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December 2004: Our Shamanic Tradition
January 2005: The Spiritual Realms
February 2005: An Encounter In Egypt
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Encounters on
the Shaman's Path
with anthropologist Dr. Hank Wesselman, PhD.
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by Dr.Hank Wesselman, P.h.D. |
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Our Shamanic Tradition
Last month's column explored the existence of a "spiritwalker program" on the inner hard-drive of the human genetic code--a program that when "double-clicked" with the right "mouse" enables the shifting of consciousness into visionary modes of perception. It was suggested that this is the same program that is utilized by the shamans of the tribal peoples and the mystics of our contemporary spiritual traditions.
Many of us in the Western world discovered that we had this program as children through our relationships with imaginary friends or with the faeries of the woods and waterways of the wild places. But just as many of us may become aware that we possess it through enduring a life crisis such as a serious illness or trauma or even a near-death experience that may precipitate visions. Still others may be drawn toward training workshops where their gifts may become apparent under the guidance of an accomplished shamanic teacher.
My many years of involvement with shamanic workshops have revealed that the spiritwalker program can easily be reactivated in nontribal Westerners, even after a thousand years of dormancy. The anthropologist Dr Michael Harner agrees. He and his colleagues at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies have successfully trained tens of thousands of spiritual seekers over the past several decades. I currently offer about 40 such workshops around the country each year, with my wife Jill Kuykendall co-teaching with me at our week-long Visionseeker retreats at centers such as the Esalen Institute in California, the Omega Insitute near New York (and at the Crossings near Austin), the NY Open Center, and the New Millennium Institute in Hawai'i. (See our schedule at <www.sharedwisdom.com>)
Allow me to affirm that modern shamanic work does not necessitate a retreat into archaic traditions, nor are Western people, on the whole, interested in "playing Indian" or becoming "born-again Aboriginals." While some are strongly-drawn toward the psychospiritual world-view of this indigenous tradition or that, I suspect that something entirely new is coming into being, and in the process, Western spirituality is being revitalized on an ever-increasing scale.
Most of us are much aware that there is a wide-spread spiritual reawakening going on in the West--one that is happening outside the carefully-patrolled borders of our organized religions and appears to be cutting across socio-economic levels of achievement and status, transcending cultural, political, and ethnic boundaries as well. This growing social movement includes a revival of interest in shamanism because the shaman's ancient time-tested techniques grant us access to the numinous realms where all the mysteries, great and small, may become known through direct experience.
Shamans are defined by their ability to access deep trance states in which they may dissociate their conscious awareness away from their physical body and journey into an alternate level of reality called the spirit world. There, they may enter into relationship with spiritual beings--the spirits of nature, the elementals, the ancestors, the higher compassionate forces who are willing to help us in various ways, or even high spirits beyond planetary and solar development such as the dorajuadiok in my Spiritwalker Trilogy. It is this extraordinary skill that reveals shamans to be cosmic travelers (also known as astral traveling.)
Through relationship, shamans discover that these discarnate beings are not all powerful--that they need our help in opening up a bridge between their world and ours in order to be of service to us. The shaman has always served in this capacity, using their own body and mind as this bridge, enabling them to access the power of these compassionate spirits and bring it into our world to help restore power to someone who has lost it, for example, or to afford protection to someone who is desperately in need of it. Many spirits may also help the shaman in accessing information through divination, or doing healing work on various levels.
Needless to say, this is true magic.
Interestingly, shamans virtually never take credit for the extraordinary work that they do. Rather they claim that it's really the spirits who do the work at their request, not themselves. I have also learned that shamans tend to be very humble people, perhaps because they know that the power they are able to manipulate and utilize is not theirs. Rather it is the power of the universe which is on loan to them through the spirits.
Because of this, no true shaman will ever call themselves a shaman. This is not just convention; it simply isn't done. In the same way, no authentic Hawaiian kahuna ever calls themselves kahuna for to do so would reveal spiritual arrogance--the fastest way toward losing their power.
It should be observed at this point that shamans are not the only ones who seek altered states or connection with spirits. Trance-mediums (channels) also enter trance to access spirits. But unlike the shaman, the medium usually invites a spirit to enter into their body, resulting in a form of spirit possession. This temporary alliance allows the spirit to express itself here in our world through dance, automatic writing, or by using the power of speech. Jane Roberts' relationship with the discarnate entity Seth, recorded in her widely-read books, is a well-known example of trance-mediumship in the Western tradition.
Although the mysterious skill of channeling discarnate beings may seem farfetched or paranormal to many in Western society, trance-mediumship is very much part of the mainstream in Latin American, African, and Asian cultures. In Brazil, for example, many have a family member who is a trance-medium involved in the Candomble, Macumba, or Umbanda traditions. The well-known Dr Fritz phenomenon involves the discarnate spirit of a German doctor from World War 1 who possesses Brazilian mediums so that he can do literally hundreds of successful healings for the public every day.
This reveals that the medium does their main work here in this world and is usually a passive instrument, emerging from trance with little or no memory of what transpired during the time of possession. The shaman, by contrast, does their main work in the spiritual realms, and they usually return with full recall of everything that transpired during their visionary adventures.
We should also mention here the term "medicine person" or "medicinemaker" because there's a lot of confusion in the West today about the kind of work done by medicine people and that done by shamans. This confusion exists because every shaman is a medicinemaker, but not all medicine people are shamans.
In fact, most medicine people are not shamans, but fulfill ceremonial roles similar to those of priests or priestesses in our organized religious traditions. In this capacity, medicine people may conduct long beautiful rituals in which they make offerings and prayers to the spirits. Medicinemakers may also possess great healing knowledge, especially with relation to the plant medicines. This reveals that they hold the physical as well as the metaphysical equilibrium of their communities within their capable hands, yet in contrast to the shaman, the medicine person usually does their main work here, in this world. This is not to say that medicinemakers do not have shamanic experiences. They may, during vision quest for example, or in the accessing of information through divination from the spirits of the plants they are using for their healing work.
Shamans, by comparison, don't usually offer lengthy rituals and prayer, and they don't usually engage in group process (ceremony) for entire communities. Rather, they tend to work one on one with individuals or with families. Of course, shamans do pray and do ritual, but this is usually to establish intention and get them into communion with their spirit helpers as quickly as possible.
In the same breath, some tribal visionaries function as shamans as well as ceremonialists.
In the Western tradition, the Druids of the Celtic tribes, as well as the wizards and the witches of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Europe and the British Isles, were the last holders of the ancient shamanic wisdom tradition that predated the arrival of Christianity at the end of the Roman Era. Scholars have suggested that the Druids were a powerful spiritual fellowship whose members functioned as shamans, seers, diviners, priests, healers, and advisers--a secret society whose members allied themselves with the chiefs and political leaders of many cultures in the ancient world. Some have suggested their origins lie in the Altai region of central Asia and that they may have first entered Britain with Phoenician traders.
Scholars have also affirmed that the word "witch" was originally a term of respect associated with superior knowledge and learning, as well as with "uncommon but not unlawful skills." From the scant literature that survives from the Medieval Period, there is no evidence that the witches were anything but powerful and effective healers who were operating very much within the shamanic tradition.
Unfortunately, as the politically-motivated priesthoods of the early Christian church rose to power in the towns and cities of Europe and Britain during the Middle Ages (and later in the Americas), the democratic, individualist practices of the shamans of the countryside were suppressed, often ruthlessly. These rural "wise women of the woods" and the "men of power and knowledge" were essentially the losers in a political battle over who had jurisdiction over the human soul, claimed by the church, and the human body, claimed by the newly-incorporated guild of physicans and surgeons in 1518.
Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of shamans were massacred in the ensuing holocaust of the great witch hunt that reached its peak between the years 1500-1650. Recorded history reveals that this horrific event actually began in the 12th Century, and that the religious intolerance that fed this shameful debacle survives to this day in various guises. Not surprisingly, those who possess shamanic abilities in the West have tended to keep a low profile until relatively recently.
The shamanic method is experiencing a great resurgence today because through using it, each person is gifted with their freedom, their sovereignty, and their right to develop spiritually. In the process, each of us becomes our own teacher, our own priestess or priest, our own prophet, enabling us to receive spiritual revelations directly from the highest sources ourselves. The practice of shamanism is thus intensely democratic, a fact that makes it immensely appealing to us Westerners.
This reveals why many have proclaimed shamanism to be the direct path of the mystic at its absolute best. This is the sacred way that leads each of us into the experience of self-empowerment and self-realization, without the need for any particular organized religious or spiritual structure to do it for us.
In the same breath, it helps to have some structural foundation in the beginning and most of us find one that fits. My newest book Spirit Medicine, co-authored with my wife Jill Kuykendall, draws upon the Hawaiian kahuna tradition to explore the nature of reality, as well as the mystery of the soul cluster (who and what we are) to provide such a foundation before examining the principles and practices of shamanic healing.
In summary then, the shaman's way enables us to experience the great mystery directly, bringing it into our everyday lives, and by association, into our relationships with everyone, everywhere. At its inception, our inquiry into the mystery is intensely personal, yet as it progresses, it leads us inevitably toward a universal and ultimately altruistic perspective, one that takes us straight into the irreversible vortex of spiritual growth that leads toward enlightenment.
This progression, once begun, changes us profoundly and forever because it conveys to each of us the experience of authentic initiation.
With this foundation, we may now begin to share stories and accounts of 'encounters on the shaman's path' in the monthly colomns that will follow, including some dramatic examples from my own experiences as an anthropologist, as well as a student of shamanism.
In closing, I would like to invoke the spirit of my great Hawaiian friend, Kahu Hale Kealohalani Makua, and extend to each of you the light and the love of the ancestors, The Source of Life, rejoicing in the Power and the Peace, braided with the cords of patience, revealing the tapestry of aloha.
--with warm thoughts--Dr Hank.
ENCOUNTERS ON THE SHAMAN'S PATH
WITH DR HANK WESSELMAN, PHD.
The Spiritual Realms
Seasoned greetings for the new year!
Our first two columns (November and December 2004) explored the shaman's ability to travel into the hidden inner spirit worlds in an expanded state of consciousness. We also discussed the growing awareness that a substantial percentage of the general population in Western society may possess the ability to engage in this extraordinary adventure, allowing us to have the direct, transcendent experience with the sacred worlds that defines the mystic.
This partially explains the plethora of experiential workshops and self-help books directed toward helping Westerners learn how to systematically alter consciousness, whether through meditation or yoga, trance-dance or prayer, or through utilizing the ancient time-tested methodology of the shamans of the indigenous peoples--a premise explored in my small book The Journey to the Sacred Garden.
It also reveals why the rediscovery of shamanism has become a major thrust of the spiritual reawakening taking place in our time.
Many, including anthropologists like Michael Harner and Joan Townsend, have pointed out that there are considerable differences between the world of contemporary Western "neo-shamans" and that of traditional tribal shamans. For example, the society of the traditional shaman tends to be small and homogenous, whereas contemporary Western society is large and heterogeneous, with many subgroups.
Traditional tribal shamans usually undergo long, rigorous periods of training, often for their entire lives, whereas Western "neo-shamans" tend not to affiliate with any clearly-defined, long lasting tradition or organization. Rather, they tend to gather in temporary agglomerations of people who come together in workshops and local drumming circles to acquire information and practical experience.
Within these groups, leadership is often shared and individuals may participate in a number of different workshop groups simultaneously, one emphasizing shamanism, another reiki or psychic healing or qigong. When the group comes to an end, individuals then disperse out again into the wider society to put what they have learned to use. Within these gatherings, virtually everyone is a spiritual seeker and tries to reach a state of transcendence. Virtually all try to deal directly with spiritual teachers and helpers, so that they can bring about help and healing for themselves, for members of their network, and for society and the world as a whole.
Modern Western shamans are all engaged in an intensive personal quests for spirituality, meaning, and transcendence. They are searching for new ways to organize their lives in a personally more satisfying manner--and virtually all profess belief in some form of higher, supernatural god-like being or consciousness.
It is of more than just passing interest that all shamans in every society, including the West, perceive the spiritual realms in very much the same way--as a multi-layered complex of subjective, dream-like realities, existing simultaneously as levels of awareness on the one hand, and as levels of experience on the other. By intentionally expanding their awareness in specific directions, shamans effectively change their level of experience, in the process shifting from one level of reality to another.
A good working outline of the spiritual worlds, as well as who and what we may encounter within them, might be as follows.
The Upper Worlds:
Located stratigraphically above the physical, everyday world are the numinous, light-filled regions of what are generally called the Upper Worlds. Shamans proclaim with their considerable authority that these worlds are inhabited by the higher gods and goddesses, the ascended oversouls who no longer embody, the spiritual heroes and heroines of the past, the angelic forces, and by those highly-evolved powers beyond solar and planetary development. These realms are the archetypal source of the Heaven or Paradise of the monotheistic religious traditions, and this is where each of us may find reconnection with our personal Oversoul or Higher Self. As the shamans and mystics of all traditions and all times have also discovered, the Upper Worlds are where the spirit teachers and spirit guides reside.
In our Western cultural myths, the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, or Dorothy's voyage to the Land Of Oz, are classic examples of Upper World journeys.
The Lower Worlds:
Located below the physical plane of everyday existence are the Lower Worlds or Underworlds, encompassed and created by the great dreaming of Nature. These are regions of adventure and power that have been visited by shamans for tens of millennia in order to connect with the spirits of the animals and the plants, the elementals and the nature spirits, and even with the spiritual essence of the planet herself. All shamans know that one or more of these spirits may agree to come into relationship with us, serving us as spirit helpers, allowing us to connect, by association, with the all-pervading energy that infuses everything everywhere with vitality and life-force.
Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and elements of Dante's Divine Comedy invoke Lower World experiences, as does Narnia, the locale described in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles.
The Middle Worlds:
In between the Lower and Upper spiritual realms are found the Middle Worlds which are dual in nature. On the one hand there is the visible, objective plane of everyday physical reality. On the other, we find its nonvisible, nonordinary aspect where the traditional peoples know we go during our dreaming while asleep. Everything that exists in everyday, ordinary reality seems to have a spiritual aspect in this nonvisible, nonordinary Middle World.
Interestingly, I have heard many traditional peoples affirm with great confidence that we humans are actually dreaming 24 hours a day, and that this invisible dream world is all around us, all the time. The trick lies in learning how to perceive it while awake.
Shamans are masters at being able to do this. One suspects that J.R.R. Tolkien could too, presenting his visions in his great Trilogy The Lord of the Rings, which reveals elements of both the classic Middle and Lower Worlds. The same might be said of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. As all shamans know, the doorways betwixt and between these worlds are all around us, all the time, but most of us miss them because we're not paying attention, or we don't believe in their existence.
Some things have to be believed to be seen.
It is also within the dream aspect of the Middle Worlds that each of us may find our personal place of power and healing-- a locality that can become a getaway where we can retreat to from the stresses and strains of everyday life. It is there that we may restore ourselves, enhancing our personal power, and find the gateways into the other spiritual levels of reality, awareness, and experience --another premise explored in The Journey to the Sacred Garden.
Modern mystics and shamans alike proclaim with conviction that we human beings have actually created substantial portions of the nonvisible Middle Worlds through our dreaming and through our collective creative imagination.
The dream aspect of the Middle Worlds (and by association, our sacred garden) is of more than just passing interest because this is where we find ourselves immediately following the death experience. The Bardo worlds of the Tibetans are located here, as are the after-death states of the Christian Purgatory (which means your garden can become your personal bardo when the big moment comes, if you so choose.)
In addition, shamans know that we may encounter the spirits of our ancestors in these dream worlds, as well as the souls of close friends, mates, and family members who have passed over within the last 100 years or so, suggesting that the souls of the dead can maintain their integration as a personal pattern for a substantial period of time.
In order to access these inner worlds, the shaman's journeying soul usually passes through a passage way that often resembles a shimmering tunnel, tube, or cylinder portal. It can be short or long, depending on where one goes. This is the same tunnel leading from the darkness to the light that is so familiar to those who have had a near-death experience--the same tunnel that Jodie Foster negotiated in the film Contact--the same passage way described as Alice's rabbit hole--and as Dorothy's cyclone.
Shamans know about and have described this passage between the worlds, giving rise in virtually all cultures to the concept of an axis mundi or cosmic freeway system. One almost universal form for it is the great tree of life, whose roots lie in the Lower Worlds, whose trunk passes through the Middle Worlds, and whose crown emerges in the Upper Worlds.
Seen from this perspective, the story of the Garden of Eden in the Bible is a classic example of the Lower World, with the tree of knowledge being the cosmic axis, and the serpent being the spiritual helper--the great archetype of wisdom who offered the gift of knowledge to humanity in the mythic past.
This essentially shamanic story posed great problems for the early "church fathers," of course, and for good reason. Who did the serpent of wisdom offer the gift to? The women! And who did they elect to share it with? The men.
For those interested, you might have a look at Elaine Pagel's book Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, in which she clearly demonstrates how a political schism between the early branches of the Christian church, East and West, transformed this great story of liberation into the condemnation of original sin. We've been wrestling with that one for 1700 years...
Just as often, the axis of connection is perceived by mystics and shamans alike as a luminous grid, a great filamentous web or net or matrix that spreads out across the Universe, through which everything everywhere is interconnected with everything else. This is the Unitive Field of the mystic, the Aka Web of the Kahunas, the Web of Wyrrd of the Anglo-Saxons, and the superstrings of advanced theoretical physics.
It is of interest that the earliest example of symbolic expression in the archeological record dates back to 77,000 years ago, to Blombos Cave in Southern Africa, where two pieces of red ochre have been excavated with the grid or the web inscribed into their surfaces. This same web or checker-board design is found from that time forward in rock art and cave paintings worldwide.
I have described my own direct encounters with this luminous grid in my three autobiographical books Spiritwalker, Medicinemaker, and Visionseeker, and we will say more about it, as well as about the spirit helpers, in the monthly columns to come.
As always, in closing I would like to invoke the spirit of my great Hawaiian friend, Kahu Hale Makua and extend to each of you the light and the love of the ancestors, The Source of Life, rejoicing in the Power and the Peace, braided with the cords of patience, revealing the tapestry of aloha.
--with warm thoughts--Dr Hank
ENCOUNTERS ON THE SHAMAN'S PATH
--with anthropologist Dr Hank Wesselman, PhD--
An Encounter in Egypt.
Our first several columns (see the Meta Arts archives of past issues) explored the singular trait that distinguishes shamans from all other kinds of religious practitioners--namely their ability to achieve expanded states of consciousness in which they can extend their awareness on visionary journeys into the transpersonal worlds where they encounter and enter into relationship with the spirits who reside there.
Whereas todays psychologists and spiritual seekers alike are most impressed with the shaman's ability to control their states of consciousness, the early anthropologists were particularly intrigued by the shaman's unique interactions with spirits. In 1935, for example, an investigator named Shirokogoroff published a book titled The Psychomental Complex of the Tungus, (a cluster of tribal cultures in Siberia well known for their shamans), in which he reported: "In all Tungus languages, the term (shaman) refers to persons of both sexes who have mastered spirits--who at their will can introduce these spirits into themselves and use their power over these spirits in their own interests."
Let me now draw upon my own life experiences and offer an example of what Shirokogoroff was talking about. This one occurred in January, 2003, while I was leading a two week trip in Egypt for PowerPlaces Tours--(You may view the slides of this tour on our web site <www.sharedwisdom.com> ). It also reveals how spontaneous and completely unexpected these connections with the spirits can sometimes be, as well as why shamans are often feared.
Our travel group spent the first week in Upper Egypt where we explored the magnificent sites at Karnak and Luxor, Abydos and Dendara, as well as the Hatchepsut complex and the Valley of the Kings west of the river. On Friday morning, January 10, our accomplished guide and Egyptologist Emil Shakar picked us up at the hotel at 6:00 AM. Our baggage was loaded into a minibus, and fortified by an early breakfast buffet, we headed south along the river in a convoy of vehicles bound toward Aswan and the sites in between.
At about 8:30, we crossed the Nile and proceeded to the site of Edfu, whose massive temple is dedicated to the falcon-headed god Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, and whose entrance is guarded by 12 foot stone statues of the falcon wearing the crown of Upper Egypt. Emil guided us through the site before the crush of tourists arrived, making sure we saw all the places of highest importance. I noted that the whole complex was alive with birds, stirring up quite a cacophony of sound. When I commented on this, Emil laughed and said "You should be here in June when the entire temple is taken over by nesting falcons."
It was after we left the temple, re-crossing the Nile and heading south again toward Aswan, that the encounter occurred. As we drove through the small villages and lush farmlands that bracket the river, my thoughts were focused upon the site we had just visited. It could be said that the temple at Edfu is about the "3rd level of initiation"--the level of the warrior, for Egyptian mythology reveals it was here that Horus avenged his father Osiris by killing Set who was his uncle and his father's murderer. In the positive polarity, the warrior is about power and persuasion; in the negative polarity, the warrior is about killing and coercion, military conquest and dominion... and about vengence.
As the road abruptly rose out of the farmlands and into the desert itself, my thoughts shifted moodily toward a person about whom I held mixed feelings--a program director who had contracted me to present a day-long workshop at a conference several months before. This person had never paid me our agreed upon honorarium and had been sending me serial emails, stalling me and lying to me. On checking with the conference organizers, I learned that this woman had not paid most of the presenters but had simply taken the money and run. I knew now that I would never be paid.
The minibus rocketed along through the open desert, and I watched the driver's prayer beads swinging from his rear-view mirror while I brooded about this act of betrayal. My eyes ranged outward across the barren rocky hills and arid sandy slopes that surrounded us under the cloudless blue sky. Not a tree could be seen, nor a single shrub, succulent, or weed anywhere. It was now late morning heading toward midday, and the sun-baked sand dunes and rocks were shimmering with heat--like my dark thoughts.
The motion of the car and the bleached, monotonous landscapes had lulled me into a semi-dreamy state, when suddenly, my mind abruptly refocused. I had picked up something... a presence... a contact of some sort... something BIG. Imagine extending your index finger as though pointing, then enclose your finger in your other hand and gently squeeze. That's what it felt like, except that in this case, the finger was my mind and "the something" was wrapped around it like an invisible fist.
Within my shamanic practice, this is a known experience, and I immediately turned my focused attention toward the presence with a mental command expressed as a question: "Who are you?" This startled the presence and it immediately "let go." A most interesting exchange then took place, the entirety expressed within my mind in the mental/emotional patterns that I have come to call "think-feeling." To put this encounter into cultural perspective, I had made connection with one of the Jinn... or rather it had made contact with me.
The Jinn are known to Westerners as the genies of Middle Eastern stories and myths. In Arabic, a Jinn, when masculine, is a jinni (genie), and when feminine, a jinniya. In the beginning of the Quran,
the great prophet Mohammed himself admits that the Jinn are real, that they are beings made of subtle fire (energy), and that they are normally invisible, but capable of becoming visible at their pleasure. There are Jinn that can fly; there are Jinn who walk on the land, and there are Jinn who live in the water. They tend to reside out in lonely wadis (canyons) in the desert, in abandoned wells and caravanseris, and I recalled in those moments that one of my college students from Iran had once told me that Jinn are fond of hanging out in bath houses.
It is generally known by shamans that dealing with the Jinn can be tricky because they can be willful and unpredictable. They have their own agenda, and if you cannot control them, they may in fact take control of you, and then you've got a problem. This reveals that if you're going to be working with spirits, doing some training with an accomplished teacher in the shamanic tradition is essential. You don't want to be relying on book-learning when you encounter the Jinn.
All this passed through my mind in a flash as I politely (and cautiously) felt my way into relationship with this spirit, explaining who I was and what I was doing there. The Jinn was equally as polite (and cautious), and since this was a mind to mind connection, the spirit was immediately aware of everything that passed along my thought
train. I had had previous dealings with the Jinn in Ethiopia (recorded in my books Medicinemaker and Visionseeker), and as these fleeting memories traversed my mind, the whole game abruptly changed. All the Jinn know each other (as I soon learned), and when this one discovered that I had been in relationship with other Jinn to the south, a
respectful formality invaded our interaction--one that even verged upon intimacy.
It was at this point that the "shape" of the Jinn assumed a definite feminine quality. Whether this occurred in response to me as a male, I do not know. But from this moment on, I came to perceive it as a jinniya--as female, and addressed it as such. She did not object.
I had closed my eyes during the initial moments of contact, and I now cracked one open, checking on my traveling companions, all of whom seemed to be half asleep themselves. Our Egyptian driver had fallen silent, and even the normally garrulous Emil had become quiet as well. I closed my eyes again and waited... and the interaction resumed. I will translate it into dialogue for the remainder of this account. The choice of words, syntax, and grammar, is entirely mine. But the content and direction of the jinniya's think-feeling was most definitely hers.
"I should inform you," she began with some hesitation (respect), " that when I saw your conveyance traveling through my area (territory?), I extended myself and slipped into the respective thoughts of you and your fellow travelers. I was simply curious about who you were and what you were doing here (more politeness), but you were the only one who perceived my presence... I didn't expect that," she admitted.
"You have a most interesting mind shape," her voice continued, "and since you have been in relationship with the Jinn before, you know us... and we you. This means that correct protocol has been established, allowing me to engage you on an entirely different level from that of the more ordinary people. This protocol allows me to be of service to you..."
"Have you been in connection with humans before, Jinniya," I responded hopefully, fishing for common ground.
Riotous laughter echoed through my head. "But of course," she said, recovering. "I am immortal and have been in relationship with more humans that you can count and for many thousands of your years. You are also an immortal, of course, or have you forgotten this like most of your kind?" More laughter verging on the manic, providing me with a dramatic glimpse into the world of the schizophrenic. The thought-line drifted as I again cracked an eye to check on my companions. All asleep.
Suddenly, I perceived the jinniya with my inner sight--as a point of light on the roof of the minibus. As I narrowed my focus, it abruptly expanded dramatically into a tall, vertical form surrounded by a field of bluish-green light that was vibrating. She was beautiful. The jinniya perceived my appreciation, and the voice shifted, becoming almost sultry. "So you can see too... That's very interesting. Not many can these days." An emotional pulse abruptly hit me like a thrown brick... an energetic one that was expressed as a feeling of affection verging on the outright erotic. My body soul reciprocated before I could recover, resulting in a tinkling peal of laughter in my inner ear. Flowers of primitive delight bloomed within me.
Then, there was a shift, followed by a long silence. When the dialogue continued, the jinniya announced "I can see that there is someone who has wronged you--a woman. I can see her clearly through the link between you--a young woman with short black hair. She lives in a city near a large lake in the northern lands far to the west of here."
Inadvertently, a memory surfaced in my mind--an image of the person who had stiffed me at the conference. "That's her, isn't it?" came the voice inside my head. I simply nodded, stunned at this unexpected turn of events. The jinniya had obviously been listening in while I was thinking those dark thoughts about the program director (pulse of confirmation.) As I marveled at the perceptiveness of this spirit, she picked up on my thought-feelings immediately and took them as a compliment (fortunately.) I could almost see her smile.
When I recovered my composure, the line of think-feeling continued. "This woman has been lying to you. What's worse, she has broken her promise to you. She owes you a large sum, does she not?"
I was literally open-mouthed and simply nodded again. The jinniya continued. "I know how to take care of this..."
Silence within. The moments stretched into minutes, and I had begun to think I had lost the connection when her voice suddenly re-emeged. There was a sense of satisfaction mixed with an edge of malice.
"I found her... and her husband as well... in that same city near the lake." The sense of malice shifted into neutral. "I am accomplished at casting spells, and so I have cast one around her, as well as around anyone connected to her by blood or marriage--a curse of misfortune and bad luck that will follow her and her family for a hundred years--across this lifetime and into the next." More laughter.
My heart sank, and I immediately protested. "But I did not ask you to do this. Furthermore, I am constrained in my practice never to cause harm..." I generated a strong edge of indignation to add power to my statement.
"Do not concern yourself. Your practice has not been compromised. You did not ask me to do this. I decided on my own to do it on your behalf. As you know well, the Jinn are willful and unpredictable." Laughter tinkled in my ear again as though she was savoring the whole thought of it. Then her thoughts became hard, like metal. "I do not like humans who break their oaths. They need to learn lessons, and this one will be considerable." I could see dark storm clouds gathering all around her, obscuring the blue light.
Again I protested. "But what if she pays me the money she owes me? What then?" There followed another long silence as the Jinniya considered the shape of this. Then the storm clouds suddenly lifted. I could feel rather than see her smile.
"I will teach you how to lift curses. You will find this useful in your practice, I'm sure. But do not lift my curse upon this woman until she pays you... with interest." I could hear her snort of amusement quite clearly.
And so it happened. Suddenly, I felt a subtle change in the motion of the vehicle and opened an eye. The road had begun to descend out of the desert, We were heading back down toward the farmlands near the river in the distance. I could feel the connection within my mind beginning to fade, and a last cluster of thoughts took form.
"In the old days, those with power and knowledge, like you, could bind us to their will. In those times, you would have been called 'a binder'... 'a binder of demons.' (Laughter) You could have had many of the Jinn in your service." There was one last thoughtful pause. "I invite you to visit with me when you pass through my domain again. Or any time you choose, for that matter. Now that we have established connection, you know how to find me.
"You have a most interesting soul pattern... familiar... We have met before, I think." Then, "Yes... I remember you now (delighted laughter). Until the next time... live well, Binder..."
There was a distinct snap or pop at the base of my skull and she was gone. I opened my eyes. The road had left the desert and rejoined the farmlands. Francine, one of my traveling companions from Toronto, was observing me with concern. "Hank," she said, "you look rather grim. Are you all right?"
I made reassuring gestures, but when we arrived in Aswan and transferred to our hotel, I shared part of this experience with the group over lunch. They were rivetted as we had been experimenting with the shamanic method between our daily excursions, attempting to connect with the spirits who reside in the places of power we had been visiting.
In this case, the jinniya had offered to serve me, and in the process, she had become one of my spirit helpers. We will say more about the spirit helpers in next month's column, but for now, allow me to share that my wife Jill and I will be leading another PowerPlaces Tour during the first two weeks of June in 2005.
This trip will be to Greece where we will stay in wonderful hotels while we celebrate life and and travel to the famous oracles at Dodona, Delphi and several other less well-known sites. It is my hope that we will be able to connect with the fields of power and knowledge that still permeate these sacred localities. We will also visit the temple of the great healer Aesklapios at Epidauros, one of the first holistic treatment centers in the ancient world, where we will attempt to connect with his great soul as I did with the Jinn.
We will also spend time in Athens, of course, before heading out into the Aegean Sea to the island of Mykonos and to Delos, the ancient center of the Greek spiritual world, for more inner fieldwork. Then we will head south to the mysterious island of Crete where we will culminate our travels visiting other well-known places of power. Allow me to say that these tours are simply life-changing. They are also tremendous fun. If you are interested in joining us, please connect with PowerPlaces Tours at 800-234-8687.
There is also a direct link from our site <www.sharedwisdom.com> to their's.
In closing, I would like to invoke the spirit of my great Hawaiian friend, Kahu Hale Makua, and extend to each of you the light and the love of the ancestors, The Source of Life, rejoicing in the Power and the Peace, braided with the cords of Patience, revealing the tapestry of Aloha.
--with warm thoughts--Dr Hank
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Dr. Hank Wesselman, P.h.D
Anthropologist, Shamanic Teacher, Healer, & Author
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Dr Hank Wesselman PhD., holds advanced degrees in anthropology and zoology from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Since 1971, he's conducted research with an international group of scientists, exploring eastern Africa's Great Rift Valley in search of answers to the mystery of human origins--fieldwork that has allowed him to spend much of his life living and working with traditional peoples, rarely, if ever, visited by outsiders.
During this time, he has worked with many notables including Prof F. Clark Howell, Dr Don Johanson, "Lucy's" discoverer, as well as members of the famous Leakey family.
He is currently engaged in fieldwork in northern Ethiopia with the Middle Awash Research Project headed by Prof Tim White, where he is reconstructing the paleoenvironments of sites dated between four and six million years old that have yielded the fossilized remains of humanity's earliest ancestors.
Dr Wesselman has taught anthropology for the University of California at San Diego; the University of Hawai'i at Hilo's West Hawai'i campus at Kealakekua; California State University at Sacramento; American River College and Sierra College in northern California; and Kiriji Memorial College and Adeola Odutola College in Western Nigeria, where he first became interested in indigenous spiritual traditions while living among people of the Yoruba Tribe as a US Peace Corps Volunteer during the 1960s.
Dr Hank (as his students call him) is also a shaman in training, now in the 23rd year of his apprenticeship. His autobiographical trilogy Spiritwalker, Medicinemaker, and Visionseeker describes an ongoing continuum of visionary experiences that began spontaneously out in the bush of southern Ethiopia in the 1970s, resumed in Hawai'i in the 1980s, and continue to the present day.
Combining the sober objectivity of a trained scientist with a mystic's passionate search for deeper understanding, Hank's books and teachings contain revelations about the nature of reality, the self, as well as the shaman's spiritual worlds.
Since 1994, he has offered seminars and training workshops at many internationally-recognized centers such as the Esalen Institute in California, the Omega Institute near New York, and the New Millennium Institute in Hawai'i.
Hank's newest books include the Journey to the Sacred Garden: A Guide to Traveling in the Spiritual Realms, and Spirit Medicine: Healing in the Sacred Realms (co-authored with transpersonal medical practitioner and soul retrieval specialist Jill Kuykendall).
He currently serves on the advisory board of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners, is a member of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Anthropological Association, the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, and is featured in Traveling Between the Worlds: Conversations with Contemporary Shamans by Hillary S Webb.
In addition to his scientific publications, he is at work on a book about his expeditionary field experiences in Africa.
He has also written a small book for children: Little Ruth Reddingford and the Wolf.
Contact info and workshop schedule:
www.sharedwisdom.com
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