Choosing a Shamanic Teacher

Posted on by Scarlet Kinney — 2 Comments ↓

In our culture, there is a great deal of confusion about what it means to be a shamanic teacher, as well as what it means to be a student of such a teacher, and many people have been harmed because of this confusion.

In feminist shamanic practice, there is no hierarchical structure, as there always is in patriarchal traditions and practices. Rather, the teacher, if healed, understands herself to be like a compass, pointing the way towards a  feminist shamanic awakening, but always allowing the student to proceed at her own pace. Needless to say, the dance between shamanic teacher and student is a delicate one, and the bond between them can easily be broken should either the student or the teacher become entrapped in ego-generated thinking.

In the early stages of the student’s experience, she will very likely perceive the teacher to be flawless. To counteract that tendency, the teacher must make an effort to demonstrate her humanity to her students at the same time that she demonstrates her shamanic power. The reason for this is that it is understood that each one of us brings a valuable perspective to the interpretation of reality, even the most raw novice. This understanding must be balanced with the teacher’s responsibility to guide her student correctly, and to counter eruptions of ego imbalance within the student’s psyche that will be detrimental to the student and to those the student may eventually attempt to heal or teach herself. And almost every student, at some point in her shamanic development, will succumb to the urgings of her ego to test her power against that of her teacher.

This is a critical point in the student’s training, and a trial for the teacher, for she must simultaneously realign the student’s ego, while maintaining her stance as guide rather than authority figure. It is at this juncture that the student will either quit training, be released from training by the teacher, or realize her ego-imbalance and become willing to bear the humbling experience of bringing it back into balance under the guidance of the teacher.  The successful negotiation of this struggle by both student and teacher is a necessary prerequisite for the student’s admission into advanced levels of training.

As the teacher-student relationship develops over time, the feminist shamanic teacher encourages the student to rely more and more upon her own judgment and direct shamanic experience, and to bring all that she is becoming to the talking circles and councils of her shamanic group. Eventually, the student and teacher stand side by side, working together on healing and research projects, advising and supporting one another in countless ways.

Some tools used by feminist shamans.

Some tools used by feminist shamans.

When one fails to completely heal one’s own wounds or to release one’s own sorrows before becoming a teacher of others, one puts oneself and others at risk in particular ways. One such risk, and perhaps the most dangerous one, is that one may overcompensate for feelings of low self-esteem and victimization by perceiving oneself as somehow enlightened or spiritually superior to others. When this occurs, one becomes blind to one’s own flaws, wounds and neuroses, and they are then often projected onto others. We see this kind of thing happening all the time, particularly among cult leaders. The supplicant or student or apprentice is convinced by the teacher or leader that this or that or the other is wrong with him, and that the teacher is the only one who can fix him, or show him the way to lasting health, wealth and happiness. The results of falling into such a trap can be emotionally, psychically and financially devastating.

To anyone considering apprenticing to a shamanic teacher, I urge you to exercise extreme caution and critical judgment about the character, ethical stance, possible hidden agendas, and camouflaged personal issues the teacher may be struggling with before you make either a financial or an emotional commitment to the person. Sometimes two people simply don’t click, for whatever reasons. Naturally, you will want to continue your search for a teacher elsewhere if this occurs, but sometimes there are much more dangerous energies at play. Following are a few good rules of thumb to help you make sound choices. If you experience any of the following symptoms during or after an encounter with a potential teacher, or any other person, you should consider that you have entered a psycho-spiritual danger zone, and you should exercise extreme caution regarding continuing the contact.

1. You are left feeling frightened, guilty, inadequate, diminished, or wrong in some vague way after talking with the person.

2. You feel “high” or somehow seduced by the person’s charismatic personality;

3. You feel confused after reading materials the person has written, or after attending a workshop of having a private session with the person;

4. An attempt is made to convince you that you have some special gift or talent that could or should be directed towards helping the teacher carry out a messianic agenda of some kind.

In all such instances, your body is the best alarm system you possess. Pay attention to what it’s telling you. If you experience fear, unease, anxiety or any other such indicator of danger, especially when it’s accompanied by an unpleasant physical sensation or thrill of fear anywhere in your torso, you should immediately back away from the person who triggered such sensations, and stay away.

Whether or not you ever grasp intellectually what transpired between the two of you, you can completely trust your body’s knowledge of what transpired between you at a psychic level. When you experience physical sensations of danger in the presence of another person, however charming that person may seem, it may mean that at best, you and this person are simply not psychologically compatible, and at worst, that the person has a hidden agenda for you that may not be in your best interests. Such warning signs can also mean that there is some unresolved issue in your own psyche that may not be ready for healing, but which may nevertheless be triggered repeatedly for you by a corresponding unresolved issue in the other person’s psyche. Whichever the case may be, if you continue exploring the relationship, it’s very likely that you will be hurt in some way by doing so, later if not sooner.

Often twistings of “truths” and symptoms of hidden agendas are very subtle and hard to recognize, so you should allow yourself time away from the person to think, to evaluate, to listen to what your own body and heart are telling you about the advisability of working with a particular person. If you are recovering from a profound trauma of some kind, or have recently experienced a devastating emotional loss of some kind, it’s likely that your capacity to engage in critical thinking may have been compromised. In such instances, you must be even more careful and rely upon the input of trusted friends and family members, and perhaps that of a good therapist whom you trust, to help you make a good decision in the matter of choosing a teacher.

Posted in Feminist Shamanism

Dealing with Contemporary Patriarchy, Part One

Posted on by Scarlet Kinney — No Comments ↓
"Portrait of a Woman" Acrylic on gessoed paper 20 x 24" - Early work - 1970s

“Portrait of a Woman”
Acrylic on gessoed paper
20 x 24″ – Early work – 1970s

Have you ever been told you’re “too emotional” when you express hurt or sadness or confusion in response to the way a loved one is treating you? Have you ever been told by an intimate partner, family member, friend, teacher, or boss that your perception of reality is flawed, or that you have a personality defect, or a “problem,” or that what just happened didn’t happen, or that you take things too personally when you seek to resolve the issue by telling them how you feel in response to the way they’re treating you? Do you know only that you felt bad in such instances, but not how to deal with them? Do you know the name of the cultural paradigm behind the way you’re being treated in such instances? Many of us go through life never understanding that the hidden intent behind the cultural paradigm responsible for these kinds of hurtful behaviors is to gain power over us; to thwart us; to hold us back; to keep us “down,” and to gain control over our thoughts and actions on every level. This cultural paradigm has a name. Its name is Patriarchy.  Many of us believe that patriarchy is a thing of the distant past, not realizing that as women, we deal with very intentful forms of contemporary patriarchy on pretty much a daily basis.  Often we fail to realize that hurtful or confusing words and behaviors we encounter on a daily basis, whether in our intimate and family relationships, at work, in the classroom, or sometimes even in the grocery store, are expressions of contemporary patriarchy. Naming something for what it is, is the first step in understanding it. Understanding it is the first step in becoming able to free ourselves from it.

But then, once we’ve named and understood something, and want to free ourselves from it, we’re faced with the question: How, exactly, do I go about doing that?  Since the late 1700s, women in this country have been addressing patriarchal abuses in various ways. We have used social and political methods of doing so, and have made many gains, and yet, we are still dealing with patriarchal attitudes and behaviors in contemporary culture. Why is this? One of the reasons is that patriarchy is all about males exercising power over women, and the “power-over” paradigm is so deeply entrenched in most cultures in the world that most people don’t recognize it for what it is. Another reason is that most males believe, to varying degrees, that they are superior to women and either consciously or unconsciously want to control and dominate them.

"Patriarchy" w/c, ink and acrylic on gessoed paper

“Patriarchy”
w/c, ink and acrylic on gessoed paper

Why do they want to do that? They want to do that because they are victims of the pathologically inflated ego consciousness which has been infecting cultural consciousness for thousands of years now. Ego consciousness is a function of the Masculine principle. It is entirely goal-oriented, and its genius lies in its ability to “get things done.” We need it. However, ego consciousness is completely lacking in Wisdom, which is a function of the Feminine principle.  Patriarchy is the result of ego-consciousness having become inflated to the point where it believes it has the right to take control of everything – not only getting things done, but also interpreting events and deciding what should be done about any given situation. In order to accomplish this goal, it must usurp the role of Feminine Wisdom. In order to usurp the role of Feminine Wisdom, which is to guide ego-consciousness towards right action in the world, it must assert itself as the ultimate authority. In order to do that, it must silence the Feminine principle, thus rendering its inherent Wisdom unavailable to women, lest they speak it and insist upon the Masculine heeding its advice.

Posted in Dealing with Contemporary Patriarchy, Part One, Patriarchy, Shamanic First Aid

Notes on A Woman’s Shamanic Retreat in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains: Part Eight

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PART EIGHT: Black Bear & “Soft Paw” Medicine

Black Bear: Crop from the painting "Where the Women Go to Heal"Oil on Linen: 30 x 40" - $4800. Available through Turtle Mountain Mythic Art>br/>To see entire painting visit www.scarletkinney.com

Black Bear: Crop from the painting
“Where the Women Go to Heal”
Oil on Linen: 30 x 40″ – $4800. Available through Turtle Mountain Mythic Art>br/>To see entire painting visit www.scarletkinney.com

 

It was the last day of the retreat, and Moon Dancer and I had the day to ourselves to review the work we had done. Early that morning, soon after the others had left, I had realized, during a conversation with her, that I had not attended to all of my own issues during the retreat, being focused on the other’s needs, and was feeling very uncomfortable about a particular issue having to do with the recent loss of a very important relationship.

Black Bear has been one of my medicines for some time now, in addition to my primary Grizzly medicine. While Black Bear had appeared to me in dreams and journeys many times, I had not as yet learned a great deal about its medicine ways.

 

 

Bear Medicine was approaching.

Bear Medicine was approaching.

 

 

The first sign that this was about to change was the huge pile of very fresh black bear scat Moon Dancer and I came upon during our mid-morning walk on our last day at the farm. (We didn’t think to photograph it, not knowing what was about to happen, but the photo above, which I downloaded from Google images, looks very much like the scat we saw in the middle of the farm road not far from the house.) Neither of us were certain that it was bear scat at the time, because of its fresh, grassy appearance, but I suspected it might be, given its size, and the wide range of colors and shapes bear scat can take.

Bear was approaching.

Bear was approaching.

An hour or so later, after a lunch of leftovers, Moon Dancer took another walk, this time up to the top of the slate quarry on the property. On her way back down, she came upon a huge, very fresh bear paw print, although the claws were not part of it. A bit shaken, she quickly took a photo of it, and returned to the farm to show me. Bear was coming closer. Knowing Bear medicine can heal heartache, I asked Moon Dancer to look into my issue in a journey. The guidance she was given for me had to do with one of the many differences between Black Bear and Grizzly medicines.

 

 

 

K326-G - "Standing Bear"16 x 17" Archival Quality Giclee Print: $475 matted; $675 framed

K326-G – “Standing Bear”
16 x 17″ Archival Quality Giclee Print:
$475 matted; $675 framed

Having worked with Grizzly medicine for over two decades, it seems that I’m all too comfortable with its aggressive nature, and while I try to mitigate that, I don’t always succeed in doing so. In her journey, Moon Dancer was shown an image of a Grizzly bear leading with its long claws, juxtaposed against the Black Bear paw print in which no claw marks were evident. “This [paw print without claws showing] represents Black Bear ‘soft paw’ medicine,” she was told, “and Scarlet needs to learn how to use it. While Blacks can also be aggressive at times, it’s their basic nature to be somewhat shy and retiring, and to avoid conflict. In shamanic work Black Bears can do healing with a ‘soft touch’ in which they do not always use their claws. The teaching is to frequently touch the hearts of loved ones with the ‘soft paw’ of Black Bear medicine rather than with the ‘sharp paw’ of Grizzly medicine.”

Bear in the farmyard.

Bear in the farmyard.

Just then, Moon Dancer’s phone rang. She arose and went outside onto the slate patio to take the call. Suddenly she beckoned for me, and I went to join her. A huge black bear was lumbering through the yard, moving north to south. (In feminist shamanic practice, the North-South axis within the Medicine Wheel Mandala is symbolic of one’s walk through physical life, which was the source of my distress.) She was able to get a photo of the bear as it crossed the farmhouse lawn, before it disappeared off into the forest beyond the farmyard. That bear definitely got  our attention that day, as though to emphasize the importance of paying attention to the teaching we had just received.

Mastering the ability to control which kind of Bear medicine I’ll express when interacting with loved ones (and others who may be sensitive to my Grizzly ways), will be a major piece of shamanic work for me, but one that will doubtless bring positive changes in my relationships with loved ones and with people in general.

This was a perfect conclusion to our weekend of intense shamanic work. One knows one has gone deep shamanically when the natural world and its inhabitants begin expressing what one has encountered in the shamanic realm. And…what better way could there have been to end the retreat than with a teaching for the teacher!

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Posted in 2015 In Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains

FEMINIST SHAMANISM
Notes on a Women’s Shamanic Retreat in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains: Part Seven

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Sea Turtle Teachings & Secondary Shamanic Initiations

Stone Woman & TurtleDream No. 2Available as archival quality giclee print through Turtle Mountain Mythic Art.

Stone Woman & Turtle: Dream No. 2
Available as archival quality giclee print
through Turtle Mountain Mythic Art.

As we continued our talking circles and shamanic scanning, it became clear that one of the women in our circle was experiencing a secondary level of shamanic initiation, and that the imagery she was seeing in dreams and shamanic journeys was trying to make her aware of that fact.

When we put our feet on a genuine shamanic path, answering a call resulting from a physical or psychological trauma of such magnitude that we have experienced a shamanic “ego-death,” we cannot know where that path will lead us. Shamanic ego death occurs when one is stripped of one’s previous ego-identity as a result of the intensity of the psychological or physical trauma one suffers during one’s initiatory trial and calling. Shamanic ego-death is a requirement for receiving a shamanic calling, and is one of the hallmarks of a genuine shamanic initiatory crisis, leading us into deep introspection and humility about who we once were but are no longer. It is this aspect of the initiatory crisis that makes one psychologically “fit” to ethically handle shamanic power, for there is no room for ego-responses or emotional reactions to others when doing this kind of healing work.

Nor do we usually know, unless we have an experienced shamanic teacher to guide us along our shamanic path, that we will be facing additional initiation trials as we grow in shamanic understanding and strength. Each new level of shamanic understanding and strength we achieve must replace its predecessor, which is no longer appropriate for us. While the initial crisis is usually quite dramatic and ego-shattering, the additional levels of initiation that may follow are not always so. In preparation for the deeper level of shamanic consciousness that awaits us in such instances, we may experience a slow breaking down of ego and shamanic identity over time. Many of these secondary initiation trials become teachers of shamanic endurance and tests of shamanic commitment rather than of finding the will to survive and embrace the sudden “cracking open” of shamanic consciousness that one generally experiences in the original shamanic initiatory crisis. If we are shamanically alert, we may become aware of this gradual erosion of identity by means of dream or shamanic journey imagery, or by means of experiences in physical reality.

K299 Turtle & Stone Woman Dream No. 5

Stone Woman & Turtle Dream No. 5
w/c and pastel on paper. Illustration for my upcoming book, “The Stone Heart Turtle People: The Place of the Springs”

These additional trials of shamanic endurance come to us, not because we seek them; those of us who have gone through the trauma of a genuine initiatory crisis know better than to actively seek shamanic power. The way of it is that shamanic power approaches and calls us when it will, and only when we have, usually all unawares, achieved a level of shamanic consciousness to which it is attracted.

As we looked into the situation, we received new teachings from Sea Turtle, perhaps the most important of which was that shamanic archetypes such as Sea Turtle live and die as do all living beings in physical reality, reincarnating in new forms appropriate to individual shamans and to the times in which they live and work. When one is going through such a secondary initiation, one may feel detached or somehow distant from one’s personal and shamanic identities for a time, until the old identity-perception has dissolved and the new one has taken form as the process of moving into the new level of shamanic consciousness completes itself. It’s critical that the initiate discipline herself to psychologically tolerate this feeling, and to cultivate a shamanically implacable and intentful confidence that the process will successfully complete itself. The test of this particular kind of secondary initiation is to find the shamanic ability to endure the discomfort of letting go of the familiar and simply allowing the new to find its shape and form within one’s psyche. This teaching can be a tough one for us Westerners, who are so enmeshed in patriarchal cultural values, and have been taught from childhood that action, not waiting or enduring uncertainty, is the best way to deal with any and all dilemmas.

Sea Turtle Medicine, with its enormous capacity for creating and holding psychological and shamanic balance, and for patience and endurance, is the perfect medicine to help us through not only times involving secondary shamanic initiatory experiences, but also times of uncertainty and loss of ego-identity that any of us may experiences as we love, lose love, marry, divorce, become parents, or make geographical moves or career changes.  For more teachings about Sea Turtle Medicine and holding one’s “center” in times of stress, refer to The Center teachings offered in my new booklet, Shamanic First Aid for Today’s Woman.

Posted in Feminist Shamanic Intensives & Retreats, Primary posts Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Notes on a Women’s Shamanic
Intensive Retreat
in Pennsylvania’s
Endless Mountains: Part Six

Posted on by Scarlet Kinney — No Comments ↓

 Swan Medicine & Past Life Healing

Swan waits patiently for us to call upon her to take us "through the mirror" and into the past when a past life healing is required.

Swan waits patiently for us to call upon her to take us “through the mirror” when a past life healing is required.

It never occurred to us, when we chose to remain open to whatever animal spirits appeared to assist us with our healing work over the weekend, that the shamanic archetype taking the form of Swan would be one of them. Nor had it occurred to us that the chronic pain one of the women was experiencing might be the result of a past life trauma. However, when I shamanically scanned her as she spoke of her pain, observing the shamanic energies available to assist in her healing, it gradually became clear that the underlying, hidden source of her present-life pain syndrome was a violent trauma which had occurred in a past life in medieval Europe. The pain she was feeling in the present was an echo, or a mirror reflection, of the impact of the intrusive energy of that long-ago trauma. That energy, which had followed her through several reincarnations, had been awakened in this lifetime by a recent physical injury.

Swan is the animal spirit feminist shamans work with when attempting to heal the impact of past life trauma on present life experience. In shamanic reality, Swan has the power to carry us safely back through time into the exact moment in a person’s past life when the trauma being mirrored by the present-day distress originally occurred. During such shamanic journeys, we can observe the sequential dynamics of the causal situation, and intervene in any number of ways to shift things in that time and place so that the trauma either never occurs, or is healed in the past life at the time and in the place where it took place.

Painting by ScarletGallery No. K334: Deer, Shamanic Southw/c and pastel on 300# hot press w/c paper22 x 26” – Price: $1200Available through the Center’s art gallery,Turtle Mountain Mythic Art

Painting by Scarlet Kinney
Gallery No. K334: Deer, Shamanic South
w/c and pastel on 300# hot press w/c paper
22 x 26” – Price: $1200
Available through the Center’s art gallery,
Turtle Mountain Mythic Art

Swan is found in the shamanic South. When one enters the shamanic South during a shamanic journey, one discovers a lush, water-rich summer landscape glistening beneath a bright noonday sun. If one walks into the tropical forest that is the first feature of the landscape one encounters, and follows a path South along the East bank of a North-flowing stream of pure water, one will eventually arrive at the central geographical feature of the shamanic South –a beautiful Waterfall of the kind one finds in tropical forests. Along the way to the Waterfall, one is likely to encounter Deer, whose shamanic “home” is also the South. Climbing the cliff to the east of the waterfall, one eventually arrives at the Great Marsh which feeds it. This is Swan’s home in the shamanic South, and this is where one begins the long journey with Swan back in time to the client’s past life.

I’ve done many such shamanic healings that all began in this manner; by greeting Swan at the edge of the Great Marsh and asking to be taken back into the client’s past life. Such journeys are always the stuff of high adventure, but this particular case required that I undertake two separate journeys, each involving a long piece of unusually dangerous shamanic work, in order to shamanically interrupt and reorganize the sequence of events that led to the original trauma. With a great deal of help from a goddess archetype active in that time, I finally prevailed, and the causal trauma was undone.

In every such healing I’ve ever undertaken, clients have reported back to me that they didn’t feel any change immediately, but that over time the issue and its symptoms gradually became less troublesome, until finally they were gone. Curious about this phenomenon after a client once reported the very clearly incremental nature of the healing’s effect, I sought a shamanic teaching about it from Swan. What Swan revealed during that journey was that the reason for this felt sense of gradual, rather than immediate relief when a client has experienced this particular type of shamanic healing, is that the healing moves forward through time incrementally, lifetime through lifetime, beginning with the lifetime in which the trauma and healing occurred, until at last its benefit reaches the person in her present life. Hopefully that will be the case for this woman as well.

Posted in 2015 In Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains

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