Savage and Sacred

 
"As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being
now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt
a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw;
not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented. Once or twice,
however, while I lived at the pond, I found myself ranging the woods, like a half-starved hound, with a
strange abandonment, seeking some kind of venison which I might devour, and no morsel could have been
too savage for me. The wildest scenes had become unaccountably familiar. I found in myself,
and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or as it is named, spiritual life, as do most men,
and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both.
I love the wild not less than the good."

Henry David Thoreau


You've reached Spirit Touched, an online resource collecting together Robin Artisson's writings on core shamanism, general shamanic beliefs and practices, animism, and spiritual ecology. The term "shaman" was originally used by a specific people in Siberia to refer to their spiritual healers and their specialists at interaction with the unseen world; it has since become a standard term used by Western academia to categorize such people found in primal societies worldwide, historical and modern. Robin's work on shamanism follows in the spirit of Dr. Michael Harner's groundbreaking work "The Way of the Shaman", which brought a cross-cultural survey of primal techniques of consciousness-alteration to the Western world, all for the purposes of insight and healing. It also follows in the spirit of luminary writers about humankind's sacred relationship to the natural world, such as Gregory Bateson, Ruth Holmes Whitehead, Henry Thoreau and Aldo Leopold.

Harner's work, and the work of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, does not claim to "belong" to any specific culture, nor does it appropriate the sacred beliefs of any culture. Their shamanic healing and trance-work deals with universal techniques, used by many different historical and modern peoples, to bring about an experience of the Hidden Reality, and to mediate powers from that place for the purposes of (among other things) the healing of mind, soul, and body.

The Hidden Reality

 What has become referred to as "Core Shamanism" is not "Native American religion", nor native anything religion; it refers to a body of techniques, some quite ancient, which are useable by anyone. These techniques allow people to experience extra-sensory reality. In that reality, they may experience the "other" aspect of everyday phenomenon, including people, animals, places, and times. The Hidden aspect of reality is very strange by everyday standards, very fluid and mystically profound. Deep and important insights into the nature of the self, as well as problems and blockages that afflict the self, or which afflict other people, can be found through this practice of "extraordinary seeing."

The human brain and mind is not radically different from culture to culture, nor from age to age within the reach of human history. While cultures themselves (and all of the pronounced and subtle influences they have on perceptions) are very different, the basic biological and spiritual realities of a human being are not. This is why certain techniques- such as rhythmic drumming, sensory deprivation, and things like chanting or breathing disciplines cause similar affects on most people. These activities, ideally when united with a sacred vision of spiritual inter-connectedness and a powerful awe and reverence for the natural world, create a powerful and ageless experience of both shamanic insight, and our unseen capabilities as human beings.

Being Spirit Touched

  A person cannot call themselves a "shaman" or anything of the sort unless they live within a community that has, as a matter of cultural tradition and acceptance, a generalized belief in the unseen world and the power of certain people to interact with it. That community would have to recognize them as a "shaman" or "seer" or what have you, through their observed merits- it is not a title one may take on their own. A person who practices core shamanic insight and healing is just that- a practitioner of core shamanic techniques, not a "shaman". In the recent rush of "new age spirituality", many Westerners are attracted to the beliefs and practices of primal peoples, hoping to discover a better, simpler, and more spiritual or environmentally wise way to live, and that desire is certainly a good thing. But caution must be taken lest some pillage and disrespect the sacred ways of indigenous peoples. And this sort of "cultural appropriation" has taken place to a great extent.

Anyone calling themselves a "shaman" very likely isn't. A person who practices Core Shamanism or some other form of trance-working that allows them access to the Hidden Reality is just a person who works with trances and power; titles really have nothing to do with this activity, outside of a traditional community. That being said, Core Shamanism has been used by countless people to re-engage a very primal sense of the sacred, to find their place in this world and in the unseen world, and to create and maintain relationships with spirits, who are non-human persons- entities that exist in unseen reaches of our reality, and who are real, living persons. These special allies and friends help those who work with them to not only heal others, but live better lives. It is to those "spirit touched" persons, and those who wish to maturely, respectfully engage the Hidden Reality, that this website and its writings are devoted.

All Things That Exist Are Alive

 Deep Ecology's core principle is the claim that, like humanity, the living environment as a whole has the same right to live and flourish. Deep ecology describes itself as "deep" because it persists in asking deeper questions concerning "why" and "how" and thus is concerned with the fundamental philosophical questions about the impacts of human life as one part of the ecosphere, rather than with a narrow view of ecology as a branch of biological science. Deep Ecology aims to avoid merely anthropocentric environmentalism, which is concerned with conservation of the environment only for exploitation by and for humans purposes- which excludes the fundamental philosophy of deep ecology. Deep ecology seeks a more holistic view of the world we live in and seeks to apply to life the understanding that separate parts of the ecosystem (including humans) function as a whole.

The phrase "deep ecology" was coined by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Nęss in 1973, and he helped give it a theoretical foundation. "For Arne Nęss, ecological science, concerned with facts and logic alone, cannot answer ethical questions about how we should live. For this we need ecological wisdom. Deep ecology seeks to develop this by focusing on deep experience, deep questioning and deep commitment. These constitute an interconnected system. Each gives rise to and supports the other, whilst the entire system is, what Nęss would call, an ecosophy: an evolving but consistent philosophy of being, thinking and acting in the world, that embodies ecological wisdom and harmony." Nęss rejected the idea that beings can be ranked according to their relative value.

For example, judgments on whether an animal has an eternal soul, whether it uses reason or whether it has consciousness (or indeed higher consciousness) have all been used to justify the ranking of the human animal as superior to other animals. Nęss states that from an ecological point of view "the right of all forms (of life) to live is a universal right which cannot be quantified. No single species of living being has more of this particular right to live and unfold than any other species." This metaphysical idea is elucidated in Warwick Fox's claim that we and all other beings are "aspects of a single unfolding reality"

Robin's work here includes essays that cover aspects of historical and modern shamanism or historical techniques of "archaic ecstasy." They also cover what he refers to as "natural truth", organic systemic thinking, and animistic insight regarding the status of both human persons and non-human persons who live together in the web of life. Robin has been practicing Core Shamanic techniques of healing and trance-induction for 14 years, and is a member of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. This website will be updated as more writing projects are finished by Robin.