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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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Another Encounter with Sekhmet… in Egypt
About a year ago, I shared with you an account of my connection with one of those transpersonal forces we have been talking about in the last several columns, in this case the goddess Sekhmet. The initial encounter took place in January of 2003 when I led a travel group to Egypt. During this tour, we visited Karnak—the enormous archeological site that was and is the heart of Egypt.
Karnak
This immense, archeological complex was designed and constructed by its builders on a monumental scale. Karnak is composed of many temples and many shrines, and it continues to invoke a sense of mystery and awe as it is doubtful that we could replicate it today, even with our high technology.
For example, one side of the immense roof of the central complex that towers many stories above the ground is built slightly higher than it’s opposing side, creating a natural form of air-conditioning in that warm air is drawn upward during the hot time of the day, allowing cooler breezes from the Nile to the west to flow inward and downward. And this was conceived and executed by Egyptian architects and engineers while the European tribal barbarians were still living in their villages in their forests two thousand years before the Greek Civilization arose.
The word “Egypt” means ‘The land of Ptah’—referring to a transpersonal being who was (and forever will be) the archetypal force of creation, the lord of darkness and wisdom who is said to have come here from the stars. In his blue aspect—his blue skin or blue cap, Ptah then ruled Egypt for 8000 years according to myth. His consort (or feminine compliment) during this age was (and is) Sekhmet, the great transformational lion-headed goddess.
On that day in 2003 at Karnak, our Egyptian guide took us beyond the complex itself to a smaller building where he greeted the guards and crossed their palms with a modest wad of Egyptian pounds. They then unlocked the iron grate across the door of an unprepossessing shrine dedicated to Ptah, and we stepped into the small stone building, entering a room in the center of which a raised dais bears a headless statue of Ptah.
After taking in this desecrated sculpture, we gazed around at the reliefs on the walls that depict the great architect and healer Imhotep, the man who became a god, revealing this shrine to be a place of initiation for healers.
My First Encounter
A dark doorway with another iron gate beckoned to our right and in a hoarse whisper, our guide then told us that within this shrine resides the only living statue of Sekhmet in Egypt—one that was placed in this crypt by the Pharaoh Thutmoses the Third (the Napoleon of Egypt) in roughly 1450 BC. The guards were tipped once again, and the gate across that door was opened, allowing us access to another smaller stone room.
As the group filed in, only a dim shaft of early light from the sky penetrated the total darkness of the room through a small hole in the ceiling. We stood blinking in silence as our eyes adjusted, and then there before us, a standing black stone image of Sekhmet took form, black on black. We could just make out a slender female human body with her lion’s head, on top of which was perched the sun disc, the cobra uraeus before it, revealing her as a solar deity. From her base to her apex, the image of the goddess seemed to stand seven feet tall.
This was a dramatic experience, to say the least, and our guide then closed the door after us, effectively shutting us into the shrine with Sekhmet. There was only just enough light to barely make out the outlines of her powerful figure, but as our eyes continued to adjust to the dim light and the sky outside brightened with the dawn, the goddess seemed to magically take on density, manifesting herself in the small room and intimidating us into silent reverence for a good five minutes or more.
On that day I stood facing her, leaning against the back wall behind the group, taking it all in, and I watched as the group began to respond, their hands slowly coming up and their prayers softly being offered. I considered what our guide had said—that this was the only ‘living’ statue of Sekhmet in Egypt. With that thought, I decided to try to access the expanded state—the same high frequency brain-waves described in the books of my Spiritwalker trilogy.
There was no hesitation. As the first ecstatic surge of energy gripped me in its invisible fist and my breath caught in my chest, I reached for the power. In response, the energy swept into me like a wave engulfing a beach. I stiffened physically, my mind abruptly expanding… and I suddenly felt the goddess’s awareness focused upon me. There was no doubt. ‘She’ was there.
I tried my best to remain still, controlling my tendency to shake by wedging myself against the back wall. The rest of the group was focused on the statue, and so we remained for another five minutes or more. When our guide finally opened the door, I remained propped against the back wall while my fellow travelers slowly completed their rituals and then quietly filed out the doorway.
Finally only I remained.
There I was, alone in an ancient stone room in Upper Egypt, standing in the presence of a goddess. I observed her feminine form closely… and it seemed that I could actually see her breathing. In those moments, I suddenly remembered that I had Jill’s little camera in my waist pack, so I asked in a stifled whisper through clenched teeth if I could take her picture.
A brief snort of amusement jolted through my mind… and I felt her agreement. ‘Why not? Everyone else does and none of them ever asks permission.’
My blood was hissing in my ears as I brought the little metal box to my face with extreme effort. No sooner had I snapped the shot than I realized that I had filled her sanctuary with a flash of shattering light. In the shocked darkness that followed, I wondered if this had been appropriate, and almost in response, two words appeared in my mind.
‘Come closer.’
Astonished, I remained rooted to my spot, my back against the stone wall. I glanced to my right and to my left. I was alone with this leonine goddess. Then again, almost impatiently, the words came…
‘Come here…’
There was no denying this summons. Slowly (and reverently) I managed to jump start my legs and feet, allowing me to slowly shuffle forward until we were only inches apart. I stared up into her dark lion face and suddenly, I could feel her breath upon my skin.
Then her words came once again… ‘Kiss me!’
Again, I looked around in the darkness, but I was alone with her. The group was outside the shrine. So I slipped off my shoes and stepped up onto the statue’s base and slowly reached around and took her into my arms, aware that her breasts had become warm and soft against my chest and that I could feel her breathing.
Without thinking, my hand came up and caressed her face and brow, scratching her as I know all cats like to be scratched. She felt organic, furry, with the bones of her skull and the cartilage of her ears very much alive. In response, she abruptly pushed her face against mine, butting me with her forehead in a distinctly feline greeting as the cobra on her brow watched me with a flat stare.
In response, the feelings of power soared within me once more, virtually cutting off my breath. As I gasped for air, Sekhmet tipped her head and breathed into my mouth and nose, filling my lungs with her HA—her divine breath of life. The room was suddenly filled with blue light and what seemed to be a doorway shimmered behind her, or perhaps around her. Once more her words appeared in my mind.
“You will return to me in your dreaming… in your dreaming while asleep and in your dreaming while awake. And you may use the portal that exists here with my blessing, whenever you wish. Perhaps you will call upon me from time to time… as I can be of service to you. Until then, may you fare well…” And then almost as an afterthought, “It is nice to see you again.”
I leaned my face against her breasts as a burst of sudden tears came, and then the softness of her breathing slowly stilled as the soaring sensations of the force lessened and once again she became a stone image. Simultaneously, the blue light ceased to exist and the crypt was once again in shadow.
Mythic Thoughts
My previous essay about this encounter contains more of what happened that day. I described Sekhmet as having two polarities representing the warrior as slayer in the negative polarity, the goddess of plagues and pestilence and all sorts of nasty stuff (directed at the enemies of Egypt in days gone by, of course). Yet in the positive polarity, this leonine female is the warrior as healer—an archetypal force that expresses fierce compassion—a quality that comes through Sekhmet’s willingness to stand with us while we embodied mortals are in the fires of transformation. She offers this so that we may step forward to become who and what our destiny holds out to us.
Now—aside from these mythic beliefs (which can be greatly supportive and sustaining in the short term), it is my understanding as one who walks the shaman’s path that this archetypal force called Sekhmet does indeed have her own existence in the subtle realm of things hidden. As such, ‘she’ is one of those dense transpersonal concentrations of energy that possess certain qualities and abilities that may be of use to us.
In fact, it may very well be that the deities of Ancient Egypt (and elsewhere) embody and express the myriad aspects of Nature as archetypal forces that have ‘overseen’ the human experiment from the very beginnings of our long journey across eternity. And in this sense, each of us has the potential to be partnered by many such benevolent forces that are hovering just offstage of the human drama, willing to constellate within us and through us to manifest effects that can be truly life-transforming and very far-reaching.
This is what the shaman’s path is all about.
Fast Forward to 2008
We’re not talking about our organized religions here in which our priesthoods and scriptures demand the worship of and our deference to some monotheistic father figure in the sky. That’s a mythic belief system, and an archaic one at that.
We’re talking about authentic transpersonal experience of the subtle and causal worlds in which we may come into relationship with the ‘organizing intelligences’ that exist there and are real. But how those forces are experienced appears to be determined by how we, as individuals, are set up psychologically.
When we consider the societal games that we all seem to be playing with each other on an ongoing basis, it could be observed that many if not most of us are anchored in the negative polarity. We may proclaim that we are not… we may say that we are compassionate beings devoted to the greater good, that we pray to God in our church or synagogue or mosque… and yet if we achieve success at the expense of others failure, if we injure others with our words or deeds or thoughts, if we operate through competition or coercion, zeal or deception, we are most definitely in the negative polarity.
If on the other hand, we deal with our family members, friends and co-workers through cooperation, persuasion, with compassion and authenticity, our anchor is in the positive polarity. This ‘law of polarity’ is most important because the archetypal forces do not judge us. They simply exist in the spiritual realms and express themselves through us, in the process amplifying whoever and whatever we are… as well as what we are becoming.
And since we live in a world in which the dominant emotion is fear, a world in which violence is presented to us as entertainment, whether through endless meaningless sporting events (essentially gladiatorial games) or through Hollywood films and television shows focused within the dark side of human nature, it is not too difficult to see how these mini-and macro-epics reinforce that negative polarity in which our anchor rests.
This reveals that the archetypal forces essentially expand our experience of whatever polarity we inhabit. It’s all about learning our lessons.
Over the past six years, the archetypal force called Sekhmet has come to me many times during the shamanic healing rituals that I facilitate in each workshop. And I always perceive her as the black leonine woman who exudes qualities of fierce compassion and dark grace… the warrior as healer.
So—as we once again approached the shrine of Ptah in Karnak on December 10 of 2008, I was filled with anticipation of a reunion with Sekhmet.
The Second Encounter
On this day, I had made a special request that our group be allowed to have ‘personal time’ with this deity, six or eight at a time (we were more than 30 and the room is small). I was the first one to enter with Jill at my side.
As before it took my eyes several moments to adjust to the darkness, illumined only by that small hole in the ceiling. As Sekhmet materialized, I was absolutely thunderstruck by the power of her presence. It was like a punch in the stomach. I ceased to breathe for long moments, and then as I sucked in air, I suddenly felt her amusement once again.
I wasn’t sure if she remembered me, so I stood before her for long moments, my arms outstretched with palms offered toward her, and I bowed. Then I straightened, accessed the high-frequency brainwave states that I use in doing shamanic work and addressed my prayer to her. I reintroduced myself, giving her an account of my previous visit and reminding her of her invitation to return.
I expressed my gratitude for all those times when she had come to be of service during healing rituals, including those intervals when she had actually come into my body and possessed me. With those memories, the atmosphere in the small shrine seemed to thicken and the blood started to hiss in my ears—a sure sign of power augmentation… and I began to shake.
As before, I felt her presence, her conscious awareness, come into my mind. Her greeting in return was palpable, warm and friendly. As the connection deepened, it verged upon affection.
As my body continued to shake in response to those enormous soaring sensations that began to suffuse me, I managed to raise my hands in the Egyptian gesture of reverence and I breathed into her face, sharing my breath with her in the same manner that she had done with me before. Four times I did this, exhaling completely with a throaty HAAAAAAA… while looking directly into her eyes.
And with each intake of breath, I was aware that her lion breath was flowing into my lungs in return… We were sharing the breath in the same way that the Polynesians share theirs’, their foreheads and noses pressed together in what the Hawaiians call ‘the honi.’
Finally, I managed to step aside so that Jill in turn could address her directly. I turned then and surveyed our companions. The six or so of our travel group who had entered with us seemed stunned into silence. The whole effect was like swimming in deep water, everyone moving in slow-mo, as though a spell had been cast upon us all, yet curiously we could all still breathe. Then when Jill stepped back, they too shuffled forward to offer their prayers.
As they turned as a group to leave so that the next group could enter the small room, I turned to leave with them. It was then that the voice appeared in my mind…”You are to stay…”
So I remained to one side of the goddess as all the members of our travel group entered and connected with her over the next 45 minutes. Throughout, our minds, hers and mine, remained in tandem, and information flowed back and forth like waves on the beach. I was reminded of her revelation to me on my last visit, that there was an interdimensional portal within this shrine. As I thought about this (aware that her attention was continually monitoring my thoughts,) I suddenly felt her amusement once again.
Then I realized that her statue, in black granite, seven feet tall, the sun disc on her leonine head, is the portal. The image itself is the doorway through which she can access this physical world here, and through which we as inspired visionaries can access the transpersonal worlds there in expanded states of awareness…
In those moments I also learned from her directly that she is the primordial femininity in both polarities—the destroyer on the one hand and the matrix of creation on the other, the firey daughter of Ra, the sun… and the goddess who works with time…
And I understood why the archetypal forces choose to inhabit certain objects or places. On the one hand, these objects can and do serve as doorways for both the transpersonals as well as those initiates who know how to open them. On the other, they can serve as centers through which these transpersonal beings can exert attractor patterns that may affect or draw certain humans who are ready to come into relationship.
I stared into her black stones eyes and thought about my encounter with Isis the day before (last month’s column). ‘One of my daughters,’ came the response.
As members of our travel group took flash photographs, her thoughts again became amused. ‘Light-bearers…’ came her thought.
I asked about her relationship with time. Her response conveyed to me that I was also in a primary relationship with time through my visionary connections with my once and future descendent Nainoa (this relationship is recorded in my Spiritwalker trilogy) and through my paleontological research with our fossil precursors in the remote past many millions of years ago (this relationship is recorded in my scientific papers and monographs).
‘Yes…’ came the thought. ‘You and your descendent are time-masters in training. You both are working with time, and I will continue to help you in this capacity as I have in the past…’
‘And have we been in relationship in the past?’ I asked. Her amusement returned. ‘Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?’
That put me in my place. Chastened, I asked one more question. ‘Will you continue to mentor me and assist me with my work when there is need?’
‘Most decidedly…’
This strange dialogue continued within my mind until all of our group had paid their respects and only I remained in the shrine.
I approached her then and placed my hands on her. Then I bowed my head until my face was pressed against her breasts and I accessed my power, those high frequency brain wave states I have written about. At their highest intensity, shaking uncontrollably, I shared this power with her, then turned up my face and breathed into her face once again. In response, her lion breath flowed down across me like the desert wind, infusing my entire body with her essence and her fierce compassion.
In this way we shared energy and essence with each other… then I stepped back and bowed to her one last time, offering her my love. As I left the shrine, I was still powerfully altered and remained so for the rest of the day. In response, I had no desire to eat when we went to a wonderful restaurant on the Nile some hours later before flying back to Cairo…
There is a wonderful photograph of Sekhmet in her shrine at Karnak posted on our website for you to see. Go to www.sharedwisdom.com and click on the archives, then watch the slide show. Pause the show when she comes up and utilizing whatever meditative techniques work for you, connect with her. Take notes. Return often. Our gift to you.
Until next month, allow me to invoke the spirit of Chief Hale Makua, my great Hawaiian friend… and with his blessing (and his words), I 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 the strongest force in the Universe… your 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
email:
hw@sharedwisdom.com
Notes & Updates
from Dr.Hank
Descriptions of the workshops and presentations offered by Hank Wesselman and his wife Jill Kuykendall, as well as the website links to the centers where they will be held in 2007, are now taking form on their web site:
www.sharedwisdom.
com
Soul Catchers
I discovered, quite by accident almost 15 years ago, that I am married to a great soul catcher. My wife Jill Kuykendall was trained in the Western medical paradigm and has worked as a physiotherapist in acute care rehabilitation in hospital as well as home health settings for more than 25 years.
Today, Jill works primarily in transpersonal medicine and has a private practice devoted to soul retrieval. Clients come to her from all over the country, as well as from abroad and she is usually booked up months in advance.
Interestingly, the transpersonal nature of this work means that it is “nonlocal’ and is just as effective when done long-distance, revealing that Jill can still do the work on behalf of those who cannot travel to meet with her in her office.
Jill is the co-author with me of Spirit Medicine and wrote the chapters on soul loss, soul retrieval and more. As you may be aware, we have a website <www.sharedwisdom.
com> where Jill has a page describing the nature of her work in soul retrieval.
For those interested, there are also two hour-long interviews with me posted on the Broadband Learning Channel <www.bblc.tv>, one of which is focused upon health, illness and healing the soul in the indigenous perspective.
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