Monday, July 15, 2013

Where Am I? Really.

I was doing some soul searching and reflecting today while thinking about the different practitioners of Wicca, shamans, shamanic practitioners that I have run across over the years (I met "my" first shaman in Bolivia in 1971 so I've been at this for a while) and thought about where I would put myself on my taxonomy of practitioners.  After doing that I thought that it might be useful to at least share my taxonomy with you, just in case you want to do some to the same kind of self-examination.  The same taxonomy might apply, to some degree at least, to religious and spiritual figures of any tradition.   So first, the taxonomy:

  1.  Beings of Darkness – those who use their position of authority or ability to manipulate energy to harm others.  In Wicca these are the practitioners of Black Magick.  I ran across quite a few shamans in South America who made their living casting spells to cause harm.  In general they were quite well off, but with few if any friends . . . individuals who were feared by not loved or respected.  Obviously I don’t want to fall into this category, and I hope that neither do you.
  2. Light (Spot Light) Seekers – Some people, and you probably know some, are only interested in gaining power and authority.  These individuals have a strong need to be the center of attention and to be the most important person around.  Often they want to be the big fish in a little pond, and those with high aspirations want to be the biggest fish in the ocean.  The spot light seekers appear frequently as media personalities (think movie stars and talking heads on TV) and in politics.  Unfortunately religion seems to attract a good number as well.  If you think that the message is more important than the messenger then you lucked out . . . you’re not in this group.
  3. Bound by Tradition – these individuals tightly cling to tradition.  Their way is the only way because it is the way that things have always been done and any deviation from the tradition is categorically wrong.  This approach, to me at least, seems to negate one of the primary benefits our spiritual tradition.  Wicca and shamanism are paths of direct spiritual experience and individual revelation.  Consequently Wicca and shamanism are polar opposites to book religions that believe that all that Deity has or ever will revel is contained in their book.  It would appear that being tightly bound by tradition blocks the possibility of direct spiritual experience and individual revelation.  To me this is sad and limiting approach to spirituality.  Tradition is beautiful, but being open to the new and different is exciting.
  4. Lightworkers – I’m a little reluctant to use this phrase because it has become overworked and trivialized.  However, it fits, and these are the practitioners of Wicca and shamanism who work for the good of their society.  They aren’t ego-bound; they do what they do because of an inner drive to serve others with no thought of secondary gain.  They help when help is needed and teach when a student is ready.  They are able to manipulate energy and call upon Deity and helping spirits as needed in the service of others.
  5. Light Beings – In twenty years I have only met one shaman, an old man in the Bolivian highland above the altiplano that I would call a light being.  He had evolved to the point where he was light energy.  He didn’t need to call upon Deity, spirit helpers (the Apus), or any outside force to heal.  His look or his touch was all it took to heal physical, spiritual or emotional issues.  I think that he had aligned himself so completely with Deity through a lifetime of service to his community that energy flowed through him like a “hollow bone”.   Unlike the workers of darkness who are feared but neither loved or respected he was loved and respected by all and feared by none.  Give me another hundred years and maybe I’ll get there too.

If you have read all of this then you probably can guess where I hope that I am headed.  Nice goal and we in the West are very goal oriented.  I’m not there yet, not even close, and don’t know if I will ever get there.  However, I am convinced that (1) the journey is as important as the destination and (2) the direction that you are headed is more important than where you are on the journey.
 

                 


So I guess my closing thought is not where are you, but which direction are you headed?

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Make Your Medicine Bag

I have been writing about Peruvian (Andean) shamanism and you might recall that the shamans carry a bundle of sacred and power objects.  This is common in most, if not all, shamanic traditions.  In many societies shamans carried a medicine bag rather than a bundle (I use both).  A medicine bag has the advantage of being easy to carry, after all its a bag. 

Medicine bags have traditionally be made of leather or woven fabric. If you want to make a medicine bag then select a bag that fits you in terms of size, design, and material. My favorite medicine bag is a small cloth bag that I purchased in Bolivia. This bag contains a rattle, a kinfe for cutting herbs, power stones, rune stones, a bison bone carved to represent an eagle feather and a few other meaninful items.  I also carry tea tree oil and jojoba oil for healing.

Select items for your medicine bag that represent your power to heal and your connection to your spiritual nature.  Once you have identifed the items you want to carry and the items that call to you then set about to collect them.  The items that you carry will change from time to time as you grown on the path.  Before adding items to your bag then bless them; I cleanse my objects with sun light and sage smoke. 

As you carry your medicine bag your awareness of your own sacredness will increase and the bag becomes sacred too. Because my bag is sacred to me I never let anyone else handle it or its contents (in fact I'm a little reluctant to photograph it but I did and you can see it below).  My medicine bag has become a scrap book of my spiritual life and my travels.  Some day I will pass my bag on to one of my sons.

You will note in the second image below that there is a small, leather bag next to the rattle.  That is my miniature medicine bag.  I wear it under my clothes when it would be inappropriate to carry my large bag with me, like we I lecture at the univeristy.

Make your own medicine bag, you will be directed as you meditate on what to carry.  Make it part of you.


 
Peace

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Peruvian Shamanism -- Part 4 -- The Despacho

One of the more beautiful acts of Andean shamans in the preparation and offering of a despacho or a haywarisqa.  These offerings demonstrate the reciprocity (ayni) and maintain harmony between the spirits and those of use who dwell in Kay Pacha.   They  help align personal energies with the cosmic ones.
The word despacho literally means "dispatch or shipment" in Spanish and is a word that has been borrowed by Quechua speakers.  In the Andean traditions of Peru, a despacho is a ceremonial offering to Pachamama, or Mother Earth,  and the Apus, the Spirits of the Mountains.  A despacho is a focused and formal way to "dispatch" or "ship" your intentions or prayers off to the Spirits.

Despacho ceremonies can be performed for something as grand and noble as world peace, to something as down to earth as offering thanks for a bountiful harvest, to something as personal as relief from arthritis pain.   A despacho can be narowly focused on one intention, or could be performed simultaneously for world peace, thankfulness for a good harvest, and pain relief.  Despachos can also be performed for one person, a group of people, a village or city, or the world as a whole.

Despacho CeremonyA shaman, to prepare a despacho, gathers a variety of symbolic offerings such as wine, sugar, incense, gold and silver threads, red and white flower petals, grains, seeds, shells, and candies.  The items are selected both to be pleasing to the Spirits and also to represent the intention of the participants in the despacho.  The items are carfully arranged on a large sheet of paper with great care and intention.  In essence, the items form a three-dimensional mandala.   Prayers are blown into small bundles of leaves called kintu (branch) and added to the offering as well.



Once completed the bundle is folded closed and tied up. Then the shaman will run the whole bundle over the bodies of the participants to draw out any heavy energy (hucha) that they may have.   Once this has been done the whole bundle is ceremonially burned, much like incense is burned in some traditions to take prayers to heaven.  At this stage the participants turn their backs onthe fire to allow the spirits to "eat" the offering in peace. 

The smoke of the offering takes prayers and intentions to Pachamama and to the apus Heavy energy is turned to ash in this process and is consumed by Pachamama, who turns the hucha in to compost thus making the ground more fertile for new endeavors.





Sunday, February 17, 2013

Peruvian Shamanism -- Part 3 -- The Mesa

My first trip to Bolivia was in 1971.  I spent two years in Bolivia on that trip and lived primarily in the Departments of Potosí and Chuquisaca running a Spanish-language literacy project.  Today Quechua is spoken by over 80 percent of the people in these Departments with a majority of the native Spanish speakers residing in the cities of Potosí and Sucre.  While I lived in the cities of Potosí and Sucre I spent most of my time in the outlying pueblos,  in places like Tarabuco and Betanzos.  It was there that I met my first Maestro, don Juan Carlos.  He told me a story about the origins of the Shaman's Mesa that I have heard repeated, with mionor variations, throughout the Quechua-speaking regions of Bolivia and Peru.  This is the story of the origin of the Mesa as told to me by don Juan Carlos in Betanzos. 


                                                                          Potosí, Bolivia


Wiracocha, the creator of the world, looked down and saw that his creation was not following the path that he had intended.  He told Condor (remember that Condor is one of the totem animals of Hanaq Pacha) to go down and have a look and see what was happening.  Condor flew for days and days observing the actions of the people on earth and then he returned to Wiracocha and told him that the people had become self-centered, egotistical and materialistic; all they did was look out for their own best interests and they had forgotten their responsibility to look out for each other.  Wiracocha was very saddened by the news.  However, he had a solution.  He asked Condor to return to Kay Pacha in the form of a man.  He told Condor that whomever he touched would be healed, not just healed physicially, but healed spiritually and emotionally as well.  Wiracocha also told Condor never to tell anyone who he really was, because when he did so he would return to hanaq pacha. 

Condor flew down to Kay Pacha and traveled from pueblo to pueblo healing souls and spirits and also bodies.  Slowly the world began to change and people began to remember the path.  Condor worked for many years and began to grow old.  He looked like an old man because no one knew that he was Condor.  Finally one day he knew that it was time for him to leave Kay Pacha and return to Hanaq Pacha.  A young man had been following him for some time, leaning his teachings and his ways.  He took the young man aside and told him that he was Condor and that it was time for him to return to Hanaq Pacha.  He told the young man to travel high into the mountains.  There he would be guided to a bush and under the bush he would find a cloth bundle.  He was to unwrap the cloth bundle and hold the stone that he would find therein.  Condor told the young man that the stone was his (Condor's) heart and that the young man could continue to heal bodies and souls by using the bundle with the rock inside. 

The young man did as he was told and made a long and solitary treck into the sierra, the mountains.  He followed the tail of Puma (totem animal of Kay Pacha) to a bush and under the bush he found the cloth bundle that Condor had spoken of.  The young man unwrapped the bundle and found inside an ordinary looking rock.  However when he touched the rock blood started to flow from the rock (1).  At that very instant down in a pueblo the old man transformed into Condor and flew up into the sky to Hanaq Pacha.   The young man carefully wrapped the rock back up in the cloth and carefully took his bundle down the mountain.  He loving cared for the bundle the rest of his days and used it to heal all who came to him. 

Shamans in the Andes today carry a cloth bundle with them that contains tokens of their apus, usually rocks and crystals from sacred sites along with other sacred images and tools.  These objects are all power tools.  An object is added to the mesa bundle when a shaman gets a strong "yes" that an object should be included.  Some items included in a bundle have generic, cultural meaning, for example I was taught to always include a bell in my bundle because it bring intuition.  Other items have specific, personal meaning.  For example, my bundle contains a small, perfectly round quartzite stone, about the size of a golf ball.  I pick the stone out of a stream in the Blue Ridge mountains.  The stone was weathered and smothed by centuries or milenium of tumbling in the stream, making its way down from the mountains.  It reminds me of how experience smooths off our rough edges. 

The cloth that I use to wrapup  the objects for my Mesa is a one-meter square piece of hand-wolven fabric that I bought off a loom in the Andes Mountains.  It has special meaning to me because I watched the weaver work, talked to her about her weaving, learned what was involved and how long it took to make.  Her weaving helped to support her family, but it was also a labor of love.  Every time I touch the cloth my heart is transported back to the Bolivian highlands.

The bundle is activated and turns into a Mesa when it is opened up.  The cloth become the altar covering and the objects are carefully aranged on top of the cloth.  The apus arrive when the bundle is opened.  It is always good to great the apus with music (I play a tune on a Native American flute) and then with a prayer . . . Apu of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Apu of Illampu . . . I keep you always in my heart." and then I give an offering to Pachamama 

When a bundle is opened and the Mesa is set it is connected to all of the other Mesas.  I was told by my Meastro, don Juan Carlos, years ago, "Never feel alone, you  are always connected to me and the other curanderos through our Mesas, the energy connects us all."  Not only does the Mesa connect us with our apus, with other Mesas and their workers, it also connects us with our history.  One of the treasured objects in my mesa is the small figurine of a llama, it reminds me of my years in the Andes Mountains.  Another is a small, carved raven by Zuni artist Tim Lementino.  It reminds me of one of my totem animals, Raven, and also of the time I spent with my Northern Cheyenne blood brother in Lame Dear, Montana.  Another item in my bundle is a quartz crystal point from Tibet that has special meaning for me.  I'm 60 years old now and so I have more than half a century of memories caught up in my bundle.  If you decide to make a Mesa then your bundle will start to carry your memories and consequently your energy as well.

When the temperature gets above freezing I'll set my Mesa up in the forest and take a few pictures to share with you . . . future blog.


(1) Catholic readers might note a similarity between the bleeding rock (heart) of Condor and the bleeding heart of Christ.  I don't know if the similarity is coincidental or if it is the result of the intertwining of ancient Andean beliefs with 16th century Catholic teaching.  My guess is that it is the latter.) 

If you are new to my blog on Peruvian Shamanism you might want to go back and read the first two posts, they will provide background and you will understand the Quechua terms that I used in this post. 

Peace.








Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Peruvian Shamanism -- Part 2


I noticed that my post yesterday was my first post since October of last year.  I'm sorry.  Last semester was harder than most and I spent most of the semester just trying to keep my head above water.  Anyway, I'm glad to be back and am exicted to share more with you about Peruivan shamanism.

In an earlier blog I wrote about the generic shamanic view of the cosmos, the lower world, the middle world, and the upper world.  If you didn't read that blog don't worry, the upper and lower worlds are not heaven and hell.  They are places to which we travel on shamanic journeys to meet with totem animals, guides and teachers.  Eventually we will get to world views in this blog, but a few preliminaries first.

Remember that we live in the kawsay pacha, the energy world and part of becoming an Andean shaman is learning how to sense and work with that energy.  One of the two classes of Andean shamans is the pampa mesayoqs (pampa = land, mesayoqs = priest, shaman).  The pampa mesayoqs are ceremonialists.  They have learned the rituals and ceremonies, especially those that honor pachamama (1).  The second group are the alto mesayoqs (alto = high).  These shamans may be skilled in rituals like the pampa mesayoqs and have also developed a relationship with nature energies and spirits and are able to experience them directly.

[Quick aside in case you are interested in Quechua.  Don't confuse the Spanish word mesa which means "table" with the mesa in mesayoqs.  In Quechua a generic table is a misa and a table made of wood is a qiru misa.  Quechua is one of the three official languages of Bolivia, the other two being Spanish and Aymara.  Although Quecha speakers have "borrowed" some words from Spanish, Quechua is not a Spanish dialect.  It is the language of the Inca, the language that was spoken in Peru, Bolivia and Southern Ecuador before the arrival of the Spanish.  Now back to shamanism.]

When I was learning Quecha one of the first phrases that I learned was Ima kay? or "What is this?"  I would walk around while visiting a Quechua speaker, pick something up, and say, "Ima kay?"   It was was a great way to build vocabulary.  It also helped me understand the concept of kay pachaKay pacha (this earth) is one of the three worlds in Andean cosmology.  Kay pacha is middle earth, the physical world were we normally reside.  The upper and lower worlds are hanaq pacha (hanaq = sky, high, heaven, elevated . . .) and ukhu pacha (ukhu = interior, lower, under, inside, room . . .). 

The totem animals of the three worlds are:
  • Hanaq pacha -- condor and hummingbird
  • Kay pacha -- puma or jaguar
  • Ukhu pacha -- snake
If you remember from my last post (if not, you might want to read it too) there are two kinds of energy, sami (the universal feminine vital energy) and hucha (heavy, human energy).  The upper world is composed of and full of sami.  The lower world is composed of and full of hucha, heavy energy. 

Andean shamans, unlike individuals who practice core shamanism as popularized by Michael Harner, and some traditional shamans, don't take shamanic journeys to the three worlds.  They stay firmly rooted in Kay pacha.  Nevertheless Andean shamanas work with the energy from the three worlds, have visions and dreams, and use nature-based rituals.  In addition Andean shamans, the Paqos, work to facilitate the flow of ayni (the idea of mutual effort and reciprocity) between the three worlds.  The column of energy that they create is called a saiwa.  I have always thought of the saiwa as tool to balance the energy between the three worlds, a way to get Kay pacha back into balance.

In my next blog I think that I'll write about the Andean shaman's mesa (good guess, but it is not a table) and despachos.

Finally a quick note:  My wife, Rosa, a Peruvian psychologist, is planning on taking a tour  group to sacred sites in Peru this summer.  Please email me if you would like to get on her mailing list for more information.

(1) If you wondered if mother earth or Pachamama has a male counterpart the answer is yes.  He is Intitayta or father (tayta) sun (inti).

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Peruvian Shamanic Cosmology -- Part I


I have spent over five years in Peru and Alto Peru (aka Bolivia) and Andean shamanism is probably the closest to what I practice as a shamanic practitioner.  I am an American of Irish descent so Celtic blood flows through my veins.  However astro-astrology locates all of my planets over South America with Venus (my heart) over the Andean regions of Bolivia and Peru and I feel most alive and most at home on the Altiplano. 

In a previous post I wrote a little about Animism, the belief that Spirit indewels in everthing.  Thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that those born in the Andes Mountains are born into a world that is as aware of them as they are of it.  The Andean world is one that is filled with Spirit and Spirits and when we learn to listen these Spirits become our teachers.

Qi Gong practitioners recognize that Qi (Ki in Japan) is the life-force energy that surrounds and enlivenes us. In the Andes that energy is known as kawsay = energy, and we live in the kawsay pacha (your first Quechua words), or the world of living energy. It is expressed as sami and hucha. Sami is the energy of the natural world. Energy that is ordered and refined. If you have studied the Vedic traditions then you might think of sami as being similar in quality to sattva. Hucha on the other hand is human energy, energy that is heavy and disordered. Again, in the Vedic tradition this is a quality similar to tamas.

Cuzco is known as the "Navel of the World" to the Andeans, and it is well worth a visit.  However, if you can't visit it then pay attention to your own qosqo the point, much like a chakra, through which you mediate energy with the world.  Qosqo, not surprisingly is located about two inches below the navel in the same place where Qi Gong practitioners would locate the lower Dan Tien.

Kawsay pacha is inhabited by two primary spirit energies, Pachamama and apus. Pacha  = earth and mama = mother is the Earth Mother, Mother Earth or the First Mother.  Not the Mother Earth that we sometimes use as a term to describe our rock that is flying through space, but the Spirit of the Earth.  Pachamama is everywhere present.  Apus, on the other hand, are sacred beings or lords that are more local in nature.  For example, Mt Illimanai, about 21,122 feet high, outside of La Paz, Bolivia, is/has a powerful apu.  The apus are the medium through which Andean shamans  receive knowledge, healing power, wisdom and counsel. 

To see a foto of Mt. Illimani visit the foto page on my web site at www.dr-dave-nd.com.

More to come . . .