Aquarian Shaman

      

By Linda Star Wolf, PhD. D.Min.

11 Outer Teachings Become Inner Tools The Importance of Imagination Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.                                                                                                                                              Albert Einstein If we cannot imagine it, we cannot manifest it. Without the ability to imagine and consciously create our future selves now, we only have the past as a reference point for creating our current moment. The past is largely composed of experiences, both positive and negative, locked in a feedback loop of lineage and ancestral messaging. Placing our focus on the past keeps us stuck in outworn habits and patterns, and without using imagination to envision ourselves as individuated and unique people who each have our own expression to bring forward, we will only ever be what our history told us we needed to be to survive, rather than who we’re truly here to be.      Evolution will eventually bring another form of ourselves to the future regardless, without our even knowing it, but if we can flip the switch and align with our imagination, and therefore our higher consciousness, we will have a more aware, empowered, and accelerated experience of bringing our future selves to the present. Evolution takes millions of years, but we cannot wait for evolution; the survival of our planet and our species depends upon humanity bringing a more conscientious version of itself to the present time, and that begins with each of us doing our part to accelerate that mass shift.      Making these conscious, proactive, and inclusive human and planetary changes now will serve us well. With our collective imagination, we can envision the brave new world and also see our part in creating that world. Spiritual involution—the way we imagine and then change by bringing our future, wiser selves through our current human form—is as important as evolution, the process by which outer reality and landscapes change. To be in-spirited by a vision of our collective experience speeds up our evolution. Involution is to be in-volved (engaged in your inner life), in-lightened (illuminated from within), in-livened (carrying life and vitality into our human form), and in-spired (bringing the breath of God and spirit into form). Each of these play-on-words elucidate that when consciousness shifts, time and space drop away, and change can be immediately in-bodied (embodied). We need immediate intimacy, or in-to-me-see, so that there is clarity and transparency in our illumination and we can create instant karma; that is, alter a karmic relationship in a moment. Because in the shamanic world there is the possibility of space-time hopping, a portal can be created through shape-shifting our conscious awareness that allows us to see the whole story played out from beginning to end. I call this seeing the “bigger picture” instead of only a small fragment of reality. The instant we see the big story versus our ego’s limited story and perspective, our reality is automatically changed within our own psyche. Once this occurs everything about the situation energetically begins to change. As we transform our consciousness, bringing in this future self and future world through the imagination first, we create a quickening within our being, as with imminent birth when a woman’s body knows that the ring of fire is open and birth is happening whether she is ready or not. By definition, it is the right, or ripe, time for birth because the opening exists and nothing can stop it from happening. When we view the world from a place of love and trust, everything becomes possible—and it becomes possible right now. We personify that love, thus granting the spirit the power to accelerate consciousness and action, first in the inner world and then in the outer world. By creating opportunity for the in-sights (inner sight) needed to bring forth the in-formation (insight brought into form) for transformation, the outer world can change in-stantly.     In life we all face significant outer-world experiences, such as the death of a loved one or loss of a job, or collective experiences like natural disasters, global warming, pandemics, and the varied reactions to all of these that cause devastation to our outer world. These experiences create a radical shift and change within, because they alter our state of consciousness. They shock and dissociate us from normal reality so something else can break through. But this type of change still comes from a place of woe. When we consciously choose to undergo a radical shift in our perspective by engaging in purposeful altered states of consciousness, as we do with shamanic initiations, we are able to use imagination to awaken our inner selves, doing so from a place of wisdom instead of woe. Either way, it is time to wake up!     One of my dearest and earliest brilliant mystical transpersonal teachers, Jacquelyn Small—founder of the Eupsychia Institute, which focused on Integrative Breathwork—frequently used to say, “True mystery teachings can’t be taught, but they can be caught.” To “catch” them, however, we must be willing to forget everything we think we know and open ourselves to the Great Mystery. Jacquelyn believed deeply that everyone had an inner healer, no matter how lost or confused their human self had become, and that each of us just needed to find a way to wake up and remember our true self. Upon the awakening of this internal sleeping giant, all wisdom is available to all of us, not just to an elite individual or special group. It was through Jacquelyn’s profound mystery school teachings, which included learning how to journey inward with special breathing methods, symbolism, and group sharing that I was deeply touched in those early years of my searching. My faith in myself grew roots, and I discovered deep wisdom that had been buried beneath society’s repressive rules and expectations.     The inner tools of shamanism provide a map for seeking and living from a place of shamanic consciousness. To begin our discussion of these methods, I will first explore the process of learning to shape-shift into and through the energetic fields of past, present, and future. To awaken the Aquarian Shaman within is to take the journey back in time to untangle energetic patterns that affect our current reality, then reclaim aspects of ourselves that were lost in childhood or even in a past life, and in so doing, recognize our own power and energize ourselves to live our current lives from a place of wholeness. When we have accessed and brought healing to pieces of the past, we begin living more fully in the present moment, and in alignment with our core values and authentic natures. From this place of alignment and personal freedom and responsibility, we can then shape-shift into our future selves and download those future selves into present time. In this way, learning to walk the spiral path of transformation becomes an accelerated process for consciously and wisely embodying the change we wish to see in the world, and more readily showing up for our deeper purpose. If every person on the planet underwent this accelerated process and lived every day from this state of awakened perspective, rather than living through shadow projections and personal wounding, the world would become that change we wish to see. However, we cannot ask the world to magically change; the deep inner work of soulful transformation must start from within human beings, one moment at a time, and radiate outward to heal and bless all our relations.     As I began to remember my true self in my late twenties and early thirties, my life force energy woke up and became unstoppable. Prior to this awakening, I had fallen into addictions and self-defeating unconscious behaviors that created major roadblocks, keeping me stuck in low self-esteem and soul loss. I knew that something was wrong and that I felt stuck, but I was living in a dazed state, unable to access my human will to make lasting changes to old toxic patterns.     One evening I literally cried out loud for help to the universe, pleading for whatever was out there and loved me to take my life and will into its care and to show me what to do. Shortly after this, my whole world began to shift and the road before me opened. I still had to put forth the effort to take each step on that road, but I was aware that some unseen, benevolent force was traveling close by my side. I was no longer muddling through on my own, with my ego demanding that life be on its terms; instead I had entered into uncharted territory, and even though it was scary, it somehow seemed familiar, as if I had come home to a place I knew long ago. I have since had the joy and privilege of sharing this journey of discovery with countless others. It is my sincere hope and prayer that the tools and techniques offered here will help ignite the fires of your own inner shaman. May your soul’s longing open the door to a heartfelt passion for life and freedom, as mine once did.     I remember, early on my path, listening over and over to a song called “Return Again,” which spoke to how I felt inside. Below are some of the lyrics to that song. To “return” is something we do over and over as an awakened shaman, and one can feel the spiral path emerge in these simple song lyrics. I invite you to see if they awaken something in you too:   Return again . . . Return to the land of your soul . . . Return to where you are Born and reborn again . . .     On the spiral path of transformation, we encounter fairly predictable cycles of change as we journey to return to ourselves. The SHIP method, which I created to support this transformation, invites us to consciously engage each life phase of dissolution and reconstruction. Once we understand how each of the cycles of change—water, earth, fire, spirit, and air—are associated with characteristic experiences and feelings, we can learn to quickly identify what cycle we are in. Having done so, we’ll know what kind of support we need and how to optimize our growth through that cycle, thus ensuring we don’t get stuck there indefinitely.   About the Author:  Linda Star Wolf, Ph.D., D.Min., has been a visionary shamanic guide for more than thirty-five years. The founder of Venus Rising Association for Transformation and president of Venus Rising University for Shamanic Psychospiritual Studies, she is the creator of the Shamanic Breathwork Process, the Shamanic Ministers Global Network, and the Wise Wolf Council. She lives at Venus Rising’s Elemental Temples near Asheville, North Carolina. https://www.shamanicbreathwork.org The Aquarian Shaman by Linda Star Wolf, Ph.D., D.Min., © 2024 Bear & Company. Printed with permission from the publisher Inner Traditions International. https://www.InnerTraditions.com