The Hollow Bone by Colleen Deatsman

Author:Colleen Deatsman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781609255879
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser Conari

Figure 18

Once the journeyer enters this trance state of consciousness, the journey begins. Journeying is natural like dreaming, and everyone can journey. (It is generally accepted that all humans have the ability to journey and learn from their spirit self and their helping spirits.) However, journeying uses certain skills that are not common in modern or nonspiritual societies. Relaxation, imagination, focused intention, concentration, and surrender are skills that the shaman practices to perfection. Relaxation and a quiet mind allow the shaman or journeyer to move from the ordinary world into the nonordinary worlds of spirit. Imagination is the mind power that begins the journey and opens the portals between the ordinary world and the nonordinary worlds. Focused intention and concentration are the energies that move the shaman's imagination forward and into connection with the web. Surrender allows the shaman to go into the experience of the journey without being attached to the outcome; during a journey, shamans give up the ego self, thus giving themselves over to their spirit self and to the experience. Loosening the tight grip that humans hold on their minds, bodies, and perceptions of the world, easing the need to be in control, is a respite for the mind and body.

The images and sensations that shamans experience during their journeys are the language that helping spirits use to communicate with humans.

Shamanic journeying was the first tool of shamanism I learned, and it is a profound healing technique that I use daily. Every journey is a coming home, a resting place, a respite, a sigh of relief, an entry into peace that reconnects me with my helping spirits, inner healer, soul-self, and the divine. Peace, understanding, and calmness permeate my everyday life from this connection of my soulself with spirit.

Journeying uses certain skills that are not common in modern or nonspiritual societies: relaxation, imagination, focused intention, concentration, and surrender.

Every journey is unique. The following description of one of my journeys is an example of a shaman being deeply engaged and connected with helping spirits, the web, and life-force energies in nature. All journeys are unique and vary from person to person and journey to journey, so this journey should not be assumed to be the norm. It is simply one example of infinite possibilities.

The golden rays of the new morning sun peek around the mountaintops, casting a ghostly glow through the thick lake fog. Within minutes, the misty sunbeams lengthen across the lake, changing the nightly black dress of the surrounding pines into their daytime green. As if signaled by the impending sunrise, the loon who has been fishing quietly next to my canoe extends his neck and sends his eerie call out into the solitude. Shivers run down my spine, and my heart aches with a deep soul connection with this beautiful being and place. My eyes follow his call as it is reverberating over the lake, sliding up the mountains, circling around, and echoing back down. As if heralded by the call, the sun ascends the mountain summit and makes his grand entrance into the day.

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