Fire and Ice Shamaniam's Foundations for Inner Journey Work

  Inner Journey work is a method form developing certain skills that have a positive effect on the person working with it. It is first and foremost a means of traveling inside oneself and learning to work with the nine different parts that make up the self. Another purpose for this skill is what most Pagans call Shadow work! If we do not search for, deal with, and remove all the things that weigh us down, we can never hope to effectively work with the different parts of our being. This weight will also prevent the Goddess Energy from rising up the World Tree.

  Emptying the mind may be the most difficult exercise for some people but it is an important skill that must be mastered. Emptiness means having a calm, centered, and clear mind (3 C’s) and being free of subjective views and having unhealthy attachments.

a.     This level is attained when one has broken through the illusions of our modern world and stills their mind.

  First and foremost, the path of True Wisdom is based on discipline and hard work! If you find an excuse not to work on the skills in this section every time you read it, it will be difficult to achieve any level of skill. The same goes for spending time in nature. You do not have to stay in a tent in the forest but spending time in nature at least once a month should be a goal everyone sets for themselves. Studying the lore is important because this is where we can learn about the different gods and goddesses. Lore gives us good examples of how to live our day-to-day lives and we can see a different view of the same principles in the different sagas. So, without even leaving one’s home we can see how the gods lived and also get a look into the lives of people who lived in Northern Europe over a thousand years ago. These are just two of the reasons why picking a book from the reading least, some are free on Amazon, and spending at least fifteen minutes a day on one can be very beneficial. The Nine Noble Virtues and meditation can go hand in hand as a beginner’s method of meditation. Working the two at the same time, ten minutes total, adds your practice time to twenty-five out of every day.

  As Odin recommends in the Havamal, we should always strive to be Middle Wise. Not “showing off” what we know or can accomplish in public. This does not mean avoiding helping people if they ask, it simply means avoiding being a know-it-all and a show-off. Simple enough.

Germanic World Tree and how it applies to shamanic inner and outer journey work.

a.     In Pre-Christian times most people believed in Upper, “Middle,” and Lower worlds that were connected by a World Tree. In certain places it was the foundation of people’s ethical beliefs and in most places, it served as a guide through the human life cycle.

b.     To the shaman, it is a personal and private experience.

c.      The beginning shaman sees the World Tree as an internal map and an itinerary for their body and self/soul.

Exercise: Your First Trial

·        Take three hours and avoid TV, radio, and internet.

·        Take the time to slowly work with Spiraling Joints and allow your Hugr to move to the individual joints as they warm up.

·        Guiding and stretching, allowing the Hugr to move through the body to the point of tension and allow the Ond and Hugr relax and heal the Lik.

·        Spend time “with” nature, not just in it. Meditate and experience the wealth nature has to offer.

·        Personal shamanic chant.

o   Listen to the sounds of nature and allow her to teach you “your” shamanic chant.

§  This will not happen the first time but if you don’t start now when will you?

How to quiet the logical mind.

a.     Sound (Sound can agitate or sooth, be careful.)

1.     Staff

2.     Drum

3.     Singing

4.     Rune Chanting

b.     Meditation

1.     Deep meditation (following the roots of the World Tree)

2.     Rune training

How a shamanic journey works:

a.     You are opening the parts of your brain that are aware of all your sensory input and the part of your brain that is connected to the higher realms/other realities, where one can communicate with the ancestors, nature spirits, and elder kin.

You must open your mind and imagination to the idea that there is more than one world.

a.     There are many layers to reality.

b.     The one that our seven senses (balance was officially added to our list of senses about fifteen years ago.) are aware of, and our brain allows us to see, is a very small part of the whole.