The Shaman Within

Know you the Shaman? He dances with life, he pushes away illusions, he produces a space to heal into. We all have a Shaman within us. He is built into our nature (where do you think the idea of an ‘outside’ Shaman came from)?

In most cultures, of every kind, an acknowledgment of a Shaman exist, as a helper, healer and bringer of health, joy and balance. Some cultures use outside persons to participate as a Shaman, but it is possible and, indeed, healthy to develop and make use of the natural Shaman within our own psychic systems.

Often in our lives, we get balled up with cobwebby thoughts, griefs, feelings and situations that we have co-created within ourselves and with others. They are like black holes and most of our positive attitudes, feelings, and desires become sucked into them. It is like a downward spiral of negative emotions, feelings and attitudes feeding on themselves and we can't quite explain how or when we arrived in such an unpleasant place.

It happens during times of fear. Fear for our well being, fear for loved ones, and almost all the time, has to do with the unknown. We start making up stuff in our heads, in our hearts, a whole bunch of ‘what ifs’ that build upon themselves and produce fuzzy thinking, anger and deep unrest within ourselves and is passed on to others. The conglomerate we term ‘stress’. We ignore the facts and seem to concentrate on the building of these false ‘images’ (for lack of better word) and before we know it, situations are so clouded and crowded with our own thoughts and illusions, that we are unable to get back to stable, solid truths. It is, at this time, that the Shaman is needed and desired, for he can clear the cob webs, settle the sediments in our heads, and allow us to pause for a moment to contemplate the reality before the storm, before the fuzz, before the confusion, before the stress.

Taking our clues from film, the written word, and television, through shows like National Geographic, we can begin to relate a bit to the Shaman. The tasks he is able to accomplish and the healing he is able to set in motion. The removal, or change of confused, spiral thinking, feeling, and actions. The stopping of our participation with the stresses.

In comes the Shaman, headdress on, painted and dudded up in attire that befits the chaser of confusions, illusions and fears. He dances, he sings, he rattles bones, he chants, and he steps high, waves his arms, sprinkles magic dust into the fire of life and speaks in a tongue foreign to our controlled and contrite way of thinking. His job is serious and he behaves in ways that the controlled mind and the dead set emotions cannot possibly follow. This action, while, to the onlooker, may seem archaic and silly, breaks the thought process, stops the spiraling of negative progression, in the subject who has come for help. The ceremony, the dance, the chanting and the rattling creates a break in the confused state, a clear space, where a ladder to reality can be found. It stops the internal banter, if only for a few minutes, but long enough to allow the subject to reconnect to the reality of the situation. It clears the fog, chases the blues, produces a crack in the foggy midst.

The internal banter stopped, the gateway to a different way of thinking about the situation can be put into motion which will in turn change the reality of it. In other words, a different illusion can be born, one that suites us better, one that is based upon a different more truthful foundation, one that we can work with in order to avoid the stress and pain of the previous illusion. Back to what ‘really is’ instead of an imagined state of affairs.

There is the internal Shaman, which most of us never take advantage of, that can do the same thing. It comes in a form of repeated words, like the saying of the rosary beads, the repeating of a mantra, or the singing, at the top of your lungs, along with the radio in your car, or the getting down on a dance floor to a tune you love. It is letting yourself get so involved with something else, that it breaks the syndrome of the situation and therefore breaks the spiraling. It allows you to take a break from the situation and so when you look again, if you wish, you can view it with fresh eyes, with fresh clear emotions and begin the sorting of truths and illusions. Producing a path to create an emotional balance with any given situation, through clear thinking, if you desire.

It is that ‘if you desire’ that starts the ball rolling. There has to first be the desire, the intention to remove the confusion, the fear, the negative emotions, the stress. There has to be the desire to come to an evenness with something in order to sort it out. The desire to figure it out, to make a change. After that, the last point of reality has to be found. The last point of reality is the place where all agreed, where what was, was. It is the place where nothing can be argued against -- better known as the bare facts without the emotional entanglement, without the made up illusions. The place before you started participating with the ‘what ifs’. This space or place, can only be found when the ‘spell’ of the spiral thinking and feeling is stopped and it is the Shaman, with his rattles, chants and high stepping that can break the syndrome so that last point can be found. Then, and only then, can a different reality, different illusion, different space or place be created.

Emotions and mind sets can be changed. Not an easy task at first, gets easier with practice. But there are always choices and a gazillion ways to produce joy, peace and contentment, even in the worse of circumstances, if we desire.

- by Prissy Hamilton