In practice, right relationship means relating to every being, our GuidesGuides. The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman’s power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. More about this, the other Peoples and other humans, without power-over: neither dominating them nor handing our power to them. In a journey we are the apprentice and our Guides lead; with the other Peoples we give real help in return for what we receive; and with other people we seek their consent and help them find their own power rather than telling them what to do.
What do right relationship and reciprocity mean in practice? #
Living by them in every relationship we have. The ideas themselves are explained in What is right relationship and reciprocity? In practice they show up in three places: in how we relate to our Guides, in how we treat the other Peoples, and in how we work with other humans. Our Guides in the 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 can help with all of this. They can help us “heal our broken connection with 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, and show us how to live in right relationship with her and with our other brother and sisters”.1
Why is right relationship central to shamanism? #
Because looking after it was part of the shaman’s role: “part of the role of the shaman was to be the champion and voice of the other Peoples, and to make sure that the humans lived in right relationship with them. So, activism, right living, and right action, are all at the very heart of Therapeutic Shamanism.”2 It is also what shamanism offers us now: “We have to let it show us how to live in right relationship again, with each other, with other beings, and with Spirit. Our survival depends on this. It always has.”3
How does right relationship show up in a journey? #
In who leads. Our Guides lead, and we follow, watch and learn. “You are the apprentice and your 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 is your principal teacher. Your job is simply to ask for the healing, and then to watch, remember, do as instructed, and learn.”4 A practitioner who gets into the habit of leading the journeys themselves will find their work “severely limited”. See What is the role of Power Animal in shamanic journeying?
Do we bring our human relationship habits with us? #
Yes, and they shape how we relate to our Guides: “the way we relate to humans in our everyday life can affect how we relate to our shamanic Guides.” Someone who likes to be in control may find it hard to let the Guides lead; someone who finds it hard to ask for help may struggle to ask for healing. And for “someone who tends to take more than they give back”, that “will be a problem too because you do need to give back to your Guides”.5 Becoming aware of these patterns is part of learning to hollow out. See What is hollowing-out?
What if a Human Guide feels like an authority figure? #
Then it helps to look closely at what is going on. The books do not answer this directly, but three things are clear. First, the relationship with our Guides is between teacher and student, not parent and child: “our Guides can teach and advise us. But if we choose to ignore their teaching and advice, well then, that is up to us. We are not children, and we are free to make our own decisions and choices.” They do not command: “They cannot, and will not, make us do what they say.”6 Second, healthy power is power-from-withinPower-from-within. Starhawk’s term for the healthy mode of power, as against power-over. Egalitarian hunter-gatherer bands held power this way; practising shamanism from power-over is ‘just more Fall’. More about this, a term from the writer Starhawk: someone who has it has “no wish to have power over others, nor are they willing to hand their power to others.”7 Third, our own relationship patterns come with us into our journeys, so a Guide who feels like a boss or a parent may be showing us something of our own history. See What are Human Guides? and How do I distinguish guidance from projection and middle-world bleed-through?
How does right relationship shape healing work for others? #
It begins with consent and continues with empowerment. No one should be worked on without their express consent: see What does consent mean in shamanic work? Once they have agreed, the person stays in charge: it is the client’s session, it is up to them to decide what is worked on, and it is not for the practitioner to impose their agenda onto the client.8 What we tell them afterwards matters too: “anything you say must be both true and healing if you are to say it. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.”9 See How does animism understand power and hierarchy?
How does it show up with the other Peoples? #
As practical help in return for what we receive. We cannot ask Panther or Wolf to heal us and then ignore the physical panthers and wolves: “That would make no kind of sense, morally, or ethically, and would just be plain wrong.”10 Giving back to our Power Animal and Guides, and gratitude, belong to the same relationship. See What is right relationship and reciprocity? and How do humans communicate and build relationships with the other-than-human Peoples?
How does it affect teaching and learning? #
A good teacher gives authority back. In the story of the owl and the sparrow, “A truly wise owl is one who sits and listens to the sparrow, and helps the sparrow to find its own inner voice and authority, and make its own decisions.”11 Paul Francis does not interpret journeys for people; he helps them unpack them for themselves. See How do I unpack and interpret a shamanic journey?
