The Shamanic Journey

The Shamanic Journey By Jan Engels-Smith

Shamanic journeying is available to anyone willing to learn. The altered state of consciousness achieved in a journey allows you to transcend the limitations of the rational world, with which we are so familiar, and enter the realm of the non-ordinary. Following are the basic aspects of the shamanic journey that I will describe in this article:

  1. The journey and the state of altered consciousness that is induced are created by a sonic instrument such as a drum or rattle.
  2. Prior to the journey, you are asked to form an intention for the journey defining what you hope to gain from the experience.
  3. During the journey, the practicing shaman meets up with his or her Power Animals or Spiritual Allies to gain information pertaining to the declared intention.
  4. Journeys take place in three different realms: the Lower, Upper, and Middle Worlds. The three worlds hold different kinds of information and the shaman learns how to travel in these different realities. This article will highlight the Lower World.
  5. Journeying is a right brain function.

Why Do We Journey?

The Shamanic Journey

Journeys are real. The worlds where these journeys take you do exist, which the right brain can perceive. The other dimensions, seeing or experiencing spirits, the feelings of oneness and non-separation, are all experiences of the right brain.  The right brain is free of ego and full of possibilities; it is unrestricted.

There is a profound magic to journeys that is literally unexplainable using traditional human thought systems and language common to the left brain. We are a left brain dominate culture and it is our left brain that tries to concretize things, leading us to believe that there are highly restrictive boundaries on truth and that there are severe limitations on our ability to change circumstances. Left brain thinking is controlled by the ego which perceives the world and your life from the past and future.

The more you journey and break out of the barriers of the left brain and realize the reality of these places and the energy contained in them, the more powerful you become and the more instantly things manifest in your own life. Limitations fall away.

The journey is used to provide access to information from the spiritual realm which is as unlimited as the universe and the imagination. Anything is possible and information is readily available. Although there are other ways to gather information from the spirits, the journey is the method I prefer and that I teach my students at LightSong School of 21stCentury Shamanism and Energy Medicine. My goal is to empower my students to connect with their own spirit helpers. There is a vast amount of resources and comfort available to those willing to break out of the confinements of western thought and explore the truths held by the unseen. Who knows better than one’s own spiritual teachers and one’s own soul what is needed to heal and to grow? When we are learning the basics of the shamanic journey, we will make sure that all of our journeys to the spirits will be in places where there are only helping spirits. The Lower World is a place of enlightenment and the place where your Power Animal usually presides.

How Do We Learn?

The journey style takes our usual active mind and puts it to good use by teaching the mind how to rise out of the density of the Earth and all of its hardships and restrictions (left brain constructs) into other dimensions and realities (right brain). A person can quickly learn how to journey, and this is appealing to most people. The shamanic journey opens the door to non-ordinary reality, allows you to enter, and offers a technique to explore this vast, creative, and healing space.

In learning how to journey you will become increasingly aware of the spiritual realm of other realities and dimensions. You will discover just how disconnected most human beings are to the energy and spirituality around them.

Reality is an illusive thing. People are most dependent on their eyes to gain information, but our human vision is remarkably limited. Even 20/20 vision in humans is paltry compared to that of many in the animal kingdom. Because of our obsession with sight, we have negated the existence of the unseen, limited the use of our other senses, and diminished their potential usefulness and effectiveness.

We, as a culture, have overdeveloped the left side of our brains at the expense of the right side. Our schools, bureaucratic institutions, sciences, and our very culture have emphasized analytical understanding while minimizing the value of creativity. We have become what the spirits fondly refer to as lopsided. I often say to students that some spiritual things simply can’t be explained in words; to define these experiences in rational terms is to dilute the experience. Trying to explain a right-brain, non-linear experience using left-brain linear, analytical, sequential, and rational terms does not work. Spirit is the world of the nonlinear; it uses the senses of the soul, which are governed by the heart. It is often said that the shaman “sees,” “hears,” “feels,” and “knows” with her/his heart. Journeying develops these “senses of the soul” while it stimulates and utilizes the right side of the brain.

As in anything, the more you practice journeying the better you will get at discovering new realities. New worlds open up that are blindly missed by the human eye and the rational left brain. I am amazed at what is available to all individuals when they let go of existing paradigms and limited perspectives.

Opening the mind and allowing spirit to work unencumbered is what we often call a miracle or magic. It is what spirit calls Eagle Vision, the ability to rise above the limited view of immediate circumstance to gain a broader, more inclusive perspective. There is so much more to “see” in the universal picture when one uses the senses of the soul and lives by the heart.

I have taught hundreds of people how to journey, most with remarkable success. The journey method empowers and enriches their lives. They develop a modality through journeying that is useful to everyday life. They can reach and communicate with their spirit helpers in a constructive and accurate way.

Place of Entry: For your journey to the Lower World, you will enter somewhere that feels as if it is “going down into the earth.” Choose a place that solicits the feeling of descending, like an animal hole or a crack in the earth. Some people use an image of a waterfall or imagine diving into a deep pool. Others climb down the roots of a tree.

Shamanically, a portal is an entryway into a different dimension; the place you choose represents your portal into the Lower World, which leads to your Ally. Once you establish this place, it becomes your place of entry. If it turns out you do not like your initial portal, you can choose something else.

In my tenure as a teacher, as well as participating in numerous journey workshops, I have witnessed hundreds of people learning to journey. A common complaint was that individuals felt lost in the portal, uncertain of their arrival in the Lower World. Commonly, they would question, “Am I in the Lower World? Am I not in the Lower World?” Not every one knew for sure. Participants might spend an entire 20 minutes attempting and reattempting to transcend from one world to the other. To have a different outcome I suggest that you count from 10 down to 1. When you reach number 1 you declare yourself in the Lower World. Intention makes it true; you are there.

The following is a brief summary of the journey process:

  • The first journey is to the Lower World to meet your Power Animal. The objective is to dialogue and to communicate in a multisensory mode with this ally.
  • If you have multiple animals appear, notice which one shows itself three to four times.
  • I recommend that you ask, “Are you my Power Animal?” and begin communicating with this question.
  • It is good protocol to offer the ally some food. Food tends to be a universal sign of friendship, which includes our non-ordinary friends.
  • Be multisensory, consciously engaging your senses – seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, feeling, knowing; activate them all.
  • Journeying is an internal process; the Power Animal will speak with you telepathically. Tell your ally that you desire to be in relationship; you are excited and thrilled for this opportunity. Start building this relationship.
  • Do not be concerned if you are still cognizant of your body or hear sounds happening in the room while you are in the journey. You are omnipresent. You can be many places at once. You can see and feel yourself in the journey, while still being conscious of your bodily presence in the room. You have the ability to invoke many perceptions at one time.
  • Before you journey, fill with power. Call in the spirits. The process can be simple to start: acknowledge the directions, drum, and say an invocation.
  • Your opening ritual will continue to develop, but get in the habit of setting the stage before every journey. Develop a way that is most comfortable for you and allows you to focus your attention most effectively
  • In your journey be very clear about your intention, what you are asking of the spirits. The clarity of your intention will influence your entire journey and how clear the response from the spirits will be.
  • Take some nice deep breaths and relax, knowing that this is a glorious moment for you and for your Power Animal, and you are greatly loved in the universe.
  • Repeat your intention: “I am going to the Lower World to meet my Power Animal.”
  • Place a mind fold or eye cover over your eyes.
  • Start drumming or turn on your drumming CD.
  • Move through your portal, counting down from 10 to 1, when you will find yourself in the Lower World.
  • Ask any animals you encounter whether they are your Power Animal. If not, ask again for your power animal to come forth.
  • Once you have determined your power animal, try to engage all your senses: feel, listen, smell, taste and visualize. Use knowingness, especially if you experience a black screen.
  • If time permits, ask them what attributes they bring for you.
  • When you hear the drum cadence change (callback), thank your Power Animal, retrace your journey (this locks the journey into your memory), and return through your portal.
  • Journal your experience.

Tips for Improving Your Journey:

–Keep track of information in your journal, no matter how insignificant it might seem.

–Never is nothing happening.

–Let information percolate.

–Journey again and ask for more information.