Silence, words and names all matter in shamanic work, because the words we use shape what we experience. Much of the deepest shamanic experience lies beyond words, so silence is often where it happens; words belong mostly to the human middle-world and are kept for describing a journey afterwards; and how a being is named, Panther with a capital P rather than ‘my panther’, decides what kind of being we are relating to.
What part does silence play in shamanism generally? #
A large one, in many traditions. The shamanic teacher and writer Christina Pratt describes silence as both a way of protecting the sacred and a way of holding it whilst a sacred experience is integrated, since some experiences “defy description through words”. In her account silence is often needed before the sacred can be met at all, which is part of the reason for the traditional vision quest of three or four days in silence. She also lists it as one of four universal healing salves, with storytelling, singing and dance, and reads discomfort with silence as a sign of soul loss.1
Accounts of hunter-gatherers very often describe them as quiet people, cultures that would have been far gentler on introverts than our own, though the anthropological evidence is scanty (see Is shamanic work suited to introverts?). Some of that quiet was practical. Tracking an animal could go on for hours or even days, and it was usually done in silence so as not to scare the prey away, with the hunters talking mostly by sign language or by mimicking animal calls.2 The other-than-human Peoples teach it too, and among the teachings animists find in the world around them are “the stillness, silence and patience of stone”.3 And in most cultures, part of a shaman’s training meant doing things the opposite way to everyone else, to shake the trainee out of social norms: standing whilst everyone sat, shouting when everyone was quiet, or being silent when everyone else was being noisy.4
Why are deep journeys so quiet? #
Because language is largely a middle-world thing. It is mostly left-brained, a way of labelling and dividing up the world, whereas the Lower-World is largely beyond it, closer to poetry, painting or music. Journeys full of talk, advice and middle-world ideas tend to have a middle-world flavour.5 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 seldom speak in words, and words tend to pull us back into the left brain; they are needed afterwards, to describe what happened, and that description should simply be accurate.6 None of this is an absolute ban on every word, and journeys are full of imagery and meaning. The full teaching is in Why are there no words or symbols in the Lower-World?
Why do the words we use matter so much? #
Because words shape experience. Shamans are very clear that words have power, in that they shape how we experience reality, and can to some extent shape reality itself.7 This is why the capital letters in Therapeutic Shamanism are not decoration. Lower case marks something of the middle-world; a capital marks something of the Lower-World or 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. ‘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 written with capitals as a reminder that it means the wise, collective Oversoul, not an individual animal.
Names work the same way at a personal level. A personal name is a collection of letters when written and a sound when spoken. It carries no objective meaning beyond the stories that we and others attach to it, and much of who we think we are is made of such stories: personal, family and social. Together they make up the 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, the ego.8 Seeing names and labels as stories, and not as who we are, is part of what makes it possible to set the middle-world self aside before a journey. See What are hollowing-out and stalking our stories?
Why is a Power Animal called Panther, not ‘my panther’? #
Because the name decides what we are relating to. Thinking of a Power Animal as an individual panther, giving it a gender, a personal name and a personality, makes it an individual middle-world being, with all the limits of awareness and ability that brings. Thinking of it as Panther, all panthers, the 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 from which every individual panther springs, is relating to an infinitely wiser and more powerful being. So it is good practice to say simply Panther, Horse or Wolf, with a capital letter and no ‘my’, ‘a’ or ‘the’ in front, and to think of it as both male and female, both old and young.9 The middle-world is the realm of individuality and separation; the Lower-World is the realm of unity. See What is a Power Animal?
There is a wider point here about the loss of shamanic language. Because the West killed its shamans, it lost its precise shamanic terminology, so words have had to be borrowed from other cultures, the word ‘shaman’ itself among them.10 ‘Power Animal’ is now used very loosely, to cover many different relationships with animals that indigenous tribes had separate and specific words for, which is why Therapeutic Shamanism defines it so precisely.9
Why do Human Guides have names, then? #
Because humans are hard-wired to relate to individuals. Most people find it easy to relate to Wolf or Lion as the whole species, but almost impossible to picture a generic human, let alone bond with one. So a person’s main Human Lower-World GuidesHuman Lower-World Guide. A face put on the human Oversoul: the Ancestors met through an individual form, genuinely other than us, chosen from pre-Fall hunter-gatherer humanity. Related to as a teacher, never a master. Read the full answer are experienced as individuals, with names, faces, personalities and ways of dressing, unlike the Power Animal, which has no name.11 They are still far greater than individuals. Each is like a thick branch of a great tree, not a single twig tip. In other words, a branch of the Human Oversoul, with a human face we can relate to. See What are Human Guides?
The same holds for our own Lower-World Soul, the Adult we would ideally have grown up to be in a healthy hunter-gatherer tribe. Finding Your Deep Soul has an exercise for meeting them, and getting to know them includes learning their name, our own Lower-World name.12
Is silence used in ceremony and practice? #
Yes. 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, the practice of ending an unhealthy entanglementEntanglement. An unhealthy energetic tie hooking us into another person, a role, an object or a family story; released by disentanglement. More about this with someone, is done as a ceremony in the Lower-World, presided over by Lower-World Humans, and apart from a few short ceremonial sentences it is done in absolute silence. This matters because any other words would bring middle-world content into it and simply continue the stories and drama of the entanglement. So there are no accusations and no reminders of what happened, not even ‘I’m sorry’.13 See What is disentanglement?
Gratitude can be silent too. Thanks to a Power Animal or other Guides can be spoken out loud or silently,14 and after expressing gratitude to the Power Animal it can help simply to sit in silence in each other’s presence for a while, expecting nothing back.15 See Why is gratitude an animist practice?
