Shamanic "Thought for the Day" Archive

May 13, 2008: The journey beyond the confines of time and space
The journey beyond the confines of time and space is reserved only for the great shamans. For this journey the soul must leave the body, which is possible only through deep concentration techniques. For westerners for whom there is no soul, no realm of the dead and no afterlife, the experience is hardly conceivable.
We are dealing with a psychological and spiritual phenomena that is still far from being acknowledged and processed by our science. It is the most elemental and primordial experience of which humans are capable. For thousands of years, it has drawn our attention: it is the core of many religions and certainly of all tribal religions.
Holger Kolweit "Shamans, Healers and Medicine Men"

May 14, 2008: The Portal
Many traditional peoples, for instance, believe that there is a doorway within our minds, a portal or interface that exists between the ordinary reality of everyday experience and 'Non-ordinary reality', often referred to as the spirit world.
The Huichol Indians of Mexico call this opening the nierika. Most of us are unaware of the existence of this portal, because it also functions as a barrier, blocking access to the unready. We may live out our lives ignorant of it entirely. Some people, however learn to open it at will, so that they can journey through it across the interface and into the region of death and visions to accomplish specific tasks. In traditional tribal societies the people who are able to accomplish this curious task are the shamans.
Hank Wesselman "Spiritwalker. Messages from the Future"

May 22, 2008: This thing called love
This thing called love is your basic nature. All the love in the universe is in your basic nature. You will discover that happiness — your happiness — equates to your capacity to love, and conversely all your miseries equate to your need to be loved. Just love, love, love and you will be so happy and healthy and prosperous. Remember, you need to release your non-love feelings. Try it, you will like it.
Lester Levinson "The Power of Love"

May 23, 2008: Doctrine and Experience
Shamanism rests not on doctrine, but on experience. The shaman is simply a guide who conducts the initiate to the spirits. The initiate picks up the information revealed by the spirits and does what he or she wants with it.
Jeremy Narby "The Cosmic Serpent. DNA and the Origins of Knowledge"

May 26, 2008: NATURE'S HEART AND SOUL
Daily we build a world that treats nature as a commodity and exploits it without conscience, wisdom or reverence. It's odd that religious leaders, so vocally concerned about sexual morality and faithfulness to a creed, have not been tireless in speaking on behalf of the earth and its creatures. Nature suffers when our precious conscience is caught up in our own complexes and anxieties and becomes neglectful of the world around us.
We have forgotten that nature is us and we are a manifestation of nature. When we treat nature as inanimate, without a soul, then we are dooming ourselves to all the suffering that stems from neglect of soul.
Thomas Moore "The Education of the Heart"

May 27, 2008: ILLNESS AND SPIRIT
Problems linked to illness, such as psychic crises, but also pains of a physiological nature, (fever, migraines, rheumatic pains) can be assumed to be just so many initiatory trials. Uncovering the religious significance of illness and physical pain constitutes in effect shamanism's essential contribution to the history of the spirit.
Mircea Eliade "Journals "

May 27, 2008: INITIATION OF THE YOUNG
After sorting through the confusing amalgamation of ideas and approaches, the central question in regard to a true and authentic initiation remains, "How do you initiate young people when there are no initiated adults, or anybody around who knows what it looks like?" For me, true initiations would be impossible until the modern world surrenders to the grief of its origins and seeks a true comprehension of the sacred. A tangible relationship with the divine must be found: a relationship to ritual that actively feeds the invisible forces behind this invisible life.
Initiation is about sacrifice and education; it must be a learning of the deepest source and yet governed by a wide consciousness of the historical reality of our ancestors' suffering as well as their stupidity. Only then can a useful spiritual vision emerge from what is most ancient in us all that goes beyond the ancestral response and brings us into relationship with our true natures.
Martin Prechtel "Long Life, Honey in the Heart: A story of Initiation and Eloquence from the Shores of a Mayan Lake."

May 29, 2008: THE BODY
All the faculties, possibilities, and accomplishments of shamanism, from the simplest to the most astounding, are in the human body itself.
Carlos Castaneda "The Eagle's Gift"

May 30, 2008: NOTHING TO LOSE
When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous. We are timid only when there is something we can still cling to.
Carlos Castaneda "The Second Ring of Power"

June 2, 2008: At the Moment of Death
An extraordinary phenomena occurs at the moment of death. When neural activity ceases and the brain shuts down, a portal opens between dimensions. The veils between the worlds part enabling us to enter the world of spirit. When a person has unfinished business in this world, she is unable to enter the world of Spirit.
The biblical parable of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, more easily than a rich man can enter heaven, likewise addresses the difficulties of those who have neglected the spiritual dimension in their pursuit of material gratification. We cannot carry our worldly identity into the beyond.
Alberto Villoldo "Shaman, Healer, Sage"