102 /In the Shadow of the Shaman

your own growth.

Another aspect to consider is that active and receptive energies
are connectors to self-nurturance.ln Western society, we often forget
to receive or input energy in balance with the amount of energy we
activate or output. It doesn't take very long to get to an energy­
depleted state. Shamanic images can be very helpful to the Western
mind, which loves to act on images.
A balanced blend of meditative and active consciousness work
has the added benefit of personal blending by you. If you have been
extremely active, use a more receptive method of consciousness
work. Use Images to travel Into the healing void and connect with
your healer self.
If you have been spending too much time with receptive meditative
consciousness, take time out to activate your images; apply what you
have learned from inner vision. Call up your spiritual-warrior images,
whatever works for you. The emerging images of receptive con­
sciousness work and the self-directed images of active consciousness
are a magical blend.
Totems are perfect companions for shamanic imaging. Everyone is
familiar with all the trappings of magick and shamanism. These trap­
pings of totems are there to focus the energy. The way they work is
through the use of shamanic imaging. The shaman communicates
with his totems on the magick, or shamanic, levels of consciousness
where images arise. Often the shaman's tools have been especially
charged or initiated to work with specific energies. This is especially
true of sacred power objects, such as staffs, wands, bowls, pipes, and
rattles. Natural objects, such as hawk feathers, amethyst, thyme, and
sage, have significant energies of their own. But a clay bowl or a stick
of wood may be more receptive to being charged with a specific vi­
bration or meaning.
Technically speaking, very few objects actually hold a physical
energy charge for long on the concrete level. They do, however, hold
one on the abstract level of form and images. Images are such power­
ful connectors to direct energies that they don't even require form,
other than the ones we think of for them. In this way, we create
thought-forms as totems.
At times, it is useful to pair a concrete world totem with an
abstract world thought-form to help focus the energy. For example,
you may have a special image of yourself as a spiritual warrior. This Is
a thought-form of yourself, so It Is already a stron!1 totem. Perhaps