Riding Spirit Horse: A Journey into Shamanism

By Michael Drake

In this visionary memoir, author Michael Drake recounts his spiritual journey into shamanism. Drake's engaging narrative moves from his first ecstatic experience as a youth at a church revival to his mystical shamanic awakening, transformational pilgrimages to sacred places, working with indigenous wisdom keepers, to the experiences that prompted his writing, particularly his trance experiences "riding the drum" or Spirit Horse. Studying with Native elders and shamans, Drake discovered his shamanic gifts as a drummer, storyteller and ceremonialist. Riding Spirit Horse takes readers on a transcendent pilgrimage of the soul through birth, death, rebirth, ritual and ceremony to the frontiers of expanded consciousness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Drake
• Release date: May 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9780463412794

Michael Drake

Michael lives in New York State. In addition to writing he enjoys gardening and has recorded several music albums over the past few decades. He is an avid science fiction fan and enjoys the challenge of the short fiction story form - Flash-fiction. In addition to his Flash-fiction collection he has written a science fiction story for youth.

Book preview

RIDING SPIRIT HORSE

A Journey Into Shamanism

Michael Drake

Copyright © 2022 Michael Drake

ISBN: 9780463412794

Talking Drum Publications

Crestone, Colorado, USA

http://ShamanicDrumming.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief quotations embodied in literary articles or reviews.

The shamanic methodology presented in this book should not be viewed as a substitute for orthodox medical or psychological treatment, but should instead be considered a complementary treatment. This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians. The reader should regularly consult a physician in matters relating to his/her health and particularly with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention. I trust you will use your own discretion and intuitive wisdom as to how shamanic practice may be appropriate to your particular needs.

To my lovely wife Elisia,

who has always been there for me.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Chosen by the Spirits

Chapter 2: Shamanic Initiation

Chapter 3: Following the Call

Chapter 4: A Path of Authenticity

Chapter 5: A Gathering of Eagles

Chapter 6: Earth and Spirit

Chapter 7: Riding Spirit Horse

Chapter 8: Walking the Pyramids

Chapter 9: Divining the Way to Harmony

Chapter 10: Ecstatic Trance Postures

Chapter 11: The Thunder Beings

Chapter 12: Healing Story, Singing Drum

Chapter 13: The Call of the Psychopomp

Chapter 14: The Spiritual Mecca of Crestone

Afterword

Endnotes

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to:

Douglas Mani Pureheart Ward, mentor, healer and visionary, for illuminating the path and showing me the way;

Jade Grigori for initiating me in the drum ways of his tradition and for helping me to find my own path of rhythm;

Albert Argüello, activist, artist and percussionist, for his friendship and collaboration;

Margaret and Luke Sayben for their guidance, friendship and support;

Native American elders Les Thomas, Don Fasthorse and Ed Bills for sharing the wisdom and ceremonials of their traditions;

Indigenous rights activists Thomas Banyacya, Winona LaDuke, Rip Lone Wolf and Hunbatz Men for their inspiration, passion and devotion;

Cathy Dawn Perkins for her friendship, guidance and vision. She is a true hollow bone—a clear conduit between the spirit world and the human world;

Judith Thomson, sacred drum maker, teacher and visionary, for her friendship and collaboration. Her devotion to the way of the drum has been a wellspring of inspiration for me;

My wife Elisia, whose loving support and encouragement allowed me to bring this work to fruition;

And finally, I am especially grateful to my helping spirits for guiding my journey into shamanism.

Introduction

In this spiritual memoir, I recount my journey into shamanic practice. It has been a lifelong process—a path that continues to unfold. I am sharing my journey and learnings because many people in today’s world are being called by Spirit to become shamans or shamanic practitioners. A yearning exists deep within many of us to reconnect to the natural world. It is a call to a life lived in balance with awareness of Nature, of Spirit and of Self. We live in a culture that has severed itself from Nature and Spirit. Humans have lost touch with the spirit world and the wisdom of inner knowing. The spirits, however, have not forgotten us. They are calling us to a path of environmental sanity, to rejoining the miraculous cycle of Nature.

Spirit calls us to a path of shamanism in many ways. It can be as dramatic as a life threatening illness or as simple as a dream. Some people receive signs of a shamanic calling through their dreams. Future shamans may dream of spirits and ancestors or hear their voices. Others may have recurring dreams in which they meet certain animal or teacher figures that are manifestations of the very spirits who are calling them. Initiatory dreams of some future shamans include a mystical journey to the archetypal Cosmic or World Tree.

In Siberia, the homeland of shamanism, it is believed that certain characteristics are a sign that the spirits have selected an individual to become a shaman. Sometimes the shamanic candidate will have unusual marks or bodily characteristics such as being born with extra fingers or toes. Being born with a caul (thin membrane) covering your head is recognized worldwide as a sign that a person has a special relationship with the spirit world.

The more common signs of a shamanic calling are ones of personality, such as a desire to spend time alone in Nature. Shamanic candidates tend to be loners and are often considered eccentric or different. One of the most reliable signs of a shamanic calling is the urge to learn about shamanism. The very fact that you are reading this book at this time is meaningful. It is the spirits themselves who are guiding you to search for information about shamanism. Your yearning to learn more about shamanism is a sign that the spirits are calling you.

In contemporary Western culture, people who have shamanic callings often don’t understand what is happening to them and may find themselves overwhelmed by fear of their nonordinary experiences. To help potential candidates gain an understanding of these events, I have provided the following list of signs that you might have a shamanic calling. Have you had:

An intense desire to spend long periods of time alone in Nature.

Vivid flying dreams, prophetic dreams or recurring dreams with the same animals or teacher figures.

Recurring encounters with the same animals in ordinary reality, possibly in unusual ways.

Frequent feelings of déjà vu.

Imaginary friends as a child.

Any physical, mental or emotional abnormality that set you apart as a child.

A strong connection with plants or animals.

An awareness of subtle healing energy in your hands.

A near-death out-of-body experience.

Astute and accurate intuition and the ability to read other people.

A parent who has paranormal abilities, such as prophetic dreams or telepathy.

Ancestors who were healers, herbalists or doctors.

An occupation in the healing arts.

Frequent clairvoyance, clairaudience or other paranormal experiences.

A life threatening illness, accident or unusual event such as being struck by lightning, especially if there was a long recovery.

A strong inner urge to learn about shamanism.

If it seems that these signs are very general and happen to a lot of people, it is because the spirits call many to work with them, but only a few may respond to the call. Choosing to ignore a calling may have undesirable consequences or none at all. For some, it can lead to depression and illness as the life force is constricted and thwarted. Those who choose to follow their shamanic calling may have no idea how to begin.

What do you do if the ancestral shamanic tradition no longer exists in your culture, but you still feel the call today? While traditional, Indigenous shamanism continues to decline around the world, shamanic ideology has gradually entered Western humanities and social sciences and developed into the neoshamanic movement. Neoshamanism, also known as urban shamanism, is a term used to describe the creation or revival of a shamanic culture. Most modern shamanic practitioners fall into this category. Neoshamanism is not a single, cohesive belief system but a collective term for many such philosophies. Neoshamans adapt and use a variety of common core techniques from different shamanic disciplines to awaken inherent shamanic wisdom and abilities.

Religious scholar Mircea Eliade was perhaps the first to write about neoshamanism. In his classic work Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Eliade discusses the three stages of becoming a shaman: the Call, Training and Initiation. The first stage of shamanhood, as described by Eliade, is that of the calling. This call comes from the family, the community or from the world beyond. Some are called, initiated and trained by spirit guides and/or human teachers from childhood.

The spirits often prompt us through urges to do something quite specific. According to Mongolian shaman Sarangerel Odigon, one of the most reliable marks of a shamanic calling is the urge to learn how to become a shaman.¹ The call functions to awaken our own inner knowing and the yearning to express our true self through the artistry and creativity of the shaman.

Shamans are called and then receive rigorous instruction. Training may follow an ordered tradition or take a spontaneous course guided by the shaman’s spirit helpers. The function of training is to develop the skills and talents so that shamanic practitioners don’t unintentionally hurt themselves or others. Though the spirits give shamans their healing powers, practitioners must learn how to properly honor and commune with them to gain their blessings. Traditional shamanic training requires considerable devotion and personal sacrifice, not so much to gain power, but to become the person who can wield that power responsibly. It’s a lifelong commitment to service and learning. Ongoing practice and learning are essential to perfecting any art or skill.

Where does one find shamanic training in the modern digital age? There are growing numbers of spiritual seekers who learn about shamanism from the internet or through reading the published works of individuals who have received shamanic training. Though a guidebook is no substitute for an apprenticeship program, it can convey the fundamental methodological information. Authentic shamanic knowledge can only be acquired through individual experience, however, one must first acquire the methods in order to utilize them. Once you have learned the basic skills, your helping spirits can provide you all the training you need.

Then there is Initiation. Shamanic initiation is a rite of passage connecting the apprentice shaman intimately to the spirit world. It is typically the final step in shamanic training, though initiation may be set in motion at any time by spirit’s intervention into the initiate’s life. Ultimately, shamanic initiation takes place between the initiate and the spirit world. It is the spirits who choose and make the shaman.

An initiation marks a transition from one stage of life to another. According to renowned storyteller, author and mythologist Michael Meade, there are three steps of initiation: separation, ordeals, and the conscious return to community.² As we move through its stages, we better understand our place in the world and our relationship to it. Initiations enable us to better understand the contexts and environments we exist in. Some initiations take a lifetime and others happen so quickly that we may be unaware that they have even occurred. Initiations are intensely personal, subjective and interpretive.

Initiation is a nonlinear, never-ending, ever-becoming process. It has an infinite rate of change and an ever-changing directionality. Initiation is the way the soul grows and finds its way in life. An initiate is one who seeks wisdom of the inner and outer worlds through study, sacrifice and effort. This wisdom provides the initiate with the ability to heal and transform their inner world and consequently the outer world.

So how does someone embark on the shamanic path? To become an effective shamanic practitioner, one must go through the three steps—the Call, Training and Initiation. The first step is to recognize and acknowledge the shamanic calling.

What is shamanism?

Shamanism is universal and not bound by social or cultural conditions. It is the most ancient and most enduring spiritual tradition known to humanity. Shamanism predates and constitutes the foundation of all known religions, philosophies and wisdom traditions. In essence, shamanism is the spiritual practice of ecstasy. Ecstasy is defined as a mystic, prophetic or poetic trance. Ecstatic trance is an academic term referring to those inwardly focused experiences of cosmic oneness, that mystical connection to a living, intelligent Universe that exists within each of us. Practitioners enter altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with the inner world of the self. The act of entering an ecstatic trance state is called the soul flight or shamanic journey.

The shaman’s trance is an intentionally induced state of ecstasy. Shamanic trance is characterized by its flexibility ranging from light diagnostic states to full embodiment trance states. Shamans use intention and discipline to control the nature, depth and qualities of their trance experiences. The shaman may progress through a range of trance states until they reach the level that is necessary for healing to occur.

The capacity to enter a range of trance states is a natural manifestation of human consciousness. A landmark study by Michael Winkelman, one of the foremost scholars on shamanism today, reveals that the cross-cultural manifestations of basic experiences related to shamanism (e.g., altered states and animal allies) are rooted in innate functions of the brain, mind and consciousness.³ The ability to enter trance states makes us human, not shamans. What makes shamans unique is their mastery over an otherwise normal human trait. It requires a great deal of training, practice and devotion to master any expressive art. Shamans master the art of ecstasy to see the true nature of the Universe.

Shamanism is a way of perceiving the nature of the Universe in a way that incorporates the normally invisible world where the spirits of all material things dwell. Shamans have different terms and phrases for the unseen world, but most of them clearly imply that it is the realm where the spirits of the land, animals, ancestors and other spiritual entities dwell. Spirit encompasses all the immaterial forms of life energy that surround us. We are woven together into a net of life energies that are all around us. These energies can appear to us in different forms, such as spirits of Nature, animals or ancestors.

Shamanism represents a universal conceptual framework found among Indigenous tribal communities. It includes the belief that the natural world has two aspects: ordinary everyday awareness, formed by our habitual behaviors, patterns of belief, social norms and cultural conditioning; and a second nonordinary awareness accessed through altered states of consciousness induced by shamanic practices such as repetitive drumming. This second-order awareness can be developed over time or appear all at once, but once it is discerned the world is never the same. According to shamanic theory, the ordinary and nonordinary worlds interact continuously, and a shamanic practitioner can gain knowledge about how to alter ordinary reality by taking direct action in the nonordinary aspect of the world.

Rhythmic drumming is a simple and effective way to induce ecstatic trance states. When a drum is played at an even tempo of three to four beats per second for at least 15 minutes, most people can journey successfully even on their first attempt. Transported by the driving beat of the drum, the practitioner journeys to the inner planes of consciousness to obtain personal revelation and spiritual experience.

According to shamanic cosmology, there are three inner planes of consciousness: the Upper, Middle and Lower Worlds. The three realms are linked together by a vertical axis that is commonly referred to as the World Tree or axis mundi. This central axis (spinal column) exists within each of us. Through the sound of the drum, which is invariably made of wood from the World Tree, the shaman is transported to the cosmic axis within and conveyed from plane to plane.⁴

The shaman traverses the inner planes in order to mediate between the needs of the spirit world and those of the material world. It is an inward spiritual journey of rapture in which the shaman interacts with the inner spirit world, thereby influencing the outer material world. In the shaman’s world, all human experience is self-generated. Experience is shaped from within since the three realms or resonant fields that define our experience of reality exist within each of us.

The essence of shamanism is the experience of direct revelation from within. Shamanism is about remembering, exploring and developing the true self. Shamanism places emphasis on the individual, of breaking free and discovering one’s own uniqueness in order to bring something new back to the community. Shamanic practice heightens the ability of perception and enables you to see into the deeper realms of the self. Once connected with your inner self, you can find help, healing and a continual source of guidance. To practice shamanism is to reconnect with your deepest core values and your highest vision of who you are and why you are here.

Chapter 1: Chosen by the Spirits

Mongolian shamanic tradition maintains that all true shamans are called by the spirits—but those who are not from shamanic cultures may have difficulty recognizing the call or nurturing the essential shamanic relationship with their helper spirits.

—Sarangerel Odigon, author and Mongolian-Buryat shaman¹

The spirits called me to a path of shamanism. I do not know why I was chosen. I ceased making such queries long ago. Over the years, I learned to go with the flow and just let things happen. The how and why of my circumstances became less important to me than the lessons that I was learning along the way. As time passed, I began to see how my life experiences honed me into the artist I am today.

For as long as I can remember, I have been an explorer—pushing beyond familiar territory to investigate the unknown. As a child, I had a near-drowning, out-of-body experience that opened my eyes to the hidden dimensions of life and propelled my explorations. Like everyone, I was trying to find myself. I was on a journey to find what felt authentic to me. I was also searching for something that resonated with me—anything that evoked a shared emotion or belief. I identified with people whose words were congruent with their actions.

My inner self was most nourished when I was immersed in Nature. Being introverted and eccentric, I often felt a closer kinship to Nature than I did to people. Growing up, I felt a deep desire to spend long periods of time alone in Nature. I would often go for long walks and bike rides by myself and enjoyed solo tent camping in our rural backyard, rising early to watch the sunrise. At the age of 20, I did my first solo trek in Nature—backpacking for three days in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. That first trek challenged and inspired me to pursue more solitary outdoor adventures.

I was born in 1954 in the Ozark foothills of northeastern Oklahoma. My mother and father were the offspring of Depression-era farmers who experienced the worst economic depression in history, the Dust Bowl that destroyed farm land across the Great Plains and confronted the worldwide threat of fascism. My hard-working parents grew up poor but never went hungry. They ate the fruit and vegetables they grew, churned butter from the cows they milked and gathered eggs from the chickens they raised. They used kerosene lamps for light, horses for transportation and wood stoves for heat. My parents instilled a fierce independence and strong work ethic in me from a young age.

At the age of five, my parents moved to Topeka, Kansas, seeking a better life. My gregarious father became an insurance agent, and my studious mother worked as a bookkeeper. The capital city became my home until I moved away at age 23. I was raised in a conservative Southern Baptist Church, which shaped my personal ethics and early life. I had my first ecstatic experience as a youth at a church revival, an evangelistic meeting intended to reawaken interest in religion. This state of rapture and trancelike elation inspired my spiritual quest. For much of my youth, I had aspirations of attending seminary to prepare for some form of ministry. I met my beautiful wife, Elisia, at a church function. We were wed by our pastor in a church wedding in 1976.

As a child, I had a voracious appetite for books. My bookish mother took me often to the neighborhood bookmobile to find new stories. I would borrow up to 10 books at a time and read each one cover to cover. I loved a good story; I still do. I grew up in a family of articulate storytellers. Listening to my elders tell stories at family reunions was captivating entertainment. They could spin engaging yarns or recount humorous anecdotes from their storied lives.

There was also music at the family reunions in Oklahoma. My relatives referred to these large musical gatherings as hootenannies. Musicians and singers performed Americana music—folk, gospel, country and bluegrass—often with the audience joining in. The musical instruments included guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, blues harp, dulcimer, washboard, and so on. My musical father played guitar and often led the singing. The music started in the afternoon and continued late into the night. I savored every melodic moment.

Music and storytelling strongly influenced my artistic inclinations. Though I had aspirations of becoming a musician, my greatest talent turned out to be writing. Being shy and introverted, writing became a way to fully express myself. In high school, my English teachers supported and encouraged my creative writing. By the time I graduated in 1972, I decided to forgo seminary and pursue a career in journalism. Unfortunately, my cash-strapped parents could not afford to send me to Kansas State University, the nearest college offering a journalism degree. To save money, I chose business as a major at Washburn University in my home town. I could live at home and work nights to pay my way. Though business was my major, I relished literature and composition courses, along with electives like anthropology and philosophy.

After my college graduation in 1977, I felt a pull to go West. I sent résumés to employers up and down the Pacific Coast. As fate would have it, I was offered a job with the Glidden Paint Company in Portland, Oregon. Elisia and I promptly sold our house and moved to Oregon. As a couple, that’s how we often did things, and that’s still how we do things after 45 years of marriage. We decide to do something, and then we just do it. Elisia and I have learned to trust and follow our inner yearnings. One of the things we learned working with spirits is that they often prompt us through urges to do one thing or another.

Upon our arrival in Portland, we soon found a house to rent in the northeast part of the city near the airport and the Columbia River. After settling in, we spent most of our free time exploring the scenic byways and trails of Oregon. We drove the Columbia Gorge Scenic Byway, the Mount Hood Scenic Byway and the Oregon Coast Highway 101. We hiked picturesque trails in the volcanic Cascade Range, in the waterfall-filled Columbia Gorge and along the rugged Pacific coast.

Enamored with my new home, I began studying the natural history, geology, flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest. I discovered deep ecology, a holistic environmental philosophy and social movement based in the belief that humans must radically change their relationship to nature from one that values nature solely for its usefulness to human beings to one that recognizes that nature has an inherent value. Deep ecology seeks to develop ecological wisdom, a deeper knowing that can discern the interrelationship of all life forms. What I began to understand is that Nature sustains us and everything around us through an interconnected and interdependent web of life. There is no separateness. We are all one consciousness.

This holistic awareness stirred a longing deep within me to reconnect to the natural world. I spent as much time as possible outdoors, often alone in the wild. When you go solo in nature, the entire experience is different than if you’re with someone else. Hiking with other people, there is little hope of seeing any real wildlife and not much solitude. Solitude allows time for self-examination, relaxation away from urban stress, and a chance to meditate, contemplate, or just zone out for hours at a time. Many of my most memorable experiences took place during solo journeys into Nature. The longer the solo immersion, the more transformational the experience. I hiked, camped, backpacked and climbed volcanic peaks throughout the Pacific Northwest.

I made multiple ascents of Devil’s Peak (5,045 ft), Bull of the Woods Peak (5,523 ft), Lookout Mountain (6,536 ft), Paulina Peak (7,989 ft), Diamond Peak (8,748 ft), Mount Bachelor (9,068 ft), Middle Sister (10,047 ft) and South Sister (10,358 ft) in the Cascade Range. Once when I reached the top of South Sister, I marveled at the sight of millions of migrating monarch butterflies resting on the snow all around the caldera at the summit. I climbed Strawberry Mountain (9,042 ft) in the rugged Strawberry Mountain Wilderness of eastern Oregon. I twice climbed to the summit of Tatoosh Peak (6310 ft) along the saddle of the Tatoosh Range in Tatoosh Wilderness on the southern boundary of Mt. Rainier National Park. From the summit, you get spectacular views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens.

I backpacked portions of the Pacific Crest Trail through Mt. Hood Wilderness, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness and Three Sisters Wilderness: the centerpiece of one of the highest concentrations of volcanic features in the Pacific Northwest. One of my most memorable trips into Three Sisters Wilderness was a week-long trek along the PCT from the Obsidian Trailhead on the west side of the central Oregon Cascade Range to the Devil’s Lake Trailhead on the east side of the range. I also backpacked into Eagle Cap Wilderness and twice climbed Eagle Cap (9572 ft) in the heart of the Wallowa Mountains in northeastern Oregon. The views from the summit are among the best in the entire state.

Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson and Edward Abbey were my literary influences at the time. Their books and essays impacted and shaped my relationship with Nature. In his classic book Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey summed up my feelings about Nature in one sentence: But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need—if only we had the eyes to see.²

A journey of awakening

In early 1980, I lost my store manager job. I was ready for a change and with so much free time, I took up reading in earnest. One of the influential books that I read was The