Letter to K Po'

My take on the "shamanic" is that it is fundamentally a constructivist ontology.  The status of the "Imaginal", to borrow that very potent term from Henri Corbin when outlining the mysticism of the Sufi Master Ibn' Arabi (archetypes, mythic structures, orders of being, and so forth )-that status of the "Imaginal" for me is dependent on various socio historical forces that shape the horizon of meaning to a particular group of people at a particular point in their evolving journey.

So, for cultural creatives working within this indigenous intelligence paradigm, the art is combining the various transformational technologies available here and now in service of those who show up.  We are meaning making beings. We have been clearing for several hundred years now the legacy of a particular take on things. We have been deconstructing Western Metaphysics for a while now.  We are not done.  Far from it.  For those who are arriving into this momentum  I say beware of becoming "priests".  Shamanism is the antidote to the priest these days.  The old priest orders the cosmos sets up hiearchies, -rigid at times- commands the narrative, you know top down structures that we see from Banking Systems to how men and women show up in relationships.   The more interesting Shamans today (trust me, they have their own shadows and struggle with power and reactivity a lot) are the ones that advocate a model of interdependence, locality, authentic self, collaboration, process, mystery, and heart mana. I am in the latter clan.

We are still dismantling the Western Metaphysical mojo----How to construct, incorporate some of the very effective outcomes of that practice into  new emergent paradigms while facilitating  the departure a particular form of Logos is the task.  

Even cats like DJ go local on you...Your experience with the plant is your experience...different than his, mine, and so forth.  You get "purged"..purified, cleansed,  freed to a state of possibility that is uniquely personal.  I suggest that to remain mindful of these themes is important for contemporary lineages of the shamanic.   When we wed contemporary physics with some of these former mythologies a speculative metaphysics emerges where several things can happen:  It will be an unholy nuptial breeding distractions, egoic fixations, terribly delightful sensations, and an ongoing quest for chasing states (which has its own value and charm) or the wedding can bring realizations of "not-two" and you merge with the Mind of the Supay, which is the state of being of the first shaman that was not the first nor the last.

 Tricky stuff.

 Distinctions need to be generated.

Anyway, may your vision be vast, its effect liberating, and have a rockin' good time breathing into the magical flute of manifestation....

Alberto