"One aspect of Shamanic training is meeting, integrating the archetype of death itself. It often first shows up as the "Portal Guardian of the dream time" a great, vaguely human shaped black shadow being, that reflects your fear back multiplied with destructive force. It may also show up as the typical "death" image, a cloaked being with a cowl, no face. You may face it over and over, being utterly destroyed in dreams and visions over and over, till you learn to approach it with unconditional love... at which point you enter the next phase, you become that being, your consciousness a passenger within it, as it goes about reflecting fear and destroying." (The rest of the article is here.)
Shamanism is one of those things I'm hesitant to talk about, because I feel so dwarfed by it. I don't think it leaves a lot of room for heady intellectual debate -- it's too visceral. It gives me images rather than words -- earth and death and dark. The death-intimacy of the shaman path amazes me.
When I go to bed at night, I still have to make sure my closet door is closed. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I don't like the feeling of having that big, gaping hole near me -- it's darker than the rest of the darkness, and I can feel it, even with my eyes closed. While I don't think there's actually anything in my closet, I do feel that there are things in the darkness itself.
The "Dweller on the threshold," we call it.
Posted by: Haeresis | July 06, 2005 at 10:05 PM
yeah.. endlessly fascinating/scary/awesome.
Posted by: laura jane | July 06, 2005 at 10:18 PM