What Is Shamanism?

 

 

Shamanism is a technology of the sacred. 

 

Shamanism is the foundation of all spiritual consciousness. 

 

Shamanism is a universal concept. 

 

At its heart, Shamanism is not exclusive. To the contrary, it is inclusive. 

 

We seek to be bridge people, or chakarunas. We want to be a bridge between you and Spirit. We want to be a bridge between worlds to heal others in a path of service. 

 

We make a conscious decision to harness our energy for the betterment of everyone and everything, for the good of all. We are all one.

 

Maestro Don Howard, a legendary Maestro who worked with Huachuma, Peyote, and Ayahuasca,  would emphasize that, “A bridge is not a destination. It’s a way to get somewhere.” 

 

A shaman can lead you to and show you the door to different states of consciousness. It is ultimately up to you to knock and enter through that door.

 

Don Howard expressed that, “What’s important is that you have a genuine thirst for truth and a desire to attain a closer relationship with The Other...whatever your definition of The Other is or becomes.”

 

Plants are an access point to Spirit provided by the great Earth Mother for our individual and collective evolution. Sacred teacher-healer plants potentiate everything, and catalyze our evolutionary journey.

 

The plants are a channel that open the doors of perception to non-physical dimensions and beings. 

 

We are speaking to Spirit through the plants in an act of sacred communion. As we work with the plant medicines, they become part of us and we become part of them. They become part of our flesh, bones, and blood. Our spirits twine together like vines and become one. With each journey into these hidden realms, we bring back a little more of the wisdom and light of those realms into our physical bodies and lives.

 

It is important that people have deep respect for plants and a deep respect for what the plants connect us to: the divine within.

 

The plants open up a portal between the natural and the supernatural; the material and the spiritual; and the physical and the metaphysical. The sacred teacher-healer plants are the epitome of embodied spirituality. They literally teach us through the body so we can’t spiritually bypass our humanity.

 

Truth expressed is medicine. Truth withheld is poison. 

 

We are servants of the medicine. We are students of Spirit.

 

The shamanic path is one of progressive initiation. 

 

Each time we work with the sacred teacher/healer plants another level of truth, understanding, and love is revealed. No matter how far we come, there is always more. There is no end to realizing and embodying the infinity that we are. 

 

Each journey with the plants takes us to a place of higher spiritual realization. These peak experiences illuminate aspects of our being that were previously unconscious, which can be painful and difficult.

 

The homework begins after the ceremony, when the burden of knowledge and law of responsibility ask us to embody the revealed truths. 

 

The plant teachers reveal the next stage in our evolutionary journey and give us the tools and lessons to stay there. But fully realizing and embodying that next level of consciousness comes down to our moment-by-moment decisions in our everyday lives.