Death and rebirth are necessary parts of new beginnings. Before you can be reborn as a new person, you have to die to old ways of being. Throughout the world at various times and in various cultures, there have been shamanic traditions. One of the tasks of the shaman is to commune with the dead. Another is to journey to the Otherworld (or the Underworld) and to bring back knowledge. Most, if not all, shamanic traditions have some sort of initiation rite in which the candidate “dies” to his former life and is reborn to the life of the shaman.

These death and rebirth rites usually took place in some sort of representation of the womb of the Earth Mother. The Hopi tribe used kivas for this purpose. In ancient Europe, there were many earthmounds. One of the largest of these is Brú na Bóinne in Newgrange, Ireland.

Some Celtic tribes engaged in a ritual called “bull sleep,” in which the shaman ingested psychoactive substances and wrapped himself in the hide of a bull while seeking visions. Many Native American tribes used sweat lodges for such a purpose.

No matter the form the rites took, they were symbolic of the rebirth of the shaman into his new role. Such a rebirth followed a phase of preparation and purification, then a period of sensory deprivation involving an earth mound, tent, leather hide, sweat lodge, or other representation of the womb, and finally a re-birth into a new life.

There is usually a feast prior to the rite. The candidates do not eat at the feast, nor will they eat for the entire period of their initiation, although they may ingest plants or herbs to enhance their visions. This practice of fasting is common among many shamanic traditions.

Amid the dancing and the drumming, the candidates are admitted to the central chamber of the mound. There are no torches or other light sources, so the candidates await the journey in total darkness. The journey into the darkness of the mound symbolizes death and burial. This is consistent with the technique of sensory deprivation used by many cultures throughout the world.

When used in this manner, the senses are deprived of stimulation to achieve a state receptive to visions and dreams. Lacking any outside stimuli, the mind turns inward. When turned inward in this manner, freed of distractions, the mind makes contact with the collective unconscious shared by all. It is a time when the candidate may call upon his or her Supernatural Aid for guidance.

Many shamanic practices use three days and three nights for such initiations.

So the petitioner finds himself (or herself…there is also a large history of female shamans) in the center of a burial mound, in total darkness, calling upon her Supernatural Aid to guide her to the Otherworld. The petitioner may spend up to three days and three nights communing with the spirits of the Sacred Ancestors present with her there in the womb of the Earth Goddess.

On the third day, at dawn, the candidate emerges into the sunlight, marking the first time in three days that she has seen any light whatsoever. This also marks the first time she has seen the Sun with her new, shamanic eyes. She leaves the chamber, sometimes crawling through a narrow earthen passage like an infant struggling to be born, so that she may share the sacred wisdom of the vision with the rest of the tribe.

This rebirthing exercise will allow you to experience your katabasis in the Belly of the Whale by engaging in your own ritual death and rebirth. The idea of sensory deprivation, or of stimulating certain senses while repressing others, is a useful technique when engaging in vision quests of this nature. Music is one of the tools used most often for this purpose.

Anything from rhythmic drumming to flutes to symphonies may be used when seeking visions. To employ this method, lie comfortably, preferably in darkness, while allowing the music to take you. Allow the notes and the rhythms to create landscapes in your mind. If you are doing this workbook as part of an Ecospirituality group, your instructor may hold a drum circle or other rite for such a purpose. If doing these death and rebirth exercises on your own, you may select or play your own music.

Prior to your own rebirthing rite, you may experiment with isolating and stimulating merely one sense at a time. For example, try shamanic meditation while sitting in a dark room with incense burning, or gaze at a single lit candle, or lie in a warm bath. Another influence on shamanic journeying is the position of your body. Try this: Sit cross-legged on the floor or the ground with your hands resting on your knees.

Notice what the energy in your hands feels like. Now try the same thing with your hands palm up in your lap. Finally, place your hands, palms together, in front of your heart. Do you sense any difference in energy in these various positions? Likewise, the position of your body during vision seeking can determine the quality and flavor of your vision. Experiment until you find a position suitable for your needs.

Do these practices make it easier for you to engage in your own death and rebirth experiences?

Share Your Thoughts on Death and Rebirth!

What does “death and rebirth” mean to you? What things are you ‘dying’ to that you may be reborn as an ecospiritual shaman?

Rebirth means leaving behind old ways of being and becoming a new person. Before we can set out on the road to rebirth, we must first commit to the journey. The problem with crossing the first threshold is that it is stepping into the unknown. The unknown is unfamiliar. We don’t know the rules. We don’t know what’s expected. We don’t know how to act. We don’t know the dangers. We don’t know what to assume about the way the world works now.

To learn new ways of being, we must first cast off our assumptions about the way things worked before. Our assumptions create our perceptions, and our perceptions create our reality. If we’re journeying to new realities, our old perceptions and assumptions must be discarded before rebirth. This can be an especially difficult task since many of our assumptions and perceptions are involved in our sense of identity.

If we cast them off, we might lose who we are. But to become someone new, we must lose who we were before. We must die to our old ways of being. We must be willing to bury old ways of doing. We must cast off old assumptions and perceptions so that we may gain a new reality.

Jonah spent three days in the Belly of the Whale after his Refusal of the Call and before his rebirth. This was Jonah’s casting off of his former identity so that he could step into his new role as a spiritual leader. This time in the whale’s belly is a time of reflection and of challenging preconceived notions before initiation into a wider world. It is the preparation for the death of the old so that the new may be born.

Rebirth: Empty Your Cup

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”

-Carl Jung

“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”

-Gloria Steinem

There is a Zen koan about a student who came to a Zen Master for training. The student wanted to impress the master with his knowledge, so he talked non-stop for several minutes about the previous masters he had studied with and all the knowledge he had accumulated. As the student talked, the Master offered him a cup of tea.

The Master, still listening intently, placed the cup before the student and began to fill it. When the cup was filled, the Master continued pouring until the tea ran out of the cup, onto the table, and into the student’s lap. The student yelled for the Master to stop pouring the tea, “Can’t you see that the cup is full? There’s no room for any more tea!”

“Yes,” the Master replied, “Once the cup is full, it cannot be filled any further. You come to me to learn, but I cannot teach you. Your cup is already full. You must first go and empty your cup. When you have done this, then I can fill it again.”

In Phase One of the Hero’s Journey, the Departure, we learned what it means to seek a new spiritual path by leaving the familiar behind. In Phase Two, the Initiation, we will learn what it means to die to the old ways of being and to seek rebirth as a spiritual seeker in the Way of the Coyote. Like the student with the full cup, a seeker on the Way of the Coyote must first empty her cup of all other teachings.

This means forgetting old ways of being. It means casting aside any assumptions or perceptions about what may lie ahead on the path. To die to the old ways of being means to erase the past, letting go of any preconceived notions about the way the world worked in the past. It means starting over in every sense of the word.

There are three components of this rebirth: Assumptions, Intentions, and Motivations (think of the word AIM to help you to remember these three components). Before you can be reborn to the Way of the Coyote, you must address all three of these components in the following ways:

• Assumptions – What assumptions were you living by before answering the Call of the Coyote? How are these assumptions different from the assumptions you would need to live by to answer the call? What assumptions might you have made about your old life that led to problems? What new assumptions, if any, would you need to make to be reborn? To follow the Way of the Coyote?
• Intentions – What was your intention in living the way you did prior to answering the Call of the Coyote? What were you trying to accomplish? What were your goals then, and how will your goals be different when you answer the Call of the Coyote? What is your intention in seeking the Way of the Coyote? What do you hope to accomplish?
• Motivations – What were your motivations for living the way you did before answering the Call of the Coyote? What were the rewards for your old way of living? Were those rewards spiritual or material? What will be the rewards (motivations) for answering the Call of the Coyote? Will these motivations be spiritual or material? Are you prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to follow the Call of the Coyote? If so, what will the rewards be? If not, what’s standing in your way?

When you can answer all of these questions honestly you will be ready to leave the cave. You will have found a new truth to live by, and this new truth shall be your road map on the Way of the Coyote.

Share Your Thoughts on Rebirth!

Have you crossed the first threshold? Share your thoughts in the comments below!