Seeing

When shaman use their ability to "see" underlying energy dynamics of situations and relationships, they are able to "see" cause and effect connections and forces that are not visible when viewing circumstances superficially, i.e., looking only at outer form. Perceiving energy dynamics of life events reveals new alternatives and possibilities not previously apparent.

"The art of (shaman) is to be able to guide, to be able to illuminate path in such a way that person hooks on to a greater experience-that of freedom..." Eagle Feather shares. This allows people freedom to move beyond limits of past perceptions into realm of options, fresh creativity and natural magic.

A shaman would "see," for example, that anger of a supermarket clerk resulted from clerk's inability to express their feelings. The shaman could "see" how these emotions were adversely affecting not only clerk, but people in line. Consequently, a shaman may choose to engage angry clerk in a friendly, relaxing conversation in order to shift situation into flow and harmony.

Power

We have many powers within us that we can learn to use for our own benefit and for benefit of others. From shamanistic point of view, all power comes from within. Power comes from authorship (authority). Shamans become authors of creations in their world by freeing themselves of programmed and conditioned perceptions. In moving beyond customs, manners, rules and techniques, shaman embraces practicality of " What works, works." The shaman has little concern for how something works, only that it produces results that one intends. Shamans are most flexible, utilitarian and efficient authors of their world. They take shortest, quickest route to their goals, even if path tramples on their own concepts or beliefs.

One way people can experience this power is to look for proof in their own lives. Take love, for example. One way to increase presence and power of love in a person's life is to decrease presence and power of judgment. Shamans notice that their attention cannot be in both places at same time, and, therefore choose where they want to spend their energy. To spend energy judging that they harmed someone or that another person caused them harm, would be a misdirection and waste of energy for a shaman.

Eagle Feather explains more about true nature of power, " Anyone looking for power over others or control over material processes is probably going to be disappointed by teaching, which essentially define power as ability to free oneself from one's own perceptions and habitual patterns. The message seems to be that once you align with energy, you're no longer master. Spirit is."

Healing

A shaman is a bridge between this world and invisible world of spirit. A shaman is very anchored, very present in this world. Being so centered and grounded, a shaman can assist a person to travel into dimensions and see things from a much bigger perspective. Then people can heal because there is more room for them to expand and open to fresh new realities. This expanded awareness from shaman creates a strong foundation for people to awaken to their own healing power within. The goal of shaman is always to support awakening of soul. The shaman acts as an anchor so person can reach their own depth and move through their own cellular transformation.

Shaman Frederick Wolf concurs. "People really know how to heal themselves. It's an illusion to think that someone is going to come and heal them. But what will happen is, when they feel support and safety that shaman can hold for them, they will have faith enough to go into that place inside of them that knows how to heal. It's not some magical thing that happens. It' s very natural."

Way of Living

Shamanism is a way of living on altar of Mother Earth. It's a way to live in balance on earth, a way of finding not only peace with yourself personally, but peace with nature and your environment. Shamanism is bringing two worlds together: your inner world-"your heart"-with your outer world. It's important to be balanced, to be grounded in both worlds. We should be able to go anywhere and be at home, whether it's in a cave or a big city.

Shamanism is a pathway that can help us to realize sacredness and magic within and all around us. Birds that soar into heavens, trees whose roots reach deep into earth, everything in nature reflects an aspect of our souls. As poet Rumi said, "You will see stars and moons mirrored in your being." Shamanism is letting go of our limited ideas and concepts of who we are. As we abandon our illusions of separateness, we open to beauty and simplicity of our true nature-our connectedness with all of life.

But heat was not only aspect of lava that elements had concealed from us. I picked up a small twig and approached foot of black mound that had gushed from top of mountain. Getting as close as I could to sulphurous heat, I stuck branch into rain-drenched ground about two inches in front of lava. Within a minute, lava hill reached stick and buried it!

Suddenly my whole body reeled with involuntary shudder of recognition. For last hour Rob and I had been walking on a live, moving lava flow! And Rob was still up there running around on molten granite.

Another eruption, three times louder than first one, filled air. My ears throbbed from deafening boom. My feet and body registered avalanche after avalanche of crashing rock careening down side of volcano. Descending rough trail, I ran head over heels in a panic, determined to outrun any rockslides coming my way. After a half-hour of fastest, long distance race I’ve ever run, I arrived at our jeep safely sheltered under a broad-armed tree. Collapsing into front seat, I fought to catch my breath.

As my pulse and mind quieted, I was overcome with fear for safety of my friend still walking around on moving bed of liquid rock in midst of periodic violent explosions. I began feeling intensely responsible. I’d left a young kid in my charge on top of an erupting volcano! A nightmarish vision bombarded me. I saw his parents, who had entrusted their son with me, watching local authorities dig through rubble of volcano searching for body of lost American youth. Feeling so guilty and worried I could neither relax nor rest, I decided I must leave jeep and hike back up volcano. I had to find Rob.

No sooner had I opened door of jeep than an insistent inner impulse told me to stay put and listen inside for further instructions. When I receive such forceful commands from my inner coach, I usually obey. Quieting myself as much as possible under circumstances, I endeavored to get in touch with my next best intuitive move. I challenged myself, Was it wrong what I did? Was it selfish and self-absorbed to look after my own safety and leave a young kid behind?

After I felt all intense emotions stirred up from asking these soul-searching questions, I received a very strong message directly from Spirit. My inner knowing spoke to me emphatically, saying:

“You did right thing. You followed your intuition. If you recall specifically, your inner coach told you that it was dangerous for you to stay, and that you needed to leave immediately. It said nothing about your friend Rob. Nothing at all. You were right to follow your guidance and leave. In fact, had you stayed, you may very well have endangered your friend’s safety! Had you stayed, you would have been out of alignment with your intuition and, therefore, out of harmony and integrity with yourself. This discordant state has a strong tendency to interfere with another person’s ability to tap into and follow his or her own knowing. Had you stayed, you may have hindered Rob’s ability to hear and heed his inner direction. You took most helpful, loving and appropriate action by following letter and spirit of your intuition. You following you own internal urging allowed your friend space to realize he must rely on his own internal wisdom.”

Spirit’s message was a fascinating new lesson in intuitive guidance for me. In general, and for its reassurance in my present predicament, I was grateful for this fresh perspective. I never before realized precision of intuition. I never before understood independence of one person’s guidance from inner counsel of another person in a shared situation.

At exact moment I realized import of what I was being told by my inner coach, Rob came streaking down trail toward jeep. In fury of last violent eruption, Rob received his own internal signal to vamoose. Guided by his own inner compass, he immediately took Mudslide Express through jungle to safety. I was extremely relieved—and appreciative to Spirit—that my nightmare vision of Rob’s demise was averted. I gave silent thanks for eternal lessons I learned from our escapade.

Back on solid ground, Rob and I were anxious to leave mountain rains and clouds. We hopped into jeep and sped toward sunny western coast of Costa Rica. Driving down mountainside, we both lapsed in and out of thankful silence for being alive. Perhaps next day, morning’s events would seem a great adventure, but, right then, very real danger we’d just survived remained very palpable and raw. Our minds, emotions and physical bodies were still remembering and replaying our narrow escape.

Suddenly, Rob and I experienced simultaneous intuitive hits to pull over and get out of jeep. Leaning against vehicle, we turned as one toward top of mountain we’d just descended. As if waiting for us to stop our downward trek away from mountain and turn our gaze upward, clouds parted to reveal awesome Mt. Arenal volcano for very first time since our arrival in Costa Rica so many days earlier. The dense mist lifted. We saw exactly where we had been hiking on lava flow. We pinpointed where tree line ended and lava flow began. We’d been standing only a hundred yards from open mouth of volcano when it erupted!

The restaurant owner Miguel had promised we would be with, we would feel and we would know spirit of volcano. He said mountain would definitely erupt when we were there. And he’d promised volcano would not harm us. The rain and his crude map tricked us into going so close to volcano that we did, indeed, get to know volcano, not just view it.

Was it spirit of volcano that sent Miguel to us? —and turned skies into a torrential downpour in order to obscure treacherous nature of our journey so we wouldn’t be scared off? Rob and I agreed, stranger things have happened. One thing was certain. If we’d been able to see where we were going, we would never have walked as close as we did to mouth of cauldron.

Now, viewing majesty of Mt. Arenal, we were humbled and ever so grateful for experience of having been able to safely feel mountain’s power and personality. As we were sending out our thankfulness to and admiration of volcano, mountain erupted again with an explosion twice as high as volcano itself. Two miles of elegant ash plume shot up into dark blue sky. The event was quite dramatic and very humbling.

We knew volcano was responding to our love and appreciation for its gift to us that day. Then clouds closed back in and our mighty friend said good-bye, leaving us forever changed and enriched by its friendship.