Shamanism and Urban American
By Barbara Snow for Open Exchange Magazine

This October 14 - 17, the serene grounds of Mt. Madonna Center near Watsonville, CA, will for four days become home to a global shamanic community arriving from the four corners of the United States, South America and Europe to participate in the Fourth Annual International Gathering of the Heart of the Healer (THOTH) Foundation. From urban areas and remote regions, people are drawn here by their common passion for the ancient tradition of shamanism. City dwellers longing for forgotten simplicity hope to experientially integrate aspects of the Pueblo tradition of New Mexico from Florence and Salvador Yepa and the pre-Columbia indigenous heritage of Peru with Elba Bravo and Oscar Miro-Quesada. They want to feel the shifts in their bodies in response to the breathy notes of ancient Andean and Inka musical instruments played by Grammy Award nominee Tito La Rosa. They long to circle playfully in the exuberant Dance of the Deer led by shaman Brant Secunda representing the Huichol Native peoples of Mexico. They are curious about what world-renowned scholar and author Stanley Krippner, professor of psychology and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at Saybrook Institute in San Francisco, will say in his keynote presentation entitled Shamanic Healing Over the Ages. Why shamanism in developed, modern western nations? Because it works. Because contemporary shamanism offers time-proven tools for healing our individual, social and planetary ills. The ancient wisdom traditions have re-emerged with holistic healing approaches often more effective than our modern technologies in transforming lives, restoring a sense of sacred community and transmuting our current environmental degradation.

At the macrocosmic level, the shamanic worldview gives hope for societal and planetary renewal. At the microcosmic stage, it fosters individual wholeness. A growing number of psychotherapists rely on a combination of shamanic healing arts with mainstream psychological methods because together, they offer better results. Dr. Leslie Gray, executive director and founder of the Woodfish Institute, is a Native American psychotherapist. When the techniques of psychotherapy had limited success, she began to include the healing perspectives of her people and found her clients benefiting dramatically. Gray advocates (and embodies) a new vision of health care—the integration of ancient healing and modern medicine. The new book Ecological Medicine: Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves released May 1, 2004, by Sierra Club Books features a chapter by Dr. Gray: "Reading the Mind of Nature: Ecopsychology and Indigenous Wisdom."

Oscar Miro-Quesada, founder of The Heart of the Healer (THOTH) Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of earth-honoring indigenous traditions and the protection of sacred sites worldwide, is a transpersonal psychologist and kamasqa curandero who has immersed himself in the ancestral cultures of his native Peru since 1969. Miro-Quesada states that “in western psychotherapy, 30% get better, 30% get worse, and for the rest, little changes. With the proper combination of psychotherapy and cross-cultural shamanism, 80% of clients who undertake a healing process experience beneficial transformation.” Miro-Quesada now spends most of his time sharing the wisdom teachings of the Pachakuti Mesa, a healing altar used by the Peruvian curanderos/curanderas that originated at least 4000 years ago. Because the mesa creates a sacred, multidimensional space, its addition to any healing modality enhances the work being done. Mesa carriers engage in disciplined spiritual practice and holistic forms of healing that integrate inner and outer human potentials involving the sacred use of sound, visualization, herbal medicine, ceremonial healing, and transmission of energies with their mesa as focal point. In its simplest form, the mesa consists of a manta (cloth), a stone, a shell, a feather, a candle, and a centerpiece that visually represents the mesa carrier’s awakened soul, serving as a portal through which to connect with the unseen world. Various sacred artifacts, called khuyes, embody their own living power that in turn enhances the entire ceremonially consecrated “medicine field” of sacred objects, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The energy in a circle of mesas is palpable, often bringing tears of healing or ecstasy as the ceremonial ground does its work, even when no other people are present. The Pachakuti Mesa tradition of cross-cultural shamanism is a core practice of members within The Heart of the Healer (THOTH) Foundation sacred community.

Shamanism views the world and everything in it as animated, replete of a living soul, whether an element of the natural world (earth, air, fire, water, aether) or Creation itself. Shamanism also views our ordinary reality as one of many that all affect each other, whether we are conscious of the effects or not. This alternate view of reality was made more accessible to modern skeptics by the recent Nova television series on string theory that suggests there are eleven parallel universes. Experienced shamans smile and suggest there are many more. An essential element of the expanding global shamanic culture is the absence of dogma and the commonality of teachings from many heartfelt, earth-honoring traditions: Native North and South American, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan and Christian, to name a few. Florence Yepa -- a half-Laguna, half-Jemez Pueblo Tribal Elder -- commented on her experience presenting at THOTH’s last year’s conference:

“It was a shock that we were considered as elders. We are simple people who live in the traditional ways. We felt the people there understood where we were coming from and how we were moving to help people. We were surprised and excited at their reception, at the sharing, at their curiosity and hunger to know more of what we were about. It was so helpful to know people want to hear about our life and our ways as native people.

This year, Victor, our son (singer, song maker) is coming with great testimonies to share about talking to the younger generation. He is teaching elders how to work with young people. We need this for survival…to continue what has been started…to move forward. This is the time everywhere to feed the spirits and open doors to relationships with others.”

In fact, the title of this 4th Annual International THOTH Gathering is Awakening the Global Heart: The Flowering of Compassion for the Seven Generations, reflecting the tradition among many native peoples that all decisions be based on an awareness of how they may influence the lives of future generations. This coming together of traditions is the ongoing fulfillment of a prophecy shared throughout the Americas about the reunion of the Eagle and the Condor. These powerful birds represent the spiritual identity of ancestral peoples from North and South America coming together in alliance to serve our Mother Earth and her children. Over the last two decades, the stream of people from North America traveling south to apprentice with Andean wisdom keepers has become a river. The Q’ero people, who avoided assimilation during the Spanish conquest by retreating into the most remote areas of the Andes, have also come forth and revealed their prophetic vision at this time, much like the Hopi, Lakota, Maya, Achuar, and Kogi wisdom keepers have stepped forth for the same reason, to warn humanity that if we do not change our ways, disastrous consequences will prevail.

On April 17 of this year, a sold-out audience of 2,000 people flowed into The Marin Veterans’ Auditorium in San Rafael, CA. Scenes of a graceful jungle village on the shores of serene waters played on a huge screen above the auditorium. More arresting still was the face of a young Achuar, whose soulful gaze from piercing brown eyes above painted cheeks penetrated the easy cynicism of modern urbanites.

They came to hear Dr. Jane Goodall, famed for her work with chimpanzees, explain her Reasons for Hope, the title of her new book and of the evening conference. Subtitled The Reunion of the Eagle and the Condor, this event also featured Phil Lane, Jr., hereditary chief of the White Swan Dakotas; Santiago Kawarim, Leader of the Achuar people of Ecuador; and Lynne Twist, co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance.

The Reunion of the Eagle and the Condor is a prophecy widely known in the growing ranks of North Americans studying “New World” shamanism The prophecy is usually interpreted to mean merging of native spiritualities of the two Americas. Lynne Twist, co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance, an organization that supports native Amazonian tribes in resisting invasion and destruction of their rain forests, described a different perspective from an indigenous Ecuadorian chief: the reunion of Mind--the modern intellectual and technological world--and Heart--the nature and soul centered cosmology of tribal jungle dwellers. Ms.Twist shared more about the real-life success story of the Achuar:

“The Achuar are a dream culture. Living in close harmony with the dense, untouched jungle of their tribal lands, the Achuar were told in their dreams that to prevent the devastation that has occurred to the lands of other tribes, they needed to do what they feared most: connect with the outside world. For this people, whose fierce defense against the Spanish invasion centuries ago prevented their conquest, it meant reaching out to compassionate people who were more politically sophisticated and to technology. Now you can find an Achuar hard at work on a computer powered by a solar panel miles from anywhere. ”

Achuar lands are threatened primarily by oil companies ravenous for new sources and agricultural companies clearing jungle to raise cattle and crops. While the charred images of smoking forest showed on the auditorium’s big screen, Lynne Twist reported, “a football field of pristine jungle is cleared every day.” The pressure from their own government increases because of their massive debt. Yet more than the Achuar culture is at stake. The jungles are the lungs of the planet, as well as the pharmacopoeia for our most potent medicines. White shirt and dark slacks contrasted by the bright native headpiece and colorful bands crisscrossing his chest, Santiago Kawarim, Achuar leader and past President of Federacion Interprovincial de Nacionalidad Achuar del Ecuador, stood with determined dignity while his Spanish was translated for the audience.

“The plants give us a powerful connection with the protector Being of the Forest, Aruta. They give us foresight, advice and power to solve problems.” Obeying the instructions given them in their dreams led the Achuar to The Pachamama Alliance, a move that has helped them maintain their custodianship of two million acres of hereditary tribal land.
Phil Lane, Jr., hereditary chief of the White Swan Dakotas, is Founder and President of the Four Worlds Institute and Coordinator of its economic development arm, Four Directions International. Lane noted, “We are all indigenous peoples. We are all sacred tribes. The honor of one is the honor of all. The hurt of one is the hurt of all.”
Lane spoke with pride, not of the numerous awards he has received for his work building cross-cultural communities, but of the progress his people are making against the rampant alcoholism that plagues the reservations. “We are now at 95% recovery.” At the end of the talking, Lane spread a blanket on the floor center stage. As Santiago Kawarim knelt opposite him, Lane assembled his ceremonial pipe—used by Chief Crazy Horse--smoked to each direction in the traditional way, and passed the pipe to Santiago, whose acceptance and smoking sealed the bond between their peoples.

Dr. Krippner’s research into consciousness, alternate realities and their effects on healing have earned him numerous awards and honors and the respect of the scientific and healing communities worldwide from 1959 to the present. Now we are in a position to see that Dr. Krippner’s substantial contributions reflected early on what has become a growing recognition of the interface between science and spirituality. In the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?, released in August, 2004, an array of physicists, theologians and spiritual leaders with astounding credentials act as a sort of Greek chorus, explaining from a scientific and spiritual perspective what is happening on different levels as the story of a woman in crisis unfolds. They demonstrate the interactions of brain chemistry, neuronal grooves, multiple realities, and the inherent power of human thoughts and words to create or destroy. The movie references the work of Masaru Emoto, whose astounding photographs of water molecules in his book The Hidden Messages in Water visually demonstrate the power of love to rebuild or hate to destroy molecular structure. Sandra Ingerman, shamanic practitioner and author of numerous notable books on shamanic journeying and soul retrieval, substantiates this dramatic evidence. Ingerman documented in her book Medicine for the Earth the power of ceremony to remove toxins. She records a consistent drop of two or more pH points in distilled water that had been contaminated with ammonium hydroxide when that water was the focus of intention and love within sacred ceremony. Shamanic practice and sacred ceremony are powerful forms of dynamic environmental engagement for anyone concerned about protecting our planetary ecosystem and restoring a full and joyful state of wholeness to our lives.

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Barbara Snow is a Pachakuti Mesa Carrier who teaches workshops at Change Makers for Women and Alaya, the Shaman Store. She is author of The Sudden Caregiver: Surrendering to Enlightenment. See www.barbarasnow.com.

For more information regarding the upcoming cross-cultural shamanic gathering at Mt. Madonna see www.heartofthehealer.org or call 530.677.3411.