Learning Shamanism

  In my last post I was having a wobble about the direction I should take on my shamanic learning journey. I was in a dilemma because I had found a book by Victor Sanchez which promised to make the teachings of don Carlos Castaneda more easily understandable to the layman. It was while studying these writings that I realised that at my stage of life (I am 69 years old), I probably don't have the energy or the time left alive to fully study and master the Toltec Way of The Warrior in the way I was hoping I would. So, the dilemma remained but it had changed. I still feel that I have reached a place of stagnation on my path and feel the need to connect with a human Teacher. With reference to the title of this post - Finding The Right Teacher - we should remember that our main shamanic teacher is Spirit. And Spirit can manifest in any number of guises - animal, birds, insects, trees, plants, rocks and humans. So, I guess I was asking Spirit to guide me to a human teacher. If you have v...

 I am having a little wobble in my practise. Right from the beginning of my journey into Shamanism I have been aware of it's flexibility and it's absence of dogma. As I have stated before - Shamanism is NOT a religion . But, the weird thing is, following some sort of dogma is very attractive to the human psyche - which is why religions have been so successful over the centuries. For some bizarre reason most of us humans actually like being told what to do. I suppose we are a bit like dogs - we seem to function better when we have been "trained". And the "education" system that has been set up in the modern, industrialised world is designed to do just that - to train us how to behave. But you should stop and ask yourself - just who benefits from this training? The children who grow up into obedient, conforming members of "society"? Or the elite one percent who own the corporations that depend on obedient wage slaves in order to maintain their wealth...

  Silence is one of, if not the most, important aspects of becoming aware of your true nature. It is also one of the most difficult and most controversial topics for all those who choose to explore a spiritual path. I am not talking about silence in the physical sense - where there is no sound being recorded by your ears and transmitted to your brain. I am talking about "inner silence". Inner silence is what don Juan calls "stopping the inner dialogue" and what the 20th century mystic Osho used to call "No Mind" and what is known in Core Shamanism as "Hollowing Out". Some spiritual teachers claim that it is impossible to stop thoughts and experience total inner silence - they are wrong, it is just that they have not succeeded in achieving this blissful state. It is not a "state of mind" , it is a state of "no mind". Because a lot of teachers and gurus have no knowledge of this state they try to convince people that they can ac...