Shamanism, Shamanic Astrology and Death By Intention

Shamanism covers a lot of territory. I've been doing dreamwork for over 20 years. Mostly for myself. Sometimes participating in group dream projects, one-time facilitator of an on-line dream discussion group, and general pundit of what's out there in terms of what's already been written about dreaming. For me, dreamwork is a part of shamanism. Almost all native cultures (aboriginal and Native American dreamtime studies) provided time and energy to examine, talk about and create stories about what happens when our conscious selves are not in the way.

One the more popular niche astrology studies is Shamanic Astrology. Daniel Giamario is coming to Atlanta in a couple of weeks to do a class. He has co-authored a book, The Shamanic Astrology Handbook with Carolyn Brant, and other pamphlets, articles, and discourses. The Shamanic Astrology website is interesting, but not as interesting as working with Daniel! Daniel knows how to run energy. He knows what women (and men) want. There are several basic premises of Shamanic Astrology:

1. Sun position isn't as important as moon, ascendant, mars, Venus, mercury, nodes, etc.
2. Everyone comes in with a "script".
3. The script changes as we get older and accept the challenge of working on our "new script".

The foundation of the work is based on Hermes "As Above, So Below, As Without, So Within". As you may or may not know, Hermes and his Emerald Tablets were studies of alchemy, transcendent in nature, and in some circles finding renewed interest.

Back to Shamanic Astrology. I received a phone call Saturday night after the sweat lodge asking if I'd be interested in hosting Daniel's classes at my home over Labor Day weekend. Of course, I'm interested! Daniel carries a lot of weight in his circle. Lots of priestesses and goddesses ask for his time and expertise on a regular basis. I don't know if it will come to pass...One of my good friends, Joanna, has a space they are looking at too.

I took Shamanic astrology 2 years ago with Daniel...while I was consorting with one of his friends, whom he was staying with. We spent the better part of a long weekend together. I learned a lot, and I also felt a huge amount of energy being created. Daniel's way of telling someone's story, or "script" involves associating a person's planets with Gods and/or Goddesses. He teaches from an archetypal realm. It's very interesting, and somewhat easy to get one's energy caught up in that realm. Many cultures have worshipped Gods and Goddesses throughout the ages. The amount of energy that has been built up never disappeared. However, religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam all turned away from multiplicity in regards to worshipping individual Gods & Goddesses. Hinduism has continued (I recently visited some Tantric Temples in Atlanta...They are worshipping here!). Tapping into that archetypal, God/Goddess realm can change perception.

One of the things that shamanism teaches, and Daniel uses in astrological stories, is "Intentional Death". There is a continuous death and rebirth motif in shamanism in general, and can be seen in the natural cycles of nature, humans, and the heavens (planets). In mythology, death and dying was an adventure. Gods and Goddesses oversaw and helped with this process. The Plutonic initiations using the Goddess Inanna and her decent into the underworld (and Persephone) show how decent, death and then the subsequent transformation transpires. When someone says, "It's a good day to die", they may be in a Pluto cycle! If i am in "overload" and can't really wrap my mind around something after i've been stewing with it for awhile, i'll do an "intentional death". i'll actually think about the process, envision a creative death, and then release and transform. Sometimes it takes more than one pass at this and sometimes it takes sacred ceremony in order to release enough to see a different perspective. Once i can envision different outcomes or different lines of possibilities, i know I've gotten somewhere with it.