Shamans are probably what can be considered the original
Holistic Doctors. They worked from an extensive knowledge base of
Natural and Spiritual Sciences. They are trained and taught out of
what we might call right-brain, lunar knowledge. They are trained to
use their intuitive faculties of unity, interconnectedness and synthesis. They
have great abilities to interpret symbolic imagery and have an acute
knowledge of the Law of Correspondences, Analogies, and Metaphor.
In all Esoteric Teachings, everything is broke down into
energetic terms. This is to not only view all of life from its most fundamental
level, but also because it allows a neutral model that can be used to interpret and
conceive of all living systems in terms of behavior and interactive qualities.
It allows a rich comprehension of energy as feeling qualities, emotions,
belief complexes and habitual attitudes and how these manifest into various
physical effects. Physical effects that not only determined character
development of the individual, but also what illness and diseases they were
prone to as an energetic correspondence within the Chakra system. By
developing their spiritual faculties or super-senses to a high level allows them
to perceive the underlying nature governing all of life.
In purely energetic terms, at the base level of plasma, which
can be thought of as the stuff of thought-forms that coagulate within the astral
field of the etheric body, what becomes expressed is based on an imbalance. The
imbalance is created as a polar emphasis on a particular quality, aspect or
attribute. Because disease is always due to an imbalance brought on by pressure
or by where, or in what way the system is being stressed, in order to bring the
system back into equilibrium, you have to introduce the polar opposite in order
to shift the degree of emphasis. Energy, in its neutral and natural state, has
an intelligence of its own that always seeks to equalize a living energetic
system. To balance and restore it back into a harmonious state.
We have to form an understanding of energy as qualities of
vibratory frequencies, which when identified through a form of classification,
form a whole chain-of-association in terms of colors, sounds, aromas, herbs,
plants, stones, function of objects, geometric shapes, and so on. To increase
an effect and quicken the time necessary to manifest, you must increase the
correspondences. Create a harmonious state. The greater the correspondences,
the more immediate the natural effect. This was performed through various
ceremonies, rituals, charms and spells that were considered miraculous and
therefore referred to as Magic. This works off of the principle of “like begets
like”. We attract to us, and are attracted by things of a similar nature or
vibratory quality. Increase the likeness and we increase the attractive
ability.
The primary basis for “likeness” as our soul’s essence or
nature, also recognized that our bodies are the product of our environment. Our
bodies are made of and sustained by the same material substances that exist
naturally in our immediate surroundings. So all materials as corresponding
elements were present and gathered within our immediate environment, the one of
our daily life. No exotic elements from other places were brought in because
they were not of a like nature to us in the ultimate sense. Natural healing
took place through food, herbs, flowers, stones and the energetic influence of
the people you were in direct relationship with in your everyday life.
Intuitive Imagination
Art by: Susan Boulet
Shamans as Psychologist
Shamans posses great psychological skills, and psychic
abilities that come from well-developed spiritual faculties. Through an
understanding that the primary essence of the mind is energetic, Shamans posses
and intimate understanding of the interconnectedness of the mind-body and how
they exist in a natural alignment or form of atonement. They exist as intimate
and indigenous correspondences of the Soul or Higher Mind. The problem that
most people have in understanding this is they don’t recognize and remain
unaware of the subconscious, or higher conscious aspects of their own nature.
Of their true “Self”. Shamans always tune into the essence of the soul and
consciousness of all living systems and perceive everything as a harmonic
correspondence or a kind of chain-of-association.
Shamans are what can be considered the first psychologist.
Back when the mind-body were considered one thing and not broke up into
fragmented parts to be dealt with separately. This is because psychology is
basically the energetic expression of an indigenous system. By tuning into the
subconscious, invisible realms of conscious energy, they could identify a
contradiction in what the conscious mind was making up and perceived as real and
what the subconscious, energetic body was actually formed of. Shamans can
realize areas where the individual was unconscious, aspects and traits they were
in denial around and had repressed as a result by judging them as being
undesirable or bad in some way.
By journeying to the lower worlds of the subconscious mind,
the level of the shadow, they can heal fragmented aspects by simply integrating
them back into the system as a natural aspect of the personality. Once it is
fully integrated and able to be expressed in a healthy and natural way, it is
discharged energetically, and healed spontaneously as a result by reestablishing
harmony and inner peace. It resolves inner conflict that serves to fragment
consciousness.
Communicating with Nature
Soul Retrieval
Shamans, not only view the mind-body as a whole energetic
systemof vibratory essence, but also work from the fundamental level of
the soul as the creator of the personality which forms the
identity which spontaneously births the ego when undergoing external stress.
The Mind, when traumatized, fragments into dissociated aspects of itself.
These aspects become sub-personalities that remain within the individual as
non-cohesive and as a form of internal conflict as self-sabotage. Aspects of
the self that work against each other through a form of contradiction as
different perspectives with different agendas which operate primarily outside of
our conscious awareness.
Shamans work with a form of hypnosis to reintegrate fragmented
aspects into a form of coherence. Fragmented aspects of the mind that can’t be
integrated, because they are not indigenous to the soul, they are walk-ins,
attachments or possessions, are interpreted for their value and purpose, and
then released from the system. They are returned to the Universe of life-force
energies to be recycled or reassigned in a way that they can benefit someone
else.
When a soul/mind is traumatized and aspects of it shatter, and
other entities take their place, the soul becomes diminished and looses power.
This is easy to identify in those who have bad experiences and “are never the
same” again. It’s almost as if it changes “who” and how they are. Their
personality and basic behavior changes immediately after the event that
traumatized them. The Mind, once fragmented or shattered often doesn’t regain
the lost parts. They have to be “called back”. Aspects are retrieved and
integrated back into the soul in order for the soul to regain its power and
original fullness of its energetic essence.
So Shamans heal not only the body and mind, but also the
soul. They are the truest form of Holistic Practitioner. Soul healing directly
deals with karma and residual energetic imprinting that forms behavioral
tendencies in the current life. So healing performed by a Shaman is restoring
the “whole Self” to an equalized state of harmony. This is true healing that
takes place at the most fundamental level of the soul’s energetic essence. This
is the primal aspects of the “Self” that forms a complex of energetic
information that is carried from life-time to life-time. The energetic essence
that becomes the primary building blocks for evolving forms of physical
expression within different circumstances and conditions that is of the same
nature and likeness.
Shamanic Journeying
Shamanic journeying to the underworld is a sophisticated and
highly developed form of rapport, hypnosis and magnetism. It’s a true form of
what we might call inter-dimensional shifting. The journey to the underworld is
symbolic of the lower-mind of the body and in nature as the instinctual field as
the greater mind-field that pervades and connects all of life. Animal spirits
are living forces as qualities of consciousness. Our subconscious mind is our
instinctual mind and speaks the language of symbolism. The languages of images,
qualities, emotions, colors, and relates to metaphors. It is archetypal in
nature. Shamans deeply connect to nature, animals, cycles, the cosmos and the
invisible realms of subtle energy.
Shamans – as originally formed from Hermetic Sciences – as art
and science before they became separated, were viewed as the right-brain and
left-brain function of the same thing. Science was recorded, communicated and
passed down through art as objective symbolism that had to be interpreted in
order to be understood. This required great knowledge of Universal Principles
known as the Natural Sciences and Healing Arts. Science was the knowledge; art
was the application and performance of the knowledge.
Knowledge had to be intuited to be understood for its
practical value. It had to be interpreted through the imagination of the
individual. It operated as principles that when interpreted, were done so
through the application to specific life circumstances, eras of time and natural
cycles, and by the individual mind in who was applying it. This unique feature
made it a “living system” of holistic knowledge that maintained its power and
potency throughout the ages.
Each time it was used, it
formed a new variation as a probability of the same principles as applied to
unique circumstances and situations through the mental filters of the
individual. The knowledge, because it had to be interpreted, was personalized
by the individual which worked perfectly according to their level of
development, beliefs and values. Because knowledge can only be apprehended
through experience, the art of interpretation required the imagination of the
individual to first create an internal experience that was used to shape and
give definition to the outer experience. Meaning as the basis for experience,
became the common denominator.
Spiritual Healing is healing that deals with the “source” as the soul/spirit, or
the eternal self. It is healing that addresses the cause rather than
manipulating the effect. It does not seek to heal the body, although it can and
ultimately does, but rather heals the energetic imprint or conditioned pattern
as an emotional belief that creates a complex or interactive dynamic, which
causes problems or manifests in very undesirable ways. Shamanism works at the
multi-dimensional level of the Soul which spans many life-times simultaneously.
What some don’t realize is that any aspect healed at the soul level in “one
life”, spontaneously heals the same aspect in “all lives”. The Oversoul or
Higher Self, is creating at multiple dimensions all at the same time. The
perception of time is a man-made (produced by the mind) concept necessary for
creating experience. We create a model of past and present in order to create a
linear and logical experience of multiple lives, but in reality, they are all
unfolding in the same moment.
Another way we can look at this,
is that we exist as not only multi-dimensional Beings, but on multiple levels of
existence while living multiple lives all based on the same Soul essence.
Quantum Physics tells us that time doesn’t really exist, and while logically we
have difficulty perceiving this, we can experience it when we regress into what
we refer to as past lives. In Shamanism, various levels of experience
accessible through what we call hypnotic trance, is referred to as Journeying to
the Underworld. Into the subconscious mind which is memory based and
emotionally driven. This journeying into the self, allows for soul recognition
at the various levels of existence.
This is the true power of Past
Life Regression as a profound healing modality. It’s not to glorify or take an
ego interest in another existence, it is to recognize “patterns” as life themes
that are being played out at multiple levels. Though we have trouble seeing our
own tendencies in our current life because we are directly associated to them,
and have a mental model that perfectly creates them, when we see the same idea
or pattern as a dynamic being acted out in a life that we are dissociated from,
like looking at someone else’s life, we can see the tendencies clearly. Because
the same consciousness that is living both lives is doing the “seeing”, acting
as the witness, it allows immediate recognition of those same tendencies in the
current life. Once we are able to see our own tendencies, make what is
unconscious, conscious, it not only loses its power over us, but we can now
correct it by making new choices in the present situations that it is being
expressed.
We can only heal what we are aware
of. We can only work consciously in our life through self-awareness and the
ability to self-direct as a result. The significance of Past Life Experience in
healing is that we are acting out the same patterns of cause and effect, the
same Karma. We are acting it out in both (all) lives because the same soul
(ours) is living at multiple levels and being shaped by the same qualities,
tendencies and characteristics. Sometimes, just the experience of them is all
it takes. Once we make the connection of the same ideas as themes being acted
out on multiple stages within different settings, we heal it simply by virtue of
becoming conscious of it. Most patterns only grip us and act to control our
life in some way because we are unaware of them and don’t recognize our part in
acting them out. We are asleep to them. They form unconscious impulses or a
series of triggered emotional reactions that run whole programs as behavioral
patterns. It’s like hitting an icon on your desktop, which activates and runs a
predetermined program that operates within a structured design that only
performs certain functions. Triggered emotional reactions run the same
behavioral dynamics every time they are triggered, and are completely
predictable.
So what we call spiritual healing
is a form of self-knowledge as soul-recognition. Bringing what is unconscious as
shadow aspects into the light of awareness where we can see what compels them,
triggers them as a chain-reaction, and in what ways we fall asleep to them when
they are activated. We can see the illusion we create that justifies and serves
to co-create them as a natural part of our psyche. Like being possessed by an
emotional entity we imagine to be beyond our control. All healing is
self-healing. We are only healed through the actual experience, not as an
intellectual interpretation dictated by somebody else. Past Life Regression is
only meaningful through personal experience, not through psychic interpretation
of someone else telling you about a life. We only learn and fully self-realize,
through the experience of it.
The term esoteric meaning: inner, hidden, secret, feminine
aspect or belonging to the select few; was deemed so because it took a higher
level of knowledge and intuitive ability to understand. It also deals with the
invisible, energetic realms of subtle energy and an acute ability to work with
it skillfully, which warranted the term “magick”. Like a miracle, its
operations could be observed, and effects real, but not explained or understood
by those who lacked knowledge. It took an in-depth knowledge of the Spiritual
Arts and Natural Sciences which could only be obtained through devoted study,
personal application, or by living/practicing the knowledge to create a personal
experience of it, which took years of patience and discipline. This devoted
practice was only undertaken by an initiate.
Exoteric, meaning: outer, external and common; became the
basis for religion because it could be communicated to the general public
without any special knowledge or abilities. This formed the original
separation of spiritual sciences and religious practices. Exoteric requires you
to except someone else’s ideas about the spiritual realms of Mind and body, and
therefore deny the most primary aspect of esoteric practices which is to always
base knowledge on personal experience, never accept someone else’s truth over
your own.
Esoteric Sciences rest on the basis that God as a form of
mental concept, exists within you, as you. That Nature and all of Life is God
as Life-Force Energy that exists at different vibratory frequencies. Personal
experience of God is the only way you can know God. Exoteric teaches separation
that is twice and thrice removed. It teaches not only that God is outside of
you, separated from you, but that you can only access God through the Church and
its clergy. Religion in general teaches a reliance on someone else’s
interpretation of Holy Scripture. It requires someone else to do your biding
for you. It teaches that some have a stronger and more intimate connection
with and to God, and therefore know more than you do.
Yet separation, in the
ultimate sense not only represents the dual and polar nature of all living
forces, but also creates the basis for union and merging back into the whole.
This is represented in Alchemy as the Chemical Marriage that sets the basis for
spiritualization as a form of purified mind/body that is returned to its
original state of unified harmony that forms coherence. Coherence shifts the
entire system to a higher vibration and level of consciousness.
