Recapitulation is the process of letting go of the past and gathering back the energy we have left in past events and interactions. Shamans say “the past has to die”. In Therapeutic Shamanism, the recapitulation techniques are a whole family of practices, from disentanglementDisentanglement. The ceremonial practice that unbinds unhealthy energetic ties to a person, role, object or story: a fourfold exchange in which each party gives back and takes back what they hold of the other. Not ‘cord-cutting’: done well it usually deepens the relationship, because what is unbound is the unhealthy aspect, not the love. More about this to soul retrievalSoul retrieval. Finding an exiled soul-part and inviting it home. In the modern psyche the fort-holder who sent it away must consent first, and the retrieval itself is a beginning: the real work is integration. Read the full answer, that help us resolve the past so we can journey more deeply and choose our future more consciously.
What is recapitulation, and what does “the past has to die” mean? #
It is the process of letting go of the past and of gathering back energy that has been left in past events and interactions, and the reclaiming of one’s wholeness and personal power.1
The saying comes through hollowing outHollowing-out. The core, lifelong discipline of setting aside the middle-world self, its stories, agendas and preconceptions, so the Guides can work through us. The image: the shaman as hollow bone. Read the full answer. The more a practitioner can let go of their middle-world identity, the less they get in the way of their Guides. “This is what shamans mean when they say that to become a shaman ‘the past has to die’, or that we have to ‘die to the past’. The stories have to go.” Or at least, we need to be able to step away from them when journeying.2
In terms of attachment, “part of the process of becoming a shaman is to free oneself from unhealthy attachments to the past.” That allows us “to consciously choose what we entangle into, and to have as few entanglementsEntanglement. An unhealthy energetic tie hooking us into another person, a role, an object or a family story; released by disentanglement. More about this as possible and to hold all of them lightly”.3
The past cannot be changed. Instead, the focus needs to be on reshaping the stories and messages we took from past events, so that we resolve past trauma and free ourselves for more conscious decision-making in the future. Shamanically, we can do even more than that.
See What is hollowing out? and Can we change the past?
Why do we keep recreating the past? #
Many shamanic traditions see the past as a tendril or a tentacle, moving in a spiral motion, entering our lower back from behind, just opposite the belly button. It extends slightly out of the belly button, tasting all future possibilities. Because it is a creature of habit, it finds one it is familiar with from past experience, hooks onto it and drags us forward into that. Until we get to grips with this tentacle, that is why we keep recreating the past.
The recapitulation techniques, it continues, “help us resolve the past, gather ourselves back from it, so we can then choose the future more consciously.”
See What are ancestral burdens, and how are they passed down?
What are the recapitulation techniques? #
“Central to shamanism are techniques and practices to help with this process of dying to the past. These are known as the recapitulation techniques. They are many and varied.”4 They include soul retrieval, fort-holder care, transformation practicesTransformation practices. The family of journey-practices in which the self is deliberately taken apart, reduced to something formless, and reformed: burials, burnings, dismemberments, sky burials, dissolvings, cocoonings, poisonings, shapeshifting. A mini death-and-rebirth: cleansing, loosening of identity, and preparation for the greatest transformation of all. Read the full answer, going to conversion points, shapeshifting, disentanglements, extraction and depossessionDe-possession. The healing for a full entity takeover: persuading or compelling the possessing entity out, then disposing of it, and always addressing the underlying soul-loss and Power-loss that let it in. More about this, hollowing-out practices, cultivating the Aware SelfAware Self. The Witness: not a part of the self but a capacity for awareness, cultivated by hollowing-out, that can watch the flow of thoughts without being caught in them. More about this, certain breathing techniques, severing the spiral tendril, and singing our parts back home.
“Doing disentanglements regularly is also part of what are known in shamanism as the ‘recapitulation techniques'”. An entanglement is in effect “a mutual soul-loss”, each person carrying part of the other around with them, which is why disentangling gathers those parts back. See What is disentanglement?5
Is recapitulation a quick fix? #
The recapitulation techniques “are not magical cures. Rather, like developing a meditation practice, they take work, repetition and dedication.” But it is worth it: “The more that you do them though, the more your shamanic journeys and understanding opens up and develops, because you can go deeper and your guides can teach you more.”6
How does it relate to preparing for death? #
When one shaman was asked what the point of practising shamanism is, the answer was that it is “to prepare for death”. Preparing for death is not the only good reason to practise, but it is certainly a good one. Gandhi is an example: he was prepared to let his middle-world selfMiddle-world self. The everyday self (ego, persona, head-and-heart), made of our stories and experiences. A genuine and needed part of the Inner Tribe: of service, not in command. Read the full answer go at the moment of death because he had spent much of his life loosening his attachment to his middle-world form.7
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s advice for life was “Lighten your load”, and disentanglement does just that: “Doing the disentanglement practices does indeed lighten your load, and it feels great.”8
See How does Therapeutic Shamanism understand death, and what happens when we die?
