An Interview with
Awenidd

Occultist

1. Tell us a little about yourself.

Well I am 32, Living in JHB. I am married and have son of 2 months old and I have been involved in the Occult / Esoteric / Paganism/ for the last 13 odd years. My path so far has been a combination of various forms of magick, and various teachings ranging from Chaos magick to Reiki. Currently I find myself on a "shamanic" path. I present workshops on Shamanic Power plants, where the participants are taken on a Shamanic journey through the power plants that shamans use. I am a great realist, and in the past got up a lot of people's noses because I am not one who believes in myth and fantasy and always try and get to the core or true meaning of a practice or tradition.

2. Are you a Pagan? What kind?

I would not completely label myself Pagan, some days I am Pagan , other days I am a witch, an Occultist, a new ager... or even just and ordinary guy. My years in various paths and traditions have taught me that "Pagan" or "Occultist" or "Magician" or whatever you want to call yourself is just a word to assign meaning to your way of practice or application of knowledge. I am all those things, so I cannot say I am just a Pagan.

3. How did you discover your path?

My journey started very early in life. I was brought up Christian, and I was about 11 years old when I had dream of a Rhino standing in a Zulu Kraal, and in the dream I came to realise that world and spirituality does not fit together as I have been taught and that is where my search started.

4. Where did your inspiration for Semantic Spaces come from? Tell us more
about Semantic Spaces.

The inspiration for Semantic Spaces came from the Shamanic workshops I do. In most "new" shamanic practices the use of Psychedelic plants as part of the Shamanic path has been discarded because of a society labelling these plants as drugs. The plants can be a great contributing factor both spiritually and psychologically . in some sense you can say that it allows the person a step closer to the great divine.

Semantic Spaces tries and fill that gap with information on both Shamanic practices and plants used in various traditions.Its about creating an awareness that psychedelic plants can contribute a great positive factor in creating an awareness of self and do have a positive effect on a person who is seeking to know and understand themselves in relation to the world and "god".

For those interested in a free copy, they can register on my web page and
it will be sent electronically to them. (see below)

5.What do you do for a living?

I am a Supervisor for one of South Africa's leading vehicle tracking companies. That is my 9-5 normal everyday life. Then I am also a fire performer, a free lance web designer and workshop facilitator.

6. Are you open about your path to non-Pagans?

My years in various practices has taught me to be in integrity with myself, and to be in integrity with myself I have to be true to who I am and my believes. I dont go around advertising my believes, but also in same sense make no secret about my way of thinking and believing.

7. Tell us more about the use of Psychedelic plants and their use in Shamanism.

To answer the above one must first come to understand the basic features of the emerging worldview associated with shamanic-hallucinogenic practices. This world view forms our basic perception of what reality is built on. Mankinds earliest perception of life and the world around us have been based on these views held by Shamanic traditions.

* The universe is never ending. It continuously expands. Everything originating from one pivotal moment, named the "Big bang". Native North Americans refer to it as Wakan-Tanka, the Creator Spirit or "web of life" represented by a giant Female spider.

*The world or cosmos is multidimensional. In most shamanic traditions we have upper, middle and lower worlds; in esoteric traditions they are referred to as "levels of consciousness". In a modern world we also refer to levels of wholes and parts: clusters of galaxies, galaxies, solar systems and planets; biosphere, ecosystems, populations and species; societies, sub-cultures, organizations, tribes and families; organisms, organ systems, cells, molecules, atoms and sub-atomic particles.

*The universe has a basic equal polarity, referred to by names such as yin/yang, light/dark, positive/negative charge, male/female, electric/magnetic, Father Sky - Mother Earth and numerous others.

*The universe differs at all levels, into an infinite variety of names and forms, images and objects, identities and beings. We can recognize it at the level of galaxies, stars and planets; plants, animals etc. all forms of the universal life.

*We are part of this and yet we are independent, just like every other being, we can never actually be outside of it, because it is mainly energy we are still connected to it all.

* Shamanism's believes and sees all material and biological life forms, as having life and consciousness. Shamans practice with intent to associate and identify with the universe on all levels. Seeing all part of the greater universe connected in all levels and yet existing as an independent.

The Traditional use of Psychedelic plants or also known as Entheogens (theo=god, spirit, gen=creation) in Shamanic traditions come from religious traditions in which shamanic elements were strong. In Tibetan Buddhism as in Chinese Taoism, practices of connecting with spirits of nature through special visionary states were integrated into the teachings concerning spiritual development and liberation.The use of these substances were done in a ritual setting, with careful attention paid to
conscious intention, whether it was for healing or visionary purposes.

Set and setting are the crucial determinants of the content of a hallucinogenic experience, the use of these plants in a ritual setting, is in fact the logical, as well as the traditional approach. Shamanic rituals involving hallucinogens are the intentional arrangement of the set and the setting for purposes of healing and divination. The traditional shamanic ceremonial form involving hallucinogenic plants is a carefully structured experience, in which a small group (6 - 12) of people come together with respectful, spiritual attitude to share a profound inner journey of healing and transformation, facilitated by these powerful catalysts. A "journey" is the preferred metaphor in shamanistic societies for what we call an "altered state of consciousness".

A strict Diet is followed before a journey, together with setting the intent and purpose of the journey. The Participants undertaking the journey, are also prepared mentaly and spiritualy for the experience. The traditional shamanic rituals involve very little or no talking among the participants, except perhaps during a preparatory phase, or after the experience to clarify the teachings and visions received.

The shaman's singing, is invariably considered essential to the success of the healing or divinatory process; furthermore the singing typical in entheogenic rituals usually has a fairly rapid beat, similar to the rhythmic pulse in shamanic drumming journeys (widespread in shamanistic societies of the Northern Hemisphere in Asia, Europe and America). Psychically, the rhythmic chanting, like the drum pulse, seems to give support for moving through the flow of visions, and minimize the likelihood of getting stuck in frightening or seductive experiences. Most if not all Ceremonies are done in darkness or low light, -- which facilitates the emergence of visions. The exception is the peyote ceremony, done around a fire (though also at night); here participants may see visions as they stare into the fire.

Typically, a shamanic healer working with entheogenic plants undergoes a lengthy initition and training, in the use of these power plants, and themselves develope their own personal relationship with the plant itself. In Shamanic traditions it is believed that one makes contact with the spirit of this plant, and each plant has a different teacher. The Plant Divas have each and their own conciousness and have their own way of communicating with the Shaman. From my own experiences this will range from visions to actualy auditory voices with whom an audible and verbal
communication can be undertaken.

There are various forms of ritual used by different traditions, here are but to name a few.

In the peyote ceremonies in North America, participants sit in a circle, in a tipi, on the ground, around a blazing central fire. The ceremony goes all night, and is conducted by the Shaman, with the assistance of a drummer, a firekeeper and a cedar-man (for purification). A staff and rattle are passed around and participants sing the peyote songs, which involve a rapid, rhythmic beat. The peyote ceremonies of the Huichol Indians of Northern Mexico also take place around a fire, with much
singing and story-telling, after the long group pilgrimage to find the rare cactus

The ceremonies of the san pedro cactus, in the Andean regions, are sometimes also done around a fire, with singing; but sometimes the curandero (shaman) sets up an altar, on which are placed different symbolic figurines and objects, representing the light and dark spirits which one is likely to encounter.

The mushroom ceremonies (velada) of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico, involve the participants sitting or lying in a very dark room, with only a small candle. The healer, who may be a woman or a man, sings almost uninterruptedly, throughout the night, weaving into her chants the names of Christian saints, her spirit allies and the spirits of the Earth, the elements, animals and plants, the sky, the waters and the fire.

Traditional Amazonian Indian or mestizo ceremonies with ayahuasca also involve a small group sitting in a circle, in semi-darkness, while the initiated healers sing the songs (icaros), through which the healing and/or diagnosis takes place. These songs also have a fairly rapid rhythmic pulse, which keeps the flow of the experience moving along. Shamanic "sucking" methods of extracting toxic psychic residues or
sorcerous implants are sometimes used.

The ceremonies involving the African iboga plant, used by the Bwiti cult in Gabon amd Zaïre, involve an altar with ancestral and deity images, and people sitting on the floor with much chanting and some dancing. Often, there is a mirror in the assembly room, in which the initiates may "see" their ancestral spirits .

The above features are also found in accounts of shamanic journey experiences with other modalities, such as drumming, vision questing, or conscious dreaming. It is clear that these experiential features imply the existence of a radically different worldview (than the Western) in entheogenic shamanic practitioners. I will simply list these features, since there is not the space here to document them extensively.

(1) The role of the guide, curandera or healer is always described as central and essential. This must be a person with extensive personal experience in the use of these medicines, who agrees to provide an initiatory experience to a seeker or training to an apprentice. In virtually all entheogenic rituals, the guide or shaman does much or all of the singing, and this singing profoundly shapes the quality and content of the experience.

(2) The experience can be healing, on physical, psychic and spiritual levels (although traditional shamanic healers do not make such analytic distinctions). Shamanic healing experiences, with entheogens or other means, have three main variations: one is the extraction of a toxin, that may have been implanted by means of sorcery; the second is the retrieval of a split-off psychic fragment or "soul"; and the third is the experience of being dismembered or destroyed, and then reconstituted with a healthier, stronger "body."

(3) The experience can provide access to hidden knowledge, -- this is the aspect of divination, "seeing", prophecy, intuition or visioning. If the intention or context is healing, then the divination would be equivalent what Western medicine calls diagnosis -- e.g. from where and from whom did the particular toxic implant come, where has the soul-fragment been "lost", what particular herbs should be used for the person's illness, etc. It is said that there is an intelligence associated with the plant medicine, an intelligence that communicates in an interior way to the person who ingests the medicine. Indigenous healers refer to the entheogenic plants as "plant teachers".

(4) There is a feeling and perception of access to meta-physical realms or worlds. Such realms have, in shamanic, esoteric or magical traditions, been referred to variously as "inner world", "spirit world", "upper or lower world", "faerie world", "dreamtime" or "other world". Some anthropologists, including Michael Harner, refer to them as "non-ordinary reality." The access to these other-worlds may come through a kind of journey to that world; perhaps on the back of an animal or carried by a large bird. Alternatively, one may feel that one can see into the spirit world without moving, while still aware of the ordinary present world of time-space as well. Scenery and beings of the other world may appear in our world. In any event, the usual boundaries between the worlds seem to become more permeable, during such experiences.

(5) The experience may involve the perception of non-material, normally invisible, spirit beings or entities. Such spirits are recognized as being associated with particular animals (e.g. serpent, jaguar), certain plants, trees or fungi, certain places (e.g. river, rainforest), deceased ancestors, and other non-ordinary entities (e.g. extra-terrestrials, elves). It can include the experiences of actually becoming or identifying with that spirit (e.g. the experience of becoming a jaguar or a serpent). The healing and divination is experienced as being done by or with the assistance of such spirits, also referred to as "allies", "power animals", "guardians" or "helpers". In some healing rituals, there may also be contact with bad or malevolent spirits, that need to be exorcized or neutralized in some way.

Taking into account the above, it is easily to understand why psychedelic plants have played such a great role in these traditions. As it allowed the practitioner or shaman to go beyond our physical world and travel up and down the web of life. It allowed them a connection to the beginning, to that single moment when all came into being.

Assuredly, psychedelics can provide access to realms far removed from anything we would identify as "consensus reality." These shamanic catalysts evoke shamanic states of consciousness and any would be explorer of such realms must be willing and prepared to endure what can only be called the terror stress and joy of shamanic initiation. Obviously, this is not for everyone, or even very many of us.

Contact Tiaan Kotze (Awenith)