Calling Us Home

By Chris Luttichau

From one of our most respected shamanic teachers, Calling Us Home aims to help the ordinary person, caught up in the anxiety of modern life, find balance and peace of mind. How to hold on to happiness. How to develop strategies for dealing with fear, guilt, stress and feelings of inadequacy. How to manage irrational annoyance and stop it ruling your life.

Full of anecdotes from the author's Danish childhood to studying with Native American Indians and exploring wild places – the book teaches many things, from learning shamanic meditation to identifying which species of animal is your natural spirit guide.

This is a book to be savoured and loved, read and re-read, annotated and quoted from. Down to earth, warm, witty and wise – it is a bible for our times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Mar 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781784979744

Chris Luttichau

Chris Luttichau was born in Denmark and is the keeper of a comprehensive body of teachings on shamanism and earth-based spirituality. He is also the author of Animal Spirit Guides: Discover Your Power Animal and the Shamanic Path. He lives in Cornwall.

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CALLING US HOME

Chris Lüttichau

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About this Book

About the Author

Table of Contents

www.headofzeus.com

About Calling Us Home

Calling Us Home aims to help the ordinary person, caught up in the whirl and worry of life, to find balance and peace of mind. How to hold on to happiness. How to develop strategies for dealing with fear, guilt, stress and feelings of inadequacy. How to manage irrational annoyance and stop it ruling your life.

Full of anecdotes from the author’s life from his Danish childhood, to studying with Native American Indians and exploring wild places – the book teaches many things, from learning meditation the shamanic way, to identifying which species of animal is your natural spirit guide.

Chris Lüttichau also examines how other great thinkers and teachers have looked at the universe and the human condition, from Shakespeare to Einstein, from Buddha to Christ. This is a book to be savoured and loved, read and re-read, annotated and quoted from. Down to earth, warm, witty and wise – it is a bible for our times.

For the First Nations people, their strong spirit and ability to endure.

Contents

Cover

Welcome Page

About Calling Us Home

Dedication

Preface

Introduction: A Look at Shamanism

Part 1: The South: Discovery

Chapter 1: The Inner and the Outer Mind

Chapter 2: The Mind’s Many Channels

Chapter 3: Choosing a New Channel

Chapter 4: Thanksgiving and Prayer

Chapter 5: The Power Place Meditation

Part 2: The West: Restructuring

Chapter 6: Identity

Chapter 7: The First Attention

Chapter 8: The Second Attention

Chapter 9: The Third Attention

Chapter 10: The Fourth Attention

Chapter 11: The Four Attentions as an Awareness Meditation

Part 3: The North: Manifestation

Chapter 12: The Base Centre

Chapter 13: The Will Centre: The Hara

Chapter 14: The Power Centre

Chapter 15: The Heart Centre

Chapter 16: The Communicator: The Throat Centre

Chapter 17: The Perceptor Wheel: The Third Eye

Chapter 18 : The Crown Centre

Chapter 19: Grounding

Chapter 20: Centring

Chapter 21: Protection

Chapter 22: Sourcing

Chapter 23: The Wave Meditation

Part 4: The East: Freedom

Chapter 24: Human Being or Two-Legged

Chapter 25: The Spiritual Warrior

Chapter 26: The Victim Mind

Chapter 27: The Bringers of Challenge

Chapter 28: The Mind and the Heart

Chapter 29: The Power Animal

Chapter 30: The Power Animal Meditation

Chapter 31: The Spirit Guide

Chapter 32: The Spirit Guide Meditation

Chapter 33: Meditation: A Shamanic Perspective

Chapter 34: Shamanism for Our Times

Acknowledgements

Index

About Chris Lüttichau

An Invitation from the Publisher

Copyright

Preface

You can look at a tree, and register it as such: tall or short, with or without leaves, dark or light in colour. Then you are the observer, and the tree is the observed; you are two beings isolated from each other. Or you can ‘see’ the tree without preconceptions, fully alive, and be filled with awe in the presence of consciousness. Now there is no separation between you and the tree. It is this kind of seeing towards which shamanism points us. It means seeing without the stories in our heads about what we think we already know. Isolation does not bring freedom; we are losing ourselves in the isolation of our modern world, which locks us into the confines of the mind, and consequently into a limited way of perceiving reality.

Shamanism is a spiritual path and a practice. It seeks to explore reality in both its visible and invisible aspects with as much clarity as possible, always aiming for deeper truth and finding practical application in everyday life. The word shaman comes from the Tungus people in Siberia and although its exact etymology is unclear, it is thought to mean ‘the one who sees’, ‘the one who knows’, or ‘to be consumed with fire [of inspiration]’.¹

Shamanism is pragmatic and adapts to the present times. Today I believe it points us towards a future where we can integrate scientific and technological knowledge with earth-based teachings on the unity of all life and the reality of the two worlds: the physical and the spiritual. Shamanism is like an arrow that flies towards the target of bringing these two together, creating a new world of raised consciousness. With the revival of shamanism over the last thirty-five years, that arrow has been launched.

Calling Us Home explores meditation, awareness and consciousness from a shamanic perspective. It explores how to awaken to the power of your mind and use it well, and it offers teachings on how to balance physical and ordinary reality with the spiritual dimension.

In my life I have been lucky enough to learn directly from Native American medicine people and healers, from their descendants, and also from shamans and healers in other parts of the world. The context of my own training in shamanism and in the Earth Wisdom teachings was clearly defined. My teachers said that there are two paths that run parallel to each other: the shamanic path and the Earth Wisdom teachings. These include teachings such as the Four Attentions, which you will discover as you read.

That is why there are two categories of teachings in this book: the shamanic teachings, which are transcendental; and what could be termed the Earth Wisdom teachings, which are based on, or inspired by, traditional teachings from shamanic or tribal cultures on how to live with awareness in everything we do, to respect all of creation, and to appreciate and honour the unity of life.

The shamanic teachings and the Earth Wisdom teachings run alongside each other like two trails through a forest. We can choose to walk each of them in turn: the Earth Wisdom teachings guide us on how to live in daily life, staying present and aware; and then if we are called to do shamanic work such as contacting spirit helpers for guidance, we can step over onto the shamanic trail.

The teachings in this book have elements of both Earth Wisdom teachings and shamanism. The chapters on grounding, centring, protection and sourcing contain techniques to use in your daily life, but they are also essential to the work of the shaman. Likewise the First Attention described in Chapter 7 is a tool you can apply at any moment, but by entering deeply into it you can transcend ordinary reality and enter the world of the shaman.

The same applies to the chapters around thanksgiving and prayer, and the body’s energy centres. The meditations and techniques centred on the power animal, the spirit teacher, and the power place meditation are shamanic in their essence, but the power animal and the spirit teacher can support you in everyday life as well, not just in shamanic ceremonies.

Ultimately the two trails of shamanism and the Earth Wisdom teachings are not separate. Like the blades of an arrowhead, they are halves of a whole and meet along their line of travel. On the journey we can incarnate the spiritual dimension and bring it to all our activity. We may play roles on the stage of life in everyday existence, but by walking the two trails together we allow something to shine through whose source is not the actor: we open to the soul, and reflect the soul’s qualities into life. This is modern shamanism.

I have adapted the teachings presented here; they are not direct copies of the ways of native peoples, but inspired by them, and to the best of my ability, true to them. These teachings are for the people: for everyone who wishes to learn. You don’t need to be from a certain culture, a certain race, or follow a certain political orientation. All you need is an open mind and heart, a degree of healthy skepticism and discernment, and a wish to learn.

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Walk well,

CHRIS LÜTTICHAU

Cornwall, UK, 2017

1Matthews, John (2013). The Shamanism Bible. The Definitive Guide to Shamanic Thought and Practice . London: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, p. 8.

INTRODUCTION

A Look at Shamanism

Shamanism is like a great river. When we stand in the shallows close to the bank, we know that there is huge depth in that river too. Respecting the water means not getting out of our depth before we are sufficiently skilled. We can swim, but it is good to know the territory, the potential depth, to know how strong the currents can be, and what to do in the rapids.

The deeper we go into the river, the stronger the current. Only an initiated shaman is able to move into the deepest centre where the current is strongest, be fully submerged, and able to walk out on the other side. The river demands respect.

*

Nowadays the word ‘shamanism’ is used in a range of contexts. It is valuable to know something about the history and definitions of the term, and not just from an intellectual perspective. Shamanic techniques and teachings come from indigenous people who have fought hard to keep them alive, and many have died in the process. An informed respect for the history of traditional shamanism assists in keeping wholeness and balance. If people in the West are going to call themselves shamans, it is appropriate that they know what it takes for an indigenous person to become a shaman, which in most cases is a very different ballgame. That knowledge can bring measure and respect to our practice of shamanic techniques, and of the Earth Wisdom teachings.

*

So what exactly is shamanism? As a term it is fairly new, having been introduced to the West through the work of 19th and 20th century anthropologists. Their predecessors were Russian and Polish exiles in Siberia, who met and studied the indigenous people. Among those indigenous people were some who appeared to enter an altered state of consciousness, a trance state, to access a world of spirit and spirit helpers, and who were seen to bring power from that realm into ordinary reality, usually for the purpose of healing. Such a person was considered a shaman, and could be male or female.

The Russian clergyman Avvakum Petrovich was first to publish the word ‘shaman’ in his autobiography in 1672.² But the practice of shamanism is ancient. The concept ‘shamanism’ is finding its rightful place in our vocabulary, and some use it in a very broad sense, while others point back to its original meaning.

While it is important not to get caught up in definitions, I recommend knowing the difference between the ancient practices of indigenous people and the modern concept of shamanism.

*

According to the anthropologist Michael Harner,³ the word shaman, ‘pronounced SHAH-maan’, comes from the Siberian Tungus Evenki tribe. Its approximate meaning is thought to be ‘the one who knows’ or ‘the one who sees’, and even ‘being consumed with the fire of inspiration’. In my research I have found three main meanings of the word: heat, creation and knowing. The shaman knows and sees, meaning that she has active psychic abilities such as precognition, telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, claircognizance and clairkinetic ability.

The understanding that everything is connected and alive has a name: ‘animism’. Its root is the Latin animus, meaning ‘soul’ or ‘life.’ Animism is a view held by most, if not all, First Nations people worldwide, and it implies that everything in the Universe, all of creation, has consciousness or a soul essence, and thus is alive. In the words of the Siberian Chuckchee shaman who was interviewed by the Russian anthropologist Waldemar Bogoras (1865–1936) ‘All that exists lives’.⁴

Shamanism rests upon this understanding. A shaman learns to become so present that he enters a state of heightened awareness, and can experience reality from this expanded place. In doing so, he develops the ability to ‘see’ beyond the surface to the underlying spiritual essence in all physical manifestation; to work consistently with this spiritual power is the fundamental work of shamanism. For shamans everything has some kind of consciousness, and therefore communication with it is possible. This knowledge is used to communicate with ‘all that exists’.

*

Joan Halifax writes, ‘For the shaman, all that exists in the revealed world has a living force within it. This life energy force, like the Polynesian mana or the Sioux wakanda, is conceived of as a divine force which permeates all. The knowledge that life is power is the realization of the shaman. Communion with the purveyors of power is the work of the shaman. Mastery of that power: this is the attainment of the shaman.’⁵

*

The purpose of the shaman’s communion is to make sure that there is balance in all of life. This is one reason for the emphasis placed on being connected to the earth, fully in the physical body, centred and grounded, in touch with the instincts. Life force energy and sexual energy are seen as healthy and sacred, and life is to be enjoyed. The Earth is the Great Mother and is sacred, imbued with mystical powers that are honoured in ceremonies of thanksgiving. In Chapter 4 of this book you will find guidance on how to develop and work with thanksgiving in a way that opens the heart and connects us directly to spirit.

From this foundation, a shaman can merge with higher consciousness: the highest power. Together the forces of earth and sky, substance and spirit, form a perfect balance. When it is lost, the shaman is called to find out what can restore it. The shamanic perspective is that in order for humans to live well they need to be in equilibrium with themselves, with each other, and with everything that is. Then the circle of life is in balance.

*

The shaman is a messenger between the worlds, meaning that she brings messages from the spirits to the humans and can convey them in the reverse direction, often with the purpose of restoring balance. The role extends to giving and receiving messages from all earth powers and organisms.

This is why a major part of shamanic work is practised outdoors, in nature, just as Jesus taught out in nature and not in temple structures. The shaman is close to the earth, and receives part of her power directly from it. Because she understands and is part of the web that connects all of life, she communicates with the power in trees, herbs, plants, animals, rocks, clouds, thunder and lightning, the sun, the moon and stars, and she works with the primordial powers of fire, water, earth and wind. Many shamans were perceived to have the power to affect weather, for instance calling in or stopping rain, as well as other abilities that benefited their tribe and helped people survive; mastering fire is another classic skill of the shaman.

*

A shaman works directly with spirit and acquires spirit helpers. There are two main types of helper: guardians and guides. You will be introduced to these and guided in how to work with them in Chapters 29–32. Obviously animal spirits will come in animal form, and spirit guides mostly in human form, but the forms can vary. Sometimes you may perceive them as light, or you may sense a presence. Power animals and spirit guides bring wisdom and raise the energy of the human that they work with. Shamans take this one step further.

*

A shaman lets herself be filled with the power of her spirit helpers. Rather than working for her, they work through her, so that she can accomplish what would be impossible on her own. This is sometimes called ‘becoming the hollow bone’ or the ‘hollow reed’. In order to open herself enough to become a channel for spiritual power, much of the shaman’s work is done in deep trance states. At times she may be somewhat conscious and aware of what is being said during, say, a divination session, while at others she may not remember a word, because she has stepped aside to such a degree that a higher consciousness can take over.

The practice of filling oneself with sacred power is core to shamanic work. But when we talk about power in this context it is not power over others, rather it is the power that comes from being connected with one’s spirit, the Earth, the stars, the ancestors, the spiritual masters and all forms of life.

The renowned scholar Mircea Eliade defines shamanism as a ‘technique of ecstasy’.⁶ Often the trance state of altered consciousness is induced by listening to the rhythmic, monotonous beat of a shamanic drum, and the drum journey is usually done in a ritual or ceremonial way, first calling upon all spirits who love and care for the people. This method has become popular in the West since the publication of Michael Harner’s The Way of the Shaman in 1980.

Some shamans ingest psychotropic plants to enter an induced trance state; others don’t. The use of psychotropic plants has traditionally been widespread in the rainforest areas of South America, where it continues to be the path of certain shamans. In recent years this tradition has attracted many followers from the Western world.

In the way that I was taught there was no ingestion of substances; all shamanic abilities were said to exist within the shaman, able to be trained and awakened without consuming mind-altering plants. As you walk the path, you learn to integrate and own your experiences from within. My teachers taught me how to widen my consciousness using meditation and contemplation in and with nature, and that is the path I have followed.

*

Because the traditional functions of the shaman are primarily healing and divination, she works for the benefit of the community, using her powers to be of service to the people.

The shaman is considered to be a specialist of the soul, with the ability to retrieve parts of the soul lost through trauma. If a human being has lost part of his soul due to shock or trauma, the shaman can see how this has occurred. She knows where to look for the lost soul part, and how to return it. Likewise she can find guardian spirits and animal spirit guides and unite them with their human counterparts. I have found that when I raise the subject of soul retrieval in my training groups, the effect is similar to when I speak about power animals: it rings true for people, and seems to awaken a deep inner knowing. Many people in our world are missing part of their soul, and there can be great healing in welcoming it home again.

There are various shamanic techniques for healing shock and trauma. Some now influence therapeutic approaches all over the world. Returning soul parts that have been lost is one of the main shamanic healing methods currently practised; Sandra Ingerman revived this ancient healing method in the West with her book Soul Retrieval, Mending The Fragmented Self, first published in 1991.

*

Traditional healing techniques were also used when warriors returned from war, and still are today amongst native people in the USA. One of these in particular should be noted: the sweat lodge ceremony. It is practised amongst a vast number of American Indian tribes, and is a sacred part of their spiritual life. As a ceremony of purification, healing, transformation and prayer, it must be conducted with integrity and respect. Some call it a death and rebirth ceremony, because participants come out from a sweat lodge renewed in all ways.

The reputation of the sweat lodge’s power has spread; today it is not only American Indians who use it. War veterans and others from outside the indigenous communities seek it in increasing numbers. The sweat lodge ceremony has proved effective in helping, for example, soldiers returning from combat to heal the wounds of their hearts and minds. Although it is not an entirely shamanic ceremony, the sweat lodge has shamanic elements; the leader calls upon spirit to enter the lodge.

The lodge structure has a dome-shaped skeleton of willow, aspen or other saplings, covered with canvas or blankets. Outside the lodge a fire burns, where the fire keeper heats rocks until they are red-hot, and then places them in a pit inside the lodge. When the ceremony starts, the leader calls upon the spirits that love and care for the people. Songs are sung, and water poured on the stones. The pitch-dark lodge can get intensely hot.

One such ceremony for war veterans, led by Navajo elder Johan Yellowman took place in 2015 in Cedar Mesa, southeastern Utah, right by the San Juan River. The former army infantryman Brian Mockenhaupt describes it.⁷ ‘The sweat ritual was meant to welcome [the veterans] back from war, Yellowman had told them, the way many Native American warriors had been cleansed and brought back into their communities after battle, lest they wander, lost in their memories. The darkness, the heat, was part of the journey.’

Inside the dark lodge Yellowman spoke to the veterans: ‘When you are sick you go to a doctor. But the medicine for this illness can’t be found in a hospital.’

The sweat lodge ceremony was followed by a hike through canyon land for several days as part of the trip, organized by the Sierra Club Military Outdoors.

*

Although some shamans specialize in one specific healing method such as blessing ceremonies or soul retrieval, typically a shaman will use many techniques, including ones to extract harmful intrusions from a patient, to balance the energy centres, and to bless the patient with healing light and sacred power. Shamans also use herbs and other plants in their healing work, sometimes discovering the right plants for the task through dreams, or while in a trance. Shamans traditionally conduct the lifting of curses and destructive patterns that can be passed from generation to generation in families, including alcoholism, suicide and violent behaviour.

*

Sometimes the shaman needs to travel to the realm of the dead, and then she works as a psychopomp: helping the soul cross into the next world when a person has died. The word ‘psychopomp’ comes from the Greek psukhopompos, meaning ‘soul conductor’, or ‘soul guide’. This work is done to help the dead with safe passage into the afterlife, especially if the person has had a sudden and traumatic death, or a difficult life, for instance one marked by serious addiction. Part of the reason for undertaking psychopomp work is to ensure that the dead do not remain in the world of the living as ghosts and cause disturbances. Not only shamans are psychopomps; many animals are traditionally seen to help the dead cross over too, including falcons, ravens, crows, cranes, dogs and horses.

*

To perform such work, a shaman needs to be able to leave the body at will and travel to realms beyond ordinary reality, a process sometimes referred to as the flight of the soul. It can include out of body (OOB) journeys, astral projections and lucid dreaming. The shaman is an explorer, and on his journeys he studies and familiarizes himself with the worlds beyond the physical.

The ability to leave the body means that a shaman can ‘be’ in two places at the same time. One of the widespread universal symbols of the map revealing the realms of shamanic travel is the cosmic world tree. The roots of this tree represent the lower world: the realm of the animal spirits, grounding and instinct. In some traditions, ancestors live here too. The trunk is the middle world: the realm of human beings. The tree’s crown signifies the upper world: the realm of higher consciousness where the ancestors, spirit guides, ascended masters and light beings reside.

*

The energetic cleansing of people, and of physical spaces that have been contaminated by events or by the presence of certain energies, is another field of shamanic work. It is a general shamanic practice to keep the energy of a house clear and bright, similar to keeping it tidy on the physical level by cleaning it. This is simply psychic hygiene, based on the understanding that just as dirt in the physical dimension builds up over time, so does psychic dirt in the dimension of energy. In that respect invisible reality is not so different from visible reality; if two people have had an argument and you come into the room where it took place, you can feel it. Psychic debris builds up, just like its physical counterpart. Shamans traditionally use tinctures, salt, smoke and prayer to clear a space. In more severe cases they will remove entities and other presences that cause disturbance, sometimes referred to as exorcism. This is an area that has given rise to much drama and fear. Ninety-five per cent of so-called possessions are simply thought forms and stories about events, real or imagined. When there is a genuine need to remove a presence that causes disturbances, whether from a person, a house, or a specific geographical area, it can usually be done undramatically. The shaman will move the presence to a better place. ‘A better place’ is the key concept here: the act of helping a presence – one that is in the wrong place at the wrong time – to understand that there is a better place for it, can restore wholeness and balance.

How does a person ‘become’ a shaman? It is generally understood that people cannot call themselves to become shamans; spirit calls them, and they undergo an initiation.

In traditional shamanic communities everyone was involved in shamanic work to some extent. Power animals and spirit guides are there for everyone to work with. But for the initiated shaman, who is working as a healer, psychopomp and diviner, and fulfils the traditional functions of the shaman as described in this chapter, there are three steps: to be chosen by the spirits, initiated by the spirits, and confirmed by the people.

*

Joan Halifax writes, ‘In a cosmos that is essentially as unpredictable as the human realm, the shaman’s tapping into power allows for the possible reversal of death, the transformation of form, and the transcendence of time and space. […] The beginning of mastery of that power can be ecstatic. The art of mastery, however, implies that balance and equilibrium have been achieved, creating a right presence of mind. Only the practice of power allows for its mastery; and only through time and experience is the potentially damaging power safely manifested. This is why the ordeals that shamans must endure before moving into their full vocation are so demanding.’

*

The shamanic initiation can take many forms, but they tend to be severe and unpleasant. This is why some tribal people resist the call; they know that often the shaman-to-be experiences a severe crisis. In the words of Holger Kalweit in Dreamtime & Inner Space,⁸ ‘Initiation always signifies death and resurrection. This is as true of the rites of passage marking the entry to a new phase of life as it is of shamanic initiation. The former life must be destroyed and erased. […] The period of initiation strips the shaman of all his social and mental habits as well as his religious and philosophical ideas. To use a more graphic expression: he is skinned, his bowels are torn out, and as happened to Saint Theresa, the flesh is cut from his bones. He is literally chopped into pieces, cooked, grilled, or fried. Eskimo shamans must be able to see themselves as no more than a skeleton before they may accommodate the transitoriness of our egocentric world.’

Kalweit continues, ‘Many shamans were critically ill, socially unacceptable, and psychically confused over periods of several years; during their time of suffering their body and psyche adjusted themselves to an alternate mode of perception. This continuous biopsychic process of transformation often culminates in experiences of dismemberment, which represent the zenith and turning point of inner change towards a spiritual state of being.’

After initiation the shaman is ‘put back together’ and the training itself can begin. He learns the shamanic skills and techniques, and becomes familiar with spirit helpers and their functions. He learns how to communicate with them and how to channel their power. In many cases a traditional shaman would be trained in controlling his mind and thought as well as physiological functions, and consequently he was expected to master himself, and the training to reach that point could be rigorous.

In Shamanism⁹ Mircea Iliade mentions two main ways that shamans are recruited, ‘(1) hereditary transmission of the shamanic