My previous book on shamanic methods, The Way of the Shaman, described common locations used by tribal shamans to depart for the Lower World. The types of departure places that I now mention are well known to indigenous shamans. Contemporary Westerners also typically have success using them.
These departure points include a hole in a specific location, a cave, a spring or well, a lake, a bay of an ocean, a tree with a hole in it (for entering the tree and going down), a whirlpool, and a waterfall’s pool (or an entrance behind the waterfall).
Whatever the entrance you choose, it should be firmly located in the Middle World and known to you firsthand in OR. It is important that you do not simply close your eyes and visualize any cave or other type of departure place. For accurate shamanic journeying, you should know that it is in the Middle World and where. I advise using the same departure place in all your Lower World journeys in order to keep track of levels and places where you have been in NOR, and to know how to return rapidly and accurately to the Middle World. The following are a few examples of openings, with others described in Chapter 6.
AN OPENING IN A SPECIFIC LOCATION
An opening into the earth was a common departure place for going to the Lower World. For example, the shamanistic societies of the Puebloan peoples of the American Southwest used the sipapu (se pa po or sepapu) as their entrance place. For the Hopi, the sepapu was a specific hole in the Grand Canyon, the hole being identified also as the Center of the World.1 For many of the Puebloans, it was a hole in the floor in their sacred semisubterranean kiva chambers. On a shamanic level, these too were the Center of the World. Incidentally, one of the objections raised by Puebloan Taos elders against installing plumbing in their villages was that it would possibly obstruct the sacred passageways from the kivas’ sipapus to the Lower World.2
Another kind of entrance is found among some tribal peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America. Here the shaman sometimes descended through a hole dug in the earth floor of the plank house.3 For the Polar Eskimo (Inuit) shaman, the hole was typically excavated in the ice floor of the winter dwelling, the igloo, and the shaman went through it down into the sea.4
One can also use the hole made by a burrowing animal, such as a fox, woodchuck, or gopher. The rabbit hole made famous by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is an obvious example of how classic children’s literature abounds in unconscious shamanic perspectives. I advise Westerners not to use the openings of drains into sewage systems as a way to start for the Lower World. Not only are they inappropriate for such sacred work, but they lead only to elsewhere in the Middle World. New Yorkers who try using them usually end up in the Hudson or East River!
A CAVE
The ideal cave or cavern for leaving to go to the Lower World should have some depth or mystery connected to it, such as a passageway that you have not thoroughly penetrated in ordinary reality. It is not essential to have previously entered the cave, but only to have seen its mouth in ordinary reality. This can be an advantage, for it means that what lies beyond the mouth of the cave is totally unknown to you and thus may provide an excellent transition into nonordinary reality.
Although a simple rock shelter with no deep corridors is usually a far less satisfactory departure place than a dark cave, a journeyer can sometimes use one by entering a crack in its rock face. Since these are journeys of the spirit, even a crack an inch wide can permit access for the experienced person.
Later, in an exercise to practice journeying to the Lower World with the help of drumming, you will have the opportunity to pass into the cave opening and beyond, looking for a tunnel or tube leading downward.
One last thing about selecting a cave or cavern: try not to pick one located high on a mountain. If you do, and go downward from it, you may still be in the Middle World when you emerge. It is better to pick a cave or cavern that is only slightly, or not at all, higher than the surrounding landscape.
SELECTING YOUR DEPARTURE PLACE FOR GOING TO THE LOWER WORLD
Sit or lie down in a quiet, semidarkened room, close your eyes, and relax. Select a departure site for the Lower World and try to remember how it looked to you in ordinary reality.
After the drumming begins, seeing even a brief glimpse of your departure place when you close your eyes is adequate. Consider it a success even if it is faint and lacking color. If you cannot see the departure place even briefly, then try another site you remember, but do not get involved in extensive “shopping” for the “perfect” departure site. And it does not matter whether an opening into the earth is small or large, for these are journeys of spirit. If you are having difficulty glimpsing the place, simply wait until doing the exercises below. Having a specific mission usually makes visualization easier. Changing consciousness from the OSC to the SSC with the aid of the drumming is the start of passing the first barrier or transition zone, the one between ordinary and nonordinary reality. One has successfully passed that barrier when one begins to descend through a tunnel to the Lower World.
First Exercise: Journeying to the Lower World to Meet an Animal
In this first journey, your mission will be to go to the Lower World, asking that an animal be waiting for you there. You are not “getting” an animal, just visiting one that is willing to present itself, normally an animal that is already connected to you whether you know it or not.
First, lie or sit down with your eyes covered with a kerchief or other material. When you are ready to journey, repeat silently to yourself three times your mission, to fix it clearly in your mind. In this case, your mission is to go to the Lower World, asking that some unknown animal be waiting for you there. Do not have preconceptions about what kind of animal this will be. The animal knows who it is, and that is all that is necessary.
To the sound of the recorded drumming, or live drum (beaten by another person), go down through the entrance you have chosen, look for a downward-slanting tunnel, and traverse it until you are outdoors in the Lower World, which may appear in black-and-white or in color. Also, in your first journey, the images may seem faint. (There is more information on this transition in The Way of the Shaman, 1980 edition, pages 30–32.) If you use a recording, set it so that you will have a short journey for this exercise, about fifteen minutes.
As you travel downward, mentally or telepathically ask that an unknown animal be waiting for you just outside the other end of the tunnel in the Lower World. When you meet the animal, simply get acquainted with it. For now, try to avoid conversing with it, and simply enjoy its company silently. If you see the animal, which is true for most people, then see if you can also feel it. If you do not see it but sense its presence, try to see it. You may choose either to stay with it in one place or to explore a bit of the Lower World in its company.
If an animal is not waiting for you outside the end of the tunnel, journey farther out into the Lower World, still sending the mental message that you want to meet an animal.
When the call-back signal is made by the more rapid drumming, take leave of the animal, thank it for being with you, retrace your route rapidly back up the tunnel, and return to the room or place from which you departed.
When you have returned, remove your eye covering and quietly review your journey. If possible, record the details in your notebook. If someone was beating a drum for you, you may wish to share your experience. Afterward, of course, you can reciprocate by letting your friend journey while you beat the drum.
If you were journeying alone and using recorded drumming and the simultaneous-narration technique described in Appendix A, play back your recorded narration of what happened and make notes about anything you would like to remember.
Do not be discouraged if you do not succeed in journeying this time, or have a faint journey, or do not meet an animal. Simply keep practicing this exercise until you meet an animal in the Lower World. Shamanism, like any other discipline, requires commitment and practice to achieve success. One of my students worked eight months unsuccessfully and then “broke through,” thereafter often having vivid journey experiences, even in color.
Second Exercise: Divination Journeying to the Animal
Divination is often surprisingly easy if one uses the ancient methods of the shaman. As with other things in shamanism, the quality of the results depends primarily on the spirits and whether you approach them in the right ways. To prepare for this work, you will take another journey to the Lower World. This time, however, it will not be a journey simply to meet an unknown animal. Instead, you will have a very specific, limited mission using the knowledge you have already acquired on how to get to the Lower World and about the animal you have already met.
This will be the start of your use of the classic shamanic journey method for getting answers to questions by entering realms of hidden knowledge. To begin, please take a few minutes to think about the most important personal questions in your life. These should be questions with which you have struggled without obtaining a clear answer or solution.
Pick the most important of these questions. You should phrase it in a simple, clear sentence, preferably starting with one of the following words: “who,” “what,” “where,” “how,” or “why.” I do not recommend the word “when.” This is for reasons that need to be learned in more advanced training than what can be provided in this book. For more on framing questions, see this page and this page. Be sure your question is not long, complicated, or ambiguous. To remove ambiguity, eliminate the words “and” or “or” from the question. This is to prevent the sentence from having two or more questions built into it. If the sentence contains more than a single question, then the journeyer may not be able to tell which question is being answered if the animal replies symbolically.
Before journeying, write the question down in your notebook, and repeat it three times to yourself so that you will not forget it. If you are journeying with a drumming recording and headphones, and also using the simultaneous-narration method (see Appendix A, this page), it is useful to repeat the question three times into your lapel microphone at the start of the recording.
You should use the same entrance as before, into the earth or water, and follow the same tunnel route down from there to arrive in the Lower World. The only thing that will be new is your objective or mission. Your mission must always be clear in your mind both before and during a journey.
Remember your mission: to visit the animal you met in your last journey and to ask it your question. When the drumming begins, visualize your opening into the earth or water, and journey down it through the tunnel, sending down a telepathic or mental message asking the animal to be waiting for you just outside the tunnel in the Lower World.
When you meet the animal, immediately ask it your question telepathically. It may answer in the same way, or it may even speak the answer aloud in words. More often, the animal may answer by shaking or nodding its head, or by moving its body to provide the answer. In the latter case, it may not be clear what the animal is communicating until you come to understand its body language. Be patient; additional journeys to the animal will lead to much greater understanding.
If the animal provides you immediately with an answer, then simply spend the rest of the drumming time visiting with the animal. Do not try to ask a new question, but use the opportunity to get acquainted. The animal might even take you on a brief tour of the Lower World. Just let happen whatever may occur until the drumming call-back signal sounds. Then honor the animal by telling it good-bye, and return back up to the Middle World, rapidly retracing the route you used to descend.
Although the animal commonly provides the answer immediately upon being questioned, there is one important exception. That is when the animal turns and runs away. If that happens, then run after it. The animal will lead you on a journey—showing you the answer. That is, the sights you see on the journey constitute the answer to the question. Much of the journey work of the evolving shaman consists of learning how to “read” such journeys; in other words, of learning how to read the signs or symbols one is shown.
When the journey is over and you are back in your room or other departure space, summarize in your own mind what the answer was. Then review the details of what happened, taking notes. If you have a recorder, you can also now dictate the details, unless you already did so using simultaneous narration.
Even when you make a recording of a journey, try to take notes afterward because they are much easier to consult in the future than having to play back entire recordings. If you recorded your accounts, the notes can refer to the specific recordings for later playbacks. The notes can be underlined to call attention to important communications and experiences and, if kept together in a single notebook, provide an easy way of tracking your progress. From time to time, you should review your notes, for earlier journeys that seemed unimportant or difficult to understand may gradually to reveal their significance to you.
Nothing you are shown in your journeys is really insignificant. In nonliterate cultures, where note-taking was not possible, shamans had to discipline their memory to recall as many details of their journey as possible. To forget what the spirits told or showed them was disrespectful, and the shaman could eventually lose their continued help.
If you work a reasonable period of time in shamanism, you will discover that the advice of power animals is not only compassionate, but also often humorous. They are like good friends. At the same time, journeys are awesome, sacred experiences of immense value.
Shamanic journeying, like shamanism as a whole, is a discipline. You plan your journey mission, make the journey with a mission, and if necessary make another journey or two to clarify any remaining uncertainties. You can return at will, again and again, to obtain any information you still lack.