A Brief Introduction to the Shamans Cave Classes
No series of classes, seminars, workshops or practices can make you into a shaman. The process is a deeply personal one and not always predictable in terms of sequential experience. Yet, without guidance, some light at the end of the path to aim for, it is equally impossible to make order or sense out of the chaos of experience. It is to help those struggling to understand that chaos that the classes are offered through this site and taught by a very dedicated faculty of those who have advanced far along on their journey. The classes here are taught from the point of view of one tradition and offer a singular vision of method and intent for progressing in an oddly practical way towards the goal of understanding. If you should choose to walk along the path of these classes and experiences we will walk beside you until the road forks and you must walk your own way into a world of knowledge.
The classes are taught in five tiers. We describe this as a spiral of learning, one that turns first inward on a journey of self discovery. Discovering who and what you are on deeply human levels can be daunting to some, exciting to others, but the process is one of understanding our own place in the world as human beings and the knowledge that affords us to hold a true perspective about ourselves. The first tier of classes can benefit anyone who wants to know, or who feels driven to know more about themselves in the world and the differing perspectives you can inhabit as part of the human dynamic. This part of the spiral of learning can be difficult, frustrating and even painful at times. You have to look at ourselves naked against a backdrop of human energy, without the benefit of ego or mind.
The second tier of classes moves on down the spiral into a place where we must take what we have learned and begin applying it in the world. Knowledge without the ability to apply it as skill is the heart of frustration. This part of the journey begins to move you outward on many levels to act on the world, to test your knowledge and begin developing in concrete ways the methods and practices as individuals that will serve you. This level of the classes involves more outward approaches to the world, more direct work in it as well as a continuation of using the inward reflection of our own energy to start affecting the world and working with the various elements of energy within it. Each step in the process helps to free the vision and perspective necessary to prepare the way for standing firmly in the world, rooted in the knowledge of more than what is in front of your eyes.
The third tier of the spiral begins a process of combining both the inward and outward projections of yourselves into a cohesive whole, capable of acting on the world and moving beyond it at the same time. It is an intense but exciting period along the spiral where you must accommodate and reconcile a new way of being without hiding from the world, or attempting to over power it. This movement leads directly to each person’s strengths, to their intent for themselves in the world and how that will manifest itself in reality. The spiral moves on and gradually tightens until you are pushed out the other side into a world that is the same, yet completely different and we enter the fourth tier of the classes.
Classes on this level have been left loosely defined, it would do no good to attempt fitting people back into boxes they have worked so hard to get out of in the first levels. For those called to a healing path, classes have been outlined, yet we realize that not everyone will work particularly as healers. While learning is still ongoing, practice becomes vitally important to establish an outward movement of your own energy, which connects with and anchors you in the world. The healing classes themselves present a complete method and offer a way to work on people and the world itself applying the knowledge and skills developed along the way down that spiral.
The fifth tier of classes is different than any of the others, they are for those called to practice in the tradition and teach others, helping them along on their own path through the darkness of self doubt and confusion. These things are about teaching, about community and about the establishment of your own practices in the world. It is conducted more as a seminar rather than a strict class, but we hope it will be of use to you as you establish yourself in the world and in the tradition.
There are a number of classes offered on each level, but they are only classes, words on a screen or paper. Classes cover a huge variety of topics from the death walker, to the dream seer, the stalker to the healer, dreamers and masters of intent. But, the efficacy of any teaching is in the experience of those taught and their progress towards their own intents and goals. Not everyone can or will want to follow through all the classes, but where ever they land it is hoped they have felt changed for the better and perhaps the sun shines a little more brightly on a world less confusing than in the past.