“You teach best what you most need to learn.” Richard Bach; Jonathan Livingston Seagull. This brings to mind a Shamanic concept that basically means walk the talk; you cannot teach what you have not learned; you cannot advise on what you have not endured; and you cannot heal what you have not experienced. This is the story of the Wounded Healer (Chiron).
The path of a Shaman or Shamanic Practitioner is one of constantly seeking, learning, experiencing, finding the simpatico in the Universe, integrating and assimilating all this information not only for personal growth, but for the healing and spiritual development of others. Shamanism is about working with Spirit, and that includes working with one’s Soul. The focus of any healing is always the Soul, energetic and vibrational healing.
It’s about bridging gaps and reconciling: between the spiritual/energetic and the physical/material worlds; reversing and healing the gaps and division in our realities; and reversing our fragmentation, dis-integration, or dissociated aspects of oneself. It is an ever-expanding progressive process; it becomes a lifestyle. A Shaman is a seeker even more so than a healer, medicine person, priest, or magician; a Shaman is one that seeks truth.
I have never claimed to be Shaman, but I am called shaman, sought out as shaman, known as shaman. I have actually spent most of my adult life resisting this path. I have been called Neo-Shaman by the purists and traditionalist of shamanism because I choose to learn, practice, and teach outside of their accepted parameters and approved long-standing methodologies.
I did not realize at first that this is not a flattering comment or description, at least in the eyes of a purist; but while criticism was the intent behind the word, it was surely not the effect. I have come to embrace the title of neo-shaman: a new style shaman not limited to the old belief structures that no longer apply, that thinks outside the traditional boxed beliefs, that rejects obsolete ways and antiquated precepts, and skips over the archaic protocol that is just not practical in application or purpose in our contemporary lives.
The fact that the Universe seemed to constantly shut down everything else, and that I was named Shaman by other seekers, and called Neo-Shaman by others, suggests to me that the definition of Shaman and Shamanism is changing and expanding and evolving—as it should.
That said, however, make no mistake that my beliefs and practices are deeply rooted in ancient knowledge and direct revelation from Spirit; they are just not restricted to the basic shamanic methodologies of tradition. Shamanism became my base and foundation from which I then went “outside” to expand and seek more and expanded truths. This is when I met with the opposition from the purists, going outside that system for truth.
Shamanism is said to be the planet’s oldest known spiritual practice, that it is a global cross-cultural phenomenon; that it apparent over this entire world. Yet, ironically, expansion of its core truths and teachings seem to be restricted or restrictive. However, over the last 20 something years I have studied a broad range of practices, ancient texts and teaching, and even World Religions, and I have found that core shamanic beliefs exist int them all: it only makes sense that the Source would be present in the All. In a sense, shamanism has already expanded, even if only by its own fragmentation.
From my point of view, I merely followed the apparent extensions and parallels of the original system that are expressed in other views, beliefs, and perspective. Shamanism is a way; it may have even been the first way; but it is not the only right way. Truth is truth no matter where it is found. These other “outside” belief systems are but expansions on some basic truth or truths that may have shamanic origins.
In many ways, these extended beliefs actually help to unfold and further explain a fundamental truth or concept. You might say that seeds of truth are planted in shamanic concepts, but they have “grown” outside that container system nourished by various other elements, and have taken a new shape and form—but still from that original seed.
The key words here are expansion and integration. Many of the core truths of shamanism and any ancient knowledge are restricted within the context given at some particular point in time. We can only receive and understand what our consciousness can accommodate. Today we have evolved in every way, and as we evolve, especially on a spiritual and intellectual level, our capacity to understand increases.
What many do not understand is the ancient laws and knowledge are not static, they are alive and adaptive, although expressed in a “primitive” style and different language. It must also be noted that the ancient languages had much deeper scopes and levels of meaning that we tend to overlook. While we use many words to express a concept, the ancient languages expressed many concepts with few words or even symbols.
Spiritual laws do not change, but they are ever expanding and adapting to our new ways and expanded consciousness, and their applications change. We don’t scrawl on cave walls any more; we have computers and smart phones. Our souls evolve much the same way; our spiritual technology advances and we need updates, new compatible software, higher broadband lengths, and the most recent apps.
Ancient knowledge is much like a zip file: one small icon on your screen from which you can extract great amounts of information, if you know how—if you have the capacity to tap into that deeper level. Ancient knowledge is that metamorphic acorn, just as we are, and will grow with us we take the time to study it.
Ancient knowledge is a highly concentrated and condensed way of expressing truth to us that we can understand; and what we understand depends on our spiritual IQ and capacity to learn and understand at any given point in time and within a given context.
We are in spiritual school in this Space-Time dimension; our souls are like young children going through the educational system, subject by subject, grade by grade. Obviously a first-grader has no concept of college algebra; that concept and subject matter simply cannot make sense to that child; it does not “vibe” with him.
Only matching vibrations can occupy the same space, so the child must mature and learn through a progressive process, with each level of experience becoming a building block for the next level, to increase his capacity to both learn and to perform such processes or grade levels. During this process, the child is constantly changing schedules and class rooms, learning from different teachers; and with each graduation comes new text books, new supply lists, and sometimes even a change out of one school into another entirely new system.
This physical landscape in which we exist as spiritual beings in biological form is our spiritual training ground and institution of learning; ancient knowledge is the aggregate sum of knowledge and subject matter, condensed into one source: it is both basic arithmetic and advanced calculus; it is both elementary science and quantum physics; it is both simple ABC’s and advanced language. It all depends on your unique perspective, your capacity, and state of being, which will determine if you are going to “vibe” with that knowledge, or not.
Our way of thinking, our spiritual practice, no matter what it is, must be an open system receptive to external interactions both into and out of the system in order to evolve, expand, and meet our spiritual requirements. We are here to grow. We are Source expressing as humans in order to evolve and integrate into the Collective good of the All. Our practice and spiritual IQ and consciousness must be open and receptive to various sources of truth and “new” ways that may seem to be outside the conventional views, even if only for contrast.
Any closed system, by contrast, which is often organized religions and/or other dogmatized practices, do not allow such transfers; they close themselves off, and the growth of any organism in a closed system is restricted.
The timing of this discussion is interesting, in that we are now entering a new year that will herald new foundations, that the “old school” way of thinking and doing things will be de-structured to make room for a new way of thinking, for breakthroughs and revelations; to discard all the old paradigms for the sake of creating not only new ones, but those based on our own personal views and power—not from indoctrinated beliefs.
I mentioned fragmentation, which we do not have time to go into today; however, I wanted to mention this one thing. One example of this fragmentation, division, and separation is that between the spiritual and the scientific. Spiritual Science was once a combined concept, and we are now seeing its reconciliation through the advanced sciences such as Relativistic Theory and Quantum Physics.
The ancient mystics observed Nature in order to understand the behavior of Spirit. Science is the study of the Universe, Nature, and the observations of its behavior. That said, by studying Science we can gain some insights on the Spiritual aka the Energetic. Physical form is simply the material expression of an underlying energetic pattern; everything is energy. We can then integrate here by comparing ancient knowledge to the contemporary science, and personally I find it fascinating how simpatico they are.
This sort of separation is also apparent in the split between religion and spirituality. Jesus did not come here to establish a religion, but to teach ancient knowledge: the Kabbalah, Torah, and teachings of the Essences. He did not teach anything really “new” at all, but re-purposed the ancient texts and laws into a more contemporary format in the context of his times and people and language. When you really look at the ancient Aramaic Lord’s Prayer, you take away an entirely different message and understanding than that religion perpetuates.
It is my intent to demystify as many spiritual concepts (or perhaps I should say misconceptions) as I can, bring ancient knowledge to the fore-front again, and integrate advanced science so as to view spirituality as technology and protocol, that there is an order and formula here, not just mysteries, that the various levels of fragmentation and divisive labels are removed and we have just the system of truth found in the ancient ways and modern times. The religious stigma attached to much of this knowledge must be removed so more will open up to it as truth.
The Universe mirrors us, and vice versa, so get universal, go general, blur the lines, break tradition, follow your path, not one just handed down to you. Be ready to create your own beliefs and paradigms, bridge your gaps, fill in the blanks, set new boundaries and standards; but always honor the Law that governs them.
There really is nothing new, and the truth always stands; so begin to view the ancient knowledge in new ways, with new understanding and that the “new” is actually just the ancient re-purposed, restated, and re-presented. Just because it is ancient does not mean it is obsolete; truth withstands all tests of time.
I want to leave you with this: the way to your spiritual path and knowing of self is not to forsake this dense material world, but to engage it fully. Explore it, seek and find, question everything and answers will come. Understand that life is not happening to you, you are causing it. Fill in all your blanks. Check off all your boxes—but don’t get trapped in one. It may seem paradoxical, but we must both integrate AND diversify.
Walk the Labyrinth, the ancient sacred meandering path, the walking prayer that reflects your life here. Notice that as you walk you must be constantly aware of your present moment—not where you are headed. As you walk you are seeking and releasing, as you enter the center you are receiving, and as you exit you are integrating and acclimating all you have just experienced. This is a model of your path, an ever-changing spiral of experiences—never a straight line.
What you seek is often just a means to put you on a path of experience, not necessarily to achieve that perceived desired end result: it is the journey that matters, not the destination. What you truly seek is usually found along the way, not at the end of the road; and that way is ever-spiraling outward ever-seeking, and ever-finding.
Believe in the ancient knowledge and the science; and the Magic found in both. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were going to live forever.”
