Christ As A Shaman; Nature As A Teacher

Christ was probably the greatest of the shamans.  Yes. Forty days in the desert, the resurrection, the carrying of the cross, as a Sun Dance…

The link would seem to be the Animal Powers. Christ would relate to the Animal Powers that preceded our more sophisticated religious impulses. He relates to them through his human side and that is where the full force of it connects…

For the poet, too, everything depends on the quality and the prolongation of the creative trance, within which he is able to engage his demons, his obsession… 

Out in the “great solitude” the shaman wrestles with the tribal images his people have impounded within him. And hence in the principled solitude of his self-imposed condition of “cunning silence, and exile, “ the modern poet goes forth to “forge in the smithy of his soul, the uncreated conscience of his race.”

William Everson Cited in Christian Mystics

Matthew Fox makes these observations about the role and value of the Shaman in these words:

Everson calls Jesus a great shaman. A shaman connects two worlds. A shaman has undergone a profound breakthrough that awakens dormant powers of healing and of vision. And a shaman takes on extreme tasks for the sake of the community that the people may live.

The shamans seek solitude on a regular basis. In all these ways, Jesus was a shaman. Does that change your view of Jesus or of shamans? If we are followers of Jesus, are we meant to incarnate shamanhood also?”

One of my most influential teachers was a Bolivian shaman. Oscar Ischazo would relate stories of his experiences in the Amazon among the nature spirits and the deadly creatures who live there, and would teach about the necessity for empathy and understanding of one’s environs.

He taught that it is not just focussing on the challenge or the concern for safety, but placing our attention on learning about the value of connection that serves to identify and to heal any rifts in our consciousness. From him, I was able to continue my learning that connects empathy with respect, and the dignity and integrity of all living beings.

Since making my first questions and irregular steps of progress under his guidance, I have gradually filled in some of the gaps that were created by the estrangement from nature that I felt as a young man; and the distancing necessary to accept and maybe even to succeed in our modern ego-based culture and what it reinforces or provides.  

One of my most effective ways to “reconnect” to nature, natural rhythms, the life of plants etc., was through learning about  Bio-Dynamic gardening. This approach to gardening and farming originates with Rudolph Steiner and Anthroposophy.

It cracked open my previous resistances and my childhood learning that gardening was manual labor, and necessary farm and family work. It was through an applied study of composting, cycles of nature, and companion planting etc., that it taught me about the intimate connection; The Enhanced awareness of the elements and energies that can literally ground our souls into the deeper understanding of the mysteries of life and nature.

I highly recommend this spiritually based approach to nature and the cosmos to all gardeners!

They say the current generation of our children suffer from a “nature deficit.” They are so urban, and so “plugged in” that they have lost a sense of enchantment with nature, or lost the connections to nature that can serve to make us aware-make us whole. 

I hope that the rising ecological awareness brought on by the energy crisis/debacle will serve to awaken more of us to the necessity to protect the environment, and to engage in reverent wonder; As they learn about their place in the universe and their intimate connection to it all.