#shmanism

Bout de Ficelle - Domestic Neo-Shamanism

Celia-Hannes, Célia Picard & Hannes Schreckensberger, 2018

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Sam's Note: All religion has its beginning in shamanism. Shamans were the original doctors, storytellers and priests for mankind. Wizards in stories are modeled on the druids who were ancient Celtic shamans.They used many tricks of the trade to work their magic. 

This piece is intended to give the reader a sense of what the experience would have been like for our paleolithic cave dwelling ancestors. This was their Imax 3D experience. 

It is southern France, 28,000 years ago. You are a young man, just out of adolescence.  You are part of a hunting and gathering clan hunting the great Auroch, mammoth and bear. Tonight is a special night. Tonight you become a warrior of the clan. You will travel to the spirit world and see the land of the gods. You will become brave this night because in seeing the spirit world you will no longer fear death.  Your guide is your shaman. An old man, maybe forty. His back bent where he was kicked by an elk as a young man. No longer able to hunt he became a shaman and learned the ways of the animals, the healing herbs and the plants which give visions.

He studied with another shaman who also taught him deceit and showmanship. Shamans were also the entertainers of their world. He learned sleight of hand, how to pretend to pull sickness out of a wound by pulling a piece of liver he secreted in his hand. He learned animal calls and could growl like the bear and roar like the lion. He learned spells and incantations. Mostly, he learned how to set the stage for his performances.

The shaman leads you deep into a cave. It is darker than the darkest night. Only the dim flickering flames of torches and the wick of the bear oil lamp light the darkness and then only in deep eerie shadows. Voices echo and every noise is amplified. You and six other young men accompany the shaman deep into the cave. The air is now cool and smells of earth and rotting things. You hear dripping as enter a large chamber. The torches are put out and a small fire is built in the center of the chamber. 

Your eyes adjust to the darkness and in the firelight you see objects on the walls. Animals, men, strange beings move as the light flickers. The shaman opens his pouch and blows powder into the mouth of each young warrior. They gasp and drink water from a gourd. You vomit. Then relieved you watch the shaman. He sits softly striking a drum in a hypnotic rhythm. You feel a little odd. Light headed. Now the shaman begins to chant. You notice the figures on the walls which once were flat now are three dimensional and moving. The world seems unreal to you now as the drug takes effect. The flickering of the fire, the chanting, the drum and the figures all coalesce into one experience. The shaman now changes forms. First he has antlers, then the head of a bear. He has simply put on masks but to you it is as real as anything you have ever experienced. 

Now he begins his story. The shaman describes the land of the gods and as he does his worlds become real to you and you see the spirit world. You see your father killed three winters ago by the cave bear. You see your mother. You see them happy, laughing and eating their fill. It is summer and the sun is warm and there are berries and honey and fat meat sizzling over the fire. Then in this dream you go to sleep. When you wake the next morning you are groggy and a little nauseated but elated. Now you know that there is nothing to fear from death. This experience was absolutely real and it would not occur to any human being to question this reality for another 28,000 years.

"Every tree, every plant, has a spirit. People may say that the plant has no mind. I tell them that the plant is alive & conscious. A plant may not talk, but there is a spirit in it that is conscious, that sees everything, which is the soul of the plant, its essence, what makes it alive. The channels through which the water & sap move are the veins of the spirit."

Pablo Amaringo, Ayahuasca Visions

The first and possibly the most important key in developing your relationship with the Plant Spirit (and what really helps to ‘open the door’ ie. makes the connection work), is a benign attitude and to have good intentions and feelings towards the plant.

The plant consciousness or spirit, communicates with us when we are in relaxed, gentle trance-like, or dream state. So the person, who holds the desire to commune with the plant, needs to know how to move into an altered state.

Moving into an altered state of consciousness can be achieved gently, for example by going out in forests, woodlands, or a park; and walk at a slow and steady pace. Gradually the rhythm of this slow and steady movement will bring you into an altered or heightened state of awareness. When you feel or sense this subtle shift, lift up your eyes and look around. Allow yourself to be drawn to whatever tree, bush, or plant attracts your attention; you may experience this attraction as akin to a little ‘tug’.

Now go and sit with the plant. Use all your sensory and tactile faculties to engage with the plant.

Visual – Study the shape and form of the plant. Maybe the plant grows alone or is in a cluster. Look at the form of the leaves; look at the spaces (the forms within the forms) between the leaves and branches. The latter is part of a practice called gazing, which offers a way to perceive patterns outside the consensually agreed shapes and forms.

Smell – Our olfactory nerves go directly into the region of the brain called the limbic system. The limbic system is also called our ‘primitive’ brain, as its structure is below the linguistic and ‘higher’ functions of the cerebral cortex. The limbic system is the location of our primal (primate) emotions, and primal needs. The sense of smell is our only sense which has this access to our primal or unconscious mind. Breath in the fragrance of the plant, allow any feelings, memories, images, and associations to arise and experienced.

Tactile – our sense of touch. Gently move your hand towards the plant, maybe you can discern a movement, or sense a connection between the respective fields of energy, yours and that of the plant. Touch the plant, leaves or bark with your fingers. It is possible that you may sense the flow of energy within the plant, into the earth, and up into the sky.

Taste – Place a very small piece of the plant against your tongue and gently taste it. The taste may be acrid, bitter, hot, sweet, sour, or sharp. The taste may attract, be neutral, or repel you. This tasting will give you an indication of its character or ‘personality’. Exercise caution with this practice as there are poisonous plants, do not eat or swallow the plant!

When you have completed these practices (which form part of the Amazonian plant apprenticeship ‘plant diet’) take some time to meditate or embark on a shamanic journey to encounter the spirit or consciousness of the plant you have been working with. To quote the Amazonian Shipibo maestro Guillermo Arevalo regarding the plant spirits, “They are beings, which have their own forms or they can be like human beings with faces and bodies. When the spirit accepts the dieter, and the dieter has the will, the spirit grants them energy. The path to knowledge opens, the healing takes place, as case may be”.