Core shamanism is a method of entering spirit realms whilst in a lightly altered

state of mind (trance - but not Hollywood style) - it�s something I studied at
length and I believe it turbo-charged all my psi senses and helped pull my practice
together into a cohesive whole, from the ragtag bits and pieces I�d created or
acquired as a child.

It�s taught in a number of locations in the UK & USA, usually as weekend workshops,
and I�ve seen absolute beginners who�d never had a psychic experience in their
lives go from nervous and skeptical on the Saturday morning, sitting in a circle in
a roomful of strangers, to confidently locating and describing past events or
spiritually significant things for those same people by the Sunday afternoon.

I believe in this as a good starting point, and typed out a tutorial (below) which
I�ve sent to a few people on here - the only reasons I haven�t posted it publicly
are 1. any tutorial generates ongoing questions by new members who find it, which
is fine, but I can�t always commit the time, and 2. the people I did some training
with, the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, had some kind of weird copyright,
although this is taught openly by other teachers, but I�m not sure where the line�s
drawn so I�m keeping this to PM for now.

IMPORTANT:

Do not attempt to combine other methods with this, you will just hold yourself
back, do this as given and once perfected, then and ONLY then attempt to combine
other paradigms. Seriously! :slight_smile:

Part One: The Lower World

Find a time when you have 30 - 45 minutes� privacy, switch your phone off, and also
be between meals so you�re neither too full nor distracted by hunger.

This method is about as close to safe as any form of magick gets, although you may
wish to cleanse and banish etc. before you start out. A simple shower or bath, with
the intention to cleanse your aura, should suffice.

Chill out, using some deep breathing and whatever else, and maybe dump any
distracting thoughts about the everyday world into a notebook so they�re not in the
back of your mind as you begin.

Have a journal of some kind to hand, to take notes after the journey is completed.

Don�t be high or drunk - although entheogens are traditionally used in indigenous

shamanism, they�ll just get in the way now, you can experiment with that later once
you have the basic method mastered and some spirit allies to help you out.

It�s a good idea to have a voice recorder running if possible.

Get a student mindset of learning and openness on, and stay with that - this method
is not compatible, at least in the early stages, with competitive or aggressive
ideas, or a mindset of attempting to dominate spirits. You�re going into �their�
world, so adjust your attitude accordingly.

Play some shamanic drumming. Nothing fancy, a steady monotonous beat is best,
ideally under 30 minutes to begin with. There�s plenty on YouTube.

Set your intention: �I am going to journey to the Lower World to meet with my
personal animal spirit helper.�

In this method, intention is an important thing, and to begin with, state that
intention and maybe write it down at the head of a page in your journal.
Close your eyes and visualise, which is to say IMAGINE, a tree - ideally one that
you like and have happy memories of.

If you don�t have a memory like that, just imagine a tree that looks good to you.

Do not get distracted by random passing thoughts.

Do not �see� something else and let your attention wander, just keep looking at the
tree.

Imagine walking towards the tree, and take hold of it if that helps.

Find a nice deep hole in the roots (even if it�s not there in your �real� tree you
based it on).

Dive down into the hole and keep going, until you reach what will look most of the
time like a different world beneath the earth.

It may be dark, like a totally black space with just hints and outlines of other
shapes, or maybe what look more like retinal after-images. This is fine.

You may have sounds, scents, or other sense impressions, but nothing visual - this
is also fine. Persistence will open your senses.

It may be lit by a diffuse golden light.

There will probably be a river or other kind of water channel, but don�t worry if
you don�t see it.

Call for your animal - the term used in core shamanism is �power animal� - use this
until you have enough experience to define things yourself, this term has the value
of being used a lot, and therefore is imprinted into the fabric of this world in
this paradigm.

If in doubt, ask the animal to show itself to you three different times - you might
see a hoof/paw, then a face, and then an outline, for example.

Any three symbols of the same animal is a good sign.

Don�t try to guess what your animal is or will be, and don�t be disappointed if
it�s not something �cool.�

And as with the tree, ignore any distracting impressions, human shapes, or anything
else. You�re here for your power animal, the rest can wait.

IMPORTANT!!

Don�t expect this to be spectacular, it�s not like in the movies when someone
enters a dream or holodeck and it�s exactly like ordinary life.
(At this stage a history of drug/alcohol use which left you the next day trying to
cope with a reality that barely made sense is a GOOD thing! You�re not used to
these spirit worlds yet, so you�re operating under a similar kind of cognitive
dampening and confusion. Don�t let the fact this feels like it�s �all in your mind�
deter you - your mind is the interface, I have provided a method to verify what�s a
�real� journey in the notes, below.)

Back to the journey:

Ask the animal spirit if it�s your ally.

If it confirms this and you feel good about it, ask it to join with you - it may
jump up into your arms, or you may mount it, or some other connection which feels
to your astral body like a link has been created.

Using intention, fly or travel back UP with your animal, holding the intention to
return to the base of the World Tree where you entered.

Pop back out the hole in the roots.

Take a look around you, observe anything that�s different, but don�t get
distracted.

Talk to your animal, even if you can�t hear it clearly yet, ask it to wait here for
you and to guide you on future journeys.

It may give you a symbol (for example, you might think you see a symbol in your
mind�s eye - this is when having a voice recorder running is invaluable), or a
word, or you may even be able to converse with it.

At the moment, it�s safest to assume all conversations with spirits are the spirit
doing its best to throw thoughts into your head and hit whatever vocabulary you
have, so they may sound both weirdly coherent yet have odd usages of words, or even
slang. Don�t worry about this, record what�s said without judgement.

You can either bid farewell to your animal and come back at another time, or, you
can ask it back into your arms/mount it/etc., and imagine yourself walking back to
your physical body, settling down in it, with the animal still in your arms.

This brings the energy of the power animal back into your life and is the basic
initiatory action of core shamanism.

You can then sit up, journal what happened right away (this is strongly advised,
don�t leave it to memory), then sit with your animal spirit in your presence, maybe
ask it to empower and protect you, and to be waiting at the WT next time you
journey.

You can politely ask it to depart if it becomes overwhelming, or continue about

your ordinary life without anything so formal.

It�s perfectly normal to want to have some symbol of it in your life, don�t go
wacky and get it tattooed or anything, but it�s fine to draw it, or print out a
picture of an animal of that same type, or even buy a piece of jewellery or a t-
shirt or something that represents it and becomes a focal point.

It may merge with you later on, or change into a different type of animal, all
things are possible - but this is stage 1.

After the journey, take as many notes as possible - don�t assume that this was
beginner stuff and not important, some of the things I saw in my very first formal
journey are STILL playing out to this day!

If you feel ungrounded, try to get a short walk, ideally on grass in bare feet, eat
something substantial, or do some mundane act like housework or phoning a friend.

Notes:

If I can offer some tips, read that entire exercise through once or twice, taking
any notes you need, then try a journey to get your own animal helper, and that act
will begin to increase your power and psychic skills in itself.

I was fortunate enough to be able to afford to train in-depth, and since then I�ve
done a lot of healing work which includes coaching people on their first journeys -
in this method, there�s the basic concept of the World Tree (WT), which is your
axis mundi.

This is the single most important aspect of core shamanism and is the interface by
which you orient yourself in the different spiritual universes.

Below the World Tree is the Lower World, which I describe above - this is
conventionally the first World visited by beginners in this paradigm, and it�s not
an �underworld� or in any way hellish.

It tends to house earth-related entities, animal spirits of various kinds, and

other �natural world� spirits, and it is possible to meet an entity form of your
own Death there, but this isn�t a dangerous thing and can be educational - but it�s
not something to begin with.

First you need to get your animal spirit, bond with them, and undertake a few more
journeys to the Lower World. It�s legit to go there to explore, and you can also
ask your animal spirit what it advises you do down there.

Once you feel honestly competent to undertake Lower World journeys on demand, and
have a method of communicating with your animal spirit (hearing it clairaudiently,
or maybe through symbols or strong intuitive impressions), you�ll be travelling to
the Upper World, which is where various ascended masters, Higher Selves of both
people and individual animals, and angels, gods, and numerous other entities hang
out.

The final World to explore is the Middle World, but that�s best not visited until
you have some experience because it contains the spiritual aspect of all the evil
forces in our own reality, including the restless dead, malevolent spirits of
madness and disease, and various portals to places that aren�t very nice.

The interface with the World Tree is just, technically, in the Middle World, but
it�s a safe place and there are specific methods for entering the places where the
troublesome things are likely to lurk, so don�t worry about it, but stick to the
Lower World first, and work a lot with your animal, and then begin with the Upper
World, which will provide you with mentors who can assist.

A lot of what you see will be archetypal, almost cartoonishly so in some cases, and
don�t let that throw you - this is spiritual energy trying to convey form and
function, via visual or other sensory short-hand. Talking books, chairs that walk,
and all manner of other symbols are commonplace when using this method.

Note them down as seen, because with time you�ll recognise patterns in the way
things appear to you, and be able to understand new events via your existing
lexicon of symbols.

One hallmark of a successful journey is that while at the time the nagging thought
�Is this just in my head?� may be present, when you get back, write up your notes,
and think back to what happened, the vividness of the memories will be as strong as
your memories of events in the everyday world, and unless you were distracted out
of the journey, you�ll have next to no memory of your body here in normal life
during the trance.

If, at any point, you freak out, just open your eyes, get up and go to a different
room, do the washing up, go for a walk, or whatever - in the early stages you don�t
register enough in those realities for anything to bother coming after you, and
your own mind (awareness) is the interface, so once you shift your attention the
link is broken.

I advise very strongly against attempting any baneful work whatsoever using this
method until you have a few years experience in this paradigm under your belt: this
isn�t a moral issue, later you can check in with your spirit allies and see what
they say.

But some people have made the mistake of assuming journeying is like in the movies
when the hitman gets up into a crawl-space and can rain down death unseen, and not
only is it NOT like that, you can also get into a hell of a lot of trouble and end
up basically imprisoned in a tiny pocket universe of your own, if you begin in this
fashion.

Once that�s happened, you�re unlikely to be released, so don�t push your luck.

That covers the basics for the initiatory stage, this is what�s usually taught in
the first part of the trainings and if you find it useful, once you have your
animal spirit and can reliably communicate with them, let me know.