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Is “high initiate” another way of saying “hollow bone?” I mean, doing “lots and lot of Shadow work” implies, to me, someone who has cleared the way for the Spirits to come through without a filter gunked-up by crap that’s going to lead to projection, misinterpretation, etc. And THIS is the stuff that leads to sorcery- no matter how unintentional that might be, and no matter how benevolent the intention is. Many so-called ‘spirit workers’ and shamanic individuals have good intentions of healing and helping, but because they haven’t done their own inner work to clear their vessel, what comes through is heavily tainted and then ends up as a projection rather than the clean communication from the Spirit world.
So I understand what Andrew is saying, and I tend to agree. But I also agree largely with Patrick’s implication about our high standards for Western shamans. We expect a level of attainment, of spiritual and emotional development that people in indigenous cultures do not expect from their shamans. Some indigenous shamans are petty, are prone to jealousies and all sorts of Ego defenses, don’t behave in ethical ways, and yet people still look to them as “shamans.” Because in indigenous/shamanic cultures, the shaman is the shaman. The qualifiers don’t have anything to do with personal psychological maturity or emotional intelligence.
So I see that too- that our standards in contemporary culture are very high and more exclusionary than inclusive.
