Journeying Between the Worlds Read online

  The Sacred Hoop of the generations is broken. It needs to be mended by young people connecting with their elders, which is part of the shamanic tradition. Young people can benefit from the elders’ experience and avoid repeating the same mistakes. The young can also see how things have come to be and what are solid foundations to build the future upon. The older generations can benefit from the creativity and fresh perspectives of the younger generation. In this way the Sacred Hoop of Life in the Americas can be mended. Traditional shamans are found all over the world, and they assist in making sure that the Sacred Hoop is preserved and, when needed, restored. Whatever solutions can be found in nature, from the spirits, and from a culture’s spiritual teachings are used to help with reconnecting people and their communities with sacred Power so that all may live in beauty, Balance, and harmony. Addressing these global needs is as relevant today as it was centuries ago.

  What Does a Traditional Shaman Do?

  A shaman is a person who acts as a living bridge between our world and the realm of nature and spirits. Hollywood might have you think that a shaman is typically on a hallucinogenic drug trip most of the time. However, the truth is that tribes that use hallucinogenic drugs were given them as gifts from the gods or sacred nature spirits. The plants themselves are living holy entities that carry powerful energy, and they are only administered as sacraments. An individual is prepared by a shaman or Medicine person before the hallucinogenic plant is given during a ritual. The purpose of this sacrament is to introduce the candidate to the spirit realms and to open the channel within that person to receive divine energy. Using these plants for recreational purposes is disrespectful and sacrilegious.

  The trained shaman understands that there is a tremendous responsibility in taking on this position as an emissary between the realms while helping maintain the health of the community they serve. A shaman helps solve the problems of both the individual and the community by making sure that they are both equally supportive of each other. Many shamans are keepers of tradition and help pass on the teaching stories and rituals that will preserve the wellness of their people. From their training, they are able to perform ceremonies of healing. It takes many years to learn about the herbs that can heal the body in addition to other rituals that help cleanse people and places from evil spirits and toxic energies. Yet other ceremonies help realign the community with the cycles of nature, sacred time, and divine energies greater than their own so that harmony can be maintained.

  It is also the responsibility of the traditional shaman to carefully choose and initiate the next generation of shamans so that the sacred teachings given to their people won’t be lost to the passage of time. This is in addition to helping people find themselves and even more so when they become lost due to a traumatic event. Some shamans are trained to help find children, property, or animals. We also help retrieve more than just people or physical items. We perform healing rituals that retrieve an individual’s personal Power and soul. Soul retrieval helps a person’s soul be restored. It helps them become reintegrated so they can move forward as a whole and healthy person. Power retrievals help reunite a person or a community with their energy and realign the energy into harmony with All That Is. Power retrieval is a ritual that allows them to properly reclaim and learn how to channel the energy of life that is being gifted back to them.

  We also retrieve wisdom of the ancient spirits and can give advice on personal matters. Some of this wisdom is used to help build a better community. The trained shaman can help connect you to your spiritual helpers and assist you in finding your guides in the spirit world. Through much training and study, we develop the ability to interpret dreams and visions so that they may give you insight and clarity to walk more strongly upon your life path. Yet other shamans learn how to guide souls into the afterlife so that the departed and the living may have peace. Overall, a traditional shaman will help the individual awaken to their personal Power and guide them in how to utilize it correctly as they grow into their purpose in life.

  Some shamans choose to completely focus on a particular area of expertise. These shamans would be very much like the medical specialists you would see for a more acute physical ailment. Some study to become herbalists. They learn to Walk intimately with the spirits of the plants and trees in addition to learning of their medicinal properties. Others choose to become adept in the healing of the mind and soul. They study hard to learn about how a person’s life lessons throughout lifetimes is impacting the present, how the Sacred Cycles of Life interact with each other and guide a person to embrace their nature in a Balanced way instead of working against it. They assist an individual in establishing a sense of inner well-being and understanding how they can participate fully in their lives.

  Some shamans choose a riskier line to specialize in. These are shamans who help cleanse people and areas of strong evil forces and demonic beings. It is a very rare type of individual who is willing to put themselves in harm’s way. They have to undergo rigorous training that will protect them from being corrupted by the very things that they are trying to save an individual or the community from. Other shamans, like myself, are ritual leaders. We are taught the rituals, teachings, and sacred stories that help preserve our people so they can live in harmony with All Our Relations. Obviously, this is not an exhaustive list of the types of shamans that exist. These, however, are the most common types that you will find throughout the world.

  How Are Shamans Chosen?

  You may wonder how certain people are chosen to become shamans. Typically, the tribal elders and shaman of a tribe or nation see the potential in an individual. Depending on the customs of the specific nation, the training starts when the candidate is a young child or when they come of age. The person displays the natural abilities and probably has used them unknowingly. At times, you can feel the sacred Power flowing through them. The individual might display their abilities through Seeing, the ability to accurately perceive the past (which may include past lives) and future events, through communication with the spirits and animals or through channeling sacred energy for the benefit of all.

  However, natural ability and intelligence are not enough. The people who are finally selected by the tribal elders and shaman are those who display respect for life, humility, and purity of Heart. The candidates must show that they have the ability to be compassionate and think beyond themselves with a strong desire to serve their community and Creator while respecting the Balance of all life. Only then are individuals selected to begin the training that usually takes several years. I was made to undergo over a decade of training. For many years, those in training can only perform rituals under the supervision of another ceremonial leader or shaman before they are initiated to be a full-fledged shaman.

  How Will You Benefit from Learning

  Traditional Shamanism?

  If you picked up this book, I would bet that you have more than just a mild curiosity about traditional shamanism. You picked up this book because some part of you deep inside felt called to this spiritual practice. You easily connect with nature on a very deep level and more than likely have spoken with spirits and animals more than once at some time during your life. In addition to this, I am sure that there are many of you who are ready to reclaim your sacred self. And so, it is the teachings inside these pages that have called you to it.

  There are many ways in which this path will enrich your life. It will help you tap into your own spiritual Power, which we call the Fire Within. This will enable you to reconnect with nature and the cycles of nature in a very profound way. You will learn how to be still to listen to the Voice Within. It is here within you that the deep Knowing resides, and it will connect you to All That Is. Through this connection, you will find that you will be able to receive universal wisdom and feel inner peace. By accessing your inner wisdom, you will be better able to guide yourself throughout the different areas of your everyday life. You will also be shown how to prope
rly connect to the spirit realms that lie beyond the five physical senses in order to find and interact with the spirits and sacred beings in a safe and proper way. All of this will promote your personal growth, which can lead you to personal transformation. This evolution will help you discover your life purpose. Finally, I feel that one of the greatest benefits is being able to live in greater harmony and Balance. You feel confident and at home no matter where you may be so that you can live to the fullest.

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  Basic Native American

  Spiritual Concepts

  Here I will introduce basic spiritual concepts of the First Peoples of the Americas, including the concepts that will help you walk the Good Red Road. Realize please that I’m touching upon universal concepts that are found in some form or interpretation throughout the various tribes of the Americas. From a First Peoples standpoint, all of North America, the islands of the Caribbean and the Virgin Islands, and South America are considered Native America. If you wish to learn from a specific tribal nation, I ask that you respectfully approach those elders. They alone have the right to teach you and to initiate you into the specific sacred pathways of their tribe or nation.

  While my early training came from the Tuscarora and the Anishinaabe, over the years it spanned to include teachings from the Cherokee, Seneca, Lakota, Taino, and the Maya. I consider what I am sharing traditional Native American shamanism because my teachings are strictly from the First Peoples throughout the Americas only.

  The Good Red Road

  Native American people do not have a religion but a sacred way of walking through the world. Indigenous spirituality is also known as the Good Red Road. The Good Red Road is the Native American term used to describe an individual’s unique spiritual walk through life. It is a way of being, one of reverence and compassion for all life, including your own. It is a spiritual pathway that believes that all things are cyclical yet have different expressions each time they return. These cycles are called Sacred Hoops and include the turning of the seasons, when the younger and older generations come together, yearly celebrations, or the high and low tides of the ocean, to name a few.

  As much as possible when Walking upon this spiritual path, be mindful of completing the Sacred Hoop. This means never taking more than you can give. Make your decisions by taking into account the impact of your actions on both the physical and spiritual worlds, not only for now but potentially for many generations to come. I present to you the modern example of the concept of precycling. This is the practice of only buying something if you already know in advance how you are going to responsibly recycle or donate the item when you are done with it, versus just throwing it in the trash and creating more pollution for our planet. I think the practical benefits of this are obvious, but the spiritual benefits are keeping beautiful, healthy, and clean energy in a vibrant environment for future generations. Be mindful that I am speaking not only of human beings but also of the future generations of All Our Relations.

  Power: The Breath of the Great Spirit

  The essence of the universe is harmony. Because of this, the universe always strives to maintain a state of Balance, much like our bodies strive to do in order to be healthy. The Breath of the Creator is called Power. It is a concept found in other cultures. In Hinduism it is known as prana; in Taoism it is known as chi. In pop culture it is known as the Force.

  Native American spirituality is an Earthway. An Earthway is when an individual must connect compassionately with all living things in order to feel the Breath of the Creator moving within—only then may the soul evolve. It is the Breath of Creator that brought us all to being: animals, sky, earth, water, trees, human beings, and so on. It is through this sacred breath that we are all related, hence why we use the term All My Relations. By respectfully uniting with this sacred Power within and around ourselves, we are able to transcend and work in harmony with All Our Relations.

  Concept of Evil

  In Native American tradition, there is no concept of sin. Instead, we believe that the vast majority of people are born good. The Good Red Road has a concept of evil that I will not detail here, but it simply points out to us as individuals and as a global community that which is grossly out of Balance and spurs us to restore harmony. We do not view ourselves as the ultimate creation but simply as another one of many creations. I’ve heard it said many times as I was learning the ways of the Red Road that we are no greater than the ants and no less than the mountains.

  Reincarnation

  We also believe in reincarnation. However, once again, humans are not at the top of the incarnation scale. We would not understand limiting the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit, who is also called the Great Mystery, is all-powerful and beyond our simple comprehension. Say, for example, that one needed to learn patience and how to listen but, lifetime after lifetime, stubbornly refused to master the lesson. Then there could be one incarnation in which the Great Spirit makes that individual come back as a tree. There that person would learn to “listen” with their entire being. They would learn how to extend equally into Earth Mother and stretch up Sky Father in Balance in order not to fall. The soul would benefit from learning many countless lessons that could only be experienced by being a tree. In the end, the teachings say that we are not humans having a spiritual experience but rather spirits having a human experience. Since the Great Spirit is limitless, we believe that our beautiful Earth Mother is not the only place with life. Indeed, she is considered to be a “college” within a much greater multidimensional “university.”

  Medicine

  One term you may hear frequently in regard to Native American spirituality is the word Medicine. In its strict traditional sense, it is the spiritual or psychic ability that is bestowed on an individual by the Great Spirit. The strength of the Medicine depends on how much Power, or Breath of the Great Spirit, the person could channel while employing this ability. However, in my opinion, Medicine also includes the set of talents that each one of us uniquely owns. For who is to say which abilities are more important? The ability of talking to spirits and giving peace to the dead, or the ability to bring lightness of being and humor to a very tired world? For the sake of avoiding confusion, in this book I will stick to its traditional definition, which is that of spiritual or psychic abilities plus what I define below.

  Medicine is still unique in its expression depending on the individual. Think of it this way: two people give you the same advice, but their worldview and who they are connected with on the spirit side affect the flavor and perspective from which this counsel is presented.

  Another manifestation is its embodiment in an object blessed for a specific purpose or a sacred spirit who has a unique set of qualities. In the Native American tradition, they can overlap. Say, for example, a talking stick is being created for the purpose of helping to create community and promote teaching. Say that it is determined that the Wolf is the spirit that wishes to be honored to assist in this task. Some of the qualities of Wolf Medicine are those of the teacher and protecting its pack. The talking stick would be crafted with symbols of the Wolf. The item would then be ritually blessed, which includes asking the Wolf spirit to endow it with the qualities or Medicine mentioned above. The talking stick would then hold Wolf Medicine.

  Heart

  The concept of Heart is so fundamental that without it you cannot proceed upon the Good Red Road. In this tradition, you would not be able to function as a healthy and whole person without being in constant connection with your Heart. This is the place where the Great Spirit lives within you. It is where you connect with your sacred self, the Creator, and All Your Relations. Many people confuse Heart with emotions, and others say that it is intuition. They are wrong. Emotions and intuition are expressions of Heart, but they are not Heart. When you have been out on a beautiful day and feel in that moment completely at peace within yourself and connected to All That Is, we say that you
have “touched the face of the Great Spirit.”

  Your Heart is where your soul dwells. It is never wrong. It has a Knowing that defies the chattering of the mind and goes beyond the waves of emotions. You can only find and hear it by going deep within yourself into what we call the Great Silence. Energetically, it resides where your physical heart is and includes the solar plexus. This is where the throne of your soul is located in your body. The teachings say that your Heart is like a chief who will guide you unerringly. Your mind is meant to be like the council to the chief. The mind is supposed to interpret what the Heart expresses and not try to dominate nor suppress it. I know that is very difficult to do in a society in which the mind is looked upon as supreme. The mind, however, can be fooled, and it can lie. Upon reflection of this topic, I came to the conclusion that the deepest things that move us and help us evolve are not logical, nor are they material, but felt and understood with the Heart. Engaging and reflecting with the Power of the throne of your soul, which is to say your Heart, is what allows you to journey between the worlds as a shaman.

  The Seven Arrows

  There are very Powerful divine beings that watch over us. They are known as the Seven Arrows, also called the Seven Directions. The Seven Directions include the four Great Keepers, which watch the four points of the compass, and in the center are Earth Mother, Sky Father, and the greatest Arrow, the Great Spirit, who is within all things and beyond all things and who is found in the very center of the Medicine Wheel.