Core shamanism is the universal, near-universal, and common methods a shaman uses to enter Non-Ordinary Reality (NOR) for problem solving and healing. In essence, an eternal part of us survives death and moves into NOR. Accessing an altered state of consciousness means we can be in touch with this ‘other world’ where we find powerful, compassionate beings, with whom we form relationships.
Rather than relying on texts or interpretations, shamanism is the practice of direct revelation. In essence, you become a practitioner of divinatory shamanism for yourself, with the help and guidance in ordinary reality of the shamanic counsellor. In actual fact, the shamanic ‘counsellor’ is a mediator, and the real shamanic counsellors are in NOR. These bringers of counsel are your points of contact, your ‘go to’ people, who you contact on your shamanic journeys, with whom you develop a relationship and who provide answers to your questions. Through these conversations, what starts out as a Spiritual support system can become an intentional way of living.
Thanks to shamanism.org for some of this wording.
Core Shamanism includes teaching you to alter your consciousness through classic shamanic non-drug techniques, such as repetitive drumming, so that you can discover your own spiritual resources, transform your life, and learn how to help yourself and others.
Shamanic counselling as a starting point
Shamanic counselling is a series of five sessions in which you learn how to ‘journey’ and communicate with Spirits. You can expect to work with tutelary or helping spirits, asking them for information and guidance of all kinds. Through your experiences in the shamanic journey, you have the opportunity to discover how to obtain extra-ordinary, practical and wise answers to important personal questions. This technique includes speaking your journey and experiences aloud as you have them, and recording them for future reference. The initial five sessions teach you how to do this.
Then, depending on the work that you might still want to do, as you develop your deeper and richer relationship with Non-Ordinary Reality, the world of Spirit, we include shamanic rituals and processes such as soul retrieval, shamanic healing, clearing and cleansing, as appropriate.
My job is to provide instruction, orientation, and methodological advice based upon core shamanism and shamanic journeying techniques. I am therefore more like a mentor than a counsellor. In essence, I work as a guide or director as you learn the rites and rituals, and practise them for yourself. By doing so, you learn to cross the dimensional divide. And as you develop this skill, you should experience a sense of personal empowerment with your life taking on a new meaning.
Shamanic Healing
Spiritual healing in shamanism is seen as the re-gaining of Spiritual power, and its overall aim is making us whole again by healing issues of the soul.
Common reasons that bring people to shamanic healing are areas such as low life force, a sense of personal absence or generally feeling lost. It may also be that you are no stranger to depression or anxiety, or occasionally feel disconnected or alienated from the world.
This soul depletion can lead to you having a sense of inadequacy or insecurity even though there is no reason, perhaps feeling that you sometimes have to earn approval, often through achievement, or that experience yourself as a performer or a ‘human doing’.
If some of the above mirrors your experience, and if now you want to develop an expanded, less boundaried sense of self, to wake up out of the grey dream and to experience being part of something far, far Greater, then you might like to think about working with a shamanic practitioner.
