Colleen Deatsman - Seeing in the Dark: Claim Your Own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age

The kind of book that offers newcomers to shamanism a safe and sensible program and also reminds experienced practitioners why they fell in love with shamanism in the first place. The authors carefully guide readers through the many aspects of the shamanic life and offer practical suggestions for journeys, ceremonies, and personal healing. This book will become a comforting and reliable companion for those on the shaman's path.

Tom Cowan, author of Shamanism: A Spiritual Practice for Daily Life and Fire in the Head

A groundbreaking work of startling authenticity. This book is a necessity for those who wish to understand how personal reality can be shaped by one's beliefs and how the fate of individuals and nations can be shifted by the focused intent of inwardly directed individuals. Seeing in the Dark is ideal for those seeking a practical application of material garnered from readings in comparative religious studies, folklore, and mythology but were left looking for the next stephere it is. Take it if you dare.

Mark Stavish, Director of Studies, Institute for Hermetic Studies and author of Between the Gates

Shamanism is many things to many peopleat its core it is an ancient spiritual tradition dedicated to becoming fully human. Through partnership with the compassionate spirits, shamanic practitioners bring blessings of balance and healing to our world. In Seeing in the Dark, Colleen and Paul offer us their inspired, multi-faceted perspective, helping to make this powerful tradition more readily avail-able at a time when our need for it has never been greater.

Nan Moss and David Corbin, authors of Weather Shamanism

Seeing in the Dark is a wonderful gateway to shamanic practice. Packed with wonderful exercises and journey suggestions, it gently guides readers to find insight and healing through spirit connections and energy work.

Kristin Madden, author of Magick, Mystery, and Medicine; The Book of Shamanic Healing; and Shamanic Guide to Death and Dying

Seeing in the Dark is both a step-by-step guide to developing powerful kinships with the spirits who surround us and to nurturing a clearer understanding of our place in the Universe.

Evelyn C. Rysdyk, Shamanic teacher and healer, author of Modern Shamanic Living

The world of the soul often seems too mystical for us to travel, and yet we know the mysteries are there, hidden just beyond our view. Colleen Deatsman and Paul Bowersox dispel those myths, teaching students how to begin and then guiding the experienced practitioner on ways to continue. Every reader will deepen their understanding of their own soul and the spiritual worlds of mystery.

Gail Wood, co-author of Shamanic Witch and author of Sisters of the Dark Moon

Colleen Deatsman and Paul Bowersox draw on their diverse spiritual training and personal experience to craft a book that gives readers tools with which to traverse the turmoils of everyday life, economic downturns, and personal struggles. This is the sort of engaged shamanism that can light up the dark.

Larry G. Peters, Ph.D., anthropologist, licensed psychotherapist, and author of The Yeti

To our parents
La Von and Donna Deatsman
and Don and Marilee Bowersox

First published in 2009 by

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

500 Third Street, Suite 230

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2009 by Colleen Deatsman and Paul Bowersox.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-443-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover and interior design by Maija Tollefson

Typeset in Cochin

Cover photograph Elena Ray

Printed in Canada

TCP

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Colleen offers special thanks to:

Pat, Lauren, Laura, and Erinfor supporting my dreams; theHelping Spirits who orchestrated and directed this journey; my phenomenal shaman friendsparticipants, students, and teachers of hundreds of circles over many years;

Judy, my dearly beloved wise-woman mentor, colleague, and soul-comrade;

Sandra Ingerman, Tom Cowan, Larry Peters, Myron Eshowsky, Michael Harner, Nan Moss, David Corbin, Patrick Jasper Lee, Judy, and John Worthington for keeping shamanism alive;

Stephanie and Kate of Spiritweavers for bringing shamanism to Michigan;

Caroline Pincus, executive editor for Red Wheel/Weiser Books and Conari Press, whose vision made this book a reality.

Paul especially thanks:

My brother Bob and sister Maggie, as well as Ken, Kate, Zach, and Taylor, for lovingly indulging my eccentricities all these years;

soul sisters Toni and Stephanie, for loving me no matter what;

Aunt Jeanne, for being the best of us;

Pat Kelley, for helping make this reality work as well as it does;

my friends at www.TheOtherForum.net, for working to make a difference;

Michael Harner, for bringing shamanism home;

John Worthington, for filling in the missing pieces.

The world is changing.

Environmentally, we are seeing increases in the frequency and magnitude of storms. Earthquakes are prevalent and devastating worldwide. The ice caps are melting, ocean levels are rising, and more arable land each year either disappears or becomes barren.

Sociologically and culturally, we are seeing an increase in extremes and a shrinking of the middle. Wealth is concentrating in the hands of the very few, and poverty is increasing among the masses. We are experiencing a social divide in opportunity, which further stratifies the division between the haves and have-nots.

Technologically, we have automated ourselves to the point where very few know how to manufacture or produce the vast majority of what we consume. It is significant that we have a new generation of computer technology every three months, while most of us would be stymied should we be required to manufacture a paper clip from raw materials. We don't understand our own technology.

We have also become a species who has lost its inclination for self-determination. We allow ourselves to be told how to act, what to do, what to want, and even who or what to love. The mainstream religious practices are fundamentally exclusive, rather than inclusivethat is, they posit an idea that if you do not believe as they do, your soul will be denied reward of any kind, because theirs is the only way.

In essence we are a tribal species who have just enough out-of-control technology and little enough wisdom so that we are capable of doing some real damage.

And we are.

So, in the midst of devastating change, what can we do? Well, if the world trend is to isolate and become more dependent on a tenuous infrastructure, and that's not working, perhaps we should consider an alternate point of view. Maybe the answer is to become more connected, more self-reliant, and unswervingly responsible for ourselves.

What kind of paradigm, model, or philosophy can provide that? If everything changes, where can we look to find an immutable constant that has weathered the ravages of time?

The answer to that question is shamanism. It has even survived evolution.