Soul Rescue

Initiations

Initiations into soul rescue can take many forms. In the mystical priesthood of the Venezuelan rainforest, young men are initiated with hallucinogenic drugs to expand their attention to include the spiritual world, subjecting them to psychic attack by elemental influences, which are prevalent in the region. In the ensuing battle to overcome these forces, drained by a week of fasting and hallucinating, the initiate is expected to stay awake and keep his body alive, assisted by experienced shaman, one of whom, in the event of possession, ensures that the spirit of the initiate does not wander too far from the body, while the others exorcize the possessing entity to keep the initiate on the correct path. The thought pattern on exorcism is that if the possessed initiates’ spirit was to wander too far from his body, it would be drawn into the forest and held by elemental forces resulting in bodily death. Once the initiate has faced the demons of the forest and mastered them, he will be acknowledged as a shaman.

In Shinto, the Japanese folk religion, they follow the way of the native gods known as “kami” who are the focus of anything vivid or powerful in nature. In this tradition, women are the special conduits of the spirits, communicating with the entities and deities, divining the future as oracles, offering prayers for the sick and purifying new buildings as it is believed in this culture that women have more yin energy and so are better equipped to communicate with the spirit world.

Novices of this belief system undergo training disciplines which include cold water ablution, purification, fasting, abstinence and the observance of various taboos for three to five years. They are trained in the techniques of trance, communication with super consciousness or discarnate entities, divination, prayer and incantation; they learn the melody and intonation used in the chanting of prayers, magic formulas and liturgies and the narratives and ballads of local custom. Following this training they become full-fledged shamanists through the completion of initiatory ordeals and an initiation ceremony which includes symbols of death and the resurrection.

In the Western world due to the lack of available formal or traditional ritual or training, the person undergoing initiation commonly suffers a debilitating illness or tragedy during which they have their first meaningful encounter with spirit. These beings use the delirium, coma or traumatic event to introduce the initiate to the shamanic state of consciousness and when the initiate recovers, they may have no conscious memory of their spiritual journey, or even of what physically happened.

Some rescuers refuse to take up the “calling”, instead hiding from it and this may see them becoming disillusioned with the life that they once had. Such individuals can suffer great psychic damage in their attempts to repress their psychic or shamanic energy, becoming haunted by it.

Western thought induces fear – fear of failure, of feeling ill, of dying, of being diseased, being insecure, failing in a career, failing to be married, to have children. We are expected to fit in to the community and achieve highly in the physical world and this attitude does not lend itself to the courage that is expected of someone who desires to be initiated into the ways of true spirituality so that they might develop the qualities that one needs in order to become a soul rescuer.

Courage is required in order to be initiated into soul rescue as dark forces will endeavor to test the initiates’ fear of evil and during this time weaknesses will be highlighted. Through being able to go through the darkest point…rock bottom as it were; vision, compassion and wisdom will develop.

In the comfort zone of the Western world, we are not equipped or prepared to cope with the powerful initiation rites of the Otherworld and as a result, many western healers remain superficial and ineffectual in moments of darkness, being unwilling to confront the intensity of such an encounter. Many dark realities can hold a spirit to the earthly planes and many of these spirits are aware that they are dead but do not wish to take the responsibility for moving onto the higher realms, instead preferring to hold on to human life and deliberately continue their habits and emotional anxieties through a host, causing much heartache along the way.