Category Archives: Carl Jung

Three Worlds of Shamanic Journeys

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Carl Jung Red Book 84

One of the Teachings which cannot be repeated enough – is this:  What are the qualities and differences of the Three Worlds that we visit in Shamanic States?

In The Lower World, you access your more primitive self, and the support it gives you, body, emotions, thoughts, and actions.   To get to the Lower World, you start out travelling the Middle World until you find a hole, and  enter the hole – it may be uncomfortable but the tunnel will open up into the Lower World.  When it opens up, you know you are there.  Many times the information received in the Lower World is non-verbal, or may take the form of colours, sounds, feelings, or tactile sensations.    It is helpful to have someone who is skilled in Non-Ordinary Consciousness to interpret the experiences there.

Here is where you meet your Animal Helpers (which may become Medicine, Ally, or Power Animal as you develop relationships with them).  Remember the formula for Animal Helpers:  “Are you my Helper?”  and “Thank you, what may I give you?”  These Helpers support your walk in the Middle World, your daily life, and offer you insights into your native abilities and powers.  They also offer the strength to help with Upper World journeys, and Power to manifest adjustments in the Middle World.

Floral Tribute in local Park

The Middle World is the Realm that overlaps with your daily life.  It is the Realm of current existence, but it is also the Dreamtime.  According to Aboriginals, the Dreamtime is always in a State of Creation.  The Middle World gives you access to the Spiritual influences on your present, your daily life.  Experiences in the Middle World can include Ancestors, and this is the place where Healing is done.  For example, a Reiki Master manipulates energy flow in the Middle World in order to open your own body to healing.  This is also the place where you can gain psychic information by seeing the energy of a situation:  if there is a difficult puzzle or challenge, journeying to the Middle World can help you see the energetics of the relationship or situation, and possible remedies to help the situation.  With skill and the support of your Helper Animals, you can manipulate the energies during the Journey – offering gifts, love and light, or shifting a pattern in order to remedy conflict or difficult challenges.

So the Middle World has psychic, empathic/emotional, and Ancestral Powers.  It can be used for Remote Viewing (seeing things in a distant place), Astral Travel, and Energetic Awareness, and is useful in gaining practical knowledge and information.  Additionally, if you have a pressing matter in the Lower and Upper Worlds, you may receive Visitations from those worlds – animals from the Lower World, and Guides from the Upper World.

Orange Sky by Nancy Settle

The Upper World is often challenging to achieve, and I don’t recommend it for beginners.  It is immensely helpful to be supported by the Animal Powers of the Lower World before attempting the Upper World.  To go to the Upper World, you must climb, rise or fly up.  You will find a Barrier – this Barrier is different for everyone – some say it is like cellophane or gelatine, others see it as dense light or darkness, still others have experienced it as intense sound.  Passing through the Barrier, you will know you are in the Upper World.  (note:  it is possible to fly out into space and miss the Barrier – this is still Astral Travel in the Middle World, and is not the Upper World.)

In the Upper World you will receive Teachings from Guides & Guardians, Angels and even Divine Beings.  Again, it is different for everyone, but the Teachings received here are often verbal, and do not need interpretation.  The Messages are often direct (though they may be cryptic and require years of living to unravel the puzzle), and an Energetic Transfer or Upgrade from the Guide to the Shaman may take place.

Carl Jung – Map of Human Consciousness

Travel is not restricted to these Worlds, there are sometimes surprises.  But many of the Worlds (or Realities) that you visit are likely to be a subcategory of one of these Three Worlds.

Anytime you are dipping into an altered state of consciousness, you are accessing your subconscious (called “The Personal Unconscious” in Jung’s diagram above), the culture that created that subconscious, and the Collective Unconsciousness behind the culture.  This is where Archetypes are found, and they are frequently common to many humans of varied culture and background.

This is where the deep Insights take place – and they may come from Middle, Lower and Upper world.

As Above, So Below: Within You, Without You

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George Harrison sings in his song, Within You, Without You:

“We were talking, about the space between us all
And the people, who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
Never glimpse the truth, then it’s far too late when they pass away

We were talking, about the love we all could share 
When we find it, to try our best to hold it there, with our love
With our love we could save the world, if they only knew

Try to realize it’s all within yourself, no-one else can make you change
And to see you’re really only very small
And life flows on within you and without you.

We were talking, about the love that’s gone so cold
And the people who gain the world and lose their soul
They don’t know, they can’t see, are you one of them?

When you’ve seen beyond yourself 
Then you may find peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come when you see we’re all one
And life flows on within you and without you.”

The manifesting triangle in red – is “So below”

The Transcending triangle in Blue – is “As Above.”

The traditional alchemical formula is “As Above, So Below.”

 

The centre, where the two triangles come together and form a hexagram, corresponds with the Heart Chakra.  The coming together of manifesting and liberating energies in the body.

It is the same as Within you and Without you.

Or as I say in my formal sphere – Around me and in me.

 

 

Coherence between what is outside of you, and what is inside of you, is the ultimate in health.

When it happens, you will notice synchronicities.  The next song you hear might speak to you of what you were just thinking or feeling.  Or the flight of a bird across your path might remind you of something you were meditating on – or maybe will just bring you back to breath.

The outside aligns with the inside in coherence.

I made the triangles red and blue because I learned from Tslagi (Cherokee) to say, “Have a Red and Blue Day.”  Blue is the sky, reaching for the sky, transcendence.  Red is the earth, the path of walking in manifestation.

This is another form of coherence, and your practice of separating inside from outside, using Inside and Outside – will help you bring them into harmony with each other.

Within, Without.  Above, Below.  Around and In.

All One, in the beautiful harmony of the Heart.

Enlightenment Moments and Process

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Carl Jung Red Book “Nature”

I do not believe in enlightened beings.  Only enlightened moments.  Tolle had his flash of insight in a public park, and has spent the rest of his time trying to tell others about it.  That is not enlightened.  His flash of insight?  An enlightened moment.  Everything else?  Human.

It is true that, the more moments of connection and identification there are – the more you identify with that which is permanent, Divine – and like pearls on a string, you can put the moments together for greater connection, more moments of Enlightenment.

Alan Watts talks about the cosmic game of Hide and Seek.  G-d, which has manifest in all of us, hides in separation – for the sheer delight of finding in connection.  Waves and Windows.  The waves are despair, separation, while the windows are moments of connection, bliss.  This is why synchronicity is so important – it reminds us of the connection, of the Oneness of All, and helps us to identify more with the Self than with the Personality/ego.

If, as an “enlightened being” people are looking for you to elevate them, it is an illusion, because you believe in “enlightened beings” so you buy your own story.  You know there is enlightenment because you’ve experienced it, but you’ve felt that every moment since that moment has been faked, an effort to control others, to bring them to that moment, or to bring that moment back to you.

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

“Another self cannot teach enlightenment, but can only teach/learn information, inspiration, or a sharing of love, of mystery, of the unknown, that makes the other-self reach out and begin the seeking process.”  RA, from The Law of One

So someone who was recognized as enlightened fell into despair? Committed sins? Took advantage of or abused others?   Jesus wept.  My God!  My God!  Why have you Forsaken me?

Because the moment, the connection, was gone.

Faith is the belief that the moment will return, or re-manifest.  That even from the depths of despair, the light will come again.  But you have to not fight the darkness, you have to not give into it either.  Surf that wave.  Wait, Be, not every moment of enlightenment is bliss.

That’s why the teachers of enlightenment are selling an illusion.  They are trying to sell you a personality, a person who has DONE IT!  When really, all it was, was a moment.  Or at most, a string of moments, a strand of pearls of enlightened moments.  And the difference between their moment and your moment is one thing:

Grace.

Oh I hate that word, and I love that word.  The question I asked of Neelam (student of Papaji) when I met her, was “how do we court Grace?”  All of these flunkies, these ashram junkies, following the shining white robes and personalities, purity, diet and practice,  thinking this will bring them closer to Grace, will feed them enlightenment, will teach them The Way.  When there is No Way.  There is No True Path.  Only moments.

Anyone who says otherwise, is faking it.  And so, when the acknowledged Master gets cancer or Parkinson’s, commits sex crimes, exhibits greed, or hangs himself, he blows his brains out, or expires in decrepitude.  Because that moment was never going to return now.  And in the depth of the wave – it is impossible to court Grace.

One way to judge a teacher, is by how many transcend his/her teachings.  If a teacher keeps you submissive, under him/her, never gives you the chance to set yourself free and transcend the teacher – Then it is not a teacher, but is a narcissist.

Life is a dance.  We come together, we fall apart.  Sometimes coming together is disastrous.  Sometimes falling apart is purifying.  But we do it again and again, to experience the coming together and falling apart.  The Windows and Waves of Connection and Separation.

Each of us is G-d.  Each of us is a shattered fragment of the divine, the spark in each of us seeking to join to another spark, or two, or three.  That’s why an ashram or a “cult” feels so damn good, you think, this is it, I’m going to merge now.  We will all be One.  Except it doesn’t happen.  So the purpose of this spark in us is to experience the spark in others –

In love

In hate

In anger

In joy

In play

In music

In dance

In art

In violence

In fear

And in love, again and again, until all of our bits, all of the sparks of G-d in this manifestation, this shattering of sparks, this starry sky that is humanity, are done playing and experiencing, and are ready to find again.  Then, we are ready to join, to ascend.

The process.  It’s all about the process.

Shamanism, Belief and the Subconscious

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I was asked – is shamanism just a placebo?  Do you have to believe in it for it to work?

A question that frequently comes up in drum journeys is the “second guess.”

Is it a spirit?  A past life?  An ancestor?  What is this information?

The mind wants us to put it into little boxes of belief and say, “It IS a spirit!” or “This WAS my past life!”  Or even – “I’m just making this up, it’s all imagination!”

I’m going to suggest that letting go of that is most empowering.  It doesn’t matter.

As a child, does it matter whether the learning came from a parent, a teacher, or your own senses?  The teaching is a teaching.

If a symbol comes up in a journey or a dream, it is a direct message which is important to you in the here and now.  It may take the form of what could be a past or future life, or animal medicine, or a tree spirit, or an ancestor.

While we do want to honour the Teachers, one way to honour them is to not impose a belief onto them.  Don’t tell them what they are.  Let them be what they are.

Perhaps you don’t want to believe in Spirits at all – then, for you, these messages are symbols from the subconscious and the Collective Unconscious.  They are still important and vital to you, and gratitude will take you a long way on this journey.

Learn from them, don’t judge them, and let them be whatever they are – free of your preconceived notions and judgements.

Here’s how it works for me:  the subconscious mind is pre-verbal, so it communicates as sensory input, symbols, feelings, images, smells, sounds.  IT DOESN’T MATTER whether you are seeing eagles or trains or hearing whistling winds, or experiencing a past life as an African herbalist.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s information from the subconscious, provided to you NOW, as what is important NOW.

You can ignore it, or you can pay Attention to it.  As you know, the Power of Attention is one of the most amazing things about being human.

If you ignore it, you are “business as usual”

If you pay attention to it, you are given access to a well of information.  The information may seem like nonsense – colours and smells, or it may seem important – riding on a tiger and meeting the Queen of Heaven.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s information, and the act of Paying Attention to it, is healing, teaching, empowering.

Paying attention is giving respect to the teachers.  It is also important to express gratitude that you have been given this new teaching.

 

NOTE:  Sensitive people have less “social filtering” than others, so more of this “stream of collective consciousness” gets in, and too much information can be confusing.

The structure of shamanism gives you a form and system to use to sort through the information.  These techniques are highly recommended for sensitive people.