The Three Worlds
of
the Shamanic Middle Kingdom
This is a
description of the Three Worlds, common to all Shamanic
practices I know of, regardless of origins. The
Three Kingdoms we will cover soon, and these are rarely
discussed in any great detail except within the ranks of
Shaman who deal in them. The Shamanic Journey
generally is limited to voyages within the Middle
Kingdom to what are recognised as the Three Worlds.
The
basic divisions are Lower, Middle and Upper.
(Tolkien fans,.. yes, the very same as lower, middle
and upper earth from the Lord of the Rings epic.)
The
Lower World is a world of energy, raw and dynamic
Potential. A world of animal, plant and echoes
of matter's origin. Journeys to the Lower
World are often associated with animal guides, power
animals, discussions with trees, forests, mountain
ranges, continents etc.
The
Middle World is the energetic and observational
analogue of our physical world. Remote
viewing, seeing, visiting and projections are all
conducted mainly in the Middle World.
The
Upper World is the realm of Spirit. Note that
the capitalised Spirit is used, not spirits in
multiple, although this is where they dwell too.
Journeys to the Upper World often take place in
contact with spirit guides, ancestors and sentient
spirits.
The
famous Axis Mundi, or World Tree is a common analogy
of the Three Worlds, with the crown representing the
Upper, ground representing our physical Middle and
the root system representing the Lower worlds.
To
help understand the relationships within these
worlds, A shaman may communicate with the energetic
essence of an animal, plant of thing in the lower
world; with an aspect of a specific person or thing
in the middle world and with the spirit of either an
individual or corporate identity or thing in the
upper world.
I have
watched a shaman communicate with Barramundi (an
Australian fish of great importance to those who seek
food in Australia's northern waterways) in the upper
world and be given permission to take a specific
individual form a specific location. Then without
hesitation, he walked to the nominated spot, cast,
caught the fish, gave thanks to Barramundi for its
sustenance and went home. Once is a coincidence,..
I never saw it fail,.. not once!
The same
shaman negotiated in the middle world with a specific
salt-water crocodile who was terrorising a child and
mother on an island bank following a mishap.
Instead of attacking (almost a certainty with salties),
he negotiated that the monster leave the child and
mother, but return later, at a designated place about
two kilometres away, to receive a wallaby as a gift of
thanks instead. Whilst crocs do commute over time,
this was far outside of the normal behaviour of a salty.
At sunset the following day, the same croc was on the
nominated bank (he had some distinctive scars), calmly
took the offered wallaby carcass and departed in a set
of highly atypical behaviours.
When asked
about a problem with fishing management many miles away,
the same shaman journeyed to the lower world and asked
the fish what was wrong. He learnt that they were
being effected by overfishing of a food source by part
of his mob (clan) to the north. He contacted the
shaman of those people and they agreed to not take the
specific shellfish for a season. Next year, both
shaman imposed bag limits and prohibitions to protect
the fish stocks, which rebounded perfectly.
Many would
question the coincidence levels of these recollections,
but they are consistent and are echoed anywhere that
shaman exist. Why would the spirit of a fish
accept the loss of individuals? It is the natural
cycle of life. It honours the cycle upon which we
all depend. I never once saw a large female taken
by the clan, nor did I see them denied in times of need
by a spirit who supplied what was needed, for a price.
Always, the transaction must benefit all to be
effective.
Often, the
Shaman planted some seedlings on the river bank to
provide the negotiated price for the individual, giving
the fish more places to hide and breed. The father
happily swapped a day's wallaby hunting for his wife's
and child's life.
This is a
very broad look at a set of worlds foreign to most who
will read this text, but I invite you to explore, at
your own pace the next section, the Shamanic State of
Mind,..
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