Shamanism & the 'Journey'

Pre-dating organized religions in all cultures, shamanism was the human being's first attempt to transcend physical limitations, to make a journey and try to contact an Otherworld. Not the world of ghosts but that of ancestors and spiritual helpers. Core to shamanism is inner journeying, the experience of the imaginal landscape within.

Guides

There it's possible to contact the higher, wiser parts of our mind in the form of figures or animals who spontaneously come to meet us. If we have a decision to make, a situation to navigate, a relationship or health problem, we can make an inner journey to our guides and come back with answers. The intuitive life begins when we've built up enough trust to allow this connection to the higher mind to flow naturally. If invited, our guides will also show up to help us in the ordinary world.

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  • The Face in the Stone. Colour. Photo © David Whyte Thobar Phádraig County Clare August 23rd 2016
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Adopting the relaxed and humorous style of the Anam Cara (spiritual friendship/"soul-friend") tradition, which knows how to laugh at itself, it is a joy to share my experiences and help others find their way in the inner realms. Anam Cara frameworks the insights gathered there and supports the traveller. By simply daring to look, we can learn to see through the forest of the mind and out into the shining field of freedom beyond.
- Andrew Peers

The Shamanic Druid

The word “Druid” means “one who is fixed in knowledge”. It is intimately related to the ancient Sanskrit language. “Driú” is the source of the word “true” and reflects the characteristics of a tree as in “firm”/“fixed” and this becomes the Indo/European “drew” and “dreu” meaning “firm” “solid” “steadfast”.

The Shamanic Druid is a guide who works with the World Tree, the ancient Celtic An Crann Bíle, the axis mundi that links the realms of the Otherworld to this one. Finding the World Tree, we can travel to the Lower, Middle, and Upperworld, there to meet with our allies, and return to our daily lives in the knowledge that we are not alone. We can invite our allies into our daily experience and begin to live a 'connected life', walking between Two Worlds.