Introduction
My first contact with shamanism was in 1992 in a college course called ‘Magic and Religion’ (definitely the coolest thing about my school). The class examined indigenous and Western shamanic history and practices as well as some aspects of the occult movement and modern witchcraft.
I didn’t pick up my shamanic studies again until twenty years later when I reread my old copy of Michael Harner’s book The Way of the Shaman. I tried a few journeying exercises (acquiring Spider as a spirit guide in the process), read a few additional books on shamanism, and left it at that. While it intrigued me, I recognized that the work required a deep calling, which I didn’t have.
Ten years later, in 2022, I received my call. I wasn’t looking for it; it just grabbed me and ran. In a series of spontaneous shamanic journies over most of a week, I witnessed past life events, learned how to shapeshift, and discovered that my maternal grandfather had been my shamanic guardian and teacher in the past life I saw. He and his shamanic lineage were asking me to begin a healing practice.
In this article, I will cover the basics of journeying and how to go about it. My guidance may differ from what most Western shamans teach, as my journey into shamanism is a little different from the average Western/neo-shaman. Except for the few journeys I took in 2012, my experiences with shamanic journeying have been rather atypical.
What is most important to know is that it doesn’t matter how you come to journeying. Everyone can do it, even if you’re not interested in studying shamanism.
What Is Shamanic Journeying?
Journeying is a term used to describe the type of trance states shamans work in to access the spirit realm. It’s called ‘journeying’ because, unlike meditation, shamans shift their perception into the spirit realm, and visualize themselves traveling to get there.
Many shamans use drumming and/or music to aid their shift into this trance state. Some shamans are adept at working simultaneously in the spirit and physical realms, enabling them to journey while performing private or public ceremonies.
Different terms are used by shamans and non-shamans around the world to describe where we go when we journey including the spirit realm, the dreaming, shamanic reality, and non-ordinary reality, among others. I will refer to this realm as the spirit realm.
Why You Should Learn to Journey
The primary reason I recommend journeying is for self-healing. You can learn how to work with your body consciousness, connect with your spirit guides and guardians, and learn to perceive a different reality.
Through journeying you learn to access magical places and beings and develop a spiritual practice that brings the healing benefits of meditation and mindfulness. The places you visit while journeying can become a sacred landscape that expands the more you visit and explore. And the growth and healing that can happen there are unlike anything you can experience in the physical realm.
Before You Begin
Whether you are meditating, practicing divination, or journeying, I recommend developing a short ritual that aids your shift in consciousness from external concerns to internal ones, and from the conscious mind to the subconscious. It doesn’t have to take long, provided it is done with intention.
Doing something simple like energetically clearing the room by smudging or ringing a singing bowl, tells your body and your energy that you are ready for deeper work.
The space you journey in should not only be cleared in advance but should also be sufficiently quiet and private so that you won’t be disturbed. I recommend sitting while you journey, as lying down can encourage sleepiness. Find a chair that supports your back comfortably.
Beginning Your Journey
To begin, find a quiet, private space where you will be undisturbed for the duration of your journey. I recommend starting with 15-minute sessions while you get comfortable with the process. Your first few journeys should be just for exploration as you learn.
Many Western shamans use a drumming track of one or two drums playing a fast, steady beat without any other instruments. I use Nordic shamanic-style music as that’s what propelled me into my first journeys, and my shamanic practice is Nordic/Arctic. On my Spotify profile, I’ve created several playlists suitable for journeying, if you’d like to try some different styles of music and drumming.
If you research shamanic journeying, you may come across the suggestion that you drum for yourself. While that is a great goal to work towards, it is impractical for beginners. Recorded drumming works well, and at some point in your trance state, you’re going to be relaxed enough that you won’t want objects in your hands. Never mind the challenge of keeping a steady rhythm while trying to trance out. It takes a bit of practice to get to that point, and if you’re just journeying for yourself and not within a shamanic practice, it’s not necessary.
Traveling Into the Spirit Realm
Once you’re ready, focus on your breathing, letting it deepen and slow. Stay with your breath for 4 or 5 slow cycles, pausing at the end of each exhale and inhale for several seconds. Then, visualize yourself leaving your physical space, and finding a natural object to travel into, down, or through. It could be a cave, a natural spring, or hole in the ground, or traveling up, down, or into a tree.
If this is hard to imagine, first travel in your mind to a natural space that you know well; someplace you feel safe and happy. Picture it around you, see, smell, and feel it. Now find something to aid your journey – one of the natural features mentioned above. It does not have to be real! Your happy place may be a beach, but you could picture a cliff at one end or behind you, and enter into a cave or fissure in the wall. Or you could walk into the water and swim down into a natural opening. There are many ways to play with this imagery.
Once you’ve found your journey method let yourself travel for as long as necessary. You may find yourself walking or flying, or even changing into or riding an animal to move more efficiently. Let yourself move in this fashion as long as feels appropriate.
How do you know what ‘feels appropriate’? The way to ‘knowing’ in the spirit realm is to quiet your conscious mind and feel into what you’re experiencing. Just like in meditation, your mind is going to try and chatter away at you. Find a gentle way to tell yourself to stop the dialog. You may find you have to do this over and over again, particularly at the beginning. That’s ok, it’s a work in progress. Just work on being as immersed in your experiences as you can be.
When your mind starts talking, turn all your attention to your surroundings. Look at everything, starting with your feet (what are you wearing, what are you standing on?), traveling up your body (what clothes cover you?), and then out and around you. What do you see, feel, smell, taste, and hear? Envision opening your third eye and using that to help take in what you’re experiencing. Trust that this is happening and real.
If you’re like me, your mind may be willing to quiet but want to record what’s going on. That can be just as distracting as mind chatter, so try to put that urge aside also and just take it in.
During your journeys, you may encounter other beings. Should you come upon an animal or other spirit being, the first rule is to always be polite. If a beautiful bobcat walks up to you, begin a respectful dialog – don’t just grab it and hug it (much as you may want to!). Your new friend may be more than willing to receive hugs, but you must communicate first and ask permission. This being has presented itself to you – treat it with the dignity and respect it deserves. There’s a chance this being is offering to become (or may already be) a guide.
Your Spirit Realm Geography
You can develop places in the spirit realm for specific work, and travel to them each time you journey. Or you can open yourself up to traveling until your intuition guides you to the right places and work from there. I recommend creating a home for yourself, a Sacred Garden.
Your Sacred Garden is a special place in the spirit realm that you design. It could look like someplace special that you already know, or be completely made up. Have fun with this, and create a place where you feel safe and surrounded by beauty. It doesn’t have to be a ‘garden’. It could be a beach, a forest clearing, or any other place that fills you with love and awe. This is where I recommend doing your body consciousness work.
Many people who journey eventually come upon or intentionally work with the Word Tree. The World Tree (sometimes called the Tree of Life or Axis Mundi) is a common cosmological concept. In terms of shamanic journey work, the World Tree is the center point for the realms we access in the spirit world. The crown of the tree reaches up into the Upper Realm, the trunk is in the Middle Realm, and the roots reach down into the Lower Realm. Many shamans use the World Tree to aid travel between realms.
I won’t go into details on the different realms in this article, as this is a beginner’s guide for everyone and not just shamans. If you would like to do deeper work with journeying and exploring the geography of the spirit realm, I recommend Sandra Ingerman’s book Shamanic Journeying, A Beginner’s Guide, which you can find a link to on my Student Resources page.
Am I Doing It Right?
My first attempts at journeying in 2012 followed the process I mentioned above – going to a known outdoor space and traveling into, through, or down a natural feature. And it worked quite well!
But my first journies in 2022 were totally different. I was in the physical world one moment, and dancing and drumming around a primitive fire circle the next. For a while, to start my journeys I would just picture a specific fire circle that I found myself at early on, and myself and my shamanic family around it. Later I would incorporate a sacred garden as a starting point, and from there go into a cave, or take flight to other places. Sometimes I’m open to where I end up (because I’m not sure where I will find what I’m looking for), and just travel on as far as necessary until I reach my target. Other times I want to go someplace specific and might travel to the World Tree to get me there.
The point here is that all experiences are valid, and all techniques if they help you to journey, are acceptable. Do NOT let anyone tell you you’re doing it ‘wrong’ or what you’ve experienced isn’t valid. That simply isn’t true.
Quelling Doubts
Even though I’ve been journeying regularly for over 2 years, I still find myself asking if what I experienced was real. Did that really happen, or did I just make it up? I’ve had some really cool, strange, and powerful experiences, and in time I’ve been able to reconcile that these events did happen and that I am different because of them. It doesn’t matter that it didn’t happen in the ‘outside world’. It doesn’t matter that no one else will ever see or experience what I saw. What matters is that we trust in ourselves and our experiences, and learn all we can from them.
As for whether you’re ‘making it up’ or not, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes we need to start with an active imagination before we get into the groove of the journey. Yes, part of you is guiding the experience for a bit, but whether it comes from you or outside yourself isn’t important. It all makes up the totality of a journey.
What if you don’t see anything? That’s a really common fear (trust me). And sometimes you don’t, although that’s not common. More likely you may find that what you see doesn’t make sense. If you go through the steps of journeying and feel like ‘nothing happened’ try again later. I promise you, it will eventually. And if what you experience doesn’t make sense, be sure to record it after. Many times I’ve gotten more information about an experience once I’ve started writing it down. And I’ve had confusing journeys that made sense only after going on another journey and having an experience that builds on the first.
Don’t worry if you didn’t accomplish your ‘goal’ on a particular journey. There are a number of reasons this can happen, and trying again, or trying something slightly different will eventually work.
Wrapping Up
A final thought on journeying. A friend and teacher of mine likes to say that shamanism is about playing with energy. I would add that shamanism and journeying should be undertaken with a light and playful heart. We don’t have to be deadly serious all the time. You are going someplace where anything is possible – have fun!
If you find that journeying suits you, you may wish to explore it further. Many books talk about how to journey, such as Sandra Ingerman’s book (which I love!) mentioned above. Be aware though, that most texts on journeying come from a shamanic perspective and assume that you are also exploring shamanism. You don’t have to study shamanism to learn about journeying, the World Tree, and the realms of the spirit world. But you may find that these texts lead you someplace you weren’t expecting to go. Be open on this larger Journey that you’re on, and trust that you’ll end up where you’re meant to be.
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