Shamanic Journeying

A Beginner’s Guide

By

Sandra Ingerman

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction............................................................................iiChapter 1: Shamanism: The Path of Direct Revelation..................1Chapter 2: The Three Worlds....................................................7Chapter 3: Power Animals and Teachers....................................14Chapter 4: Preparing to Journey..............................................31Chapter 5: Common Questions about Shamanic Journeying.........43Chapter 6: Undertaking Your First Shamanic Journey..................65Chapter 7: Divination and Healing Journeys..............................71Chapter 8: Additional Journeys................................................81Chapter 9: Integrating Your Journey Practice with YourCommunity...........................................................................88Resources.............................................................................91About the Author...................................................................92About Sounds True.................................................................93Back Cover Material...............................................................94

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Introduction

When many of us think of the word “shaman,” itbrings to mind a spiritual healer steeped in secretknowledge and mysterious powers. So how did anordinary girl from Brooklyn get involved in shamanismback in the 1980s?

In 1980, I was attending the California Institute ofIntegral Studies, where I was getting my master’sdegree in counseling psychology. For financialreasons, I had to work sixty hours a week—and Iwas taking twelve credits a quarter—so I was alwayslooking for easy credits. One day I was in the officeat school, and a friend walked in and told me that aman was flying out from Connecticut to teach aweekend workshop on something called shamanism.He did not know what the workshop involved, but hetold me that I could get two easy credits by takingit. I immediately signed up—without even looking atwhat the required reading was. The workshop beganon Halloween of 1980.

The man flying in from Connecticut turned out to beDr. Michael Harner, anthropologist and author of TheWay of the Shaman, who is known for having revivedthe tradition of shamanic journeying in modernWestern culture. While researching his book, Dr.Harner made a critical discovery that became thebasis of his widespread teaching in the West. He

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found that the shamanic journey is a practicecommon to all shamans and cultures throughouthistory, regardless of their geography or culturaldifferences.

During a shamanic journey, the shaman goes into analtered state of consciousness to journey outside oftime and space into what Carlos Castenada callednon-ordinary reality—or what I think of as a paralleluniverse. Typically, the shaman listens to some formof rhythmic percussion, which carries the soul intonon-ordinary reality. In these journeys, the shamanretrieves information from helping spirits who makethemselves available in non-ordinary reality forhealing help and to provide information for patients,family, and their community.

During the weekend workshop, I learned that thepractice of shamanic journeying can be used byanyone today in order to get answers to personalquestions, to learn different healing methods, to helpothers in the community, and to work on world andglobal issues. As soon as I met my helping spiritduring my first journey, I realized that this practicewould not only help me face the challenges in mylife, but would also further my personal growth andevolution. Since then, in concert with my backgroundin psychotherapy, my goal has been to find the bestway to apply and share this powerful, ancienttechnique.

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The practice of shamanic journeying is a way for usto feel personally empowered in our lives. It providesus with a way to have direct revelation and is a simpleapproach for accessing spiritual guidance. It is a wayto get us out of our heads as well as to expand ourawareness and consciousness.

When we begin to learn that we have the ability toproblem solve for ourselves, it raises our self-esteemin a grounded way. Going to meet our helping spiritsmakes us feel valued and connected to the spirit thatlives in all things. We feel loved by the power of theuniverse, and we never feel alone again.

In working with the helping spirits, we learn the truedefinition of power. True power is being able to useour energy to create transformation for ourselves,others, and the planet.

Shamanic journeying is a joyful path to regaining theknowledge of how to bring our lives back into a placeof harmony and balance. It helps us to wake up toour full creative potential. As we do this, our liveschange in a way that brings good health and well-being to ourselves and others. I have watched peoplewho have been depressed wake up to the joy of life.People have started dancing and singing after alifetime of repressing their creative spark. I havewatched people build their lives back up after sufferingdebilitating illness and personal loss. I have watched

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people get their “voice” back. We just need to havethe desire and an open heart to do this work.Everyone can journey and open to the new dimensionsof life that the spirits are waiting to show us.

It is important to understand that I will not be trainingyou to become a shaman. Traditionally, it is nottypical for someone to volunteer for the role ofshaman or to self-identify as a shaman. Rather,someone is chosen by “the spirits” to become ashaman and to act in the service of his or hercommunity. In shamanic cultures, it is actuallyconsidered bad luck to call yourself a shaman, becausethis is seen as bragging, and the shamanic view aboutpower is that if you brag about having it, you will loseit. Instead, your community recognizes you as ashaman based on the successful results that youachieve for the benefit of your clients and the greatercommunity.

In Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide, you willlearn one of the most fundamental techniques usedby shamans worldwide to connect with spiritualhelpers, to access personal spiritual guidance andhealing, to help others and the planet, and toreconnect with nature and its cycles and rhythms:the shamanic journey. This practice is designed togive you direct access to your own spiritual guidance.I believe that the times we live in call for each of usto develop tools for resolving our own problems, tools

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that enable us to become more empowered and re-sourceful.

Many of you will use this method for your ownpersonal healing, growth, and evolution. Afterextensive practice, some of you will be guided to beginusing this work to help others in your community andin your work to help the planet. This program isdesigned to provide you with an introduction to thetechnique of journeying in such a way that your owndestiny with it can unfold. The accompanying CDcontains three drumming sessions to help you getstarted with your journey practice. Once you havecompleted reading Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’sGuide, you will be ready to use the CD as an accom-paniment to your journeys into non-ordinary reality.

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Chapter 1

Shamanism: The Path ofDirect Revelation

Shamanism is the earliest spiritual practice known tohumankind, dating back tens of thousands of years.Although the word “shaman” is a Siberian word for aspiritual healer, shamanism has also been practicedin parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Greenland,and native North and South America throughouthistory. The fact that the practice has survived andthrived for tens of thousands of years speaks to thepotency of the work.

One of the beautiful aspects of the shamanic journeyis the principle of direct revelation. The practice ofshamanic journeying helps us to part the veilsbetween the seen and unseen worlds and accessinformation and energies that can help awaken us andrestore us to wholeness. A shaman is a man or womanwho interacts directly with spirits to address thespiritual aspects of illness, perform soul retrievals,divine information, help the spirits of deceased peoplecross over, and perform a variety of ceremonies forthe community. Shamans have taken on many rolesin tribal communities. They have acted as healers,

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doctors, priests, psychotherapists, mystics, and story-tellers.

Traditionally, the practice of shamanism has focusedon practical results achieved by the shaman. In atraditional shamanic culture, there was either a singleindividual or a few people in the community acting inthe role of shaman. The shaman would be consultedby hunters and gatherers in the tribe to identify foodsources. If the shaman were unable to accurately di-vine the location of food, the tribe would not survive.Shamans were also expected to perform healings formembers of the community. Once again, the survivalof the tribe was largely dependent on the shaman’sspiritual abilities.

Shamanism teaches us that everything that exists isalive and has a spirit, and that we are joined with theearth and all of life via our spiritual interconnected-ness. Just as quantum physics describes a field ofenergy that connects all of life, shamans also speakof a web of life that connects everything. In modernculture, many of us feel a deep longing to experienceour unity with this web of life and to heal our senseof isolation. When we travel to non-ordinary realityin our shamanic journeys, we learn how to communi-cate with the spirit of the trees, plants, animals, in-sects, birds, fish, reptiles, and rocks, as well as thespirit of the elements of earth, air, water, and fire.We directly experience the web of life.

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As we are a part of nature, we have a deep need toreconnect with nature’s cycles and rhythms. Imaginehow exhausting it would be to walk against the flowof a river every day of your life. In truth, we havedisconnected from the cycles and rhythms of the moonand the seasons, and often we do walk against theflow of the river of life. I believe this is partly thecause of such ailments as chronic fatigue, depression,and a host of other illnesses, both psychological andphysical, that are so common today. The helpingspirits have a great deal to teach us about restoringbalance and harmony into our lives by reconnectingwith nature’s cycles and by living in unity with thenatural world.

Within the practice of shamanism, there are a varietyof ceremonies performed for honoring and workingwith the cycles of nature and the cycles in our ownlives, as well as for reading omens and interpretingdreams—all of which provide insight, healing, andempowerment. Shamanism can also teach us thevalue of having a regular spiritual practice and thevalue of being in service to others, which brings agenuine sense of meaning and purpose to our lives.Finally, shamanism enables us to access powerfulforces to help us create the world we want to livein—for ourselves and for others.

Shamans heal emotional and physical illness byworking with the spiritual aspect of illness. The tradi-

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tional role of the shaman has been to performceremonies. After tens of thousands of years, tra-ditional shamans are still part of community lifeand practice in Siberia, Asia, Australia, Africa, andNorth and South America. The technique ofshamanic journeying that you will learn in thisbook is just one of the ceremonies shamans useto establish communication with the spirit world.

There are three common causes of illness in theshaman’s view. First, a person may have lost hisor her power, causing depression, chronic illness,or a series of misfortunes. In this case, the shamanjourneys to restore that person’s lost power. Or aperson may have lost part of his or her soul oressence, causing soul loss, which sometimes occursduring an emotional or physical trauma, such asaccidents, surgery, abuse, the trauma of war, beingin a natural disaster, or other traumatic circum-stances. This soul loss results in dissociation, post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, illness,immune deficiency problems, addictions, unendinggrief, or coma. It is the role of the shaman to trackdown the parts that have fled and been lost dueto trauma by performing a soul retrieval ceremony.The third cause of illness from a shaman’s perspec-tive would be any spiritual blockages or negativeenergies that a client has taken on due to the lossof his or her power or soul. These spiritual block-ages also cause illness, usually in a localized area

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of the body. It is the role of the shaman to extractand remove these harmful energies from the body.

Other ceremonies performed by shamans includewelcoming children into the world, performingmarriages, and helping people at the time of deathtransition from body to spirit. Shamans also workto encourage the growth of crops, help people tointerpret dreams, and advise people who are expe-riencing trouble. Shamans are in charge of initia-tion ceremonies conducted around transitions fromone phase of life into another, such as initiatingchildren into adulthood. Shamans tell stories aboutthe meaning of life and show us how the spiritscan help us find our way when we feel lost in ourlife circumstances. They can remove spells or darkenergies, and read the tenor of the community,picking up disharmony and imbalance. They createceremonies to mourn the loss of a member of thecommunity. Shamans also read signs and omensto choose auspicious times to undertake activitiessuch as hunting and celebrations.

Shamans understand the cycles of nature—thecycles of the seasons and moons, and how thestars move across the sky. They read the signsthat come with these changes and movements.They communicate with the weather spirits andmaintain harmony and balance in their communi-ties.

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Typically, there would be more than one shaman ina community. Different shamans would be known fortheir spiritual areas of expertise. For instance, someshamans would be known for their great successes inparticular healing ceremonies such as soul retrievals,while others are known for their divination abilities.

Over time, the practice of shamanism has adapted inresponse to different cultural needs and the changingneeds of the times. Currently, there is a dramaticrevival of shamanism in the West, with a wide rangeof people integrating shamanic practices into theirlives, including students, housewives, teachers,psychotherapists, lawyers, nurses, doctors, politicians,and scientists. I believe that one of the main reasonsfor this revival is that people want to be able to accesstheir own spiritual guidance. We want to stop givingaway our power to socially acceptable authorityfigures. We know that we are the only ones who trulyhave the power to change our own lives.

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