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Shamanic Journey

The living practitioner's deliberate trance-journey into spirit, underworld, or upper realms — Lemminkainen's descent into Tuoni and Wainamoinen's entry into Wipunen's body in the Kalevala, the Siberian shaman's drum-mediated travel, Inuit angakkuq's submarine journey to Sedna, classical katabasis as ritual technique. The practitioner returns with knowledge, songs, lost-words, or a recovered soul. Distinct from psychopomp_journey (which guides the *dead* soul through afterlife realms) and from spiritual_ascent (which is the soul's *upward* return to source); shamanic_journey is the *living* practitioner crossing into ordinarily-inaccessible domains as a worked technique.

29 passages · 3 traditions
western_esoteric: 19 passageswestern_esoteric19mesopotamian: 8 passagesmesopotamian8finnic: 2 passagesfinnic2
western_esoteric19
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismu
“Briefly stated, the sacred drama which formed the basis of the Odinic Mysteries was as follows: The Supreme, invisible Creator of all things was called All-Father. His regent in Nature was Odin, the one-eyed god. Like Quetzalcoatl, Odin w…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismv
“The Odinic Mysteries were given in underground crypts or caves, the chambers, nine in number, representing the Nine Worlds of the Mysteries. The candidate seeking admission was assigned the task of raising Balder from the dead. Although h…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquityk
“The Argonautic expedition, listening to the advice of Orpheus, stopped at the island of Samothrace for the purpose of having its members initiated into the Cabiric rites. Herodotus relates that when Cambyses entered the temple of the Cabir…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Hermetic Pharmacology, Chemistry, and Therapeuticsh
“DILIGENCE, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by MR. HONESTY, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it." (From the Introduction to the 1835 Edition of The Complete Herbal.) Doctor Johnson said of Culp…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Cross and the Crucifixionf
“The four major divisions of the human structure--bones, muscles, nerves, and arteries--are considered to have contributed to the symbolism of the cross. This is especially due to the fact that the spinal nerves cross at the base of the spi…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolisma
“THE North American Indian is by nature a symbolist, a mystic, and a philosopher. Like most: aboriginal peoples, his soul was en rapport with the cosmic agencies manifesting about him. Not only did his Manidos control creation from their e…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolisme
“Guthrie interprets the words Popol Vuh to mean "The Senate Book," or "The Book of the Holy Assembly"; Brasseur de Bourbourg calls it "The Sacred Book"; and Father Ximinez designates the volume "The National Book." In his articles on the Pop…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolismf
“Now my head will cease to speak, for it is only the head of a corpse, which has no more flesh." Following the admonitions of Hunhun-ahpu, the young girl returned to her home. Her father, Cuchumaquiq, later discovering that she was about to…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolismg
“To secure this information, Hunahpu pulled a hair from his leg, which hair then became a strange insect called Xan ; buzzing along the black road, the Xan entered the council chamber of the princes of Xibalba and stung the leg of the figure…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolismh
“In consternation, the princes of Xibalba then counseled together how they could destroy the intrepid neophytes and forthwith prepared for them the next ordeal. For their fourth test, the two brothers were made to enter the House of Cold, w…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolismj
“The fame of the two dancers--who were in reality Hunahpu and Xbalanque--finally came to the notice of the twelve princes of Xibalba, who thereupon desired these two miracle-workers to perform their strange fears before them. After Hunahpu…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | American Indian Symbolismk
“Pisces, their ashes turning into man-fishes , and later back into human form." It would seem more appropriate to assign the river of blood to Aries and that of mud to Taurus, and it is not at all improbable that in the ancient form of the l…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductionc
“The original alliance between Christianity and the Science of the Magi, once demonstrated fully, will be a discovery of no second-rate importance, and we do not doubt that the serious study of Magic and the Kabalah will lead earnest minds t…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductiond
“Stand up and open your eyes, but take care before all things to make no Christian sign and to pronounce no Christian words. We are in a landscape of Salvator Rosa, a troubled wilderness which seems resting after a storm. There is no moon…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | 6. Magical Equilibriumc
“Love is one of the great instruments of magical power, but it is categorically forbidden to the Magus, at least as an intoxication or passion. Woe to the Samson of the Kabalah if he permit himself to be put asleep by Delilah! The Hercules…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | 13. Necromancyb
“We enter into communion with larvae, with dead or perishing substances, by this operation. The beings in question, for the most part, cannot speak except by a ringing in our ears produced by the nervous shock to which I have referred, and…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | 13. Necromancyd
“I therefore placed my hand upon the Sign of the Pentagram, and pointed the sword at the figure, commanding it mentally to obey and not alarm me, in virtue of the said sign. The form thereupon became vague, and suddenly disappeared. I dire…”
◆Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi) | 14. Transmutationsa
“SPHERA LUNAE SEMPITERNUM AUXILIUM St. AUGUSTINE questioned seriously whether Apuleius could have been changed into an ass by a Thessalian sorceress, and theologians have long debated about the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar into a wild b…”
◆Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) | 15. The Sabbath Of The Sorcerersc
“The misconstrued doctrine of Zoroaster and the magical law of two forces constituting universal equilibrium, have caused some illogical minds to imagine a negative divinity, subordinate but hostile to the active Deity. An impure duad comes…”
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mesopotamian8
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet IX — Gilgamish in Terror of Death Seeks Eternal Life | Tablet IX, Section 1
“THE NINTH TABLET. GILGAMISH IN TERROR OF DEATH SEEKS ETERNAL LIFE. . Gilgamish bitterly wept for his comrade, (for) Enkidu, ranging Over the desert: "I, too—shall I not die like Enkidu also? 5. Sorrow hath enter’d my heart; I fear death as…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet X — How Gilgamish Reached Uta-Napishtim | Tablet X, Section 1a
“THE TENTH TABLET. HOW GILGAMISH REACHED UTA-NAPISHTIM. . Dwelt Siduri, the maker of wine . . . . Wine(?) was her trade, her trade was . . . . . . . . . Cover’d she was with a veil and . . . . . . . . . 5. Gilgamish…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet X — How Gilgamish Reached Uta-Napishtim | Tablet X, Section 1b
“(then) did I fear . . . . . Death did I dread, that I range o’er the desert]: the hap of my comrade [Lay on me heavy(?)—O ’tis a long road that I range o’er] the desert! Enkidu, (yea), [of my comrade the hap lay heavy (?) upon me]— 10…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet X — How Gilgamish Reached Uta-Napishtim | Tablet X, Section 1c
“Gilgamish, if perchance thou succeed in traversing the Ocean, What wilt thou do, when unto the Waters of Death thou arrivest? Gilgamish, there is Ur-Shanabi, boatman to Uta-Napishtim, He with whom sails (?) are, the urnu of which in the fo…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet X — How Gilgamish Reached Uta-Napishtim | Tablet X, Section 1d
“(Thus) did Ur-Shanabi [answer] him, [(yea), unto Gilgamish, (saying)]: "Gilgamish, take the . . . . away . . . . . . . . . . . Let not the Waters of Death touch thy hand . . . . . . Gilgamish, take thou a second, a thir…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XI — The Flood | Tablet XI, Section 1e
“" (So straightway) she (did so), his flour Baked she (and) set at his head, but the time he was sleeping she noted 215. On the house-wall. (So), first was collected his flour, (then) secondly sifted, Thirdly , ’twas moisten’d, and fourthl…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XI — The Flood | Tablet XI, Section 1f
“(So) into their vessel embarkéd Gilgamish, (aye), and Ur-Shanabi, launching (their) craft [on the billow], They themselves riding aboard (her). . To Uta-Napishtim, the Distant , Spake (then) his wife: "Came Gilgamish (hither) aweary with…”
◆Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XII — Gilgamish Enquires of the Dead | Tablet XII, Section 1a
“THE TWELFTH TABLET. GILGAMISH, IN DESPAIR, ENQUIRES OF THE DEAD. . (Then), what time that the seine had pass’d through the Architect 's dwelling, (Aye, and) the net [had taken its toll] . . . . [said he]: "Lord, what [is’t I may do]…”
finnic2
◆The Kalevala | Rune XIIIb
“In this rising generation, That can travel in these snow-shoes, That the right and left can manage." To his back he tied the quiver, Placed the bow upon his shoulder, With both hands he grasped his snow-cane, Speaking meanwhile words as fol…”
◆The Kalevala | Rune XVIIb
“Wise Wipunen, full of song-charms, Opens wide his mouth and swallows Wainamoinen and his magic, Shoes, and staff, and iron armor. Then outspeaks the wise Wipunen: "Many things before I've eaten, Dined on goat, and sheep, and reindeer, Bear…”