| In traditional wisdom and knowledge, life is a | | | | ancestors, religious or spiritual leaders, the gods, the |
| continuum that does not end at the moment of | | | | spirit guides, is known as Heaven. The Middle World |
| death. One of the most important traditional tasks of | | | | has been simply moulded into meaning our physical |
| the seer, shaman, medicine man or woman is to | | | | world or Earth, and the Lower World, the traditional |
| assist people who are either dying or the spirits of | | | | place of sustenance and nourishment, the home |
| those who have died to make the transition into | | | | where the spiritual power of the natural world, the |
| great domain of consciousness. This body of | | | | plants, animals resides, has become demonised, and |
| practices is known as Psychopomp, from the Greek | | | | renamed as Hell. |
| word psychopompos which literally means | | | | The problem here is that the Lower World has |
| ‘conductor of souls’. In Greek mythology, | | | | become demonised, and turned into a travesty of |
| the god Hermes served as the escort for the dead | | | | it’s original meaning and embodiment of the living |
| into the afterlife. This concept of a guide or | | | | force of the natural world, and has become a very |
| intermediary between the living and the dead is a | | | | ‘bad’ place where all the wicked |
| collective theme found in most religions and | | | | (disobedient) people go to suffer eternal damnation, |
| mythologies. | | | | hellfire, and other such terrible punishments. From a |
| Death and Dying | | | | shamanic and a psychological perspective this has |
| In shamanism death and birth are closely related to | | | | created the major problem of separation. By |
| each other. One of the roles of the shaman is as a | | | | demonising the Lower World, the place which holds |
| midwife of dying, to help, guide, or usher the soul or | | | | the feminine qualities of nurturing, and sustenance, |
| essence of the dying person into the unity of the | | | | we have as a society managed to disconnect |
| afterlife. This is the work of the Psychopomp, | | | | ourselves from these very attributes. The story of |
| conductor of souls. | | | | the Garden of Eden fundamentally underlies this |
| There are many ‘cosmographies’ of where | | | | separation. If we consider the unifying principle of |
| souls go when they die, each dependent on the | | | | ‘so above, so below’, we are also looking at |
| culture and society they originated in. Shamanism is | | | | the cosmography of the human soul. |
| not a system of belief or faith, it is a system of | | | | We have also lost along the expressway to modern |
| knowledge, and is directly experienced first hand by | | | | civilisation this concept of the transition of the human |
| the senses. The world that Shamans work in is not a | | | | soul from the physical world into the great realms of |
| consensus reality, i.e. what we have agreed is reality. | | | | existence. People who die in sudden death , accident |
| The Shaman sees i.e. experiences with all the senses, | | | | , confused , unhappy, drugged , people who lack |
| and is the mediator between the everyday physical | | | | power, murdered, killed in war, often disappear in the |
| world and an alternate reality. The roots of | | | | Middle World, and may be unable to make their |
| shamanism pre-date recorded history. The earliest | | | | transition , or not have an awareness of where and |
| findings date back over 40,000 years. Shamanism is | | | | who they are. The work of the conductor of souls is |
| the ancestral mother of the human spiritual | | | | to help these deceased individuals make that journey. |
| experience. | | | | The shaman would embark on a spirit journey, to |
| In the great panorama of creation, many cultures | | | | find the person who had died in unfortunate |
| have structured and formed a navigable | | | | circumstances such as an accidental death. They |
| cosmography. The shaman navigates and journeys in | | | | would start from the place that the person died, and |
| a cosmos experienced as three great realms | | | | in their trance vision of expanded awareness spiral |
| revolving around a great axis, known as the great | | | | outwards in concentric circles to find them. Once |
| tree, or axis mundi. They are known as the, Upper | | | | located, it is then the work of the shaman to help |
| World, Lower World, and Middle Worlds. Central to all | | | | them make that transition to another place, and be |
| these realms is the Axis Mundi, which is the central | | | | welcomed and re-united with loved ones. |
| axis which connects these three realms. | | | | This is Psychopomp work, helping the deceased to |
| These realms have been structured and implemented | | | | another world. There is an enormous fear of death in |
| in ways relevant to our culture and the world we live | | | | our society, and a renewed interest in this kind of |
| in. These three worlds have been renamed but are | | | | work could provide re-assurance to those who are |
| still present; The Upper World, the realm of our | | | | dying, and their loved ones. |