Shirley Nicholson - Shamanism

SHAMANISM

Cover design by Ricardo Sasia

The Kwakiutl Transformational Mask is reproduced with permission from the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.

SHAMANISM

An Expanded View of Reality

compiled by Shirley Nicholson

A publication supported by

THE KERN FOUNDATION

Wheaton, Illinois Chennai (Madras), India

Learn more about Shirley J. Nicholson and her work at www.questbooks.net

Copyright 1987 by the Theosophical Publishing House

First Quest Edition 1987

Sixth printing

Quest Books

Theosophical Publishing House

PO Box 270

Wheaton, IL 60187-0270

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shamanism.

(A Quest book)

A Quest originalT.p. verso

Includes bibliographies.

1. Shamanism. 2. Spiritual life. I. Nicholson, Shirley J.

BL2370.S5S48 1987 291 85-40405

ISBN 978-0-8356-0617-2

ISBN for electronic edition, e-pub format: 978-0-8356-2164-9

Contents

Foreword

The Mind and Soul of the Shaman

JEAN HOUSTON

Why is there so great a renewal of interest in one of the oldest forms of the religious lifethe practice of shamanism? I believe that a good part of its fascination lies in the fact that it is prepolitical, for all religions begin as spiritual experiences which then become politicized and bureaucratized. Shamanism, in both its most ancient and most modern forms, recalls the democratization of the spiritual experience, in which hierarchies are reserved for levels of experience rather than for priests and bishops. Each level and dimension of reality is available to the one who will make the effort to learn and practice the ways and means of the spiritual journey. Thus, in shamanic practice one can have ones spiritual experience and revelation direct and unmediated by structures ordained by church or doctrine. This appeals immensely to those who seek autonomy in the spiritual journey.

And what a journey it is! The shaman perceives a world of total aliveness, in all parts personal, in all parts sentient, in all parts capable of being known and being used. This pan-animism yields to the practicing shaman its powers and principalities, and these in turn can be used for healing, for renewal, and for bringing into the profane world the transformational powers of sacred time and space.

Additionally, the shamans ability for self-orchestration on the continuum of states of consciousness enables him or her to serve as a bridge between ordinary reality and transpersonal realms. So different, however, is the shamans practice of altered states of consciousnesswhether induced by drumming, chanting, fasting, temperature regulation, sensory deprivation, or mind-altering substancesthat some anthropologists such as Michael Harner refer to these states as shamanic states of consciousness (SSC) to distinguish them from the tamer altered states of consciousness (ASC). For indeed the way of the shaman calls for initial steps of radical disintegration and dissociation, as well as procedures for consciously entering into chaos. Living at his edges, standing outside and beyond himself, the shaman experiences ecstasy as a condition of his mastery, although the ordeals and voyages into shadow worlds bring with it a harrowing of the soul that few but the shaman could endure. In the shamanic journey, psyche and cosmos gain access to each other; the shaman becoming the channel for creatures and spirits, for the animates of nature and the designates of gods. The art and discipline needed for so special a relationship are enormous and do much to explain the reverence in which the shaman has been held for millennia.

The papers in this volume cover the field of shamanic practice and belief in as comprehensive a manner as has ever been presented to the general public. From the distant past to the emergent future, and across the boundaries of cultures, the depth culture of the shaman is shown to persist, curiously consistent in both method and metaphor.

The structure of the universe is conceived of in very similar ways by the shamanic consciousness, regardless of where or when the shaman dwells. The universe is thought to have three levelssky, earth, and underworldconnected by a central axis. The shamans knowledge and technique has to do with ways of journeying from one of these regions to another. His knowledge is especially resourceful when it comes to understanding the mystery of the breakthrough in plane; that is, passing through an opening or hole in reality (often designated as tent post or pillar) through which the gods descend to earth and the dead to the subterranean regions, and the soul of the shaman in ecstasy can fly up or down in the course of his journeys to heaven or hell. This axis of the world, known locally but representing the very center of things, is for the shaman the place through which sacred space and time become manifest. This is always the prerogative of shamans in archaic cultures. It is only they, in the words of Mircea Eliade, who know how to make an ascent through the central opening; only they transform a cosmo-theological concept into a concrete mystical experience. In other words, for the community, the central pillar of the house or the upper opening of the tent is a symbolic statement of the availability of local space and time for the entrance of sacred space and time. It is a site that permits one to send prayers and offerings to the Holy Ones. For the shaman, however, it is a mystical itinerary and the beginning place for the great journey.