A path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart?, ..If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use..
. ~ Don Juan Matus ~

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*The Spirit Walk *

.A Spirit Walk is when you follow the calling of your destiny, going where your spirit leads you, to experience that which you to need learn. 

It is living not from ego, but from complete being.  It requires that you be totally present and totally accepting, so that old habits and ideas do not continue to foster illusions and lead you away from your true self.

 As much literal as figurative, the Spirit Walk is a right of passage.  It is a pilgrimage from one state of being to another. While it may involve a journey from home, it is actually a journey to return home, a returning to the spiritual home that you wandered from in the course of living. 

If in finding harmony, in body, mind and spirit, you can turn away from illusion, awaken to a new awareness and find what is the truth for you, then the Spirit Walk has returned you home to your true Way.

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What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do; especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.
~ William Least Heat-Moon ~.

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*The Shamanic Journey*

.Shamanism is not a religion; it is a way of being. It is the direct experience of spiritual knowledge and the shamanic experience can be found in every religious faith. The Shamanic Journey is an investiture, a pilgrimage that one must undertake on the way to becoming a shaman.   It is a transformation of spirit and becoming a shaman starts from within.  One must strive  to be be free of illusions and to see without the burden of preconceptions or biases.  Being a Shaman is not a "hobby".  One must fully commit to “The Journey”.

The word "shaman" originated in Siberia and it describes a specialized type of holy person who practices not only with prayer, ritual and offerings, but through direct contact with the spirits themselves.  In traditional shamanic practice the Shaman was "the vision seeker". 

 The label of  "shaman" eventually came to be applied, incorrectly, to any medicine man  or medicine woman of the indigenous cultures whose calling involves the spiritual quest. *But, the practice of shamanism cannot be so easily defined.

 A Shaman does not follow the laws of man; the Shaman follows the laws of Nature and of Spirit. The Shaman must be able to live astride two worlds; the world of perceived reality and the world of intuitive reality. The Shaman actualizes this duality of existence by venturing into what is called the "shamanic state of consciousness" or the "shamanic ecstasy"  and it is during these cosmic journeys  that the  shaman will travel to other spiritual realms, encountering the people, animals, and spirits who inhabit the mystical universe. 

Though it is a personal and individual experience, shamanism is tribal in its nature and needs to be experienced within the cultural elements of the differing tribal lands. The Shaman must be attuned to the parochial, as well as the universal mythos of each tribal region in order to understand the  Spirit of the Native Land. Though the essence of the shamanic practice does not change and its elemental ritual experience remains immutable, shamanic rituals and experience will acclimate to different times and different cultures. 

 Ultimately what it takes to become a Shaman is to be chosen by a specific spirit, totem or deity to be that Spirit's emissary in interacting with the material world.  You are not a "Shaman" until you have been called to and accepted a relationship with a spiritual patron.  Once that has happened, this Spirit will work with you and through you to accomplish what needs to accomplished.

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*Because trances were so important to the Native American people as a means of getting in touch with spiritual forces, the title “Pow-Wow”, (from the Algonquin word “pauwau”, literally meaning "one who has visions"), was accorded to those who fulfilled this role in the tribe. The word, whose spelling was eventually settled in English as “pow-wow”, was also used as the name for ceremonies and councils, because of the important role played by the pauwau in both. Though the nature of the shaman and the pauwau is similar, many Native Americans find the word “shaman” offensive and one should not use the word to label Native American tribal vision seekers.

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*Shamanic Ecstasy*

 Shamanic Ecstasy is the real "Old Time Religion", of which modern churches are but pallid evocations.  Shamanic visionary ecstasy, the mysterium tremendum, the unio mystica, the eternally delightful experience of the universe as energy, is a sine qua non of religion, it is what religion is for!  There is no need for faith, it is the ecstatic experience itself that gives one faith in the intrinsic unity and integrity of the universe, in ourselves as integral parts of the whole; that reveals to us the sublime majesty of our universe, and the fluctuant, scintillant, alchemical miracle that is quotidian consciousness.  Any religion that requires faith and gives none, that defends against religious experiences, that promulgates the bizarre superstition that humankind is in some way separate, divorced from the rest of creation, that heals not the gaping wound between body and soul, but would tear them asunder; is.no.religion.at.all!

"© Jonathan Ott"

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An ecstasy is a thing that will not go into words; it feels like music and one cannot tell about music so that another person can get the feeling of it. 

~ The Mysterious Stranger ~

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