Introduction
Speaking engagement at the Consciousness Awareness Network meeting; January 15, 2020
Today's discourse is an abbreviated version of my 20-plus year journey, especially as a spiritual teacher over the last several years. “You teach best what you most need to learn” is a quote from Richard Bach, famous for writing Jonathan Livingston Seagull. So, the Universe put me on a steep learning curve. It is a core shamanic concept that you cannot teach what you have not learned, you cannot counsel on what you have not endured, and you cannot heal what you have not experienced--that whole wounded healer thing.
The path of a shaman or shamanic practitioner is constantly learning, experiencing, finding simpatico, assimilating, and integrating acquired knowledge, not only for personal growth but also for the healing and spiritual development of others. It is an ever-expanding, progressive walk in this reality on all levels of being. The path is also about healing and reversing the effects of our split egos, divisive thought patterns, paradigms, and fragmentation from our indoctrination process.
I have never claimed to be a Shaman, but I am called and known as a shaman. I have resisted this path for most of my adult life, but I finally yielded to the Universe, my soul calling, and probably Wolf Medicine, to assume this purpose and role. The fact that I have been named “Shaman” by seekers, at least to me, evinces that the strict definition of “shaman” and shamanism is changing. I have been called a Neo-Shaman by the purists because I choose to teach and practice outside of the approved long-standing methodology of traditional shamanism. I’ve always been an outlaw of sorts, so no surprise there.
I was somewhat surprised, however, that this label of Neo-Shaman was a criticism; at least that was the intent. It was not the effect, however. I embrace that title or designation as a “new” shaman, a contemporary practitioner discarding the obsolete ways, antiquated precepts, and archaic protocol that no longer applies and is not necessary or practical in application or purpose. It’s kind of ironic that the primitive rituals and ceremonies speak to the younger souls and neophytes before they initiate into the higher understanding.
To paraphrase a Note from the Universe by Mike Dooley, “Young souls look to ritual, ceremony, and teachers. Mature souls look to math, science, and ancient wisdom. Old souls look within.”
I base my beliefs and teachings firmly on ancient knowledge and texts, supported by contemporary sources and science; they are not just limited to the confines of fundamental shamanic methodology. I credit shamanism to be my basis and foundation, but not my end-all-be-all belief system. Shamanism is the planet’s oldest known spiritual practice, tens of thousands of years old; it holds many valid concepts and precepts. However, these concepts must be reevaluated and updated, brought into a modern context to be malleable, extracted, and expanded to their higher potential meanings and interpretations.
In short, shamanism, or any spiritual practice for that matter, must evolve. Evolution and expansion are keys to growth, and that is our purpose here. Our divine tendency is to move and grow, develop on multiple levels, and seek truth and expansion. Thoth and Jesus' teaching instructs us never to stop seeking, for the truth is ever-expanding.
From the “lost” Book of Thomas: “Yaheshua said to them, ‘The seeker should not stop seeking until he finds. When he finds he will become disturbed. After having been disturbed, he will be astonished. Then he will reign over all; and after having reigned, he will rest.’” In the Emerald Tablets, Thoth declares, “Seek thou for wisdom always...Know ye that wisdom is lasting. Only the one that is seeking may ever hope to be free.”
I intend to bring ancient knowledge to the forefront, integrate the various sources of this wisdom into one system, apply it in new expanded ways, and increase the capacity to understand and use these ancient instructions handed down by master teachers and other texts. Shamanism is a “way,” but there are unlimited ways or methods, lifestyles, and practices. There is no one way, despite what an organized dogmatic approach might try to dictate.
I prescribe an eclectic and inclusive approach to shamanism as a spiritual practice derived from various sources. These sources are all in agreement and aligned with one another, including Kabbalah and Essene knowledge, which were the basis of Jesus’ teachings and discourses. I draw from the Bible and the “lost” books such as Thomas; the wisdom of Thoth in the Hermetic Principles and the Emerald Tablets; to the more contemporary The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch (Hurtak, 1977) and The Four Agreements (Ruiz, 1997), as well as Relativistic Theory and Quantum Physics.
Shamans, various practitioners and healers, psychics, mediums, and spiritualists became my teachers and mentors. I discovered an affinity to the Tarot, the Nordic Runes, and the Egyptian Cartouche. I studied World Religions at the University of Central Arkansas Honors College. I learned Native/Lakota ways to become involved with everything from the inipi and pipe ceremony to observing spiritual rites in various churches, temples, and synagogues.
I found and “kept” the commonalities entrenched in each experience that constituted or permeated a significant component in any particular belief system. One might compare this process and result to “core shamanism” of the late Michael Harner (Foundation for Shamanic Studies). However, I did not restrict my explorations to just shamanic systems. I also integrated the “best” elements that I determined by using a rule of three.
If three or more systems or sources expressed the same or similar view, belief, or doctrine, I would presume that it was at least close to the truth I was seeking. My ultimate discernment came from my Guidance and intuition along the way. Spirit gave me the word “simpatico,” a concept that I always use in my teachings and applications of ancient knowledge. All these various sources are simpatico; they are on the same wavelength, they agree, and are compatible with one another despite the appearance of being entirely in opposition to or conflicting. With simpatico established, I realized that the respective teachings and sources could be integrated.
What I teach is what I believe and know to be accurate, and some of what I teach is often mistakenly viewed as “religious” because it is associated with religion. I teach only spiritual concepts, and religion has absorbed or is based on many spiritual ideas but has wrapped them up in their unique trappings. Referring to shamanism being the oldest known spiritual practice, I found beliefs, conceptions, and structures in almost every system, religious and otherwise, that mirrored shamanic tradition in some form, on some level.
Shamanic beliefs permeate many major belief systems. Often, it is not a matter of integrating shamanic concepts at all but simply revealing them. After all, truth is truth regardless of its source. Shamanic practice is a cross-cultural phenomenon adaptable to almost any belief or faith. The other systems, such as Kabbalah, helped me unravel the highly concentrated truth in the basic precepts of traditional Shamanic practice.
I have noticed that this ancient knowledge is much like the ancient languages and the messages we receive from Spirit in the shamanic journey, dreams, readings, insights, etc. We cannot simply take these basic concepts at face value; they are concentrated information. They expand in meaning as our consciousness and spiritual capacity increase. The analogy might be a zip file on a computer that contains compressed files that we extract. A tremendous amount of data is digitalized into this seemingly simple file and unfolds as we begin to explore it. Each file is simpatico, supportive, and relative to the whole, providing a person with an all-inclusive framework of understanding along their path.
Perhaps it is not entirely accurate to say that Shamanism or any other practice must expand, but the practitioner must evolve and develop the capacity to understand the deeper truths and higher teachings existing in these basic precepts. It is not that the ancient concepts are finite in their scope, but that the practitioners are limited in their capacity to comprehend them.
For example, I have discovered that the Labyrinth is a spiritual tool connected to the symbolism of the spiral representing our path. The symbolism represents that we always tend to come full circle to what we thought we understood only to discover and explore deeper truths and higher learning. The ancient labyrinth then becomes the symbol of our path unfolding, spiraling inward for deeper seeking and outward for the expansion of ancient wisdom and our capacity to understand its many layers of meaning.
A big reveal to me was the expanded view of the shamanic practice of soul retrieval and the various causes and versions of soul loss mirrored in science, medicine, and psychology. These are examples of what an open system can provide, especially when introduced to a closed system, metaphorically adding water and nutrients to previously planted seeds. Like our belief systems, a closed system is fragmented, segregated, divided, and integration is the key to healing and reversing all that. We must work to eradicate divisive thinking and programming, to thrive and evolve holistically.
I mentioned our “purpose” here. As spiritual-vibrational beings having a human experience, as Source energy expressing itself in a physical form in this space-time dimension containing denser energy vibrating at the frequency of matter, we are here to learn, grow, and evolve spiritually. That speaks to acquiring spiritual knowledge, gaining the capacity to understand and retain it, and then implementing it. The result is what I call increased spiritual IQ or capacity to learn.
As our soul experiences and learns, our consciousness capacity expands to understand more and higher learning. We can retain this higher education and have even more advanced experiences that offer us the most significant expansion toward our soul's evolution.
We are to find that simpatico, assimilate all this knowledge, and integrate it into our being, building each new experience on the previous ones. It is a divine tendency to evolve and expand, always reaching for more and better, causing effects that launch us forward to more causes and improved outcomes.
We are in spiritual school, just as we were children going into first grade, knowing that we then faced middle school, high school, college, and post-graduate work. None of that resonated with us because our capacity for understanding and learning was limited as we matriculated through our educational process. Our souls are like those children. This physical landscape is our academic center and training ground, and each experience or lesson builds on the other. At some point, we graduate or rise to the next level of learning with new subject matter and courses of study; with each graduation, we may experience what many call a “vibrational shift.”
This process also involves discarding the old and obsolete, making room for the new and better we have coming in. Consciousness can only receive what it can hold or accommodate, so we have to clear space to store, contain, retain, and remember. We release what no longer serves or benefits. Only matching vibrations can share the same space, so we must reach that level of a new vibration to experience it, to share space with it.
We will get into releasing, limiting beliefs, shifts, etc., as these are components of our process, but my point is that we evolve through this process one way or the other, sometimes kicking and screaming. We require new texts, supplies, teachers, advanced techniques and methods, higher learning capacity, and even a location change in school. We must change and adapt to new environments and conditions. A static belief structure or spiritual practice (closed system) does not offer that expansion our souls require. We are seekers of an ever-expanding truth; our journey is always in process. There is never really a destination, only resting points along the way.
Our (belief) system must be open and receptive to other sources and perspectives, even if they serve only as contrasts. By definition, this open system is one of the external interactions (information, energy, or matter transfers) into and out of the system. Organized religion or dogmatic attitudes that restrict or impede our thinking outside the box of an ordained methodology is a closed system, an example of our fragmentation or disintegration that does not allow certain “transfers” in or out of that system. It cannot evolve. Holding to tradition merely for the sake of tradition is just no longer feasible or practical.
Systems must become expansive to offer us the growth our soul requires for its evolution, impacting our subjective 16 | S t e v e W a g n e r reality. Our consciousness contributes to the Collective Consciousness that shapes our world views and global reality. When we hear people speaking about “Heaven on Earth” and “be the change you want to see,” we realize that World change begins with the individual. This consciousness includes relationships, acquired knowledge, increased spiritual IQ capacity, assimilation, and the integration, reversal, or healing of our fragmented selves on multiple levels of being.
It is about realizing each individual’s “authentic self” and personal truth and power and then expanding outward into the world due to personal expansion and growth. The more we approach this state of being, the more the Universe mirrors back to us (aka Law of Attraction), and the more we can then advance and evolve.
I will explain the shamanic style chakra healing and soul retrieval (combined in the Shamanic Consciousness Integration 2020), which are effective methods to heal this fragmentation and work in conjunction with walking the labyrinth, among other ways, treatments, rituals, and rituals, and strategies.
The division between spirituality and science is a significant talking point. At one time, these two doctrines were one of the same disciplines. When we study science, especially natural physics, quantum physics, and relativistic theory, we see that reconciliation is underway. Ancient shamans and mystics observed Nature hoping to gain an understanding of the spiritual-energetic world.
When we study the advanced contemporary sciences, we are doing the same thing, exploring the study of natural physics and the way the Universe behaves. Even astrology can blend into this category. After all, nature in all these forms is simply spirit manifesting in different ways. The underlying behavior can help us understand some more profound concepts, even the Law of Attraction. Ironically, the scientific view can also be our launching board to seeing the true Magic of the Universe. Our science describes the physical observations and aspects that reflect the invisible energetic realms and the magic of the Source.
I hope to blur the lines that have divided us, repurpose ancient wisdom with new understanding, and break tradition but honor the laws. We will learn to delete old patterns and change our paradigms for the sake of integrating new consciousness. My goal is to bridge the gaps but set new boundaries and standards, end the division, and bring unity, simpatico, assimilation, and integration. We can get the world back to the original divine language it once spoke, but it will involve many de-structuring of the old standards and edifices.
In closing, the key to finding the authentic self and true path to spirituality is not to remove oneself from this world but to engage it. We must experience this life to the fullest, enjoy it even when it is not so enjoyable, find the positive in everything, and realize that life is not happening to us but that we are causing life. We must believe in ancient knowledge, modern science, and the magic that both contain.
