Pathways and Portals

Our pathways and portals are aspects of our journeying process.  These can be overlooked places... especially if people are over keen to jump into the other realms.  However, a powerful journey process rests upon these pathways and state changes that occur each time one wants to travel.

One of the skills we emphasise here at Shaman College, is a journey practice that begins with a clear intention while at the same time coming as empty as possible of ego and agenda.

The pathways and portals serve as emptying processes and become energetic requirements... each time serving as a sort of dismemberment/ rememberment process.

Video Transcription: 

With this video, I'd like to talk about our pathways and our portals, and I can't emphasize their importance enough.

You know, when we when we think of journeying and when we practice our journeying, whether it be for our own self healing or if it's because we are going to find out and work with healing energy for clients, a lot of times people think about the journey.  And the journey is when you are in the other realms and you are working with your guides and your teachers and many of the spirits of nature are working with you.

But if we take a few steps back, we look at our pathways to the other realms and we look at the portals. I like to say that you know ... once you're in the other realms, it's like, you're there, and you know, it's it's easy, it's full, it's flowing.

But to get to those places, we take ourselves through a path, a pathway, and the pathway becomes this powerful, sacred step-wise route to the other world. And through each aspect of the pathway, we go through energetic changes and shifts. So even though everybody's excited to get to the other realm, to do the work, to receive the information.

I really know that all that is there. (in the other realms).

I love my pathway. My pathway is my home. My pathway is the familiar series of state changes that happen.  Now, what happens at the portal? a

Again,  many people... "Oh, there's a doorway. Open. Go through. Ah, now I'm in the other realm".

Well, this portal that I'm talking about.  A portal. A portal in which you were here. And now you are there. A portal in which you looked, felt, sensed smell and taste and saw one way and then a realm where everything is different.

So the portal is not just this door that you passed through, but it's an alchemical experience. So the pathway has these state changes that happen as you travel along it. So it's almost like they're a part of the portal. Right?

But the portal is the place where you cannot pass through. You can't do it. So there's a meeting place of "I can't go any further". Everything within your understanding of physics of even quantum physics, everything you understand about reality when you put all of that to your portal. It won't move, so something has to happen there. It's like a very big state change. Usually it goes with surrender. It's kind of like I throw everything at this. It doesn't go anywhere and I give up. I give in and something happens.

What happens between this world and that world? What happens within our energetic sense, our consciousness?  Within the threshold and  within the doorway of the portal?

So you know, we don't have to be so quick to pass through. We can go and hang out there for moments. What happens within your portal? It's like whatever made the forms of reality present get rearranged, get dissolved.

It's the hollowing, at least part of the hollowing of the bone, the hollowing of self, the self that you call yourself in your day to day work, your day to day life. It gets cleared. It gets dropped. It's like you can't take that stuff with you to this place. You can't pass through. This portal dissolves you.

So you see, In this way our journeying really becomes a fine art. A fine skill where we are receiving perceiving and we are dancing. I say dancing, which means playing communicating, interacting. So the journeying becomes this fine skill. And this enriches the experience, the colours, the sounds, the smells, the terrain. This fine skill increases the territory.

I'm hoping that this sharing helps you in your journeying, whether you are new or you've been doing this for a long time or you are anywhere in between. 

Our pathways -  changing our state as we move along them to the place where we are not allowed to pass... hanging out there with the inability to pass in this form until some sort of surrender or change happens in the portal, the alchemical disillusion of what was true.

Or I was just seeing a picture of a sieve like 'what is allowed to come through?' and then a restructuring of who you are and the landing there. So that's all within that portal and then a landing in the other realm.

If you're ever wondering about your strength of your journey practice. if you're ever wondering about the development of your journey, practice. If you're ever wondering when say,  you're working with clients and you're ever wondering about being able to serve best -  go back through those pathways, let them change you.  Go back through your sacred portal, Let it shift you, let it take the time it needs to shift you and land again in your realm and then proceed.

After that, I mean, yes, we are still staying present, obviously, and doing the work that we're doing in the other realms. But after that, it's fairly smooth sailing.

Okay, Thank you.

And a reminder that coming up on May 15th is our foundation course, Shamanism for Self-healing 101 And it's Recovering Myself by Steve Serr. And we mentor you through it. So you're paired with a teacher. They work with you every step of the way. And this course happens three times throughout the year. (So the next one will be September 15th.)

It is our foundation course. And so that means it is the first in-depth course that you can do with us. And it if you want to go further, it is what you do first. Before you go on the shamanic practitioner path. Or if you want to go deeper into the self healing initiations path and things like that.

Okay. Thank you again. And many blessings to you