Shamanic Journeys: An Anthology

By Michael Drake

This book is an anthology of shamanic journeys that I have taken over my 35-year exploration of shamanism, the most ancient and most enduring spiritual tradition known to humanity. Each inner journey has a unique story about what led up to the trance experience, and what I learned from it. They were powerful life-changing events for me. Journey work is therapeutic and liberating. My trance experiences were healing, insightful and empowering. They often triggered the cathartic release of suppressed emotions producing feelings of peace and well-being. The process restores emotional health through expression and integration of emotions.

Shamanism is based on the principle that innate wisdom and guidance can be accessed through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. We can engage the blueprint of our soul path through the vehicle of journeying. Shamanic journeying is a time-tested medium for individual self-realization. We can journey within to access wisdom and energies that can help awaken our soul calling and restore us to wholeness. It heightens our sense of mission and purpose, empowering our personal evolution. I invite you to journey with me into the inner realms of consciousness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Drake
• Release date: May 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005629236

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

Shamanic Journeys

An Anthology

Michael Drake

Copyright © 2022 Michael Drake

ISBN: 9781005629236

Talking Drum Publications

Crestone, Colorado, USA

http://ShamanicDrumming.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or 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.

Front Cover Image by Karin Henseler

To my helping spirits for guiding

my journey into shamanism.

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Journey Song

Introduction

1. Meeting My Spirit Guide

2. The Moon Goddess

3. The Guardian Spirit

4. The Storm

5. Drumming in Boynton Canyon

6. The Navajo Storm Pattern Rug

7. The Sweat Lodge Ceremony

8. The Great Kiva

9. Healing the Land

10. The Medicine Tipi

11. Spirit Horse Falls

12. The Pyramid of the Magician

13. You are Kukulkan

14. The Mystery of Death and Rebirth

15. The Earth is a Drum

16. The Rainbow Bridge

17. The Feathered Serpent

18. The Snowy Owl

19. Breitenbush Hot Springs

20. Guardian of the Pipe

Appendix A. Taking the Shamanic Journey

Appendix B. Ten Good Reasons to Take a Shamanic Journey

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;

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

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;

And finally, I am especially grateful to my wife Elisia, whose loving support and encouragement allowed me to bring this work to fruition.

Journey Song

I go in my canoe

all over

in my vision.

Over trees

or in water

I’m floating.

All around

I float

among whirlpools.

All around

I float

among shadows.

I go in my canoe

all over

in my vision.

Over trees

or in water

I’m floating.

Whose canoe

is this

I stand in?

The one

I stand in

with a stranger.

I go in my canoe

all over

in my vision.

Over trees

or in water

I’m floating.

—Northwest Coast Tsimshian

David Cloutier, Spirit, Spirit: Shaman Songs, Incantations (Copper Beech Press, 1973), pp. 67-68.

Introduction

This book is an anthology of shamanic journeys that I have taken over my 35-year exploration of shamanism—the most ancient and most enduring spiritual tradition known to humanity. Each inner journey has a unique story about what led up to the trance experience, and what I learned from it. They were powerful life-changing events for me. Journey work is therapeutic and liberating. My trance experiences were healing, insightful and empowering. They often triggered the cathartic release of suppressed emotions producing feelings of peace and well-being. The process restores emotional health through expression and integration of emotions.

Shamanism is based on the principle that innate wisdom and guidance can be accessed through the inner senses in ecstatic 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., soul flight, death-and-rebirth, animal identities) are rooted in innate functions of the brain, mind and consciousness.¹ The inherent 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 reside. 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 humans. 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 non-ordinary awareness accessed through altered or ecstatic states induced by shamanic practices such as repetitive drumming. Entering an altered state allows the journeyer to view life and life’s problems from a detached, spiritual perspective, not easily achieved in an ordinary state of consciousness.

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. It is this intimate relationship with spirit and the use of trance states that distinguishes the shaman from other practitioners.

The shaman’s universe

According to shamanic cosmology, there are three inner planes of consciousness: the Upper, Middle and Lower Worlds. There are numerous levels in both the Lower and Upper Worlds and they exist outside of time. The upper or celestial realm is the home of the Star Nations and Thunder Beings—a related family of divine beings who bring about weather changes such as thunder, lightning, wind and rain. This shamanic realm relates to our higher self or superconsciousness. It is the domain of divine archetypes such as angels, deities and evolved teachers. In this realm are the archetypal patterns or original energetic blueprints of everything that has or will ever exist. The celestial realm forms the matrix of possibilities that correspond to the world we experience through our mind and senses. All situations, conditions and states of being are a manifestation of a world of archetypes—as above, so below. Every event in the visible world is the effect of a seed image or pattern in the unseen world.

We can journey to the Upper World to acquire archetypal knowledge, to bring a vision into being, or to influence events in the material world. By interacting with the archetypes, we interact with their counterparts in the outer world. We can also go there for inspiration, insight, or to find ways to restore balance in the world. As anthropologist Felicitas Goodman points out, One of the most pervasive traditions of shamanic cultures is the insight that there exists a patterned cosmological order, which can be disturbed by human activity.² When harmony between the human realm and the original intended pattern is disturbed, we can journey to the celestial realm to bring back the balance.

The Middle World is where spirit meets matter and is related to our ego or conscious self. The Middle World can be thought of as a non-ordinary mirror of ordinary reality. It is the spirit counterpart of the material realm and the inner region most like outer reality. The middle realm is so parallel to the world in which we live that a skilled journeyer can travel across it and visit all the places, people and things they know in ordinary reality. Spirit journeys in the Middle World provide a means of travel and communication without cars, planes or cell phones. It is a means of exploring our temporal landscape to find the location of healing herbs or lost objects, or to establish communication links over great distances.

To take a Middle World journey, simply imagine yourself walking out your front door and traveling through the landscape very quickly to look for something you have lost or to reach a distant destination. However, I do not recommend journeying to the Middle World unless you have a very good reason to go there. Unlike the upper and lower realms, where everything is guided by benevolence, the middle realm does not have benevolence or ethics at its core. That does not mean that