This editorial is for those who find themselves holding the torch as their spiritual teachers age.
In my generation, many of us teachers are losing our teachers. They have either stopped teaching, can’t teach anymore or they have gone and died on us. This is disorienting, sad and scary – and there is really no choice left but to step into our power if we haven’t done so already.
But I am here to voice my opinion that we cannot teach the same way our teacher’s taught. It is a different world and people need different things. I am talking about countries in the Christian-dominant Western world, which have obliviated their own cultural wisdom into dust through years of persecution of the indigenous worldview, not teachers borne from ancient lineages who teach people from their own culture.
For our teachers coming up in the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s, seeking, speaking and practicing alternative spirituality was a good way to become estranged from one’s family. It took an enormous amount of courage and clarity to follow one’s own path in a society when paths were more prescribed. It was almost revolutionary. For the first time in living memory, people were being encouraged to speak directly to the divine, instead of going through Mary or Jesus, the bible or a priest.
As early teachers found clues enough to rise ancient techniques out of the dust, or were given permission to bring it here from other countries, it was a novelty, such a pure relief to have anyone speak of non-ordinary realities and otherworldly spirits with certainty. More importantly, people’s early, unstructured, unexplained spiritual experiences were validated. People latched onto these teachers and their structures of knowledge as an authority of all knowledge and spiritual guidance. This was a natural response coming from a hierarchical upbringing, and still it was transforming.
Then teachers came along that were devoted to self-empowerment, rejecting the hierarchy of traditional religion. Michael Harner was teaching people how to have conversations with power animals and teacher guides. Starhawk was talking about ‘power over’ vs. ‘power within’, guiding witches to their inner sources of spiritual resource. It caused a massive culture shift.
A huge outpouring of support showed up for these new ideas, which we all knew were not new but newly unearthed. More and more teachers arose, some out of the true call to share what they have found and some out of the desire to “be” a teacher and enjoy the power that poorly balance teachers allow their students to give them. The breadth and diversity of alternative spirituality exploded.
It was also quite profitable.
So now, we have exposure to a mass of metaphysical knowledge. Working with crystals and smudging has become mainstream. The metaphysical floods the internet, festivals and subcultural memes, movies, mixed with capitalism, small egos, big egos, pain, woundedness and greed for power. Our society is more ’sophisticated’, or perhaps, as the gates of intellectual freedom and choice stand wide open, we are surrounded by myriads of structures of knowledge piled so high, it is hard to see what is ‘real’. I guess this is a tradeoff for the compacted, intense oppression of the past.
We know that there are infinite ways to reach the divine and infinite cosmologies and structures to hang our hat on. Some structures have been tested over thousands of years. Some are simply made up by the next upcoming teacher and who knows what values or psychological disposition they are based in? In this day, the game is about discernment. When I was a kid in the Catholic church, I heard that when the end times come, there will be a sea of prophets, and it would be up to us to discern the true voices from the false. It certainly resonates.
We have students and healing clients coming to us who have explored many other paths. Many of them are trying to contend with mixed messages they get from different readings or psychics or interpretations of other healers. This situation makes sense, with our societal conditioning to give our power to the church (and school and government). Many do not know how to take that power back even after they have left the church. The first thing I do when a person coming to me for healing reports what a psychic told them about who they are, is ask, ‘Does that feel true to you?’ ‘How does that feel in your body?”
We still need to listen to our bodies.
We must try very hard to not let our students to give us their power. The role of a spiritual teacher is to be a hollow bone for spirit to come through and to open doors students can walk through. But when it comes to techniques, it might be good to have a discussion about cosmology, the purpose of the one we are working within, and the benefit of sticking to one cosmology for purposes of common language and deeper understanding. A system of belief has its own rules. We must subscribe to it for it to have any power. We can help people assimilate and analyze different modalities and help them find what resonates with their being, encouraging them to just drop the rest. Contradicting systems of belief can (but don’t have to) express contradicting value systems.
In my circles, we discourage interpreting other people’s shamanic journeys, or dreams, or any other kind of information coming from the spirits. This is because the spirits talk to individuals in a language they will understand. Symbolism may be very personal. When questions come up, we help each other find their own answers by asking how they feel or if they have associations with the messages coming in, or suggesting they journey on the questions they have.
At the same time we are encouraging self-empowerment, we are also encouraging respect for the power and wisdom inherent in each discipline and of course, the Spirits of Kindness themselves. Spirituality is all about balance – and in the equation, the human is not the one with the most knowledge or wisdom.
More exposure to spiritual modalities is not better. Remember, ancient practices were taught and learned in a time when the world had a fraction of the human population it has now. We lived in small communities compared to now; we had interaction with few people and had to figure a lot of things out on our own. If people get too excited about stitching together a spiritual life with their minds, power can be lost. It is the heart and body that know. The ancient paths are such deep mysteries, skimming the surface of many will not bring people closer to themselves as quickly as staying course with a few or one.
To summarize, the main focus in this era is teaching discernment. It is bringing people back to a place of listening: to their bodies, to the earth, to the Spirits of Kindness. This is empowerment.
What to teach? The strength of our own relationships with the Spirits of Kindness as teachers is the vital ingredient to understanding what and when and how to teach. Between these helpers and clear signs of the times, we find our material.
For instance, with green spaces being cut down right and left, giving students ways to connect to the earth might be more important than ever. Spaces and time with no electronics devices might feel like a downright vision quest. And of course, the Owl or the Raven might just show up in our meditations, letting us know that their medicine is needed and we don’t need to know why. Sometimes that is so welcome, because the longer we are on this path, it seems, the less and less there is to say.
Tasara
Feel free to comment. The exchange of information is how we all learn.
