What exactly is Shamanic Journeying? How do I incorporate this into Buddhist practice?

Last weekend I was co-leading a weekend retreat and within the time allocated to me, I did an hour’s meditation workshop.

I included various practices, including using a monotonous drum rhythm for ‘shifting consciousness’ and thereby augmenting the depth of the group meditation experience – and opening up a deeper possibility of connection to transcendental realms.

This could also have been done through extensive meditation practice, ritual, prayer, fasting and many other spiritual practices. I had an hour.

In this case, I began with story-telling – invoking a sense of enchantment, appealing to the myriad of transcendent beings for their love and support. I shifted the tones in my voice, and brought in the drumming gradually. At some points, I included the mantra Om Mane Padme Hum – Om the Jewel in the Lotus Hum – invoking the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara to guide us towards and through the portal of the heart space.

All in all, it was intended as a grounding practice – ‘touching the Earth’ – the transcendental energies of the Earth Element. Touching the Earth is key – meditation is an experience that includes embodiment. Embodiment is key to augmenting the depth of the meditation experience.

So what does this all mean for Buddhist practitioners? And how is this different to a classical shamanic journey to the Lower World?

The phrase ‘lower world’ can evoke images of the ‘underworld’ for some people, though it is not that. The underworld is a place where the spirits of those who have passed transition to, for various reasons, thought it is not a comfortable place to be residing. There is indeed even a whole field of shamanic work to support and assist spirits that have become stuck in this realm to complete their journey to transcended realms, where they may ‘rest in peace’.

The lower world on the other hand, is a transcended realm – and has a corresponding realm, the upper world. They are similar in that to access them from this realm, the middle world, one needs a shift to the Shamanic State of Consciousness – and to travel through a portal of some kind. They are different in that the Lower World is accessed by going downwards, while the Upper World is accessed by going upwards, through the sky and beyond.

A Lower World Journey would include a clear intention to journey to the lower world and guidance on how to get there, how to know when one has arrived there and what to do there and how to get back. There may even be an opportunity to ask a question to transcendent beings in the lower world.

Sometimes I lead group journeys to the Lower World and teach this more fully. I also bring cards for people to write letters to themselves and then I send them to people a couple of months in the future, so that they may be reminded of whatever the journey inspired in them.

I was delighted to share this practice with others other the last year, including at this year’s Buddhafield Festival and Green Earth Awakening Camp. I also lead journeys at Buddhism and Deep Ecology Days – and there is one coming up and the London Buddhist Centre on Sunday 6th December.

If you would like more information about one-to-one sessions to learn Shamanic Journeying – known as Shamanic Counselling sessions – please get in touch.

May love, light, blessings and delight be for all beings, throughout all time and space.