Discovering Your Spirit Animal: The Wisdom of the Shamans - Lucy Harmer 2009

How Should the Word “Medicine” Be Understood in This Book?

In the modern world, medicine is considered to be the science of restoring and preserving health by treating illness with therapies and drugs. Shamans have a completely different idea of medicine because they don’t seek only to cure the symptoms of an illness; they also seek to reestablish the balance and harmony within the body, mind, and spirit of a person by working on the principal causes of the imbalance. Their view of medicine comes from a deep understanding of the most elementary forms and universal laws. In this book, the word “medicine” refers to all the subtle energies that constitute the fundamental elements that make up the entire universe.

Shamans take account of the fact that we are made up of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. They understand that when one of these elements is out of balance, our lives and our health will be affected. These four elements are found in everything, and, although it may seem strange to connect them with people, it is a fact that they are intimately related to our physical bodies. Consider: the air in the atmosphere is taken in by our lungs and sent to every cell of our bodies; the earth gives us our food, which nourishes us and helps us to grow and develop physically; our bodies are composed of 85 percent water; and fire represents our will to live and our life force, the energy coursing through us.

Shamans do not believe that we live in an inanimate world; everything around us possesses a certain energy or vitality, and this energy is found within every object. For example, a table made of wood is quite different from a table made of glass; the energy received from the person who made it and the one who uses it will also add to this difference. Every living being possesses powers, qualities, and a vibration that is unique to it. Plants and animals not only possess different powers, qualities, and vibrations, they also possess a soul or spirit. Shamans are able to establish a deep connection with plants and animals as they learn to communicate with them at a soul level. When they work with plant and animal medicine, they ask the plant or animal to transfer its power, its strength, its properties, and its knowledge to them or the person requiring healing.

In the shamanic model, the universe has three basic levels; human beings live on earth (also known as “ordinary reality”), which is positioned between an upper world and an underworld (“non-ordinary reality”). According to most traditions, one of the reasons we fall ill is that when a trauma happens in our life, we lose a part of our soul and our vital energy. Following a shock—which can be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual in nature—part of our soul spirit takes off and gets stuck in the invisible worlds, in either the upper world or the underworld. In the language of modern psychology, a part of our being has been suppressed by our subconscious or unconscious mind.

Shamans often use sound or medicinal plants to alter their state of consciousness in order to travel to the unseen realms. The method used varies from one tradition to another; drums are often used amongst Siberian and Mongolian shamans, Samis, Mapuches, and some of the Native American Indian tribes. In other traditions, bells, cymbals, rattles, humming, whistling, and didgeridoo are also used.

Accompanied by the sound of the drum (or other preferred method), shamans are able to travel within non-ordinary reality to the invisible worlds. There, they are able to seek and bring back the parts of soul energy that have been trapped or lost due to trauma. They can also request an animal spirit or a plant spirit to transmit the required energy, or their particular medicine (inner strength, wisdom, teachings, etc.), to enable the “stuck” energy to be freed, allowing healing to take place.

In today’s world, we are more and more frequently faced with situations that are difficult or stressful. We tend to forget that if a situation hasn’t been entirely resolved, a small part of our being—our soul energy—deserts us and stays trapped in non-ordinary reality. It’s like a small part of our soul splits off and becomes stuck. We have lost a part of ourselves, or forgotten one of our gifts or qualities. For example, if you fell off a ladder when you were a child and from then on were afraid of heights, you would have lost part of your adventurous spirit, and that would probably stop you from taking risks and going after part of your dreams in later life. You could ask an animal (in this case it could be the Eagle) to communicate its medicine to you—that is to say, its inner power—to bring back your soul part and help you overcome your fear.

In the case of a nervous breakdown, allopathic medicine generally seeks to treat the condition by reestablishing the chemical balance in the brain with drugs or psychiatry. The shaman seeks first to rebalance the patient’s soul, to bring back the energy the patient has lost through the traumatic events in his or her life and reestablish connection with the spirit world and nature.

In order to do this, the shamans will ask their animal or plant spirits to transmit their energy and their spirit qualities to the patient in order to bring about the necessary healing. This technique is common to all shamanic cultures: whether Native Americans, Toltecs, Huichols, Australian Aborigines, Sangomas (African medicine men and women), Balians (Balinese healers), etc. The technique is also known in Hawaii. In his book entitled Urban Shaman, Serge Kahili King describes in detail the Hawaiian technique of energy transmission, known as kulike. The technique is used therapeutically to promote healing and harmony. It consists of the practitioner merging with the spirit of an animal or plant in order to acquire its power, its properties, and its characteristics. In other words, true healing occurs when the animal or the plant is transmitting its medicine to the person.