Animism understands the animals and plants we eat as conscious beings, part of the PeoplesThe Peoples. The Animal People, Plant People, Standing People (the Trees) and Stone People: our elder kin, of whom the Human People are the youngest and least wise. A family, not a hierarchy. Read the full answer, whom indigenous peoples honoured, respected and gave thanks to. Therapeutic Shamanism distinguishes a Lower-WorldLower-World. The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not having reached it. Read the full answer hunting journey from decisions about physical food: experiencing a hunt in a journey does not mean having to eat meat in everyday life.
How does animism understand the beings we eat? #
Indigenous peoples saw plants as conscious beings with their own kind of intelligence, and with great teaching and healing gifts. Hunter-gatherers did not regard plants as things without awareness, or as inferior to animals. Plants were different from animals, but were conscious beings and part of the Peoples. They were honoured and respected, and thanked whilst being gathered.
This is a relationship with the being providing the food: gratitude to an animal hunted and killed, and the use and honouring of all its parts. Hunting and gathering supplied much more than meals: food and all the other things necessary for life.
Original animists took animals’ lives only because they had to, in order to eat. Killing an animal was a momentous thing, done with a great deal of ceremony and ritual and only out of necessity. Killing animals as a sacrifice to the spirits came later, as people fell away from animism, because it is a hierarchical relationship with the Animal People. See What were sacrifice and offering in traditional shamanism?
The chapter places this in the experience of shapeshifting. It describes knowing another being not just intellectually, but somatically and viscerally, from the inside out. Its question about being Human asks what lies beyond knowing oneself only as a domesticated 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 being. It also describes the other parts of hunter-gatherer life: sleeping, singing, dancing, storytelling, joking, laughing and playing with children. These activities are to some extent familiar in modern life; hunting and gathering are the much less familiar part.1
Does a hunting journey decide what someone should eat? #
No. These are separate questions. There is an “interesting and indeed important conversation” about the ethics of what people choose to eat in their physical lives, but Rewilding Yourself leaves that conversation aside, because it is about working in the Lower-World.
“Doing a Lower-World hunt is not about the ethics of what you choose to do in your middle-world, physical life here.” Its purpose is to experience being outside the familiar, modern, domesticated self: being Human, wild and at home on the Earth, rather than only knowing how to live as a domesticated human.
The distinction holds for vegetarians, vegans and meat-eaters alike. Some meat-eaters may also feel uneasy about the practice, because most modern meat-eaters have never killed and butchered an animal themselves. And it is said without judgement: Paul Francis is himself, when in this middle-world, a squeamish vegetarian.2
Why can choices differ between the realms? #
ShapeshiftingShapeshifting. Becoming another being within a journey, fully enough to know it from the inside: one of the two routes to grokking, a transformation practice, and a direct experience of interconnection. Read the full answer shows why. Experiencing being Lion in a journey does not mean having to eat raw zebras afterwards. Experiencing being Cat does not mean having to capture and torture mice, and experiencing being Hedgehog does not require a physical diet of slugs.
“What you experience in the Lower-World does not mean that you must do the same thing in the middle-world.” Different choices are appropriate because the realms are different places, with different sensibilities, considerations and consequences. The distinction applies to a hunter-gatherer Human journey as much as to a journey as another animal.
In that practice, bringing modern dietary choices into the experience can prevent the journeyer from experiencing being the hunter-gatherer Human. It is a question of hollowing-out. The practice explores being other than the familiar self, including aspects of that being which the familiar self would prefer to sanitise.3
What does killing mean in a Lower-World journey? #
Therapeutic Shamanism distinguishes the experience from physical killing. Being eaten by 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, being buried or burnt alive can feel sacred and healing in a journey, although these would obviously not feel acceptable in physical reality. The same is true of the Lower-World hunt.
“The hunt is, of course, always done with utmost respect and deep gratitude to the animal being hunted and killed.” All its parts are used and honoured. In the Lower-World, the animal encountered is not a middle-world individual, and it will often spring back to life and stand beside its dead body. There is no real death in the Lower-World.
Its published purpose is to deepen connection with Human and the journeyer’s own authentic Soul, and the kill is described as very different from buying some meat from the supermarket.4
Why does gathering matter as well as hunting? #
The chapter gives gathering substantial attention. It describes the much wider variety of foods eaten by many hunter-gatherers, with an explicit exception for places such as the Arctic Circle. Foods varied with geographical area and season. They included leaves, shoots, seeds, berries, nuts and other plant foods, as well as seaweeds, fungi, eggs, shellfish and insects.
Gathering also supplied medicines and materials. Some food was eaten whilst walking, some was brought back and cooked, and some was preserved. The chapter’s account is of the varied lives of pre-domesticated hunter-gatherers, rather than a single menu for every culture or environment.
The published journey explores the food becoming part of the journeyer’s body and energy, with gratitude for what sustains life. It also includes recognising that one’s own body will one day provide food for others. Repeating hunting and gathering journeys in different seasons is described as helping deepen connection with Human, with the other-than-human Peoples and with the cycles of life.5
What responsibility follows from receiving the Peoples’ help? #
Reciprocity is not optional. “We simply cannot ask an OversoulOversoul. A branch of Mother Earth representing the whole of a species: the single being all the individuals arise from. Lower-World work is always with the Oversoul, never an individual; environments are composite Oversouls, wheels within wheels. More about this like Panther or Wolf to teach us and heal us, and then ignore the plight of physical panthers and wolves in the middle-world.” Activism, right living and right action are central to Therapeutic Shamanism.
Shamanism is described as taking one’s place in the world and being of service to it. The traditional shaman’s role included being the champion and voice of the other Peoples, and helping humans live in right relationship with them. See How does working with the Peoples change how we live?6
