Because a healthy practice grows like a plant: roots first, then reaching up, and only then branching out. The Lower-World is completely safe, it is where Power-lossPower-loss. Disconnection from nature, the web of life and our place in it: like being unplugged from the national grid. One of the two root causes of shamanic illness, healed by reconnection (not by soul retrieval), beginning with the Power Animal bond. Read the full answer begins to heal through the bond with a Power AnimalPower Animal. The Oversoul of a wild species, met as a single Lower-World being and bonded with in a deep, committed, usually lifelong soul-bond of unconditional love. The practitioner’s first and foremost Guide: Panther, not “my panther”. Read the full answer, and it is where people learn to tell the realms apart. The Upper-WorldUpper-World. The realm of Father Sky and of Spirit: spacious, rarefied and clear, layered in tiers, offering not escape but perspective. Not better than the Lower-World: we ascend rooted, and bring the gifts back down. Read the full answer comes next and the middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer, a much trickier place to journey in, comes last, not because the Lower-World is worth more: the two spiritual realms are equal.
Why start with the Lower-World? #
Because roots come first, as they do for a plant: “The first thing a plant seed does is reach down to Mother EarthMother Earth. The sacred Feminine pole: pure potential, from whom all the Peoples arise. The Lower-World is her realm, and she is all the realms: “The Earth is indeed our Mother.” More about this by growing roots”, and only then reaches up to the sky and out to the sides. “If a plant tries to grow upwards too quickly, without having established its roots, it will be top-heavy and unbalanced.” So “The first thing we need to do in learning shamanism is to establish a deep, strong and rooted connection with the Lower-World and Mother Earth, to keep our practice safe and grounded.”1
In one line: “Roots come first, and the rest of the plant must grow in proportion to the roots.”2 The order of learning follows from this: “we start by establishing a strong Lower-World connection first, then a strong Upper-World connection, and only then do we embark on middle-world journeying.”3
Why is the Lower-World the safest place to begin? #
Because nothing bad happens there. “The Lower-World is a place of love, wisdom and healing. It is as far removed from hell as it is possible to be.”4 The middle-world is a different matter: “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world. Or, at least parts of the middle-world are indeed hell.” Both spiritual realms are places of love and healing, and “Nothing ‘bad’ happens in those realms.”5 Beginning in the Lower-World means beginning “in a place of healing and safety”, working with wise and transcendent beings.6
What does beginning in the Lower-World heal? #
Power-loss, our disconnection from nature. “Power loss is caused by disconnecting from the natural world; by cutting oneself off from Mother Earth”, and “Your Power Animal is your primary and most powerful means of connecting back to that web.”7 In healing Power-loss, “First and foremost in this is doing a Power Animal retrieval, as they are your most important connection to the more-than-human.”8 So the Lower-World is where reconnection starts. See How does Power Animal heal and support us?
Why does it matter which realm I am in? #
Because each realm is different, and confusing them causes harm. “Each realm has distinct qualities, and different ‘inhabitants’. Each realm needs a different set of skills from the journeyer”, and “In order to journey well it is vitally important to know what realm you are in at any given time, and to be able to move between them at will.”9 Paul Francis has seen students who were taught unclearly go straight into middle-world journeys and be frightened by them, and notes that “the people doing the teaching in these situations were often themselves unclear about the different realms.”10
Lots of Lower-World journeying is how that clarity grows. “If you do that, you will gradually develop a strong feel for the ‘flavour’ of the different realms.”11
Is the Upper-World higher than the Lower-World? #
No. The Upper-World is the realm of Spirit and the Lower-World the realm of Soul, “But to say that one is better than the other is as nonsensical as saying that yang is better than yin”.12 The idea that up is good and down is bad is, from a shamanic point of view, “sheer and utter nonsense.”13 Neither realm outranks the other. Starting with the roots is about balance, not rank: “shamanism shows us that we need to rise, but rise rooted.”14
Much modern spirituality has it the other way round. “Much of modern spirituality can be top-heavy, with an overdeveloped connection to the Upper-World, not balanced by strong and groundingGrounding. Returning fully into the body and physical reality; the bedrock of safe practice, and how every journey ends. More about this roots.”15 A common trap is to treat the Lower-World as “some kind of annoying inconvenience” on the way to what is taken to be the real point, the Upper-World and Spirit. That is like saying a tree’s branches matter more than its roots, when a tree can only reach as far up as its roots go down, or that the high notes on a piano are better and more evolved than the low ones. For Paul, the trees, the Standing PeopleStanding People. The Trees. More about this, have been the greatest spiritual teachers, teaching him more about healthy spirituality than any human. See What is the Upper-World?
Why should beginners be careful with middle-world work? #
Because it is tricky, and needs a firm base. “The middle-world is notoriously tricky and often a confusing and deceptive place to journey in. Being firmly allied with, and anchored to, both the Upper and Lower Worlds is essential for giving us the perspective to see with clarity what is really going on in the middle-world, without distortion.”16 Skilful middle-world work needs roots in both the Lower- and Upper-Worlds first: “Just as big trees, strong trees, take time to grow, it takes time to grow a strong and healthy shamanic practice.”17 See What is the middle-world?
What is the safest way to learn the realms? #
Slowly, in order, and grounded. Start with lots of Lower-World journeying with your Power Animal, “and most importantly, be ever vigilant about middle-world stuff bleeding in.”18 Being able to return to ordinary reality at will is essential, and anyone prone to things that make it hard to keep a grip on everyday reality should journey only with an experienced practitioner rather than alone.19 See Is shamanic journeying safe?
