The Shamanic Journey: A Practical Guide to Traveling Between Worlds
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The shamanic journey is the central practice of shamanism across every culture in which that tradition exists. It is the deliberate entry into a non-ordinary state of consciousness — facilitated by drumming, chanting, breathwork, or other techniques — from which the practitioner travels in imagination and spirit to other realms, meets spirit guides and helpers, receives guidance and healing, and returns to ordinary consciousness with what was received. This is not metaphor or visualization in the ordinary sense. The shamanic journey, properly entered, has a distinct phenomenological quality that practitioners consistently describe as different from either ordinary imagination or dreaming: a quality of autonomous movement, of encounter with beings and places that surprise the journeyer, of information received that was not already known.
The Three Worlds
The most consistent element of shamanic cosmology across cultures is the division of the spirit world into three realms: the lower world, the middle world, and the upper world. These correspond to different qualities of spiritual intelligence and different types of encounters.
The lower world is reached by descending — through a hole in the earth, a cave, the roots of a tree, or a body of water. It is the realm of nature spirits, animal guides, and ancestral wisdom; it has an earthy, ancient quality and is typically experienced as a landscape — forest, meadow, underground, underwater — that the journeyer moves through physically.
The upper world is reached by ascending — through a tree, a mountain, a column of light, or, in the Arctic tradition, through the gateway of the aurora borealis. It is the realm of higher guidance: cosmic intelligences, angelic beings, ancestors who have ascended to a high level of wisdom, and the direct perception of spiritual principles. The upper world typically has a lighter, more luminous quality than the lower world, and communication there is often more direct and less embodied.
The middle world is the spirit dimension of the world we inhabit in ordinary life — the non-ordinary dimension of the everyday physical world, populated by the spirits of places, objects, and the entities that move through the ordinary world unseen.
Entering the Journey State
The most reliable technique for entering the shamanic journey state in the contemporary context is the shamanic drum beat: a rapid, steady beat of approximately four beats per second, sustained for fifteen to thirty minutes. This beat produces the theta brainwave state associated with deep meditation and the hypnagogic transition between waking and sleep — the neurological condition for journeying. Recordings of shamanic drumming serve the same function as live drumming for the solitary practitioner.
Before beginning, set a clear intention: where are you going (lower or upper world), who or what are you seeking, and what is the question or request you are bringing. The intention provides the directional framework that guides the journey. Without intention, the journey tends to wander; with a clear, specific intention, the spirit world meets the journeyer with precision.
Navigating Through the Aurora Gateway
The Arctic shamanic technique for reaching the upper world uses the aurora as the portal. In the journey state, visualize the northern lights above you — the green and white curtains of light dancing against the dark Arctic sky. Allow your awareness to rise toward the aurora. Feel the quality of the light as you approach it: the dynamic, luminous quality of the aurora gateway. Pass through the light. What lies beyond is the upper world, the realm of cosmic guidance and polar spirit wisdom.
Move with curiosity rather than expectation. Ask to meet a guide. Follow what appears. Receive what is offered without forcing the direction of the encounter. At the sound of the callback — a distinct change in the drum beat — return through the aurora gateway the way you came, back through the light and down into the ordinary world. Ground by placing your hands on the earth and feeling the body's weight.
Arctic Shamanic Journey: Northern Lights Magic Audio — a 20-minute guided meditation leading you through the aurora gateway into the upper world of Arctic shamanic wisdom. Includes PDF guide with shamanic principles and meditation diagram. Digital download, instant access.
