of Living Energy

Every one of our journeys to South America entails work with men and women who are advanced practitioners of shamanism. Shamans are people who have perfected the art of using their bodies as vessels through which subtle energies can be collected, stored and transmitted. The purposes for so doing include the acquisition of wisdom and power and, more importantly, to also instigate healing and positive change in individuals, groups and/or communities. My teachers have emphasized that shamanism is a path of service rather than one of personal liberation. The spiritual evolution of the practitioner is not an end in itself, but a means through which service to the community of life can be more fully engaged. As such, shamans do not view humans as standing above and apart from Nature; our species is regarded as but one strand woven into the much larger tapestry of life. The shaman knows from experience that everything is permeated by spirit...therefore, everything - from rocks to babbling brooks, protozoa to humans - is regarded to be alive. Perhaps not consciously evolved but, where there is spirit, there is life.

It was not too long ago that one was hard-pressed to find any bookstores which carried books on shamanism or indigenous spirituality. That is not so very surprising. As a culture, our relationship with the Earth has been one of retreat...retreat from the forest into the city, retreat from a co-mingling with nature to the safety of buildings and predictable schedules. We replaced the mountains with skyscrapers and the rivers with ribbons of headlights and taillights hurrying along beds of concrete and asphalt. The din of the outdoors yielded to the melody of Muzak. For many of us so conditioned, the natural world had become inanimate. The lofty mountains and surging rivers no longer spoke to us as they once did to the previous caretakers of this land. The great canyons echoed only with the sound of our own voices - the whispers of the Ancient Ones could no longer be heard.

It is encouraging that a growing number of people are now thirsting for the traditional wisdom that our science and technology (temporarily?) supplanted. People are becoming increasingly aware that if human beings continue to "...be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it (Genesis 1:28)" our environment just might not recover from our excesses of use and misuse. We must wake up to the fact that our planet's resources - though plentiful - are not boundless and one day could be "used up." I say this not from the perspective of an environmentalist, but as a student of shamanism.

Shamans regard Mother Earth as a Living Being, not as an inanimate chunk of rock floating in space. They ask, "If you don't drink water from a dirty glass, why do you pollute your Mother's lakes? If you pay money to purchase what you want at stores, why do you feel that it is acceptable to extract the resources you need from Mother Earth (e.g., oil, lumber, minerals, etc.) without restoring the land to beauty and balance when you're done? Why are you leaving such a mess for your children's children?"

Living in harmony with Mother Earth may not always be convenient, but it is simple. Its about living with compassion in the broadest sense of the term; treating all life - and Mother Earth herself - as you wish to be treated. "We are part of the earth and the earth is a part of us," observed the anonymous Native American who was quoted at the beginning of this article. "The fragrant flowers are our sisters, the reindeer, the horse, the great eagle our brothers. The foamy crests of waves in the river, the sap of meadow flowers, the pony's sweat and the man's sweat is all one and the same race, our race." There is no separation from the world around us unless we perceive it to be so.

Embodiment: The Shaman's Path to Transcendence

Shamans teach that there are three means by which "reality" can be perceived. The first deals with the "known": the realm of facts and ideas, that which is verifiable by science. The second is the "unknown," typically the area in which philosophers delve...bridging science and religion. And then there is that which "can be experienced, but never known." This understanding arises through the disciplined practice of conscious embodiment; that is, transcending one's personal ego so that no boundary or sense of separation exists between "I" and "Other." In so doing, one perfects the art of becoming an "empty vessel" which can be filled by the energies of the "Other."

Shamanic apprenticeships entail training in "techniques" by which this state of embodiment can be "tasted." I'd like to share one of the early exercises I was taught (by a Peruvian shaman named Theo Paredes) to deepen my experience of Mother Earth. It's very simple; try it! But first, a little background...

As you know, when we were a fetus in our mother's womb we were totally dependent upon our mother for survival; we received through the umbilical cord all of the nutrients necessary to sustain and nourish us. At birth that physical umbilical was severed and we began our process of individuation. Andean tradition holds that over its first seven years of life, the child, under ideal conditions, gradually transfers his or her primary connection from the biological mother to Mother Earth. Similar to when the child was in the womb, Pachamama (the Andean term for Mother Earth) provides for all his or her needs without even having to ask. {This parallels the Catholic tradition of "First Communion" through which, around age seven, the child is offered the opportunity to directly partake of the "body, blood, and spirit of Christ" as an independent, not simply as a family member.} The following exercise offers a means by which we can directly commune with Pachamama by tasting her essence through our "spiritual umbilical".

Exercise - Union with Mother Earth

Lie on your side in the fetal position. Imagine that you have a "spiritual umbilical" emanating from your naval, connecting you to Mother Earth. Slow your breathing rate and become very still...so still that you feel the pulsations (or "heart beat") of Pachamama. The rhythms, breath, and nourishment of the Earth become your rhythms, breath, and nourishment. Invoke the feeling of love through this connection or, if you have difficulty summoning love for Mother Earth initially, access this mood through remembrance of the love of your family or friends.

Shamans will often facilitate exercises such as this with the assistance of music which simulates the experience of the fetus in the womb. The shaking of the rattle is a reminder of the sounds emanating from the placenta, the use of the whistles and bells are reminiscent of the mother's breathing, chanting brings to mind our mother's voice as heard through the embryonic fluid, and the drum represents our mother's heartbeat. If you can perform this exercise for 20 minutes or so to the accompaniment of percussion-driven music, your experience will be enhanced.

Just as exercises which recreate the beginnings of life in the body have the potential to arouse awareness, so too do those which simulate the end of life. The process of transformation not only entails the birth of a new way of being, but also a death of old patterns that no longer serve us. Birth and death are not polar opposites, they are more akin to wife and husband or day and night - a complementary pairing.

In shamanic traditions, the capacity to fully embrace and hold subtle energies in a sustained way within one's body often develops through an encounter with death. Some of these encounters may occur quite naturally, through serious illness or "acts of God." {For example, because of the high altitude, the leading cause of accidental death in some Andean communities is lightning strike. Those who survive are sometimes "gifted" with abilities that they did not previously posses. The healing and recovery process constitutes a shamanic apprenticeship for those so called into service by nature.} Others, during the course of their shamanic training, are required to endure rites of passage which may purposely entail encounters with death. In the Andes, shaman aspirants may be required to conduct a personal pilgrimage into the high mountains during which they sleep at the foot of a glacier while wearing no clothes. Or, perhaps, to bathe in a geothermically heated sacred spring which periodically belches poisonous gases. In the jungles, students are often required to ingest medicine plants such as Ayahuasca (which translates, "Vine of Death") or Toi (i.e., Datura) which temporarily disable the body (as if it were dead) while inducing visionary encounters with "the other side."

These rites are not intended to be "tests of bravery," and students are not asked by their teachers to embark upon such dangerous undertakings unless they are deemed "ready." The Master will have good reason to suspect that the spirits of the mountain, the spring or the medicine plant are willing to "teach" the aspirant or the encounter will be deferred to a more propitious time. These traditions have endured for millennia and continue to this day. For intelligent individuals to willingly endure such life-threatening ordeals speaks to the value placed upon acquiring shamanic skills and, in particular, the critical role that embodiment of subtle energies plays in such apprenticeships.

See the next issue for Part Two of this article.

Art Roffey holds dual doctorates in Counseling Psychology / Divinity and together with his wife, Gail, is the Founding Director of Innervision, P.C. Besides providing counseling services for over twenty years, Dr. Roffey has held diverse academic appointments that include Assistant Professorships at the United States Air Force Academy and Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine.

Innervision is dedicated to promoting awareness of shamanic traditions through the sponsorship of residential weekend training programs (at Camp Ronora Nature Preserve and Retreat Center, 100 miles northeast of Chicago) with South American shamans. These programs include extended apprenticeships which meet periodically over the course of one or several years as well as intensive experiential weekend workshops. Additionally, Innervision sponsors several expeditions a year to South America through which small groups of sincere people are offered the opportunity to train and heal with shamans of high degree and integrity in places of power. These journeys are not tourist vacations, but intensive programs of shamanic study. If you are interested in being placed on their mailing list or to enroll in workshops or expeditions, call Innervision, P.C. at 248/865-9416.