Return to the Garden
“It is the task of human beings to lead the collectivity of humanity out of the labyrinth of matter and into the realm of the imagination. The imagination is the only place where the human soul is at home.” Terence McKenna
Self-gnosis, meditation, mysticism and shamanism are imaginal paths that continue to ‘hack the system’, supporting the individual’s ability to find their own path to God.
When our ability to adapt to the world is in harmony with the balancing course of nature, we are in a state of shamanic bliss. The journey of the shaman is to return to the imaginal garden and reclaim the knowledge that is rooted deeply in our everyday world and flows
through our everyday being.
The shamans journey of healing is just the beginning. The second act is returning to share the elixir and support others in creating a better world.
The symbols and stories of creation handed down to us from the many mystical and religious systems reveal many of the important truths about our creative nature, about our origins and place in the creative unfolding of the Tao, of Life. They also reveal the inherent challenges of breaking free from both the illusions of paradise and the illusions of suffering the root cause of ignorance- the yin and yang of all-too-human being.
The ancient shamanic traditions abound in myths, metaphors and symbolic passages. An example in our Western spiritual tradition of Judeo-Christianity, from the Torah or Old Testament, in the Book of Genesis, of creation, is centered in the Garden of Eden, an enchanted world that we were once a part until our progenitors bit into the apple of knowledge. . . The living torus born of a torus within a torus. . . instantly illuminating our spiritual existence, our divine truth- beyond the illusions of the matrix of earthly being).
And with this breach of etiquette Prometheus smiled and our modern civilization’s existential journey began- awakening from the dream-garden of blissful ignorance- witnessing the poverty behind the illusions cast- venturing out into the world of soulful, spiritual awareness and connection- no more actors, only us- returning to the garden passage of bliss, the path of enlightenment- weaving the garment of our collective Spirit into new life, new ways, new hope.
The journey of the shaman is to return to the inner garden and reclaim the
knowledge that is rooted deeply in our everyday world- that flows
through our everyday being.
All of the parts of our being and all of the parts of Nature combine to share in a harmonious state of existence. This is our purpose and goal as embodied spirits, to bring ourselves back into harmony with the natural world with fully developed, engaged consciousness.
The shaman lives the path of death and rebirth as a symbol of
the ever-changing nature of reality as a dynamic evolving individual spirit and as the collective field of constant change. They recognize that, like the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, life develops around a toroidal dance- flowing in and out of existing states of being; expanding, contracting, spiraling- as all life flows, evolves and adapts to the ever-changing environments within the inherent dynamics of the universal matrix, the sacred geometric field, the light-field of fantastic, constant, archetypal shape-shifting of beingness is born.
The path out of ignorance and into awakening is the spiral path out into the world and back again, from a state of mass confusia (ignorance) to a state of ultima materia (enlightenment). It is the path of individuation, of Self-actualization and spiritual awakening and integration with our nature,
with our world. When we are integrated we are whole and complete.
When our ability to adapt to the world is in harmony with the
balancing course of nature, we are in a state of shamanic bliss. The
journey of the shaman is to return to the inner garden and reclaim the
knowledge that is rooted deeply in our everyday world and flows
through our everyday being.
In esoteric traditions, we are the embodied whole of these
stories. Our nervous system, the functional communication and power
for our bodies, is the Tree of Life. The central nervous system is the
pathway of the serpent energy (kundalini life force) that has the
wisdom and power to awaken our minds to true reality, out of the sleep
of our animal nature.
The heart is the apple that brings us to a higher level of consciousness, in harmony with the higher Self, our lower nature and all of creation. The shaman is the Bringer of Light that risks it all to awaken the healing and enlightening power within all embodied beings. It is their sacred purpose to weave the worlds of Spirit and Man into a path of medicine. While this may sound overly mystical and esoteric to some, it remains a fundamental aspect of the metaphysics of the awakened being.
Shamans have found many ways of awakening this energy also known as kundalini, Shakti, Jing and Chi energies through ritual dance, chanting, breathwork, journeying and plant medicine.
The everyday shaman has a vast array of techniques available through accessing countless shamanic traditions, meditative practices and trance rituals. Many approaches are coming out of hiding after being hidden from annihilation and destruction by invading paradigms and ideologies that seek to destroy all evidence that we are self- actualized, self-empowered.
Most of the well-known light-bearers have been persecuted or demonized by the gods of our civilizations for daring to awaken the masses to their true Divinity.
Like Prometheus bound and tortured by Zeus for bringing humanity the Fire of technological awakening, we have an enduring history of martyring and demonizing those who dare to bring us the Light of our connection to Spirit. There has always been a strong emphasis on obedience and servitude in the prevailing, dominant forms of governance, whether it be for the populace or for the congregations.
The act of awakening and becoming self-empowered has been actively discouraged, rejected and forcefully denounced, often being equated with devil worship, embracing evil and darkness.
The dominant systems, with their own maps of reality will naturally rebel against practices that make the dominant systems obsolete.
