Encounters with Power: Adventures and Misadventures on the Shamanic Path of Healing - José Luis Stevens 2017

Introduction

Tell us a story, José! Tell us a story!

For years around the campfires of my various shamanic programs, I have been asked to tell my stories: stories of magic, adventure, and outrageous situations — stories with teachings about the shamanic way. The best of them, and the ones my listeners often enjoy most, are about misadventures or times when I was presented with situations that seemed impossible.

Now that I am an elder teacher, I figure it’s time to write some of these stories down. What you are about to read is not strictly an autobiography, but these are true stories from my life, or stories that people I encountered in my wanderings told to me. Every time I tell one of them it is a little different, and certainly, other individuals who were present for these events might remember them differently. What matters is that I lived these experiences and saw and felt them in light of what I was learning at the time.

The theme of all the stories in this book is “encounters with power.” Shamanically speaking, life is all about becoming more powerful: learning to acquire power, store it, seal it in, and express it when needed. A single tree demonstrates power as it explodes from the seed and seeks the sunlight above. A hawk expresses power as it pecks its way out of the egg, screams for food, and one day takes that flying leap out of the nest into the sky. Learning about power is also a main theme for human beings on this planet. Most of our world problems would be solved if we learned our lessons about power well, so perhaps reading these stories will help you on your quest for power, for learning, and for your application to and influence on the big picture.

Life is filled with initiations: tests to see if we are ready for more power. Many of these tests tend to be brutal, ruthless, or harsh. They get our attention, for sure. We could easily conclude from the nature of these tests that we are powerless and should give up. On the other hand, we can rise to the occasion and find ways to become powerful enough to prove otherwise.

WHAT IS AN ENCOUNTER WITH POWER?

An encounter with power is different for each person. For me, the experience could be anywhere from highly interesting to terrifying. Or I might simply find it hugely entertaining.

Power exists everywhere, so an encounter with power can happen in any environment. As I have written in other books — especially in The Power Path: The Shaman’s Way to Success in Business and Life — power is not something you can own. It is like the air you breathe. You meet it, breathe it in, take sustenance from it, and then release it. Little by little you accumulate its benefits, and over time you become more powerful. In itself, power is neutral, but you can give it a dark spin through ignorance, lack of respect, or ill intent. Power can destroy you or it can raise you up by teaching and nourishing you.

I intend for these stories to teach you how best to approach power. As you will clearly understand when you read them, I have not yet mastered power, but I have learned a few things you may find helpful on your own quest for mastery.

Although I have had the good fortune to lead an amazingly adventurous life, my stories are still within the range of most people’s experience. When I read the Carlos Castaneda books many years ago, I was mesmerized, but they seemed so far out there that I could not imagine experiencing such things myself. For the most part, my stories are not like those. Unlike Castaneda, I haven’t suddenly found myself wandering around on different planets or confronting drooling monsters the size of houses. In this lifetime my task is to be a bridge person, a pivotal facilitator, and if I am too far out there I could not do that very well. Nevertheless, if you look at reality conventionally, my stories are filled with amazing synchronicities and unlikely happenings.

I have at times included the real names of my teachers, people such as Guadalupe, Enrique, and Herlinda. I have changed other names either by request or to avoid harming the reputation of someone I had an unpleasant incident with. In some cases I have changed the exact locations of certain events, again to honor individuals’ privacy or to protect them from being tracked down by eager adventurers. In a couple of cases I altered the timing of events to make it easier to tell the story. However, rest assured that I have included nothing that did not actually happen. I hope you enjoy these uncommon adventures and will let them teach you as if you are experiencing them yourself.

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

The Map of the Four Axes

A challenge I had in compiling these stories was to group widely disparate happenings into like themes. I tried organizing them by chronology, location, and so on but finally settled on grouping them according to a unique map of shamans’ specialties that I call the Map of the Four Axes. I have always loved and studied maps of all kinds, and on the shamanic path I have found some of the best ancient maps in the world — the medicine wheel and the tree of life, among others. Along the way I discovered another map that fits the shamanic model perfectly, and ultimately I organized these stories to align with it, both to share the map with you and to help you navigate the world from shamanic viewpoints.

If you are not familiar with shamanism, it is the world’s most ancient spiritual path, a practical approach to life that helped humankind survive from its earliest appearance on the planet. I have found it wonderfully helpful in clarifying the meaning of so many of my life experiences.

About the Map

This powerful map is really quite simple. It has no traditional given name, and like so many extremely valuable bits of ancient wisdom, it is unfamiliar to most people, having been passed down orally for many centuries, mostly in secret. Every once in a while it surfaces to help humankind out in a time of crisis — such as now. Bear in mind that it can map practically anything you want it to.

The map displays the four axes that hold this universe together, the four ways that energy can travel toward within this three-dimensional universe. These axes are Expression, Inspiration, Action, and Assimilation. The best method to display these axes is by depicting a wagon wheel with three axes crossing the wheel like spokes. In the middle is a hub through which another axis goes horizontally.

The Four Ways

The way of Expression is radiant like the sun, with energy traveling outward in every direction. Expression allows things to be revealed, seen, heard, touched, and experienced.

The way of Inspiration is upward, making available that which was hidden, raising it so we can rise up on our evolutionary path.

The way of Action is forward, accounting for evolution, progress, and productivity.

The way of Assimilation is inward; it allows information to be absorbed, integrated, accommodated, or adapted to.

Three of the axes have two aspects and one is solo, making up seven aspects in all. The seven aspects as they relate to the shamanic path are as follows: In the Expression axis are the Storyteller and the Artist; in the Inspiration axis are the Ceremonialist and the Healer; in the Action axis are the Warrior and the Chief; and in the Assimilation axis is the teacher/student, or Man/Woman of Knowledge. The Assimilation axis is in the middle of the circle and draws from each of the other axes. Together, these are the seven specialties of the shaman. Every shaman should have training in each category but typically becomes a specialist in one.

Map of The Seven Shamanic Specialties

All people in cultures that practice shamanism — which is to say most indigenous cultures — express themselves through art. They sing, dance, make sacred objects, create altars, and so on. The shamans among them also become adept at telling teaching stories. They are also trained in the healing arts and can conduct many different ceremonies; lift people out of misery, pain, and suffering; and provide people with transformative experiences. As trained warriors, all shamans do battle with demons, whether they take the form of physical illness, mental problems, or internal conflicts. Shamans are capable leaders of their tribe or kingdom and take responsibility for their well-being. Ultimately, with time and experience, all shamans become women and men of great knowledge and wisdom.

In keeping with the map, this book is divided into three parts, one for each of the first three axes: Expression, Inspiration, and Action. Within each part at the end of each story is a postscript commentary about some of the lessons I learned from my experiences. I have also included some exercises and questions that I hope you will find helpful in relation to them.

You might wonder what happened to the fourth axis, Assimilation — The Man/Woman of Knowledge. That part, dear reader, is the axis you occupy — the one acquiring knowledge — and that I occupy as well, the one who assimilated these experiences as they happened.

Before I turn you loose to travel these pages, let me say that these stories represent a body of experiences that have made me who I am: a good psychologist, a spiritual teacher, a ceremonialist, husband, father, and grandpa — in short, a wise fool. I am happy with who I am, a partner in spirit; what I am, fully human; and how I choose to serve in this life as a teacher. There are more adventures to come, more mistakes, more learning, more riches in the blessings of being alive and present. In the meantime, I am pleased to offer you some stories of a lifetime — my lifetime to date. Enjoy!