Finding The Right Teacher

 

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 visited my Useful Links page or my Courses page, you will see that I have examined a lot of different teachers since I started exploring Shamanism. And the strange thing is that since the Covid Scamdemic a lot of them have become more accessible because they have had to move online. Where I had been wondering about travelling hundreds of miles and paying hundreds of pounds in hotels and live workshops - now I can access a teacher anywhere in the world from my laptop. In some ways this arrangement appears to be un-shamanic and somehow inferior to the face to face training but from another point of view it makes these teachings much more available to more people, which can only be a good thing.

I found that a teacher I admired on YouTube, a man called Gerry Starnes who lives and teaches in Austin, Texas, had created an online teaching portal called The Shamanic Passages Institute. I like the way Gerry talks and the way he presents his teaching. He is basically teaching Core Shamanism with a North American flavour which includes a lot of the Toltec teachings of don Carlos and don Juan and don Miquel Ruiz - so, the best of both worlds as far as I was concerned! I have signed up for Gerry's introductory course knowing that I will be revisiting stuff that I have learned from books, especially from Paul Francis, to whom I will will always be indebted for opening my eyes to the world of Core Shamanism. 

For you the reader, my choice may not be to your taste and this is fine. You have to have a feeling of connection with a teacher before you commit to parting with your valuable time or money. Again, if you visit the Useful Links page you can explore some of the people I have thought worthy of inclusion on this blog.      

The Mystery School run by The Way of The Buzzard is one I would recommend if you are attracted to Shamanism with a more British flavour. Jason and Nicola have done a wonderful job of putting their stuff online and their work is perfect for complete beginners and those a bit further down the path.