The Shamanic Path

In the simplest of terms, a shaman is one who is well studied and practiced in the knowledge of utilizing sacred plants for the purpose of spiritual cultivation.

Long before the term “lucid dreaming” existed, people across every culture worked with plants to access the subconscious and explore the terrain of the dreamworld.

In Mesoamerica, the Chontal people of Oaxaca used Calea zacatechichi in ritual to receive messages from dreams.

In Southern Africa, aromatic herbs like buchu were used to cleanse and open the spirit before rest.

In Europe, Mugwort was burned, brewed to enhance dreaming and ward off nightmares.

These practices weren’t just about dreaming or communicating with spiritual entities, they were about access to deeper knowing, to the unspoken intelligence that lives just beneath waking life.

When it comes to learning the ways of exploring metaphysical realities, plants are often our best teachers.

 

MODERN-DAY SHAMANISM

Anthropologists have been studying shamanism, in earnest, for more than a century.

Michael Harner, an American anthropologist, during the 1960’s and 1970’s, spent considerable time with traditional Amazonian shamans.

He fell in love with their spirituality and was eventually initiated through their ayahuasca ceremonies.

In 1979 he had founded the Center for Shamanic Studies, which is now the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and in 1980 he published a highly influential book, The Way of the Shaman: a Guide to Power and Healing.

This groundbreaking work outlined the teachings of what Harner called Core Shamanism, which are the universal basic methods that ALL shamans use to traverse metaphysical reality.

Michael Harner inadvertently became the world’s first modern-day shaman and is considered in academic circles to be the foremost expert on shamanism.

Most modern shamans today, particularly in America, are students of his to some degree — myself included.

 

THE MODERN SHAMAN

A modern shaman is a someone who has gained the knowledge and abilities of a shaman through the study and practice of traditional shamanism.

Rarely belonging to a particular shamanic culture or lineage, the modern-day shaman uses the knowledge and methods of traditional shamanism to provide spiritual guidance and healing in contemporary settings, often blending the ancient wisdom with modern psychological knowledge.

The modern shaman uses their knowledge of sacred plants to facilitate rituals for self-discovery, overcoming emotional blockages, and to guide seekers during visionary journeys.

 

THE ERADICATION OF ENLIGHTENED DREAMING

There was a time, long ago, when dream-instruction was as common as cooking-instruction.

However in the last millennia, the knowledge of structured dreaming was meticulously expunged from the public mind by theocratic tyrants who have long since turned to dust.

This eradication began, in earnest, in the beginning of the Piscean age, shortly after the time of Christ.

When you understand the spiritual liberation and independence that comes with learning to utilize the dream-space, you will understand why religious authorities would purposefully ignore or hatefully vilify any practice of enlightened dreaming.

If you discover that you can go straight to GOD itself, like Jesus did, then what do you need them for?

What can their religion do for you that you can’t do for yourself?

Consequently, their tactics were quite successful, so much that modern religious institutions are oblivious to the spiritual functions of dreaming.

 

THE OLD WAYS MADE ANEW

In the ancient world, the Egyptians were the known experts in dream dynamics, their society having its roots in the antediluvian civilizations of Atlantis and Mu.

Following the great deluge, they became the initial custodians of a great wealth of metaphysical wisdom carried over from the first creation.

Not only did the Egyptians understand dreaming in a profound way, they knew how to condition the body and mind to make accessing the dream realm much easier.

Among their sacred plants was the Blue Lotus which they consumed to induce dreamlike states.

At the time of Jesus, if one sought a formal education in spirituality, he (or she) would try to gain membership into a "mystery school", an  institution wherein the deeper truths of creation and self-mastery were taught to worthy and dedicated recipients.

Jesus himself was a patron of several such schools throughout his formative years.

Similar to our modern models of education, the curriculum of many of the schools took no less than twelve years to complete, and it should be noted that the dropout rate was significant as many students simply could not rise to the challenge.

Many were unwilling to endure the slow progress and quit in frustration.

Learning a new skill takes time and mastering that skill takes a lot of time.

Dreamwalking is not a psychological exercise, and even with the assistance of sacred plants, it is a spiritual skill that takes time to cultivate and perfect.

Like the growing of a plant, real transformation is a slow process.

It takes time for a seed to germinate and take root, and more time for that seedling to grow and mature and produce its fruit.

Real transformation is nurtured into manifestation over time.

There are no shortcuts.