Comments

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  Steven Herrmann April 8, 2014 at 11:08am

  Hi everyone! I've just read over most of the comments by people in this group and feel right at home here. Thanks for getting the group going, Bonnie. I published my first paper on analytical psychology and shamanism in The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Volume 21, Number 2, 2002, and it is called "Don Sandner: The Shamanic Archetype." So nice to see Don mentioned here by Ruth and others. He was a great drummer indeed and I too miss him. I was first initiated into California shamanism by the Santa Cruz poet, Bill Everson, who I studied under at UCSC and served as TA in his course "Birth of a Poet." In 2009 I published a book from our conversations in 1991-1993 on the topic of shamanism in American poetry called William Everson: The Shaman's Call. The connection between the shamanic archetype and Jungian psychology has been at the center of my interests since my early work with Don. In my 2002 essay honoring Don, I put it this way: "Shamanism in my understanding of Jung's hypothesis was the vehicle for the projection of the unconscious instinct into archetypal representations, by which the urge to wholeness was reflected in the human species by way of the image. Shamans, that is, were the first carriers of the image of wholeness. This is to say that the archetype of the shaman stands closest to the Self. As the oldest deposit of wholeness in the human psyche it is the primary form, or the psychic gateway, through which we each must pass if we are to achieve connection with the Self at its deepest archetypal levels." Last year, 2013, I wrote up a new unpublished essay "C. G. Jung's Approach to Shamanism," and just recently I penned a 30 page paper on Jaime de Angulo. I had always intuited that California shamanism had entered Jung's work before he traveled to Taos to meet Mountain Lake. Sure enough, Jaime provided the link. This is an unpublished essay I would be happy to share too. So good to be a part of this vibrant and lively group!
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  Ruth Martin March 26, 2013 at 1:50pm

  Don Sandner was a great resource! That man could drum!! he is greatly missed by many.
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  Jesse Masterson March 25, 2013 at 3:59pm

  Hi Everyone, Just finished reading all of the past comments and the forum postings. Lots of great information. I love how many people there are here that are looking at shamanism and depth psychology. I am in my 2nd year of Shamanic Healing Training and finishing my 3rd year of a Ph.D in depth psychology. Right now I am re-reading Sandner & Wong's "The Sacred Heritage: The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology and finding new information that I had not remembered from before. Great resource!
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  Wendolyn Land January 22, 2012 at 12:02pm

  Hi everyone! I am fascinated by Shamanism (as well as alchemy and Mystery Religions) and the parallels with individuation. I am currently reading, "The Shaman and Snow White: Ayahuasca and San Pedro" and it's a fascinating look into South America Shamanism and I love the idea of tree spirits and plant spirits...it gives one a whole new awareness of being with nature. I love Robert Moss as well and his blog is great inspiration each day into the unseen worlds.
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  Jai Michaell January 13, 2012 at 5:48pm

  Has anyone read Horner's book, "The Way of the Shaman," which specifically excludes "Caribean possession cults" from his definition of "shamanism." As as a Santeria priest, and a person with some exposure to Cree shamanism, I'd like to know what others think about Horner's exclusion. Thanks.
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  Paul Roberts September 27, 2011 at 3:18pm

  Hi Rebecca. Yes, I  have read Jeremy Narby's book. Its interesting and well-written. I thought finally though that he is too literal in his interpretation of the visions of the encoiled serpents and needing to find some scientific reasoning to justify the connection between the snakes and the structure of DNA. That said it's a good book, and his NGO is doing good work with indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon.
  
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  Rebecca Livingston Pottenger September 27, 2011 at 8:11am

  Another excellent book on ayahuasca as a path to knowledge is The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge by Jeremy Narby, a bio-anthropologist who, in his researches on ecology in the Peruvian Amazon, apprenticed with an ayahuasqueros. He pulls together ayahuasca journeys, alchemy, mythology, and biology.  Haven't read Steiner...look forward to doing so.
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  Sharon Rukin September 19, 2011 at 12:54pm

  Oh... and I also have been gathering a wonderful collection of icaros.
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  Sharon Rukin September 19, 2011 at 12:53pm

  Yes... I love Steiner's work and have read quite a bit of it.  He certainly knew about non ordinary consciousness. 

  Mayantuyachu is near Pucallpa.  What makes it remarkable is that it sits on a site where boiling water comes up and through in a sort of river.  It is possible to lie on rocks and be imbued by the steam which is very healing.  In addition, Juan carries a healing, wonderful energy.  He also introduces all sorts of other healing plants as part of the experience.  There is also another shaman there, Brunswick (I call him  the shaman chiquito) who actually teaches the lore behind preparing these plants (and takes participants on wonderful walks through the surrounding jungle).
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  Paul Roberts September 19, 2011 at 12:21pm

  Hi Sharon

  Nice video. Very gentle. A friend of mine is also combining traditional icaros which we recorded in ceremony with his own electronic music. The disc should be out in November. I think its excellent

  Whereabouts in Peru is Mayantuyachu? The place, if it is the same as in the video on Youtube, looks beautiful.

  By the way, one of best books I have read about ayahuasca (though at face value it does not address ayahauasca at all) is "Knowledge of Higher Worlds" by Rudolf Steiner.

   

  best wishes    Paul