Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Yours in fellowship,
Andrew Camargo
Founding Teacher, The School of Modern Soul Science
Sitting down and actually working through this workbook from start to finish is a serious
undertaking, and without the pressure of a deadline of tuition investment, only a
motivated soul will go all the way with it. Arriving at your personal constellation should
take anywhere from 5 to 50 hours of inspired focus. Mapping out the 2-D mandala
should take an additional burst of inspiration, and mapping out the 3-D torus-mandala is
an epic undertaking. It's a serious piece of work, and requires serious attention. And
these days, who has time to spare?
So given that most of the people reading this now are overwhelmed with responsibilities,
pressures, distractions, scarcity of time, money, and many competing “educational
influences” (all on top of having to deal with the relentless dismembering force of an
apocalyptic spiritual crisis bearing down on all of humanity), I will say the following:
This workbook has something for everybody. No matter how deeply you dive into it, it is
sure to give you a precious new piece of the puzzle in your ongoing quest for self-
knowledge. Think of it like a magic mirror, not just for your soul’s archetypal depths, but
also for your will to “know thyself”. If you harness your will-power to put in a certain
amount of time, energy, and focus, you will get the same investment back in the form of
self-knowledge, insight, and spiritual guidance. If you only have enough time to invest a
cursory glance, you can still get a helpful new increment of self-knowledge in return. And
if you dive earnestly into the workbook, but don’t manage to finish it because life
somehow intervenes, you can still receive an epiphany, although this epiphany will not
crystallize into ego-consciousness to the same extent if you were to accomplish the final
mandala.
I am putting this comprehensive - perhaps even intimidating - workbook out there with
the expectation that, out of every 100 people that enroll in the workshop, 80 will print it
out, read through it, and gain profound insights about themselves and their purpose,
approximately 50 will get their scores for all the facets. 25 will actually flesh out their
personal constellation and construct their 2-D mandala. Perhaps 5 of of 100 will
continue to work creatively with the 3-D mandala variations, and 1 in 100 will actually
construct their torus model. At the very least, all should aspire to map out their personal
constellation.
If this subject matter lights a fire inside of you, but you can't envision having enough
time to devote to it, consider enrolling in the School of Modern Soul Science's
foundational 101 course. It is comprised of video lectures that can be taken in at your
own pace, in your own time.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Humanity is currently facing a great crisis; our collective “ego” needs to die in order for our
collective “Higher Self” to emerge. This death and rebirth crisis is the fundamental crux of
shamanistic initiation, a phenomenon that exists in every culture, and is the very pattern by which
consciousness itself continuously evolves.
All over the world, people (regardless of age, race, gender, culture, religion, nationality) are
experiencing remarkably similar “shamanistic calls” to embark on some sort of initiatory journey
into higher spiritual consciousness. And this journey, while utterly unique to each soul, is also
uncannily consistent.
If we approach shamanism as inherently archetypal, universal, and spontaneously arising in any and
all cultures, the implication is that:
Individuals from all over the world resonate with the same
archetypal complex, albeit in splendidly diverse ways.
This workbook has been designed to measure both the universality (unity) of this vitally
important incarnating archetype, and the specific ways (multiplicity) that it is manifesting in each
individual.
Simply put, this workbook acts like a magical mirror for the aspects of your soul that are being
inspired by the Shamanic Archetype. What you already see in yourself, this workbook will clarify
and empower. What you do not yet see in yourself, this workbook will bring into conscious view.
If you complete this workbook, particularly in conjunction with the accompanying WORKSHOP,
you will arrive at a vivid picture of precisely how the Shamanic Archetype is activating in you. If you
know how it is activating, you can know what to do next; how to further facilitate and inspire
this process. You will also begin to understand the inherent dangers, and how to navigate them
safely.
But beware. This workbook is designed to invoke and activate magical, archetypal consciousness,
which has the potential to overwhelm or even temporarily destabilize, particularly if you're already
at a volatile crossroads of crisis and transformation.
The dangers of working with the archetypal material in this workbook—and advice for how to
navigate them—are addressed in the Lesson 2 of the WORKSHOP.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This workbook was inspired, in large part, by the contributions of the following luminaries:
***
Mircea Eliade
~ whose book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy has given us an
anthropological anchor for an archetypal approach to shamanism, and a
precious glimpse at how the archetypal complex manifests throughout
indigenous cultures.
***
Michael Harner
~ who pioneered “Core Shamanism”, further developing an archetypal
approach to an archetypal phenomenon, while giving us a collection of
inexhaustibly useful techniques that transcend culture and religion.
***
Terence McKenna
~ who rediscovered and prophetically announced the relationship between
shamanism, entheogens, and alchemy, and heralded an “archaic revival” -
a return of the shamanic archetype to the rapidly growing cultural
consciousness.
***
Daniel Pinchbeck
~ whose work continues McKenna’s impulse. A courageous cartographer
and heroic herald of the shamanic archetype’s modern manifestation.
***
WORKBOOK INSTRUCTIONS
For best results, it is recommended that you print this workbook in its entirety, and
work on the hard copy with a pen or pencil in hand. Working on a hard copy favors a
more open psycho-spiritual channel with the material, and will permit you to mark up the
workbook according to your personal resonance. Marking up the hard copy will facilitate the
magic of the material.
In order to work from the computer screen, it is strongly recommended that you still
print out, or hand-copy, the Worksheets (pages: 34-40). With the worksheets in front of
you, and a pen or pencil in your hand, scroll through each facet, and record your
results as you go. If you are working entirely from the computer, you will need some
way to record your results, so you can map out your personal constellation.
1) SELF-IDENTIFICATION SCORE
Read the general definition of the facet. How much do you resonate with it? Without thinking
about it too much, what is your initial level of identification? The scoring for this section is
deliberately arbitrary. You are meant to assign yourself a score out of 33, based on your first
impression of personal resonance.
Write your self-identification score in the space below the definition ( /33),
and also on the PERSONAL CONSTELLATION (OVERVIEW) Worksheet (page 34-36).
Then move on to section 2 (the prompted affirmation questions) for that facet.
If working on a hard copy, write your score directly beside each question. It is recommended that you
interact with the questions: Highlight, circle, underline, draw exclamation points! Make comments.
Add up all the points and write your total “Prompted Affirmation Points” in the space below the
question set, and also on the PERSONAL CONSTELLATION (OVERVIEW) Worksheet (p. 34-36).
After answering the prompted affirmation questions, move on to the next facet. Complete section 1
and section 2 FOR ALL 25 FACETS, and then go back to the beginning and do the "Cluster Points" for each
facet (having already familiarized yourself with them and determined your personal resonances).
3) CLUSTER POINTS
The unique way that a core facet manifests inwardly in your life, and outwardly in the
cultural sphere, is shaped and inspired by other facets. The purpose of this section is to
determine: Which facets influence which? How do they form and focus one another?
How does the energy and inspiration flow?
Once you have gone through section 1 and section 2 for all the facets, return to the beginning, and
go over each facet again, asking yourself:
“How is this (core) facet’s expression being influenced by the other facets?”
At the bottom third section, circle all the cluster facets that FORM and/or EMPOWER the core facet
named at the top of the page. For each cluster facet you circle assign either:
For example, if Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, or Amy Winehouse were
scoring themselves in the Culture Hero core facet, they could say that:
The SACRED MUSICIAN facet gave form to how CULTURE HERO manifested
through their willed actions and permeated their culture = 4 points.
They could also say that the WOUNDED HEALER facet inspired how the
CULTURE HERO facet received spiritual empowerment, animation, and the
'magic spark' to touch, inspire, and even help to heal, the souls of many = 2 points.
CULTURE SACRED
MUSCICIAN
HERO
(score
4)
WOUNDED
HEALER
(score
2 )
So in this case, we are dealing with specifically musical 'culture-heroes' who were
inspired by the energy of the 'wounded healer', and in turn inspired their culture
with the same 'wounded healer' energy through the medium of their music.
Add up all the points (4 and 2) and write the sum in the “Cluster Points” at the bottom right of the section.
Also, on the PERSONAL CONSTELLATION (OVERVIEW) Worksheet (page 34-36), write the formative
facet number (for example, Sacred Musician = #7) in the Formed by Cluster #? column, and write the
empowering facet number, (for example, Wounded Healer = #12) in the Empowered by Cluster #?
column. Add up all the 4's and all the 2's and write the total in the Cluster Points (TOTAL column.
***
Now add up the scores for all three sections to arrive at your core facet TOTAL. Write this number at the top
right corner of each facet page, and on the PERSONAL CONSTELLATION (OVERVIEW) Worksheet.
Do this for all 25 facets, and then proceed to map out your personal constellation. (See page 41)
Workbook
Instructions
8
On the right side of the worksheet, there are three columns (click HERE to see), separated from the
rest of the table. You do not need to fill in this section if you are are not planning to map out your
personal constellation in a three-dimensional Torus.
The purpose of this section is to determine the "most formative and empowering" cluster facets in
your personal map. This is is the only part of the worksheet that is a bit tricky, because you have to
hop around the rows to enter the data.
It is explained more thoroughly in the workshop, Lesson 5. In the meantime, it is easiest to explain
with a specific example:
Let's say you are entering your results from the "12. WOUNDED
HEALER" facet page into the corresponding worksheet row. You add the
sum of the three sections to arrive at your TOTAL SCORE, which gives
an indication of how the wounded healer is guiding and inspiring your
spiritual journey and your sense of self and purpose in the world.
But how does "WOUNDED HEALER" help to form and empower the other facets in the
archetype that you also resonate with? To determine this, do the following:
Look at the cluster facets that you circled for that facet. Let's say that your
personal manifestation of "WOUNDED HEALER" is formed/focused by
"VISIONARY ARTIST" (#6), and is empowered/inspired by "ENERGY
WORKER" (#14) and "CULTURE HERO" (#19)".
That means that, as you are filling out the "12. WOUNDED HEALER" row, when you reach
the right columns, leave that row and proceed to:
• First go to the "6. VISIONARY ARTIST" row, and under the "FORMS AND
FOCUSES WHICH FACETS? (score 4)" column, write: "Wounded Healer (#12)".
• Then go to the "14. ENERGY WORKER" row, and under the "EMPOWERS,
INSPIRES WHICH FACETS? (score 2)" column, write: "Wounded Healer (#12)".
• Finally, go to the "19. CULTURE HERO" row, and under the "EMPOWERS,
INSPIRES WHICH FACETS? (score 2)" column, write, "Wounded Healer (#12)" .
Now you are done with row #12. Proceed to row #13, repeating the same
process. Continue doing this through all 25 rows/facets. Once you have finished, you can
calculate the far-right column, "FORMING AND EMPOWERING TOTAL" for each facet.
Filling out the right side of the master worksheet takes some perseverance, but it is the key to
unlocking the magic of the three-dimensional mandala.
***
Still not entirely clear? Are you more of a visual learner? No problem.
Just check out the video illustrations and explanations in Workshop Lesson 4 and 5.
TOTAL: this facet is not scored
- Has undergone one or more ego-shattering - Has been formally initiated into a specific tradition,
experiences, including "entheogenic" religion, society, order.
experiences.
Self-identification score: N/A
- Have you experienced an - Have you endured a serious - Have you experienced a serious,
existential crisis? An ego death debilitating illness or accident? long-term depression?
and rebirth into a radically new Brain damage? Have you had a
outlook or state of consciousness? brush with death? - Have you ever attempted suicide?
- Have you experienced a - Have you smoked DMT? - Have you experienced trauma
visionary death and rebirth? (physical, emotional, sexual)?
- Have you taken a “heroic” dose
- Have you experienced a of psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, - Have you experienced a
visionary dismemberment? ayahuasca, peyote? ‘mental breakdown’ or a
‘psychotic episode’?
- Have you had a Near Death - Have you been formally
Experience? Have actually initiated into a specific - Have you suddenly abandoned
experienced the death of the tradition? Have you adopted a your job, your home, your friend
physical body, but somehow new religion? group, your family’s religious
came back to life? orientation, your partner, family?
- Have you changed your name?
- Have you experienced - Have you had a mystical
depersonalization or ‘soul-loss’? - Have you experienced personal experience that fundamentally
tragedy? changed you?
- Are you a psychotherapist? A - Does your work include taking - Do you find yourself doing soul-
minister? A guidance counseler? people on a journey through an retrieval or soul-transportation
altered state of consciousness work in your dreams?
- Are you called to work at the (Yoga, DJ, shifting emotional or
threshold of life and death? bodily energy)?
Birthing? Dying?
Prompted affirmation points: ______
- Conscious of the underlying 'dream time' - Able to “work” in the dream world (for
of waking life. example, consult spiritual guides, communicate
with the dead, gain special insights, visit certain
- Experiences initiatory passages in dreams. places, even do soul-retrieval work).
- Have you had a “big dream?” - Do you have a habit of recalling, - Are you visited by spirits ghosts,
– a dream that dramatically contemplating your dreams? Do ancestors in dreams?
changed your life? you keep a dream journal? Do you
actually analyze your dreams? - Have you ever had night terrors?
- Have you undergone an initiatory Recurring nightmares?
passage in your dreams? Death, - Have you under undergone dream
dismemberment, resurrection? analysis, Jungian analysis? Are you - Do you suspect you might have
a psychotherapist? relatively more nightmares than most?
- Do you have a vivid dream life? If
not now, perhaps when you were - Do you have an intuitive knack for - Do you receive messages or teachings
younger? decoding the dream language, in your dreams?
dream messages, dream
- Do your dreams often have interpretation? - Do you dream that something is
coherent narratives, in which you going to happen, and then it
have to do something, accomplish - Are you a lucid dreamer? Have you happens?
something, retrieve or restore ever experienced a lucid dream?
something? And you either - Where you a “day dreamer” as a
succeed of fail? - Do you dream of the past? Future? child and/or adolescent? Are you
now?
- Do you enjoy puzzling or - Are you a visionary artist?
interpreting the dreams of others? Storyteller? Do you draw creative - Is dreaming a "second life"? Do you
inspiration from dreams? do "soul retrieval" work in dreams?
- Are you a “Psychonaut”? An - Have you gone to the Amazon - Do you meditate? Practice astral
intrepid explorer of realms made specifically to drink ayahuasca projection, remote viewing,
available to you through with a shaman? journey drumming? Do you
psychedelic, entheogenic agents? practice 'active imagination'?
- If you an artist, do you strive to
- Do you systematically explore, represent visionary realms in your - Are you a passionate traveler and
experiment with various art? explorer and adventurer of the
psychedelic agents? Do you write physical world? Do you take lots
“Trip Reports”? Written - If you are a writer, do your of pictures? Do you make
accounts of journeys into non- narratives involve progressive photographic travelogues of your
ordinary realms of consciousness? journeys into visionary, magical adventures?
realms? Descent motifs?
- If exploring psychedelic/ - Are you drawn to visionary art?
entheogenic agents, do you - Do you strive to classify, analyze, The artwork of the Hermetic,
deliberately take a large dose? understand, explain, write about Alchemical Tradition? The work
your visionary experiences? Your of C.G. Jung? Terence
- Do you ‘research’ other realms in mystical experiences? McKenna? Pablo Amaringo?
your dreams? Alex Grey?
- Do you love good fantasy fiction?
- Do you keep a dream journal? Tolkien? Do you write it yourself? - Do you study occultism? Magical
maps and symbols? Spiritual
- Were you ever hooked on an - Do you engage in shamanic hierarchies and nomenclatures?
RPG video game? journeying? Alchemy? Kabbalah?
- Creator of images and/or words to appreciate, contemplate, praise, reflect or somehow embody the
Mysteries of consciousness, existence, humanity's place in the cosmos.
- Mediums, messengers. Creators of tangible artifacts of consciousness that symbolize higher truths,
visions, and revelations of the spiritual realms as they inter-penetrate with material realms.
- Visionary Art of every sort is the stage through which {THE ENERGIES AND INSPIRATIONS OF THE
SPIRITUAL WORLD} and {THE FORMS AND IMAGES OF THE MATERIAL WORLD} meet, mingle, and
co-create, resulting in concrete symbolic artifacts that are simultaneously spiritualized visions of
matter, and materializations of spiritual inspiration.
- It is your purpose in life to - Is/was LSD a creative muse for you? - If a storyteller (filmmaker, animator,
create/channel visionary art? editor), do you strive to simulate a visionary
- Do you ally yourself with visionary journey in your narratives?
- Do you create art to contemplate or plants -- Mushrooms? Ayahuasca?
reflect or somehow embody the Cannabis? -- for the sake of creative - Do you write poetry? Lyrics?
mysteries of God, humanity, and our inspiration?
place in the cosmos? - Are you a photographer? Animator? Movie
- Do you have a conviction that Art director? Storyboard artist?
- Not just having a vision, but are you can be a vehicle for spiritual
compelled to symbolically represent the awakening, healing? - Did your embrace of Art as your life-
vision in a communicable form? purpose coincide with your healing or
- Are you inspired by a vision of spiritual awakening?
- Do you use your dreams as fuel for humanity’s awakening, evolution,
your art or writing? healing, redemption? Is Art your - Do you create art that springs from your
sword in the battle for humanity’s own healing? That has the power to inspire
- Do you consciously enter states of salvation? healing in others?
trance in order to create your art?
Drumming? Dancing? Meditating? - Are you willing to suffer to bring a - Does your art/writing depict darker
Sleep deprivation? Sex? Entheogens? healing vision to the world? realms? The underworld? Visionary
depictions of the abyss of materialism?
- Do you suffer when you are unable - Does the inspiration demand to be
to create art? realized, and torments you until you - Do you study the great artists of the past?
commit it to the page? Are you seeking an apprenticeship today?
- One who channels music, vibrations, chants, song, or dance, for the purpose of healing, catharsis,
cleansing, or spiritual communion. In the case of shamanistic ceremonies a “medicine musician” –
one who channels sacred music (icaros, hymns, chants, invocations, mantras, prayers) to cultivate
the ceremony’s ‘healing current.’
- Is music a lifeline, without which - Are you a professional dancer, - Are you a sacred singer? Do you
you would surely perish? actor, comedian, performance go into a state of trance and
artist, singer, or musician? channel sacred vibrations,
- Is music a way for you to words, prayers, mantras, hymns
connect to (praise, invoke, - Do you channel your soul with your voice?
experience, channel) the Divine? through the performing arts?
- Do you play an instrument? Do
- Is singing integral to your - Do you compose music that is you channel sacred music or
spiritual practice? Chant? inspired by mystical experience? induce trance states through
Satsang? Sing hymns in church? your instrument?
- Are you a ceremonial musician?
- Do you play a drum? Attend Feel called to become one? - Are you a method actor? Do you
drum circles? Attend ecstatic channel inspiration for your
(trance) dance events? - Is music, for you, a primary work from archetypal realms?
source of healing in your life? Do
- Are you a DJ? Do you construct you compose music that springs - Are you a sacred dancer? One
music playlists to achieve specific from your healing? who dances oneself into a state
trance states? Ecstatic states? of trance and channels
- Are you involved in healing work archetypal inspiration and
- Do you attend entheogenically via music? healing energy?
inspired dance festivals?
Conscious parties? Did you?
Prompted affirmation points: ______
- Do you deliberately enter states of trance - Do you practice silencing of - Are you a performer, DJ?
to accomplish work in either physical or thoughts? Can you hold a state of
non-physical realms? Athlete? Performer? non-thinking? - Do you cultivate techniques for
Soul-retrieval? Séances? Spell-casting? navigating psychedelic experiences?
- Have you ever experienced
- Do you deliberately induce trance states in “automatic writing”? Or at least - Do you cultivate the study and
others to accomplish work in non-ordinary uncannily inspired writing? practice of “sacred sexuality”?
states of consciousness?
- Are you a psychotherapist or - Does your professional work create
- Is trance-work or trance-induction (of hypnotherapist? trance-inducing experiences for others
others) integral to you performing your (ex. filmmaker, special effects, sound
profession? - Are you a Yoga teacher? Fitness design, lighting design, video game
instructor, athlete of some sort? design, even interior design?
- Do you have specific techniques for
entering or inducing trance? Ex: Drum, - Are you a teacher, a preacher, a - Are you a medium? Do you
breath, movement, speaking, music, public speaker, a comedian? Are consciously allow sentient spiritual
chanting, mantras, dance, sense- you a good storyteller? entities to incorporate in your body to
deprivation, psychedelics, entheogens? somehow work? Do you know how to
- Do you work in sales? open and close an incorporation?
- Do you harness psychedelic states for Advertising? Fundraising?
inspiration? - Do you practice "Core Shamanism"?
9. ASCETIC
- One who abstains from, or renounces, certain sense-gratifications—certain foods, drinks, drugs, sex,
indulgence of the passions, certain words, thoughts, and habits—with the intention of cultivating
more spiritual purity and willpower.
- One who renounces the ethos of materialism, capitalism, $, and the common comforts and
distractions of modern society in order to cultivate a life more devoted to spiritual development.
- One who regularly practices spiritual disciplines, rituals, prayers, devotions, Tapas, Yamas; one who
deliberately pushes past physical and psychological limits by virtue of strengthened spiritual will
power. Also, one who regularly practices physical disciplines. Pushes past pain barriers, entering states
of trance through physical challenge (fasting, exercise, Yoga, running a marathon, Sun Dance, etc.)
- Do you meditate regularly? - Was there some point when you dis- - Do you willfully refrain from
identified with a friend group, to television or movies?
- Are you a serious Yoga focus on your healing or spiritual Pornography? Masturbation?
practitioner? development?
- Are you voluntarily celibate?
- Are you a Martial Artist? - Have you felt compelled to go into
relative isolation? Cabin in the - Have you done a fast? A detox or
- Do you conscientiously refrain woods, retreats, hiking? Ashram? a cleanse? A spiritual “dieta”?
from certain habits, lifestyles
typical of the cultural majority? - Is it, or would it be difficult for you - Do you wake up at sunrise and
to live in a city? pray, do yoga, meditate, write,
- Do you refrain from drinking run, exercise?
alcohol? Using party drugs? - Do you refrain from cursing, using
bad words, gossiping, speaking - If a Yogi, are you going through,
- Have a history of partying, but angrily? Refrain from speaking or have gone through “tapas”?
now you party no more? entirely?
- An athlete in training?
- Do you have an “addictive - Have you done a Vipassana retreat?
personality”? Are you a Would you like to? - Do you conscientiously reject
recovered (or recovering) materialism, and seek alternative
alcoholic, drug-addict, sex- - Are you vegetarian, or vegan? ways of supporting yourself based
addict, porn-addict? Do you Observe food restrictions (for on creativity and/or healing?
have "manic" tendencies? example, only organic, non-GMO)?
- Do you have a background in math - Are you fascinated by Sacred - Are you a visionary architect? Do you
and/or science? Do you have a knack Geometry? Do you study it? aspire to design architecture that
for numbers? reflects sacred principles in Nature
- Do you study Astrology, and the Cosmos?
- Have you ever had a mystical Alchemy, Numerology?
epiphany that was inspired by—or - As Above, So Below?
manifested through—scientific or - Do you study entheogens
mathematical concepts, theories, through a scientific lens? - Do you work with computer
paradigms, insights? technology in a creative way? Web
- Are you an inventor? An design? Innovative computer
- Do you see the presence of God in the innovator? Do you get your programming?
designs of Nature and the Cosmos? inspiration in trances states?
- Are you a visionary entrepreneur?
- Are you passionate about the synthesis - Do you use psychedelics to get Devising new paradigms for business,
of Science and Spirituality? How promethean inspirations? trade, capitalism, social innovation?
about Science and Art?
- Do you believe that Science - Do you pursue sustainable
- Do you study Freemasonry? must come to the rescue, and technologies of energy, food, housing?
play an essential role in Are you a Permaculturist? A visionary
- Are you a renegade genius in your surviving the impending crisis? (sustainable) community builder?
field? A revolutionary and trailblazer?
Prompted affirmation points: ______
- Understands the relationship between sexuality and magic, nature and magic, creativity and magic,
thoughts and magic, entheogens and magic, words/symbols and magic, angels and magic, tricksters
and magic, demons and magic.
- An alchemist – one who consciously works on the magical transmutation of one’s own soul.
- An astrologer – one who studies the correspondences between the cosmic bodies and the human soul.
- Do you study magic? - Are you drawn to the work of - Were you raised in a prevailing
Or spell-work? Carl Jung and/or Terence monotheistic religion, and
McKenna? What about Manly abandoned it to pursue a study of
- Do you study Hermeticism? P. Hall? H. P. Blavatsky? magic and the occult?
Alchemy? Astrology? Tarot? Aleister Crowley?
- Would you say that you have a “lust
- Do you feel called to work with - Do you head straight for the for knowledge”?
entheogens, such as psilocybin occult section of the bookstore?
mushrooms or LSD? Were you - Are you a friend to dragons?
introduced to entheogens at a - Do you invoke spiritual entities
relatively young age? for specific reasons? - Are you fascinated by the
supernatural, paranormal, and
- Were you introduced to (or - Do you consciously study the humanity’s apparently vast and
sought out) "the occult" at a correspondences between the relatively untapped potential?
relatively young age? cosmos and the human soul?
- Do you study, draw, or use magical
- Do you consciously use magical - Do you venerate Hermes-Thoth symbols, seals, invocations?
gnosis to reshape your reality or as a god of wisdom and magic?
influence others? - Do you work with spirits who carry
- Does Baphomet have a bad rap? out your will in exchange for...?
- Has experienced the impact of both “good” and “evil” upon the soul. Can now act as a medium
of transmutation, from dark to light, fragmentation to reunion, suffering to healing.
- Have you experienced trauma - Have you suffered serious - Have you had a brush with
(physical, emotional, depression, alienation, confusion, death?
psychological, sexual)? Abuse? chronic fatigue?Leading you to
Have you embarked on a journey perform a soul retrieval on - Do you transform darkness into
to heal the trauma? And as a yourself? Leading you to become a knowledge, healing, light?
result now feel called to do “soul source of spiritual inspiration and
retrieval” work for the similarly community building impulses? - Do you cope with chronic pain?
traumatized? Physical disability?
- Where you indoctrinated into a
- Have you experienced an acute prevailing monotheistic religion? - Do you medicate with plants?
existential, spiritual crisis?Sudden Did you have to rebel against this
loss or fragmentation of identity? indoctrination in order to find - Have you ever had a “mental
Leading to a spiritual epiphany your own connection? breakdown” or a “psychotic
and rebirth of ego? episode”? Have you been
- Did you have your direct diagnosed with a mood disorder?
- Have you suffered a seriously connection to the Divine taken Labeled mentally ill?
debilitating physical illness? away, hidden, or forbidden?
- Do you come from a place of
- Have you suffered from an illness - Have you been an addict? Drugs? poverty, violence, social injustice?
that modern doctors were unable Sex? Other compulsions, And are now fighting for equality,
to diagnose? obsessions? rights, social justice?
- Are you unusually sensitive to - Are you (or your ancestors) part of - Do you feel like you are carrying
foods, environments, people, an ethnic or religious group that the unhealed karmic burden of
energy? has been systematically persecuted? your family, ancestors, tribe? Your
culture, your race, your religion?
- Can perceive details in the subtle bodies (illness, intrusions, spiritual possession or semi-possession).
- Is tapped into a source of knowledge beyond personal experience. Receives genuine insights about
other people or events from super-sensible sources.
- Remote viewing - able to perceive realms and locations and information without the physical senses.
- People can be born with clairvoyant gift, or they can attain it through initiatory training. Those born
with clairvoyant gift can go on to become a “Seer” if they train their faculties and gain discernment.
- Can you see etheric energy? - Do you receive prophetic insights, - Did you have an entheogenic
Auras? Colors? Can you see or dreams about the the future? experience that unlocked
otherwise directly perceive clairvoyant perception?
thoughts and emotions? - Do you experience clairvoyant Permanently, or temporarily?
gift as a burden? Too
- Can you see entities in people? overwhelming, causing you to fear - Or have you experienced
falling into mental illness? inexplicable breakthrough
- Can you perceive ghosts, spirits. moments of clairvoyance,
shadows? Do you hear them or - Have you shut this ability down clairaudience (hearing)?
somehow sense them? Can you through drugs, alcohol, or sheer
perceive nature spirits? Fairies? force of will? - Are you in any way actively
Etheric realms of nature? cultivating your clairvoyance?
- Do you obtain information in your
- If yes, have you had this ability for dreams or meditations? - Are you a vegetarian?
as long as you can remember, but
have suppressed it or hidden it, - Do you get ‘downloads’ of - Do you fast? Special diet? Detox?
kept it a secret? information about people and
places, when you focus your - Do you meditate? Practice astral
- Have you been diagnosed on the attention in a certain way? projection? Silencing of thoughts?
schizophrenic spectrum?
- Can you read minds? Can you tell
- Do you feel that you can access if someone is lying?
the "Akashic Record"?
Prompted affirmation points: ______
- Works with crystals, smudge, feathers etc. - Perceives and comprehends subtle etheric energies,
to amplify, charge, store, clear, transmute and how they relate to the physical body, health,
various subtle energies. breath, and healing. Can consciously harness and
work with this energy. How it is directed depends
- Nutritionist, cook of healthy foods. on morality and soul development.
Traditional Chinese doctor, Aryuvedic
doctor. Naturopathic doctor.
Self-identification score: /33
- Are you a Yoga teacher? - Do you study traditional Chinese - Are you a performing musician? DJ?
Serious Yoga student? medicine? Qi-gong? Acupuncture? Professional dancer? Comedian?
Actor?
- Do you practice breathwork? - Naturopathy, homeopathy?
Cultivate techniques of trance - Do you see or otherwise sense subtle
and energy work through - Are you a Reiki master? Massage bodies, subtle energies?Can you
breathing? therapist? consciously influence these subtle
energies with your intentions, focus,
- Are you a dancer? - Osteopath? Cranio-sacral therapist? your art, or through touch or breath?
- Do you study Tantra, alchemical - Fitness instructor, spinning, personal - Do you do house clearings? Feng
sacred sexuality? trainer? Martial artist? Shui? Smudging? Sound healing?
- Is working with sexual energy - Do you assist others during - Do you facilitate transformative
integral to your work, vocation? entheogenic ceremonies? Are you a workshops or events?
ceremonial musician? A helper?
- Have you experienced a - Do you cast spells?
kundalini awakening? - Do you consciously or unconsciously Or practice Alchemy?
absorb or clear negative energy?
- Did you have an imaginary friend - Do you invoke spiritual entities - Are there certain plants, or certain
as a child? for any reason? Do you speak to substances derived from plants,
spirits? Converse with them? that you consider to be
- Do you have a mythical alter-ego? "entheogens"?
Do you like to get dressed up - Do you consciously cultivate
flamboyantly and go out dancing, archetypes within yourself ? (For - Do you have an alliance with any
partying? Have you been to example, trying to channel the "teacher plants" such as cannabis,
Burning Man? spirit of the Great Mother to your psilocybin, peyote, huachuma,
newborn, or channeling the ayahuasca, iboga, tobacco, coca?
- Do you venerate the gods and Warrior in the face of a cancer
goddesses of any named pantheon? diagnosis)? - Do you consciously, semi-
(Hindu, Celtic, Mayan, Yoruba, consciously, even unconsciously,
etc.) Would you say you have an - Do you have charisma? Have you call upon forces beyond yourself in
active relationship with any? been called a “genius”? order to somehow enhance your
personal capacities?
- Do you have a shamanic approach - Are you a screenwriter, novelist,
to Christianity? Do you have an playwriter, or actor, who conjures - Can you perceive your own
alliance with the Christ? up fictional characters who seem personal devil, subtly undermining
to have a life of their own? your spiritual progress?
- Do you have a conscious alliance
with ancestral spirits? Nature - If a performer, have you ever - Are you struggling with
spirits? Animals? Angels? Ascended really let yourself go, and felt like "possession"? A second (magical)
Masters? Tricksters? "something else" was speaking, personality?
singing, or moving through you?
- Do you venerate the earth as a - Do you smoke cannabis? Grow? - Is communion with Nature
Divine Mother, Great Goddess? integral to your spirituality?
- Do you grow plants? Tend plants?
- Do you read or somehow study Talk to plants? - Is communion with Nature
the “Book of Nature”? integral to your well-being, happiness,
- Are you in any way dedicated to lifestyle?
- Have you had a mystical positively shifting the way we
epiphany, with or without an regard or relate to Nature? Do you - Are you somehow fighting to preserve
entheogenic agent, whilst have hope for a revolution in some aspect of the natural world? Are
communing with Nature? consciousness with regards to you involved in eco-activism?
honoring the sacredness of Nature?
- Are you a student of entheogenic - Do you dream of new paradigms of
plant teachers? Do you love - Do you perceive the spirits of sustainable living? Permaculture?
“magic mushrooms”? nature? Elementals? Visionary community building?
- Do you consider entheogens the - Do you believe that Religion (or - Are you dreaming of getting your own
“Food of the Gods”? Are they Science) that excludes veneration of land, to put these nature-inspired
they integral to your spirituality? Nature is pathological, even insane? paradigms into practice?
- Understands the relationship between demonic spirits, the dark side of magic, human
illness, and suffering.
- Initiation is often brought about by trauma; being “abducted” into the underworld. The
healing from the trauma (soul retrieval) constitutes the shamanic initiation.
- Have you experienced trauma - Have you had an intense but volatile - Have you ever spent a period of time
(physical, emotional, sexual)? relationship with a “bad boy” or a living nocturnally?
“femme fatale” lover?
- Did you grow up in an abusive - Have you fallen under the spell of a
household? Did you grow up - Do you have a history of violence? sorcerer? Have you been bitten by a
around addiction or violence? Angry outbursts? Cruelty? Sadism or snake? Literally or figuratively? Did you,
masochism? at any point, embrace “the dark side of
- Have you engaged in detached, the force…”
depersonalized sex? Prostitution? - Do you have any macabre tattoos?
Piercings? Scars? - Have you ever been addicted to drugs,
- Have you ever engaged in BDSM? alcohol, sex, violence?
Entertained dark sexual fantasies? - Did you, or do you, listen to dark or
Read such literature? energetically violent music - Are you a reformed bad-boy, bad-girl?
(industrial goth, death metal, gangster
- Have you ever dabbled in magic, rap)? Do you watch horror movies? - If you are an artist, writer, poet,
sorcery, occultism? Did you get Play violent video games? musician, storyteller, does your creative
burned? In over your head? work depict the“underworld” (realms of
- Have you experienced “hell” whilst on suffering, trauma, torment)? Or the pain
- Have ever accidentally, naively, an entheogenic journey? and darkness of consensus reality?
foolishly made a pact with a
demonic entity? Trickster entity? - Do you have nightmares? Terrors? - Have you had a mental breakdown? Ever
Panic attacks? Anxiety attacks? been institutionalized? Diagnosed PTSD?
- Are you suffering inexplicably? Do
you "self-medicate" with - Are you (or your ancestors) part of an
ethnic or religious group that has been - Do you feel like a slave? Like your soul is
Cannabis? Alcohol? Opiates? somehow imprisoned?
Cathartic self-mutilation? systematically persecuted?
- Is evil a reality to you? Do - Are you passionate about - Do you actively engage in - Do you believe that
you feel it encroaching on freedom of consciousness? “shadow work”, in the spiritual use of
your life? On your culture? Do you see it under facing, comprehending, entheogens (such as
On your country? On attack? Are you prepared healing, and illumination of psilocybin mushrooms,
humanity on earth? to fight to defend it? your own darkness and ayahuasca, cannabis,
Spiritual activist? subconscious shadows? peyote) is a fundamental
- Are you dedicated to human right?
upholding the good? The - Are you worried for, - Have you been
true? The path of love? dedicated to, the scapegoated? Persecuted? - Do you know Kung Fu?
preservation of Victimized? Have you had No seriously, do you?
- Willing to sacrifice? indigenous wisdom? your innate human rights Martial Arts? Combat
challenged or taken away? training? Are you a
- Do you fight darkness by working
- Are you a veteran? competitive athlete?
on your healing?By pursuing - Do you consciously engage
spiritual development? By - Do you have an ascetic in spiritual warfare in the - Can you discern a
exercising your freedom? practice? Do you train supersensible worlds? In trickster? In others? In
your spiritual will? dreams? In ceremonies? Do yourself? In your own
- Are you part of an ethnic or -
you have spirit allies to help? blind-spot?
religious group that has been Do dark spirits attack you
systematically persecuted? on a daily basis?
Prompted affirmation points: ______
- Bearer of redemptive spiritual boons for an entire culture, or originator of regenerative cultural
impulses. Promethean archetype. Visionary innovator, inventor, prophet, mythmaker. A
"revealer" of hidden, suppressed, forgotten, or forbidden knowledge.
- One who self-sacrifices, or is willing to self-sacrifice, for the benefit of the tribe/culture.
- Are you an artist? Do you aspire to - Are you a writer? Do you boldly - Are you inspired by whistle-blowers, or
create visionary art? Believe that art dive into your own psyche in an others who risk everything to reveal
can galvanize spiritual awakening? effort to bring back a narrative with hidden or suppressed truths?
the power to heal, awaken, or
- Are you laboring on a “great work” otherwise spiritually inspire your - Do you feel that it might be your
that feels like the purpose of your generation? purpose in life to proclaim certain
existence, and yet also feels like a knowledge that has been deliberately
heavy cross to bear? - Do you post, share, or otherwise withheld from the general public?
publish controversial knowledge
- Are you a mythmaker? Do you regarding consciousness, freedom, - Are you particularly interested in
identify with the artist-as-hero? spiritual evolution on the Internet? alternative histories of religion? The
The “suffering artist"? "Facebook activist"? history of entheogens? Mystery
Religions? Conspiracies against human
- Are you prone to extreme states of - Are you passionate about freedom and spiritual evolution?
inspiration? entheogens and their potential for
human evolution and healing? - Are you particularly interested in
- Have you undergone a destabilizing megalithic history? History of temples,
spiritual crisis? A period of so-called - Is it your mission in life to somehow pyramids, sacred sites? Historical
“mania”? bring revolutionary knowledge, paradigms that include “Atlantis” and/
innovation, inspiration, or healing or extra-terrestrial interaction?
- Is "doing nothing" in the face of evil to your culture? To somehow help it
just not an option for you. spread? Are you willing to suffer to - Do you venerate "truth" and "freedom"
accomplish this mission? above all else?
- Are you willing to die for your
convictions?
Prompted affirmation points: ______
- Exposes hidden truths, uncomfortable truths, inconvenient - Deliberately plays a fool; deliberate contrarian.
truths, taboo truths, destabilizing truths. Unwitting plays a fool; unintentionally self-sacrifices for
the greater spiritual good; a “holy fool.”
- Creatively destructive, destructively creative. Breaks down
falsity to create more authenticity. Challenges authenticity - Personality-wise, often volatile, mercurial, a liquid
to expose falsity. Guardian against hypocrisy, projection, mirror, a shape-shifter, paradoxical, “moody”.
and double-standards; tests people to see if they practice
what they preach. - Obvious Shadow: Chaos Magic, psychopathology,
deception, sadism. Instability, unaccountability, liability
- Taboo breaker and re-enforcer; breaks rules in order to test to the community.
and/or prove their validity and wisdom. Violates inflexible
social norms to create influx of dynamic cultural energy. - Reveals irony in all situations; “a walking irony”, a
messenger and revealer of “God’s sense of humor.”
- Challenges conservative social etiquettes, gender
norms, sexual norms, boundaries, ethics.
Self-identification score: /33
- Do you get excited breaking boundaries? - Are you a shape-shifter? Can you - Are you a subversive activist? Do you
Unblocking suppressed emotions or consciously change masks/modes? somehow rob from the rich to give to the
sexual energy? poor? Are you headed in that direction?
- Would you consider yourself “horny”
- Are you compelled to point out the – a high sex drive? Are you relatively - Do you have volatile personal
elephant in the room? Do you feel like uninhibited? relationships, especially with a spouse?
you are always biting your tongue? Frequent miscommunication? Dramatic
- Do you delight in provocation, fights followed by ecstatic make-ups?
- Do you get a charge from smashing false, scandal, irreverence? Either
unexamined, or hypocritical beliefs? In unabashedly or as guilty pleasure? - Do you have a somewhat sadistic sense of
exposing duplicity, blind-spots, self- humor? Enjoy pranks?
deception? Have you had to tame this in - Do you dress “provocatively”? Do you
order to "function in society?" have an alter-ego that likes to party? If - Have you ever identified with a particular
not now, perhaps in the past? trickster character? In history? In
- Do your sincere best intentions often get contemporary society? How about a
inverted, and end up causing a mess? - Do you love satire, political or other? trickster in a film, novel, or myth?
Are you a comedian?
- Do you surf the irony wave? Do you - Do you (or did you) have a habit of
delight in irony all around you? Do you - Do you have an iconoclastic streak? bending or “augmenting” the truth for the
reveal irony in your own life? An anarchistic streak? sake of a good story?
- Have you experienced spiritual - Do you practice Yoga? - Have you had to heal from sexual
ecstasy through sex and/or orgasm? trauma? Sexual sorcery?
Mystical communion? A healing, - Do you practice ecstatic dance?
vision, or epiphany? - Have you even been addicted to sex?
- Do you study contemporary Pornography? Is your sex drive a
- Have you experienced (are you Tantra? Sexual Alchemy? Do burden?
experiencing) a “kundalini you cultivate practices for
awakening”? transmuting sexual energy? - Have you explored the shadow side
of your sexuality?
- Do you consciously perceive sexual - Are you passionate about
energy? Do you know how to work sexuality as an avenue of healing - Have you been initiated into BDSM?
with it? and spiritual awakening?
- Are you polyamorous, non-
- Have you engaged in sex while - Do you consciously monogamous? Do you aspire to
under an entheogen? study/practice “Sex Magic”. alternative relationship models?
- Ever been to Burning Man? - Are you "hetero-flexible"? - Do you practice spiritual monogamy
with a soul-mate?
- A modern "sacred prostitute"? - Do you know how to use your
sexual energy for magical ends? - Do you venerate sexual energy as
- Do you practice breath-work? divine and cosmic? Shakti worship?
- Are you in a "sex-ful" marriage?
- One who “calls a circle” – inspires, opens, and oversees communal gatherings, councils,
deliberations, mediations. Psychopomp and mediator of social gatherings involving cultural rites,
and sacred communications or customs. Keeper of sacred customs. Keeper of prayers, giver of
prayers.
- Overlap with Technician of Entheogenic Ceremony (#23), but in this case the sacred ceremonies
and rituals are not necessarily entheogenic.
- Do you facilitate gatherings - Do you lead group prayer? - Are you a Yoga teacher?
with a transformative spiritual Group chanting? Group
intention? meditations? - Do you manage a Facebook
group? A Meetup? An online
- Do you facilitate some form of - Are you a "prayer keeper" for forum? A study group?
group therapy? any spiritual lineage?
- Are you a "do-er"? One who takes
- Do you facilitate workshops? - Are you an ordained priest in action to manifest visionary ideas
any spiritual lineage? in reality?
- Do you do conflict mediation
work? - Do you facilitate any sort of - Are you have a knack for bringing
shamanistic workshops or the right people together? For
- Are you involved in planning ceremonies (journeying, trance- building collaborative bridges?
communal gatherings like dance, soul retrieval)?
Festivals? Events with a - Have you ever called a circle?
creative or spiritual theme? - Do you lead (or assist in
Conferences? leading) ceremonies? - Are you empathic to group
dynamics? Can you shift, re-direct,
- Are you a DJ? Event host? - Do you know the secret to truly raise up collective energy with
Ceremonial singer? listening to others? your words and moderation?
- Do you have an alliance with - Can you access a clairvoyant state? - Are you the ‘big brother’ or ‘big
psilocybin mushrooms? Can you see spirits? Communicate sister’ of a peer group of
Ayahuasca? Peyote? Iboga? with them? Can you see illness, entheogenic seekers?
Huachuma? LSD? shadows, intrusions?
Rapé? Coca? Cannabis? - Do you play the part of “trip
- Are you a “psychonaut”? Do you sitter” for your friends?
- Do you cultivate mushrooms? systematically explore and study
Brew ayahuasca? Synthesize LSD? entheogenic experiences? - Do you practice “micro-dosing”.
Extract DMT? Grow cannabis?
- Do you participate in entheogenic - Are entheogens integral to your
- Do you consciously work with ceremonies on a consistent basis? religious belief / practice? Are you
your spiritual guides in involved in any form of spiritual
entheogenic ceremony? - Do you organize/facilitate activism with regards to them?
entheogenic ceremonies? Do you
- Do you tend to fill a certain role in dream of doing so one day? - Would you risk much to affirm
ceremonies? Clearing? Assisting? your right to use entheogens?
Comforting? Smudging? - Have you had a phase of indulging
in psychedelics, and are now - Are you actively training with an
- Is an entheogenic experience your transitioning to a more sacred use? indigenous elder? Or a sanctioned
version of "going to church"? wisdom keeper within an
- Do you practice ascetic disciplines? established tradition?
- Are you a ceremonial musician?
- Bridges earth and “heaven” (= upper astral, populated by - Includes “Two Spirit”, gender fluid, transgender
Divine beings and illuminated souls). identities and expressions.
- Have you had experience in both the - Do you consider the body a bridge to the - Do you strongly resonate with the role
infernal realms and in the celestial realms? Divine? of Psychopomp (facet #2)?
- Have you been (or could you be) labelled - Are you a mediator? Do you hold the - If a visionary artist, writer, does your
"bi-polar" or "manic"? tension between disparate groups, or work tend to depict higher spiritual
individuals? dimensions dramatically bursting in
- Have you had a life-changing epiphany upon consensus reality?
involving an encounter with the Divine? - Do you live in a place or culture radically
different from the one you were born - If an artist or musician, does your work
- Have you made the ‘underworld journey’, into? weave disparate threads, styles,
there and back? influences into a new unity?
- Cultivate shamanic journeying? Can you
- Do you consciously strive to hold the (somewhat) direct where you want to go? - Do you subvert traditional duality
balance between light and dark in your with regards to gender, sexuality?
soul? Do you resonate with the trickster? - Do you facilitate ceremony? Do you
know how to consciously direct the - Do you draw or study mandalas?
- Are you aware of the shadow cast by your ceremony "up" (for illumination) or
spiritual light? Your blind spot? The "down" (for soul retrieval)? - Does the term "Mysterium Coniunctionis"
darkness that hides in your best intentions? hold any special meaning for you?
- Are you attempting the alchemical
- Is your spirituality an eclectic combination "Sacred Marriage"?
of traditionally distinct lineages?
Prompted affirmation points: ______
25. ELDER
- One who has successfully passed through the various trials, temptations, and battles inherent in
the initiation process, and can give aspirants special keys, knowledge, to pass the same tests.
- One who has (more or less) accomplished initiation into the Spirit World, and can truly
“walk and work” in both worlds, act as a reliable guide. A living example of a successful initiation.
- One who guides and initiates the next generation, without whom the next generation would be
lost, confused, and liable to fall into error.
- Uniquely modern inflection (due to the destruction of traditional elder roles): Big brother, big
sister (a peer who is relatively more experienced in the initiatory path). This also carries significant
modern dangers: The “wise fool” complex.
- Holds the culture’s connection to Sacred History, Divine Memory, ancestral wisdom, Mystery
Wisdom, wisdom of Nature, wisdom of the Cosmos, Divine wisdom.
- Are you over 70? Over 60? - Are you a teacher? Do you have - Do you play big brother or big
Are you over 50? Over 40? students? sister to younger or less experienced
spiritual seekers?
- (Extra points for age!) - Have you written a book? Do you
Are you NOT under 40? facilitate workshops? - Are you an "old soul"? Do people
Are you NOT under 30? of all ages tend to seek out your
- Do you facilitate entheogenic counsel?
- Are you concerned about self- ceremonies?
proclaimed shamans in their 20’s - Are you a psychotherapist, or some
and 30’s leading shamanic - Are you a wisdom keeper for a sort of counselor?
ceremonies and working as specific spiritual lineage?
professional spiritual teachers? - Are you a Sacred Historian? A
- Have you been studying a Storyteller with some pretty
- Have you faced the devil in spiritual path for more than 20 amazing stories to tell?
yourself? Have you passed through years? Have you studied anything
a period of serious temptation? for more than 20 years? - Are you a grandparent?
Have you fallen and resurrected?
- Do you have an apprentice? One - Were you directly trained by an
- Do you work with a younger to pass your teachings on to? Elder who has since passed into the
generation of seekers?
- Do you have a specific mission? spiritual world? Are they still
- Do you have a sense of your past- guiding you from there?
lives (mistakes and victories)? - Are you working for the long-term
enlightenment of humanity?
SELF-‐ PROMPTED
FORMED
BY
EMPOWERED
CLUSTER TOTAL
FORMS
AND EMPOWERS, FORMING
AND
FACET
ID
/33
AFFIRM.
TOTAL
CLUSTER
#?
BY
CLUSTER
#?
POINTS
(TOTAL)
SCORE
FOCUSES
W HICH
FACETS?
(SCORE
4)
INSPIRES
WHICH
FACETS?
(SCORE
2)
EMPOWERING
Example
Example
Facet
3, 4, 2, #6 #23 #3 #18 #23 #11 #12
1, 1, 2, 2 #19 #8 #11 #16 #2
#5 #13
25 = 22 24 71 #10 38
∞ ∞
3 facets x 4 = 6 facets x 2 =
5 facets x 4 = 9 facets x 2 =
12 12 20 18
1. TWICE BORN
2. PSYCHOPOMP
3. STORYTELLER,
MYTHMAKER,
SACRED
HISTORIAN
5. EXPLORER, CARTOGRAPHER
SELF-‐ PROMPTED
FORMED
BY
EMPOWERED
CLUSTER TOTAL
FORMS
AND EMPOWERS, FORMING
AND
FACET
ID
/33
AFFIRM.
TOTAL
CLUSTER
#?
BY
CLUSTER
#?
POINTS
(TOTAL)
SCORE
FOCUSES
W HICH
FACETS?
(SCORE
4)
INSPIRES
WHICH
FACETS?
(SCORE
2)
EMPOWERING
9. ASCETIC
SELF-‐ PROMPTED
FORMED
BY
EMPOWERED
CLUSTER TOTAL
FORMS
AND EMPOWERS, FORMING
AND
FACET
ID
/33
AFFIRM.
TOTAL
CLUSTER
#?
BY
CLUSTER
#?
POINTS
(TOTAL)
SCORE
FOCUSES
W HICH
FACETS?
(SCORE
4)
INSPIRES
WHICH
FACETS?
(SCORE
2)
EMPOWERING
19. CULTURE-‐HERO;
LIGHT-‐BEARER
20. TRICKSTER
25. ELDER
l e
I am a DJ, and "Sacred Musician" is my highest scoring facet. So being a "guide of
p
souls" basically defines my work as “Sacred Musician” (4 points), and completely focuses
xam
PSYCHOPOMP (22) "Technician of Trance States" (4 points), and "Energy Worker" (4 points ). So 12
formative points for my 3 highest scoring facets.
E
Moreover, as a DJ, "guide of souls" is inspiring "Wounded Healer" (2 points), because I
retrieved my soul through music, and now I inspire others do the same through music
and dance. But to retrieve my soul took courage to face darkness, so "Psychopomp" has
also focused "Spiritual Warrior" (4 points), and has inspired "Initiated into
Darkness" (2 points), and I think I am an inspiring example of how to courageously seek
one's own healing by reclaiming one's soul from the darkness, so "Psychopomp" is also
inspiring "Culture Hero" (2 points). So 10 more points. 12 + 10 = 22.
• Write the name of the High Scoring Facet ("core facet") in the central circle.
• Draw the formative and empowering cluster facets in circles around the central core facet,
with arrows pointing toward the center (representing the flow of energy)
• For cluster facets that scored 4 (formative influencers), draw the circle almost the same size as
the core facet, relatively closer to the center, with a thicker arrow.
• For cluster facets that scored 2 (energetic influencers), draw relatively smaller circles,
relatively further away from the core facet, with thinner arrows.
• Be encouraged to begin creative amplification already at this stage. For example, you might
want begin using color, and take a more creative approach with the arrows (which symbolize
energy cords that transmit archetypal consciousness) and the representation of the facets.
HIGH
Formative
Empowering
Cluster
Facet
SCORING
Cluster
Facet
(score
2)
(score
4)
FACET
Empowering
Empowering
Cluster
Facet
Cluster
Facet
(score
2)
(score
2)
Empowering
Cluster
Facet
(score
2)
The nucleus can be arranged in numerous ways, depending on the spread of your facet scores.
TWICE BORN will always be in the middle of the nucleus. It is the "singularity point" - the point where the
subconscious psyche becomes the conscious ego; where the outdated ego is perpetually dying so new
increments of the Higher Self can incarnate. It is the ever-evolving vanguard of your consciousness, and the
unifying heart of the shamanic archetype itself. All the other core facets weave through this singularity.
There are a over a dozen possible configurations for how the Core Facets relate to the TwICE BORN
singularity to form the nucleus of your personal map:
• Neck-and-neck:
@
In cases where your 1st and 2nd highest scoring facets are either equal or nearly equal
(separated by 1-2 points), but there is a gap of approximately 7 or more points between your
2nd and 3rd, the arrangement of your nucleus should look like this:
• A cluster ef3:
If you have your threa highest scoring facets clumped together (separated by no more than
2 points), and there is a gap of approximately 7 or more points between your 3rd and 41h,
arrange your nucleus like this:
• A cluster ef 4:
If you have four highest scoring facets clumped together, and there is a gap of approximately 7
or more points between your 4th and your 5ct1, arrange your nucleus like this:
• A cluster ef 5:
If you have five highest scoring facets clumped together, and there is a gap of approximately 7
or more points between your 5th and your 6th, arrange your nucleus like this:
• A cluster ef 6:
The maximum number of facets that can surround TwICE BORN. If all seven of your facets have
approximately the same score, cut the lowest one. If you have six facets all at approximately the
same score, with no more than 3 points separating any facet, arrange your nucleus like this:
Superimpose:
c (��ref J-4
A high scoring cluster qf3, then a gap, then another cluster qf2 or 3:
cl(A4f-e,, 1 3 -3
• Even Spread:
In cases where there is an even spread of approximately 5 points (and no relative "gaps")
between all your core facets, you can draw your nucleus as concentric circles, labeling each
circle carefully, using labeling arrows as needed:
.fe._cef Ii\.
�--�u-1);
fticef c
First, determine which cluster facets help to form or empower 2 or more overlapping core facets
in the nucleus.
Compare and contrast the Core Facet Maps that "made the cut" to be included in your nucleus. If
your nucleus is a cluster of 6, for example, you will need to make more effort to compare and
contrast six Core Facet Maps, and figure out the cluster facet overlaps.
Look at the cluster facets that orbit the center of each Core Facet Map. Scan all 7 maps. Identify
the cluster facets that show up more than once (that empower two or more core facets in the
nucleus). Make note.
Now go to the "Personal Constellation Map" (Step 2 Worksheet), and draw those cluster facets'
names, and draw circles around each. Locate each circle close to the area of the nucleus to which
it pertains, and then draw a line, arrow, energy cord etc. to the area in the nucleus where the two (or more)
corefacets overlap. Do not draw the same cluster facet more than once. Also, eliminate orbitting
cluster facets that are already in the nucleus.
For cluster facets that empower multiple (3 or more) core facets in the nucleus, relfect this by
drawing a thicker energy cord/arrow, to symbolize that that cluster facet is charging the nucleus
with relatively more archetypal energy.
In cases where a cluster facet has a formative (score 4) influence on one facet of the nucleus, but
has an empowering (score 2) influences on different-but overlapping--facet of the nucleus, draw the
cluster facet closer to the part of the nucleus that it helps to form, and relatively further from the
part of the nucleus it energetically empowers, but still point the arrow I cord to the part of the
nucleus where the two core facets overlap.
A pencil and eraser are recommended, so you can try different combinations; it might take a few
drafts before the configuration "clicks". Keep at it until you feel satisfied.
Here is an example:
ef,rn,n1ie dus/e,---fu�fs
-/i,J, 0.f""€ (;l.fffl..df In +"'-- nl.fclei.i.S
• Second, determine if there are any cluster facets that help to form or empower only 1 core facet
in the nucleus.
You have just determined your overlapping cluster facets, so it should be relatively simple to now
determine which facets do not overlap; that only energetically pertain to one facet in your nucleus.
These cases should be relatively rare, but if you identify one, draw it closest to the part of the
nucleus that it empowers. Draw an arrow or unidirectional energy/cord to the part ef thefacet that does
not overlap with any otherfacets in the nucleus.
For example:
For cluster facets that form/ empower every facet in the nucleus, draw the arrow/ energy
cord into the center of the nucleus where all the facets overlap, where the TwICE BORN
singularity is located, using thicker arrows/cords to indicate a stronger energetic current.
For example:
- el,m,>10.+e., cf�r .fo.c.ds
IA(l"1!t>Jv ,,, nu.deus
By drawing arrows or cords to the overlapping areas of the nucleus, you are eliminating the need to
draw the same orbiting cluster facet more than once.
All this will result in a consolidation of your top scoring facets into a single PERSONAL CONSTELLATION
MAP.
Once you have done Step 3, you can translate your Map into a basic two-dimensional mandala. Or
you can keep going, and map out your constellation in three dimensions.
TWICE
BORN
∞
STEP 3: RESEARCH SYMBOLISM FOR THE FACETS OF YOUR NUCLEUS AND YOUR ORBIT
Now that you have the nucleus and the orbit of your personal constellation mapped out, you
can begin to translate these abstract circles, arrows, names, and numbers into archetypal
symbols that live and breathe and creatively mingle with each other.
FIRST, FOCUS ON EACH OF THE INDIVIDUAL CORE FACETS THAT FORM YOUR NUCLEUS
Go on the Internet, Google Image search, or dive into your personal library, and research
archetypal symbols for each of the core facets in your nucleus. Make notes of your research on
the provided Symbol Research (Step 3) worksheets.
Ask yourself, how have these facets been represented in mythology (modern and ancient)? In
art? In esotericism and occult symbolism? In the collective (creative unconscious) that can be
clearly observed on the Internet? In popular culture? In your own dreams and imagination?
How have these facets been represented in more modern mythologies like cinema, video
games, comic books? Perhaps you want to use a symbol from your own favorite myths. For
example, drawing a “lightsaber” from Star Wars to symbolize “SPIRITUAL WARRIOR”, or the
“triforce” from the Zelda game series to represent “CULTURE HERO; LIGHT BEARER”.
The important thing is that the symbols have a strong charge for you personally. Some people
could care less about lightsabers and triforces, and for others, these could rightly be considered
sacred symbols that instantly connect their psyche to magical mythological realms.
If you are using images from the Internet, select the symbols that make the strongest first
impression – that send shivers down your spine… or use the symbols you find as inspiration to
generate your own creative variations… or, you can work entirely from own your archetypal
imagination, and come up with original symbols or sacred glyphs for each facet in your
nucleus. This last option is the most time-consuming, and the most rewarding and magical.
Ideally, you can arrive at a unified symbol-complex that represents your entire
nucleus; that somehow reflects aspects of each facet. This will take effort, but if you
make the effort, the effort itself, and the result of the effort, will exert a healing
influence on your psyche.
THIRD, RESEARCH SYMBOLISM FOR THE CLUSTER FACETS THAT ORBIT YOUR NUCLEUS
Now do the same thing for the cluster facets. Find a symbol to represent each one
individually. There is no need to merge two or more of these into a single
conglomerate symbol. Make research notes on the Step 3 Worksheet, and sketch the
symbols, even beginning to colour them.
STEP 4: TRANSLATE YOUR ‘CIRCLES AND WORDS’ MAP INTO A SYMBOL MAP
Now translate the Personal Constellation Map from the Step 2 Worksheet into a Symbol Map, using the symbols you
cultivated in Step 3.
You can opt to keep the circle, and draw the symbol contained inside. Or the symbol can be free of any vessel,
but in that case, it should interact or interpenetrate with the arrow/cord connecting it to other facet symbols.
∞ = TWICE BORN
First, you will need to fit your Symbolic Constellation Map into a Mandala skeleton, modifying it as
needed so that it fits within the concentric circles (orbits). This is an "inward-flowing" mandala; the
central singularity point receives energy/consciousness from every direction.
Repeat
Formative
Facet
in
orbit
2
Orbit 2
Empowering
Facet
Empowering
Facet
Formative
Facet
Orbit 1
Empowering
Facet
Nucleus Empowering
Facet
∞
Singularity
Formative
Formative
Facet
Facet
Repeat
Repeat
Formative
Formative
Facet
in
Facet
in
orbit
2
orbit
2
Empowering
Empowering
Facet
Facet
Extend the FORMATIVE facets back into orbit 2: Directly behind each formative facet, on the same ray of
energy, draw the same facet again but in a smaller circle. See example above.
As you fit your Personal Constellation Map into a circular mandala vessel, make sure to keep the meaningful
positioning of the cluster facets around the nucleus (at 30o, 60o, 90o etc.).
For cluster facets that empower/inspire every core facet in the nucleus, place these also in orbit 2, but draw a
thicker energy cord, connected directly to the singularity in the center of the nucleus.
The central circle represents the TWICE BORN singularity. As a singularity, it doesn't necessarily need to be
represented by a symbol per se. It represents the ever-evolving "I AM" presence within you; your Higher Self
in a continuous birthing process; the quintessence of spiritualized consciousness evolving itself out of itself.
You are going to be coloring your mandala, so the singularity could simply be a white light, a sun, a moon, a
flower of life, an illuminated human figure, or some other representation of the ineffable divine spark within
you. With regards to the construction of your mandala, the important thing is the way you symbolically
represent the convergence of archetypal consciousness/energy. Imagine the singularity like a funnel - its
purpose is to focus archetypal consciousness and inspiration into the realm of manifestation.
The next larger circle represents the nucleus. When you are determining how to represent it, consider its role: It
receives all the energies and formative influences from the (subconscious) archetypal complex, and translates them
into a unique conscious expression within your soul and outwardly in your culture.
Whichever way you represent the nucleus, it should have a mediating quality; an agent that transforms subconscious
archetypal potential into a crystallized conscious expression. Whereas the TWICE BORN singularity could be
considered to represent your SPIRIT, the nucleus is, essentially, a picture of your SOUL - the temple that houses
your spirit, that is simultaneously connected to the above (the spiritual world; God) and the below (the material
world; your body, your ego). You can represent the nucleus with hieroglyphs, sacred geometry, with mythical
characters, imaginary creatures, archetypal symbols, alchemical imagery, occult symbols, abstract shapes and
colors. Let your soul dictate the representation of the nucleus. In most cases, you will receive an inspiration or a
specific vision. Trust your inspirations. You are the only one who needs to know what the symbols and colors
represent. The image-making faculty of the soul is furnishing you with symbolic keys that are cut to unlock specific
doors in your psyche specifically. It doesn't matter if the key is pretty; all that matters is that it unlocks the door.
Your creative challenge is to translate the information encoded in your Personal Constellation Map into graphic
form. For example, if your nucleus is made up of a cluster of 3 overlapping core facets, the overlapping quality should
somehow be visually encoded. How you represent the cluster, and the way that the 3 core facets interact with one
another in the nucleus, depends of the creative solution that your soul gives you. Keep working at it until it clicks,
and you feel satisfied - that click of satisfaction is your soul confirming that it sees its symbolic reflection.
In the orbit surrounding the nucleus (orbit ), you have your formative influences. Again, when considering how to
represent them, consider their function in the archetypal complex: They shape, form, stamp, focus, harness,
"culturally clothe" the archetypal energies that arise from the collective unconscious, and pour into your individual
psyche. They translate collective archetypal consciousness into more individualized, specialized expressions of it.
However you are inspired to represent these facets, your representation should at least convey their role as
translators of collective archetypal ENERGY into unique crystallizations of archetypal FORM. They drive the shamanic
archetype's actual manifestation in "consensus" cultural reality.
In the outermost orbit (2), you have your empowering, inspiring influences. These are the batteries of your
personal constellation. They harness the archetypal energy from the collective unconscious, and transmit the
energy towards your nucleus in order to be transformed into more individualized expressions through your
psyche/soul. Sometimes they pass the energy into a formative facet to help focus the energy before reaching the
nucleus. If you have a facet that empowers every core facet in your nucleus, reflect this in the way you depict the
critical energy cord connecting from orbit 2 directly into the singularity to light up the whole nucleus. Be creative
in the way you depict the energy cords, which also encode important information about your constellation.
When considering how to represent the facets in orbit 2, consider their function within the total complex: They are
responsible for connecting your soul to the inspiring forces of the collective unconscious, and for connecting your
soul (and what flows out of your soul) to other individuals souls in your culture. They mediate the flow of
inspiration into you from the outside, and the flow of inspiration that pours out of you to permeate and influence
others. It is through these empowering facets that your work in the world can touch and inspire and have a
magical and even healing effect on the souls of those in your culture. And it is also through these facets that the
shamanic archetype's collective cultural manifestation can penetrate into your soul and inspire you in an utterly
unique way. They are the "inters": Intermediaries of inter-soul and inter-cultural interconnectedness. They are the
glue that binds - the magnets that attract - different souls together into a shared experience of the shamanic
archetype. As interpersonal mediators, they determine synchronicities, the "charisma effect", creative chemistry,
spiritual chemistry, intellectual chemistry, emotional chemistry, even sexual chemistry. They determine whether
two souls attract or repel one another. They determine the particular energetic impact a culture can have on an
individual, and the particular energetic impact an individual can have on a culture or sub-culture.
STEP 6: MAP OUT YOUR MOST FORMATIVE AND EMPOWERING CLUSTER FACETS
This step is optional; it is not essential to reach your final mandala. However, doing Step 6 will
facilitate Step 7, and give you further insights into your personal constellation.
Now here is where all the your hard work filling out the Personal Constellation (OVERVIEW)
pays off, and this is where the stage is set for turning your personal constellation map into a 3-
dimensional mandala.
Transfer the data from Cluster Facets (DETAIL) worksheet on pages 39-40 into a visual
representation. Follow the same process as Step 1(with an important differentiation):
• Write the name of the “Most Formative and Empowering Cluster Facet” in the central circle.
• In the orbiting perimeter, draw the primary facets that are FORMED or EMPOWERED by this
cluster facet-in-question, with arrows pointing outward from the center. Whereas Step 1 specified for
the arrows to point toward the center, now the arrows start in the center and point outward,
indicating an outflowing of energy and influence from the center to the periphery
(orbit). Unlike in Step 2, facet placement around the circumference (at 30o, 60o, 90o, 120o, 150o,
180o, 270o, 330ooetc.) does not matter; you will be rearranging them in Step 6 and Step 9 anyway.
• For a primary facet that has been stamped or focused (by a score of 4) by the cluster facet-in-
question, draw the circle almost the same size as the central cluster facet, relatively closer to the
center, with a thicker arrow being pointed at it. Where it is placed around the circumference (at
30o, 60o, 90o, 120o etc.) does not matter at this stage.
• For a primary facet that has been empowered or inspired (by a score of 2) by the cluster facet-in-
question, draw relatively smaller circles, relatively further away from the center, with a thinner
arrow being pointed at it A
MOST
FORMATIVE
Formed,
Empowered
AND
Focused
Facet
Facet
(by
2
points)
EMPOWERING
(by
4
points)
FACET
Empowered
Empowered
Facet
Facet
(by
2
points)
(by
2
points)
Empowered
Facet
(by
2
points)
• Look back at your PERSONAL CONSTELLATION MAP on page 50. What is the
geometric configuration of your nucleus? Use the same configuration for the
nucleus of your empowerment map (although you will be plugging in a different
data set). For example, if you used a "cluster of 3 (gap) cluster of 2" configuration in
your personal constellation nucleus, simply use your top 5 most formative and
empowering cluster facets here, regardless of the spread (clusters and gaps) of their own
"empowering total" scores.
• Draw an additional circle around your empowering nucleus (unlike your personal
constellation nucleus). Ray out the orbit of formed and empowered core facets, with
the arrow/cords flowing from the outer edge/circumference of the nucleus toward
the orbit.
• Place the formed/focused facets closer to the nucleus, with larger circles, and
thicker arrows (orbit 1). Place the empowered/inspired facets further away, in
relatively smaller circles, with thinner arrows (orbit 2).
• Do not repeat any facets in the same orbit. However, if one part of the nucleus has a
formative influence on, let's say "Visionary Artist", and another part of the nucleus
has an empowering influence on the same facet, draw "Visionary Artist" twice - once
in a larger circle closer to the nucleus (in orbit 1), and again, in a smaller circle,
further from the nucleus, in orbit 2, along the same ray of outward flowing energy. Draw a
cord flowing from "Visionary Artist" in orbit 1 to "Visionary Artist" in orbit 2. See
the example on the next page.
• The relative positioning around the nucleus (at 30o, 60o, 90o, 120o, 180o, 270o, 330o,
etc.) does not matter yet; you will be re-arranging the orbit in Step 10 to line up as
much as possible with your PERSONAL CONSTELLATION MAP from page 50 and
54. Knowing this in advance, however, you can let that inform your placement
choices now.
TWICE
BORN
∞
Repeat Step 3 as necessary: Research, sketch out, and creative merge the symbols
that represent the facets in your nucleus and in your orbit. Use space below.
Your research from Step 3 likely covers the cast of characters here.
STEP 9: TRANSLATE YOUR ‘CIRCLES AND WORDS’ MAP INTO A SYMBOL MAP
Now translate the Most Formative and Empowering Constellation Map from the Step 6 Worksheet (p. 59) into a
Symbol Map, using the symbols you cultivated in Step 7.
You can opt to keep the circle, and draw the symbol contained inside. Or the symbol can be free of any vessel,
but in that case, it should interact or interpenetrate with the arrow/chord connecting it to other facet symbols.
∞ = TWICE BORN
First, re-draw a smaller facsimile of your 2-D Mandala (Constellation Map) in the space below. Don't worry about
making it neat; the important thing is that the radial positions of the facets (30o, 60o, 90o, 180o, 270o, etc.) are upheld.
#12
#18
#3
∞
Singularity
#11
#19
#8
#2
#8
#2
#22
#23
Map: #5
#12
#3
#3
∞
Singularity
#16
#
21
#2
#8 #22 #2
#22
#23
Your Personal
Constellation Mandala /
Map:
Your re-arranged
Empowerment Map:
∞
Step
11:
Instructions
Mapping the 3-D Mandala
68
In order to create your "3-D Mandala", you are going to fit the results of Step 10 into a TORUS
FRAMEWORK.
#7
#17
#7
#4
#12
#18
#3
∞
Singularity
#11
#19
#8
#2
Your Personal #8
#2
Constellation /
Mandala will form
the bottom half of the #22
#23
torus.
A "side view" of
your Personal
Constellation
Map/Mandala
Your Empwerment Map will form the top half of the torus. A "side view" of your Empowerment Map
#7
#17
#7
#4
#5
#5
#12
#3
#3
∞
Singularity
#16
#
21
#2
#8 #22 #2
#22
#23
Step
11:
Instructions
Mapping the 3-D Mandala
70
••
binding agent, connect the
Empowerment Mandala to
the Personal Constellation
Mandala, to form your
personalized 3-D mandala! Empowerment Map
+
Personal Constellation Map
A cross-section of a
3-D Mandala.
This step is optional, for those who are inspired to squeeze the maximum amount of magic juice out
of the fruits of your effort.
You have already worked out an "above view" of your personal constellation of the shamanic
archetype. Taking this as a "1st generation", you can further evolve it to a "2nd
generation" mandala so that it can continue to evolve, come alive, show you things
about yourself, and continue to resolve, integrate, and balance various polarities in your psyche.
There are a number of "mandala motifs" that can inspire your creative work. These motifs are divided
into two types: "ABOVE VIEW" (which retains the constellation pattern), and "SIDE
VIEW" (which drops the constellation structure in favor of thematic re-organization). You can
choose one motif, or combine motifs as your creativity urges you.
Even though this mandala is mapped out in two dimensions, you can still imagine it in three
dimensions. Ask yourself, "What would my "above view" mandala look like from the side?"
For these "side view" mandalas, you may disregard the constellation structure and re-arrange your
orbits thematically.
When rearranging, consider the thematic polarities: Which facets pertain to the "above" theme and
which pertain to the "below" theme? Which pertain to your spiritual "light" and which pertain to
your "shadow"? Which pertain to wounds and suffering, and which pertain to healing and
redemption? Which facets pertain to masculine archetypal qualities in your soul, and which pertain to
feminine archetypal qualities?
How can the facets be arranged in a narrative sequence? Which facets pertain to the hero's descent?
Which pertain to the crisis point? Which pertain to the hero's ascent with magical boon in hand?
17. The Sacred Human Body / Chakra Map / Subtle Body Map
(Ideal for the 3-D Mandala). Begin by imagining a side view of #7. Recall Leonary da Vinci's famous
drawing of an archetypal man in a circle. How could your personal constellation be mapped onto the
human form? Moreover, how could it represent the chakra system? The subtle bodies (astral body,
etheric body)? What facets can be related to what parts of the body, what parts of the aura, which
chakras? This is a good opportunity to consider how the shamanic archetype expresses itself in your
physical and energetic vessel.
* * *
This is the end of the Workbook.
.
This “one mysterious thing” could be called “the ego’s process of incarnating the Higher Self.” But it’s not so simple! Because
there exists in the space between the ego and the Higher Self that thing that we call “the soul”, or what psychologists
call “the psyche”. The soul is part spiritual and part material, part super-conscious and part sub-conscious, and has the job of
simultaneously carrying our spiritual light, love, purity – the voice of our Higher Self, our Divine nature, and also carrying our
wounds, pain, desires, and darkness – the heavy weight of our karma. The soul mediates the ego’s relationship with the not-yet-
realized Higher Self, to guide the process of healing and self-realization. But in order for the soul to do its job
properly, it needs to first be awakened, retrieved, healed, and illuminated in its own right. So THE SCHOOL OF
MODERN SOUL SCIENCE focuses on this “science” of the soul’s magical process of awakening, unfolding, healing,
transmuting, illuminating, and crystallizing, so that it can effectively mediate between the ego and the Higher Self.
Finally, we study what could be called the “Science of Initiation” into spiritual realms of consciousness (“the Spirit
World”), common to all shamanic initiations, and a central theme of Western esotericism. This "Science" is cross-fertilized by
occult/esoteric wisdom, archaic/shamanic wisdom, modern psychological wisdom, and visionary/creative wisdom.
Why “Modern” Soul Science? Because this “Soul Science” is not the esoteric, occult code-language you might be used to. Nor
is it the archaic science preserved by indigenous shamanic elders. It has been updated, “modernized” so that it can be
readily accessible and highly applicable to those seekers in our Western culture who are courageously following (or are being
called to follow) an initiatory path, and are looking for trustworthy guidance amidst a swamp of charlatans and plastic shamans.
So we study this "one mysterious thing" through the following four disciplines:
• Archetypal Shamanism (which includes, but is not limited to, entheogenic spirituality).
We do not study the shamanic traditions of any particular culture or lineage beyond our own Western lineage (see Alchemy).
As this workbook demonstrates, “shamanism” can be approached as an archetypal phenomenon that manifests in every culture
—and in any individual, regardless of gender, race, nationality, religion, etc—and so deserves to be studied as such.
This workbook is a foundation stone for this archetypal, trans-cultural approach.
• Jungian Psychology
The psychology of C.G. Jung—especially his concept of “individuation”—gives us a critical bridge that weaves our other three
disciplines together into a modern amalgam. Through Jung's psychological language, and his modern sensibility regarding the
role of the healthy, well-adjusted ego (which he demonstrated in his own life and career), we can approach “archetypal
shamanism” in a sensible, humble, relatively safe and grounded way, and moreover, decode the symbolism of alchemy,
mythology, dreams, visions, and visionary art, and relate their wisdom and guidance to our own journey.
Each of these four disciplines approaches the central subject of “modern initiation” in a unique way, but taken together, they complement
one another, compensate for each other’s relative limitations, and unlock each other's magical wisdom. More than that, they actually form
a single coherent body of initiatory guidance that simultaneously draws upon the primeval wisdom of shamanism, the cosmic and Nature
wisdom of entheogenic spirituality, the occult esoteric wisdom of Alchemy, the analytical wisdom of modern psychology, and the
timeless creative wisdom of mythology and visionary art, to arrive at a very “Modern" incarnation of a very "Ancient" Soul Science.
modernsoulscience.com