Shamanic Empowerment is a workshop manual presented by Johan Roelofse, who describes a path that began with Reiki in 1998 and then turned toward the older traditions of the shaman and the witch.
It is a teaching text as much as an attunement, and it starts from definitions: the word shaman comes from the Tungus peoples of Siberia and translates as "one who knows" or "wise one", though the manual prefers Kenneth Meadows' sharper rendering, "one who knows ecstasy", since a shaman is someone who walks between the worlds.
From there it lays out the shamanic map, in which there are three levels of reality: the lower world of instinct and Earthy knowledge where power animals are met, the middle world of everyday consciousness where guidance about present circumstances is sought, and the upper world, the abode of the gods, where teachers, Elders and ancestors are found.
These three are pictured as the World Tree, roots, trunk and branches, and it sets out the Toltec teaching of the three attentions, the habitual socialised view, the screened-out potentials, and the third that can never be known. It covers the four directions with the centre as pure Light where the elements rest in harmony, Pachamama below and Father Sky above, and the three classes of spirit ally: power or totem animals, teachers who guide on soul purpose, and helpers who supply the power to do a particular thing.
What this attunement is intended to support:
- It is traditionally used to support direct experience of the divine rather than intellectual knowledge about it.
- It is intended to help you recover a connection to your power animal, which the tradition says everyone is born with.
- Journeying to the lower world is used to support access to instinct and to the wisdom of the Earth.
- Journeying to the upper world is used to support contact with teachers, Elders and ancestors.
- Work with the four directions is used to support a felt sense of balance between the elements.
- The manual's emphasis on equal honour for the feminine and masculine principles is intended to support wholeness rather than preference.
What you receive:
- The Shamanic Empowerment attunement, described as a direct activation of the energy bodies and channels.
- The full shamanic framework: the three worlds and the World Tree, the three attentions, the four directions with centre, above and below.
- Teaching on the spirit allies, on the luminous body and its layers as the Toltec tradition describes them, and on the multi-dimensional self.
Who this is for:
- People drawn to earth-based practice who want the underlying map rather than borrowed ritual.
- Reiki practitioners looking to extend into journeying and spirit ally work.
- Anyone who wants shamanic practice presented plainly, free of cultural ornament and superstition.
How it is used:
The manual is emphatic that shamanism is about personal experience rather than belief or theory, and it offers its framework as guidelines to be tested rather than doctrine to be accepted. You are told to spend time connecting with the elemental energies of each direction and to notice for yourself what works, before the manual goes on to specific ways of working with them.
Journeys are chosen according to what you need: the lower world for instinct and power animals, the middle world for guidance on a present situation, the upper world for teachers and ancestors. The attunement is added on top of this as a direct activation, intended to widen your capacity to work with universal energies once the map is familiar.
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