Mons Dr Jean Laffitte
LO QUE LA TOLERANCIA NO PUEDE TOLERAR
NEO-SHAMANIC PRACTICES
Terri: The fundamental thing is I alter my state of consciousness; my shadow soul moves from the room here with the client and goes out into non-ordinary reality back in time [or] wherever it is needed.94 There is no space and time there, so it moves out into no space and no time. The journey is fundamental to get the answers. It is absolutely, totally my intention that takes me through, absolute intention for the healing for this person. It is the intention that carries me. The drum does that too, also the canoe [that I can journey on to non-ordinary reality]. I need to have laser-like focus that stays on it [her intention]; it stays on the job at all times.
Then the teachers, and the guides and the power animals come as a connection to the Source to help with the work and so I’m there in absolute focus, with this intention for the healing but also out of the way - a paradox - so that Source can create. The vital thing is to be able to be out of the way. I become hollow bone, totally there in spirit but not in ego or small mind. That’s how the Source can fill you up with its juice really, how you can expand and become just light. Because if I’m there in my head, I am not in the shamanic state.
Then there is the vital heart connection. The heart opens and expands because it really wants to help on someone else’s behalf and I truly do it for somebody, if I can get out of the way. The journey is fundamental.
Nature is another; it’s about this planet, this earth, this universe.
Dawne: Connection to the Oneness?
Terri: Absolutely, with Oneness. It’s a nice concept and all that, and I kind of understood it with my intellect, my small mind, not with my heart and my greater mind but with my small mind for many, many years but until the expansion
94 According to Scandinavian neo-Shaman, Jonathan Horwitz (n.d.), some people believe there are at least two souls, a fixed soul that belongs to the physical body, and a free soul or spirit that can leave the body during dreaming or shamanic journeying; Terri is referring to this second form of soul. Other people have different anatomies of soul and spirit (see, for example, Vitebsky, 1995:12-14).
happened within me, where you actually do expand, implode, explode into Oneness, I did not know it. I did not experience it. It is an experiential thing, to become that; you see it, feel it, know it and you are in it. It’s not a taught thing.
Dawne: You can’t think yourself there with your brain?
Terri: No. You can’t read yourself there; you can’t watch things and do things and follow someone else there. There’s a space in you, you surrender, you allow. There was one occasion that I felt and knew what that space was - making me goosy actually [rubbing her arms, as she recalls the experience]. In that space, there was nothing in me except love. I knew my whole vibration was nothing but love. There was nothing else there. And so it happened, it was able to happen. That expansion could happen because nothing was there except space and love.
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Neo-Shamans are people for whom the spirits are a practical reality, although their cosmologies and perceptions of the nature of their spirit helpers are variable. In this chapter, I describe the practices of some neo-Shamans in New Zealand. Many use variations of core shamanic methods and the practices I describe here originate primarily from core shamanism as practised in other Western countries, tempered by local and individual influences. I am describing these neo-Shamanic practices within the context of introductory neo-Shamanic workshops, and as they occur during individual healing sessions. As I have previously noted, there is considerable variation between novice and experienced practitioners. Terri, in the epigraph above, is a longterm practitioner and she encapsulates the key aspects of neo-Shamanism for her: the journey is ‘fundamental’, she says. She alters her state of consciousness and enters non-ordinary reality, carried by her ‘laser-like’ intention; her spirit helpers join her as she journeys to receive knowledge and healing. The second important shamanic thread for her is ‘nature’ and connection to the ‘Oneness’. I examine these characteristic tropes, beginning with an outline of how the neo-Shamans I observed create sacred space as they commence their work, along with the multiple methods they employ to engage their senses and enter altered states of consciousness. Next, I describe the shamanic paraphernalia used, followed by an outline of neo-Shamanic journeying, the
importance of intent and presence, imagery encountered, and completion of the ritual process. Finally, I analyse neo-Shamanic participants’ inter-actions with, and relationships within the ‘Web of Oneness’ and ‘nature’ as an exemplar of a new form of relational animism.
Creating Sacred Space, Entering Altered States of Consciousness
Neo-Shamans in New Zealand typically begin their work by creating sacred space and calling in the spirits, with drumming, rattling, singing, chanting and sounding, whistling, dancing and moving to create a sensorial-rich environment that engages all the senses (Hume, 2007). This is generally a simple ritual for an individual healing session but at the commencement of a workshop, setting the scene may be a more elaborate process to establish a sacred and protected space for the duration of the workshop. The air may be heavy with the aroma of burning sage or other herbs used by the workshop teacher/s to smudge participants as they move to form a circle. Participants stand or sit on the floor surrounding a central altar on the floor, varying from something minimal through to complex and creative artworks (see Figs.6.1, 6.2). The workshop teachers, or someone nominated by them, create the basic altar form, marking out each of the cardinal directions and the centre with a candle, and participants may be asked to bring a sacred object such as stones, feathers, bones, crystals, shells, flowers and foliage, images of deities or spiritual teachers to place on the altar. Sometimes participants will spontaneously add found natural objects from the environment around them. Rattles, drums, talking stick and, less commonly, a peace pipe rest nearby; I describe these items of shamanic paraphernalia in the following section.
The circle is based loosely on the Native American medicine wheel (see Chapter 4), but there are similarities with other traditions too, such as the Celtic wheel used by some neo-Pagan groups, and the inter-play of global and local influences are evident as neo-Shamans bring their personal and eclectic understandings to the circle. Some teachers use a format for calling in the directions derived from the tohuna, Dr Rose Pere, often performed outside (see Chapter 9). The facilitators acknowledge and call in the spirits from each direction, lighting the candles, establishing an altered liminal
space with its shared bonding and communitas, all of which strengthen and enhance the shamanic experience. During the opening ritual for one workshop, the neo- Shamanic facilitator ‘woke’ the spirits by ‘calling’ to the four directions, the above and the below without words; there was stillness and intense focused attention as she shook her small plastic, egg-shaped rattle, followed by a spine-chilling stockman’s whistle.95 She told me she she usually ‘sees’ helping spirits from different cultures in
each of the four directions, and general helping spirits come from the upper and lower worlds; in addition, specific spirits appear depending on the purpose of the ritual.
Fig.6.1 Neo-Shamanic altar showing candles, seasonal and dried plants and flowers, gannet skeleton with outspread wings.
95 This was a facilitator from Australia and she found the plastic rattle made it easier when going through airport customs. Her intent and focus created a powerful ritual despite the seemingly incongruous rattle.
Fig.6.2 Neo-Shamanic altar showing a talking stick decorated with bone and feathers (left), Tibetan bowl and gong, found dried kauri branch and leaves, fresh plants and flowers, gannet feathers and bones (right), rattle, candles representing the cardinal directions and the above and below (central candle), crystals, shells, bird’s nest and various other items brought by
participants.
Through rituals such as these, neo-Shamans open portals to other worlds and thereby expose themselves to potential dangers. They perceive or experience the portals in various ways, depending on their cultural and personal cosmology.
Foundation for Shamanic Studies beginner courses usually teach people to visualise entering the lower world through an opening into the earth, a burrow or a cave and then to travel through a tunnel (Harner, 1990:31) and this was the case for all introductory courses I attended. Two people, now living in New Zealand, who had extensive shamanic training in England told me their teacher lives within a world of auras and colours ‘like fractals’ which are everywhere in nature and for her, these are the doorways to other worlds. Several participants (such as Terri, above) described their experiences as simultaneously going inward and outward, an implosion/
explosion to other realities, and Jonathan Horwitz (2000), neo-Shamanic co-founder of the Scandinavian Center for Shamanic Studies, has written of a similar inner expansion as he journeys outwards.
Shamans work to awaken their senses through a variety of somatic stimuli; a combination of techniques works most powerfully, and neo-Shamans use many different stimuli and engage in a variety of methods to induce altered states of consciousness as they prepare to journey to the spirit world. However, sonic driving using drums (and to a lesser extent rattles) is the staple method employed by neo- Shamans in New Zealand, and the deepest altered states I experienced occurred during extended times of drumming and moving in darkness. On one occasion, I took part in a sensory deprivation exercise; workshop participants moved in darkness, eyes and ears covered to awaken other faculties such as smell, taste or kinaesthetic sensing. One woman told me that psychological preparation beforehand provides safety that allows her to let go of control, with many different triggers working to take her ‘out of her head’ so that she gradually enters non-ordinary reality. Methods used by neo-Shamans in New Zealand to enter non-ordinary reality are similar to those used by other Western shamanic practitioners. The neo-Shamans I joined with while attending the
Society for Shamanic Practitioners conference in England embraced a range of techniques to access other realities, with almost one hundred people calling in the spirits, spontaneously drumming, moving and sounding during the plenary sessions; a Nepalese shaman led extended healing rituals with singing, wild dancing and drumming in two séances.
Sound is another avenue used by neo-Shamans to attain an altered state of consciousness and to communicate with the spirits. I have written (in Chapter 3) about my experience of working to find an authentic sound for calling out to the spirits; I resonate with the Native American elder who reported to North American neo- Shaman, Steven Gray, that ‘when the Spirit is really moving, the song sings the singers’ (Gray, 2008:27).96 The urge to call out and sound appears primal, and perhaps this
96 Gray (2007:27) has written about the importance of sound in Native American Church ceremonies where many of the oldest songs consist of phonetic syllables (phonemes or vocables) such as hey, hee, ah, nay, yah and so on, perhaps the remnants of an ancient language, repeated in standard patterns and combinations.
was/is one of the roles of poet-singer shamans (Hoppal, 1987:90; see also Cowan, 2009:11-16; Halifax, 1991:29-34). In Amazonian South America, ritual songs or icaros are an integral part of the healing armamentarium employed by curanderos (Bustos, 2006; Luna, 1992). One New Zealand woman, whose training included time in Peru with a Peruvian shaman, learnt to use sacred singing as a form of vibrational healing during
ayahuasca healing ceremonies she participated in: ‘beautiful, beautiful sounds’, she said, that came through her and other participants at the ceremony. Although she has no recall of the words now, she regularly sounds, singing without words when out in nature. Glossolalia ‒ speaking gibberish or nonsense, the gift of speaking in tongues, ‘ecstatic speech’ (Csordas, 2001:41) while in an altered state ‒ is a different kind of sounding. Following Kavan (2004), the glossolalia I have witnessed amongst neo- Shamans seems to be of the spontaneous type.97 For example, a spirit-language
distinctive to one woman comes through her when she is carrying out healing, and when calling in the spirits, eerie and potent to hear and witness; a second woman’s personal spirit song appears to contribute to her trance state while also being channelled through her when she is in trance.
In the present socio-political era of the ‘war on drugs’, drug use as a means to alter consciousness is potentially a problematic issue for those neo-Shamans who wish to experiment with entheogens to enhance their altered states.98 This is particularly true
for workshop facilitators advertising their courses, and the use of drugs to reach trance states is not the usual practice during neo-Shamanic workshops in New Zealand. The majority of neo-Shamans I worked with explicitly said ‘no’ to the use of drugs to enhance their shamanic work. There is no need for drugs to access other realities, they said, as this can be done through ceremony and ritual, although the depth of trance
97 Kavan (2004) theorises two forms of glossolalia: spontaneous and context-dependent. Spontaneous glossolalia commonly accompanied altered states of consciousness amongst members of the Golden Light yoga group she studied, whereas the Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians’ experiences tended to be more mechanical and socially determined, after their initial joyful baptism of the Spirit.
98 Because of the prevailing anti-drug ethos in the West, some scholars have adopted the term ‘entheogen’ (meaning ‘god within’) as being more neutral and less pejorative than
‘psychedelics’, ‘hallucinogens’ or ‘psychoactive’, terms which are associated with recreational drug-use as opposed to sacramental use. See Blain, 2002:53-59; Wallis, 2003:239; also the website for the Council on Spiritual Practices http://www.csp.org/practices/entheogens/entheogens.html (accessed 9 Feb 2010).
states reached by neo-Shamans varies according to their experience and inherent abilities (I return to this point shortly). Moreover, given the history Westerners have of substance abuse, neo-Shamans opposed to the use of drugs consider it is unwise for some Westerners to use drugs as a tool for accessing shamanic states. One woman thinks the misuse of drugs (taking drugs in a non-sacred context) is yet another example of Westerners wanting instant gratification without understanding what it means to follow a deep spiritual path.
Nonetheless, the draw to explore psychotropic plants as sacred healing tools is strong amongst other neo-Shamans in New Zealand, and at least four participants have travelled to South America and experienced shamanic healing rituals that included the ingestion of plants (albeit in homeopathic form for one woman). One man has travelled to Brazil on three occasions to attend ten-day seminars taking ayahuasca to make visionary art as a personal spiritual journey. He is adamant that, for him anyway, other methods of attaining altered states are not as powerful and do not have the same intensity or ability to take him outside his ‘comfort zone’. Ayahuasca, he says, takes him to the edges of his courage, likening his experience to that described by Taussig (1987, cited in Uzendoski, 2008:19): ‘a beginning defined by terror and an ending of beauty and healing’. In Amazonia, in particular, vegetalistas or curanderos (shamanic healers) ingest various psychotropic plants such as ayahuasca in combination with tobacco over many years to learn from the medicine of their sacred teacher plants and these practitioners have captured the imaginations of many Western shamanic explorers.99
Neo-Shamanic magazines, such as Shaman’s Drum or Sacred Hoop, routinely contain advertisements for ayahuasca and san pedro tours to Peru, although these magazines are not easily accessible in New Zealand and are not widely read by potential shamanic explorers who are more likely to find information throught the internet.100
The depth of the altered state neo-Shamans reach varies with experience and the ability of the practitioner. Novice neo-Shamans attending introductory core shamanism
99 Shamans in South America frequently use psychotropic plants during prolonged healing sessions. See, for example, Bustos, 2006; Dobkin de Rios, 1992; Joralemon & Sharon, 1993; Langdon & Baer, 1992; Mabit & Sieber, 2006; Stevens, 2009.
100San pedro (Echinopsis pachanoi) is a psychoactive cactus native to the Andean mountains of Peru.
workshops in New Zealand are taught to move from ordinary states of consciousness (OSC) to enter a shamanic state of consciousness (SSC) (Harner, 1990:21), although ordinary and non-ordinary levels of consciousness do not fall into a simple binary model (Harner, 1990:49).101 Many people (and not only shamans) drift in and out of
altered states throughout the course of the day, the depth of their experiences on a continuum ranging from a light trance through to much deeper states, which go beyond simple visualisation or imagery (Horwitz, 2000:5). Some shamanically experienced participants told me they are constantly moving in and out of different states of consciousness, and their skill at managing these varying levels is perhaps a measure of their shamanic ability. One woman made a distinction between the ‘night throne’ when she receives visions and dreams while asleep or in a semi-wake altered state, and the ‘day throne’ when part of her mind is always held in altered state, tuned in and alert. She said:
I often think in an ideal world, I would have no distractions and the whole of my brain could be in altered state but, of course, that isn’t how it is supposed to be, so it becomes seamless. I don’t need to go into an altered state by consciously choosing to because I am already in one. I might be answering the phone, I might be paying my bills, but part of me [is] always in that state where you can obey or do what’s asked of you [by spirit].
As with all shamans, she lives and carries out her daily life activities while, at the same time, she is aware of receiving information from other levels of consciousness. For participants such as this woman, moving between the worlds is a constant and challenging dance that requires them to be in more than one realm simultaneously and sometimes, they say, it is more of a test for them to remain grounded and present in