Shamanic initiations aren't usually what one focuses on in an early exploration of shamanic practice. However, it seems more people are experiencing initiations that they often are unprepared for and do not understand; hence there is more difficulty with integration and making good use of such a profound event. One such initiation that can be disorienting is that of dismemberment, especially when it is full-blown. As a companion to you on this path of direct revelation, I'm sharing one early part of my own on-going initiation.
Resting With Mother Earth
Sometimes on the spiritual path it seems like we feel the only valuable and true way to understand Reality and our place in it is to create complex theories, practices and vast spreading hierarchies of deeply embellished belief systems. These abstracted thought forms become such easy places for the mind to hide from itself, from true awareness; and within these labyrinthine circles the dear, intelligent body can also become forgotten and bereft of its needful and natural companions.
The Poetry of Consciousness: Crossing Thresholds
Crossing thresholds---dying to old ways of being and coming alive to new visions and aspects of awareness--- are common themes in a shamanic life. Working in close, consistent relationship with the helping spirits attunes you to their vibration, which is unconditioned. Because we tend to live mostly from conditioned thoughts, habits, emotional patterns and dogmas, becoming more detached from conditioning is revolutionary and tends to introduce a sense of free-fall and sometimes chaos into one's life. Who am I now? is often the underlying sense...