Sound in many spiritual traditions is held to be the creative source of life, be it “the Word” of Christianity or the cosmic sound of the OM chanted in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Similarly, the drumbeat is used in shamanism to enable one to take a journey beneath the surface noise of the mind and follow the life stream back to its origin in Source.
The whale in the ocean is a picture of the soul at home in the vast waters of spirit. And the relationship of our souls to Source can either be one of collaboration in song or one of antagonism with noise. The song of the whale is both beautiful and purposeful, allowing whales to communicate with one another over long distances, mate, as well as navigate in the dark depths of oceanic oneness.
To listen solely to the chatter of the mind is to remain on the surface of life, immersed in noise, unable to create anything that doesn’t add more noise to the collective environment. Whales beach themselves due to the sound interference of ships, much as souls find themselves separated from the native environment of spirit, hung up on sand bars of man-made noise, chatter, and diversion.
Spirit’s wisdom is upside down and backwards from the reigning viewpoint of the world: you go inward and downward, not up and out, in order to reach the heights and become as light. That our spirit guide was a whale named Stella, or “star,” implies that spiritual greatness is a function of learning to sing and move from the vast watery depths of the heart.
Diving beneath ordinary consciousness to return fed and refreshed to the surface of daily life confers benefits to the individual: “I feel more peaceful and my b.s. detector is a lot stronger” said one participant in our weekly journey circle. Adopting a regular shamanic practice helps to stir up the waters of consciousness, bringing new perspective and fresh insight to life, but might this practice help the collective, too?
The example of the whale suggests so. Here’s a wonderful four-minute video on the ecological benefits the whale confers to the whole of the ocean in her repeated journeys down to the depths and back up to the water’s surface:
You listen to noise, you can only create more noise. If you stay confined in the mind, you remain on the surface of things, never really mixing up the waters of consciousness, never creating anything truly new to feed life at its source.
At best, awash in endless chatter, we go in circles. At worst, we get so disoriented by the noise of mind and world that we run aground, which is pretty much describes where we are now as a collective.
Like the whale, it is our nature to dive beneath the surface concerns and noise of the world, but we come from a long line of souls beached on the sands of time.
Estranged from our soul’s natural habitat in the oceanic depths, exposed to the sun of ordinary consciousness for far too long, we have grown weak: we no longer believe that once we knew how to swim, we no longer remember how to find our way through the dark waters of eternity with song.
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The above is from the “class taught by spirit” offered by Gaia Shamanism. Each class includes a group shamanic journey with a follow-up journey interpretation, as excerpted above. The first class was so much fun, Gaia Shamanism is offering two groups in June:
Introduction to Shamanic Journeying: An Online Experiential Class
$40 for four 90-minute online classes in June.
Day and time to be arranged based on participant schedules.
Introduction to shamanism materials included.
To register email Anna at aalkin07@gmail.com.
A Course Taught by Spirit: An Online Shamanic Journey Series
$30 for four 90-minute online classes in June.
Fridays from 9-10:30 AM PDT June 9, June 16, June 23, and June 30.
You will receive journey interpretations from the class each week. Here’s a sample from the last class.
To register, email Anna at aalkin07@gmail.com.