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SHAMANIC DIRECTIVES FOR ADDRESSING SADNESS
Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.
SHAMANIC LESSON
It is natural to feel sad sometimes. Sadness is a cleanser, a clearing, a healthy rain needed in every emotional climate. However, sometimes we can get overly concerned about these episodes of clouds and rain. The concern of others may cause us to worry even more about whether something is really wrong with us. That is the climatic condition that turns natural sadness into what some call depression.
Rejoice in the rains and immobility of sadness. See it as part of the larger cycles. But be careful when the snake of sadness feeds upon itself, resulting in a stuck or escalating sadness that feels like emotional quicksand. When that starts to happen, call in the tricksters. Introduce your sadness to the absurd players and let some ridiculous behavior ensue. Stretch any stuck sadness into a new shamanic dichotomy, with serious concern on one side and absurd play on the other side. Stretch it so fresh energy comes into your life. In this newly outstretched arm of the cross, transformation becomes possible.
DIRECTIVE: WEEPING TONIC
Turn on your stereo and play the saddest spiritual music you can find. You may have to purchase a new recording to assure that you have some sad sounds. When the music is on, go to a faucet within hearing distance, and get it to drip as slowly as possible. Collect these drips in a glass. As you watch each drip, imagine that this is the Earth weeping. This water represents the Earth crying for all the sadness it feels from people who don’t know what to do with their sadness.
When the glass is full, stop the music. Immediately turn on some ecstatic gospel music. As you listen to it, slowly drink the Earth’s tears. Stretch out your drinking of the sacred water to last as long as the song lasts. See this drink as a healing tonic, medicine for your soul.
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: MOSES AND THE PARTING OF THE WATERS
Think about the fact that your body is composed mostly of water. Give yourself five minutes to pause and think about this, allowing no other thought to enter your mind (as much as possible). Go to a stove and boil some water. When you see the steam float into the air, get an ice cube from your freezer. Hold this ice cube in one hand. In the other hand, hold a glass of water. Now drink the water while waving the ice near the steam. Be careful to not burn the hand holding the ice. Visualize Moses and how he was able to part the waters.
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: SPIRITUAL LEVITATION
Consider what might be the opposite of depression. Depression often leaves one feeling unmotivated to get up and do much of anything. One may feel heavy, like absolute concrete. Seen this way, the opposite of depression could be levitation, the feeling of being so light you have springs in your feet—that with a little effort, you might even be tempted to believe you can fly.
One might think of depression, then, as a kind of “spiritual aeronautical problem.” You’ve forgotten how to get any spiritual lift. The shamanic tonic you need requires recruiting four other people to stand around you as you sit in a chair. They will place their hands on top of your head in a stack of alternating hands. For three seconds, they will gently pump their hands up and down, saying, “Let’s lift you up.” On the count of three, they will attempt to lift your body with their fingers held under your knees, hips, and arms. The outcome will be astonishing. You will feel a defiance of gravity as your friends lift you into the air.
Your assignment is to have this “flight crew” available to you once a week. When you meet, you are to experience at least three “flights.” In these moments of levity, allow your inner spirit to be fully shocked by the surprise of becoming airborne.
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: HUMOR BEAR
Go to a very large toy store and look for the saddest-looking teddy bear you can find. Purchase this companion and speak these words to it over and over on the way home: “I understand.”
For the next week, ask everyone you know to give you a favorite joke. Tell them you are creating a collection of jokes. Write each joke on a tiny piece of colored paper. When you’ve collected at least fifty jokes, carefully open up the back end of your stuffed creature and push these jokes into it. You may have to reseal the creature’s bottom with a safety pin.
Find a new joke every day. You may consult the library for joke books and you may call people on the phone to ask if they know any good jokes. It doesn’t matter how you get the jokes. At the end of each day, place the new joke inside the bear. Over time you will have to remove the original stuffing of the bear until your bear is completely full of jokes.
When the bear is stuffed with jokes and it is impossible to feed another one into it, do the following. Keep the bear near you. When you see someone who complains about being sad, bring out the bear and pull out one joke. Tell them it is a form of community service you practice. You and your bear are responsible for seeding humor throughout the “sadlands” of contemporary society.
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: SILLY CRITTERS
Look through some old magazines and cut out the saddest faces you can find. Create a small collection of these sad faces and set them aside. When this is done, hunt through the magazines for photos of cattle, horses, goats, chickens, and other familiar farm animals. Create a collection of these critters.
With these photos, you will create a children’s book about spirituality. The book will be about animals with human sad faces. Paste the human faces onto the various animal bodies and line them up so you can see your cast of characters. Create a story by following this procedure:
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: HUMOR INVASION
This task requires one full day and is best done with a friend or carload of friends. Get out your state map and choose three small towns that are near one another. They must be towns you have never visited. Drive to each town and get a feel for the town. You and your friends are to judge which town seems to be the saddest town. You will first have to decide what criteria you will use to determine the town’s sadness. Will you make a judgment according to whether the buildings create an atmosphere of sadness? Or perhaps you will examine how the people look in each town. It’s up to you and your friends to make the rules for this contest.
When you’ve decided which is the saddest town, do the following. Bring with you some copies of cartoons. (Past issues of The New Yorker magazine provide a rich source of delightful cartoons.) Distribute your cartoons throughout the town. Make sure that you say, “St. Basil blesses you with holy foolishness” for each cartoon that you place in the town. Put them in a variety of different places: perhaps in the local churches, in a few diners, on a gas pump, even on the town statue. It’s up to you to determine how you’ll “invade” the winning town.
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: ENDANGERED SPECIES
Imagine being an animal that is a sad member of an endangered species. Write a prayer for the human race as if you were this animal and had been given a chance to say anything you want. Sign the prayer with the animal’s name. Send this prayer to someone you believe would be touched by this gesture.
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: ONE DROP AT A TIME
The next time you are sad and can’t release your sadness, try the following. Draw the outline of a one-inch-high teardrop on a piece of paper and cut it out. Make seven of these paper teardrops. On each drop write out what you are sad about. At the end of your description write this sentence, “It is now time to___________.” Open the dictionary to any page and place your finger on a word at random. That is the word your sentence will end with.
You are to work with these drops for seven days. Carry a drop with you each day until you find just the right spot in which to leave it. Do not release more than one drop per day. Over the next week, you will continue to drop one tear each day in a place of your choice. Make a silent prayer for each teardrop, asking that it make a difference in someone’s life. See yourself as watering the barren souls of the world.
Considerations
DIRECTIVE: MYSTERY LETTERS
Take a sheet of paper and cut out the letter s. The letter should be the size of the original paper with enough room inside its border to write a letter on. Write a letter on it to someone whose name begins with an s. Mail them the letter.
A week later, cut out the letter a. This time write and mail a letter to a person whose name begins with a. The following week, prepare a d, write a letter to a person with a d name, and mail that.
Should any of your letter recipients ask you why you chose to write a letter on a letter, send them this letter in reply:
Dear Friend,
Thank you for asking about the significance of the letter. It is part of a mystery I’m still trying to figure out. All I can tell you is that I was told to use letters as a means of sending letters. Do you want to know more?
If they ask again for the meaning, send them a copy of this book and tell them they must read every word to insure that they understand the letter. If they do so, you know they will be reading these words when they get to this point in the book:
Dear Participant,
Thank you for participating in this assignment. Your reading of these very words insures that the task has moved along in the way it was designed to. It is important that you now know that you are to supply the meaning of the letter. You are to create this meaning in the following way:
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The sacred clowns and tricksters of other cultures set no limits on how they enact the contraries of life. At a joyous situation they will cry and at a sad situation they will laugh. In the stretching of those contraries, greater truths and possibilities for transformation are more likely to enter the scene. Similarly, the Christian shaman respectfully disrespects solemn and serious occasions, including the manifestation of sadness. Popular culture sings, “Don’t worry, be happy. Don’t be sad, be happy.” This is often ineffective because saying no to that which is present may paradoxically strengthen its presence. The shaman says, “Worry and thereby become happy. Be sad and thereby become happy.” The way out is through getting further in, playing, and setting the stage for transformation. Don’t be sad about your sadness. Be happy about it and play with it. Yes, at first, you will still be sad, but you will be happy with how you are with your sadness. This, in turn, creates an opening for anything to take place, including a spiritual giggle followed by an earthy belly laugh.