The notions or Service-to-Self and Service-to-Others in popular use in channeled Ufology today are outrageous, but apt simplifications of the real intricacies of the matter. As the definitions change of exactly what 'self' encompasses these notions map across a wide variety of different orientations, and it is appropriate to introduce the dialectic, the triad pattern that is really involved beyond the dualistic notion. Although merely extending the differentiating metaphor into three classes is hardly as far as it can be taken.

Q: (L) But, just a clue: how does thought become matter?
A: Bilaterally. Dual emergence.
Q: (L) Emergence into what and what?
A: Not "into what and what," but rather, "from what and to what."
Q: (L) What emerges from what?
A: The beginning emerges from the end, and vice versa.
Q: (L) And what is the beginning and what is the end?
A: Union with the One. 7th density, i.e.: all that is, and is not.

Q: (L) But, just exactly what is the mission?
A: You are awakening to it just fine, thank you!
Q: (L) Are you saying that all this constant discussing and taking things apart and talking about them and thinking about all these things is actually getting us somewhere?
A: Absolutely!!!!
Q: (L) Is some mode of sharing this information we are reciving part of this "mission?"
A: When you have learned, you have energized yourself. Lead by the hand? No way, Jose!
Q: (L) So, we have to make that choice ourselves. Okay, we discussed a name that would sort of symbolize this mission and we came up with - and who knows how - Aurora to symbolize the dawn, waking up... that sort of thing. Where in the world did this come from?
A: Refer to the previous answer.
Q: (L) So, we have to choose everything here. And there are no comments?
A: No need, you are doing just fine by yourselves.
Q: (S) What did you expect them to say? "Atta girl!?" [laughter] Will we be able to find some way to support this mission?
A: We are not going to answer that as it would violate level one directive.
Q: (L) What is a "level one directive?"
A: Refer to last answer.
Q: (L) Well, fine! I want to know! Is there some place that gives out orders up there?
A: You will know when it is right, and not before!
Q: (L) I want you guys to know that I sometimes feel a wee tiny bit like a pawn on a chessboard!
A: You should, you inhabit 3rd density STS environment.
Q: (L) I was at least hoping that if I was a pawn, that some of the players were good guys. Is that asking too much?
A: Yes. The "Good guys" don't play chess.
Q: (L) But there have been so many strange events, so many synchronous events. Is that the good guys helping or the bad guys leading me astray?
A: Neither. It is Nature running its course.
Q: (L) Okay. One of the sensations I have experienced is that I have had it up to the eyebrows with the negative energies and experiences of 3rd density, and I have thought lately that this feeling of having had enough, in an absolute sense, is one of the primary motivators for wanting to find one's way out of this trap we are in. I want out of it. Is this part of this "nature" as you call it?
A: Yes. When you see the futility of the limitations of 3rd density life, it means you are ready to graduate. Notice those who wallow in it.
Q: (L) Some people obviously wallow in extreme materiality. And there seems to be another kind that is more subtle, which has to do with saying that you want to grow and become enlightened, and yet such a person is unable to pierce the veil of their own illusions about how to become enlightened, and then they wallow in the illusion that they are really making progress...
A: Wallowing takes many forms. More often, the sign of wallowing is someone who does not feel alienated by the obvious traps and limitations of 3rd density.

One thing I am finally realizing in spite of decades of religious and social training to the contrary, is that we all have only one decision to make, just one. At any specific moment, we are all faced with the opportunity to invoke an STS or an STO approach to the specific lesson at hand. By placing focus on this specific choice of the moment instead of fretting about a lifetime of "wrong" choices and carrying the weight of redemption/salvation via an outside source who demands that you pay them money so they will "speak nicely about you to their lord in an afterlife," coupled with the Cassiopaean's insistence that there is no "right or wrong," just lessons, makes the "task" of being an STO candidate sooooooo much easier.....

Doesn't it seem like a choice made in the present moment that brings deep clarity and understanding of a lesson, changes the nature of all choices ever made?

And that is the essence of the matter. A choice made in the present moment - ANY present moment - excluding all the outside influences, with ONLY the consideration of whether it ALLOWS Free Will to all involved, changes the nature of all choices ever made!

Every choice that supports Free Will for any being, whether that being is using their Free Will to choose to deny free will to either themselves or others, to the extent Free Will is maintained for all involved, is a choice FOR Free Will at the deepest levels of existence. But notice the key: to support Free Will of others to choose and fully experience their own path - and that does NOT mean to support the choice they have made by participating in their lesson! To participate in the choice of orientation of another is to make it your own. It can then act as a damper to your own amplification.

This means that the ability to support Free Will in others which lies in the STO pathway MUST remain pure and must NOT be subsumed into the STS alignment or Free Will for all could cease to exist in our present reality which would create an imbalance of such awesome proportions that I shudder to consider the consequences. In fact, it could even be said that learning the true dynamics of Service to Others and Free Will in the cadres of those who have the internal inclination, and to begin to practice it, might considerably ameliorate any predicted cataclysms. One thing that is certain, however, to continue to violate Free Will by all the "Love and Light" efforts to change the world, to "transform the darkness into light" will result in nothing but worsening conditions on our planet by the very fact that they amplify the STS polarity.

It is for God, for ALL - including the Service to Self polarity - that the STO candidates must refuse to support and sustain and feed those of the STS orientation. If you feed the STS polarity, it grows stronger (and it has already been in charge here for over 300,000 years!) and the STO presence will grow weaker, which will erode Free Will for all.

So, we return again to the peeling of the onion of illusion, the constant hammering of the point that you are asleep, the shocking of your sensibilities over and over again with the idea that unless you awaken, your position is hopeless - you are "food for the gods." By taking away every hope and dream of outside salvation you ever thought you could cling to, I am stripping your bones bare. Not only am I stripping your bones, I am boiling your flesh. And, to those who are truly ASKING, it is an essential function I am performing for you. It is the Shamanic Initiation. You cannot be "reborn" unless you die. And, "unless a man be born again," he can have no "eternal life."

In the broadest sense, the human being who has mastery over his own life, is a Shaman. And those of you who resist this process most strenuously are most likely the ones with the greatest Shamanic capacity. Will is will. It just needs to be married to knowledge.

It has been observed that the desire of the human being to enter into ecstatic contact with the Divine is in direct conflict with the fear of being obliged to renounce the simple human condition. We can see, from our discussion above, that this is, essentially, the conflict between Service to Others and Service to Self. The work to gather the knowledge and become humble and face the deep inner truth about the self is the price, and not everyone is able to pay it. And this is the human dilemma. There is nothing more cozy than to be a human being. We can live forever behind veils of illusion, suffering our blindness, and dying in our ignorance; and, until some aspect of that human has had its fill of suffering and death, there will be no desire to venture into the unknown to seek the cure for the human disease. Only the soul that is ready for this definitive journey is willing to risk the soul chilling fear of traveling into the enchanted forest of the Cosmos, in order to experience the unspeakable joy of finding the Grail - the choice for Free Will Service to Others that serves ALL.

A Shaman is, as Eliade describes, a Technician of Ecstasy. This is an essential qualification and/or result of contact with the Divine. More than that, in order to be in direct contact with the Divine, the human being must be able to "see the unseen." This Seeing is the capacity of human beings to enlarge their perceptual field until they are capable of assessing not only outer appearances, but also the essence of everything in order to access the level of being that enables them make choices that are capable of initiating a new causal series.

Of course, problems arise when an individual attempts to be a Shaman without knowledge. A recent correspondent sent us some information about a popular channeled source that claims to be teaching a new perspective on physics.

Dear Ark and Laura,
I don't know much about Scalar Waves, certainly not enough to know whether or not the site below's information on Scalar Waves is useful, but I pass the information along to you. I have heard Anna Hayes speak on the Jeff Rense radio show, and she made a good impression as an apparently calm and knowledgeable person.

Ark went to the site in question and began to read. After a period of study, he responded as follows:

Hi ____,
While reading:

"Dimensions are interwoven layers of scalar waves that serve to direct the flow of consciousness/energy into multiple patterns of refraction through which the hologram of matter density, linear time and manifest objectification of reality can be experienced. Dimensions exist in precise relationship to each other creating a 90-degree difference in Angular Rotation of Particle Spin between dimensional bands. Scalar Waves are points of Standing Waves, composed of quantities of consciousness, that emanate out of fixed points of vibration which form ultra-micro-particle units called Partiki, Partika and Particum. Scalar Waves exist within a fixed Scalar Field that forms the Universal Unified Field of consciousness/energy. Fixed scalar waves appear to move due to a perpetual action of internal fission and fusion, through which series of scalar standing wave points 'flash on and off' creating perpetual rhythms of motion called 'flash-line sequences' through which continual manifestation and de-manifestation of matter occurs."

I can't help thinking that it is a pity that a person that evidently knows nothing about waves, dimensions, particle spin etc. chooses to "TEACH" others on these subjects. But, on the other hand, creating more confusion is what the Lizzies must have on their mind. And they seem to be successful. On the other hand, we are in a Free Will Universe - it is up to each person to choose the path and the "teacher." Thanks for the link - it helps me.
Best,
ark.

As it happened, the response was also sent to a promoter of the above channeling who then responded:

Hi:
One doesn't need to know anything on a specific topic when the information isn't coming from oneself but from a higher source.
Love, Light, and Joy

Aside from the fact that actually reading that nonsense is an energy drain, such a perspective does NOT resonate with the Cassiopaean information in which independent study and gaining of knowledge is urged as the only means by which we can be protected from being led into "traps." Ark replied:

Sure, but to check whether the information comes from a higher source or lower source, it is always necessary first to check whether the information makes any sense or is just a mumbo-jumbo. There are lot of dead dudes and other entities that are more than ready to pour all kinds of nonsense into our heads. Real research is ALWAYS necessary. How else can we know we are not being disinformed? You must never RELY on what the entities tell you. You always have to check and keep critical! Unless you WANT to live in an illusion. Many people do.
Best,
ark

Anyone can be a channel. It takes knowledge and WILL to be able to CHOOSE who or WHAT one will channel.

One of the hardest things for anyone to acknowledge is their own susceptibility to suggestion, manipulation and external control. No one wants to admit that their awareness can be manipulated. Yet, without exception, all of the Mystery Teachings tell us that the first order of business in expanding awareness is to overcome the hypnosis, or "sleep state" in which man exists. And, without exception, all of the Mystery Teachings tell us that this is so formidable a task that only one in ten thousand can achieve it!

Think about this for a moment. Nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine people will react to this statement by thinking: "I am the one in ten thousand!" The Great Masters will tell you that if you think this, then you are NOT!

It is the one who realizes that all of his perceptions must be minutely scrutinized, doubted, tested, examined and challenged who has the smallest hope of escaping the hypnosis!! And, to realize this is but the first in a long series of steps to awakening. And, remember, awakening is not the same thing as seeing! Many can see in expanded awareness, but immediately go back to sleep and what they saw is interpreted by the standards of the "hypnotic sleep state" of ordinary awareness. This is what happens to most of those who claim to channel with no need to "check their sources!" And, as Ark wrote, "to check whether the information comes from a higher source or lower source, it is always necessary first to check whether the information makes any sense or is just a mumbo-jumbo. ...Real research is ALWAYS necessary. ... You must never RELY on what the entities tell you. ...Unless you WANT to live in an illusion."

And, from my perspective, the main reason such "seers" do not doubt, test, examine and challenge their so-called "guides" is due purely and simply to ego. They have been told that they are "special" or "chosen" or are the "messenger" of this or that "council" or the "heavenly host" or whatever, and it is far easier and more comfortable to believe this, and the further instruction that "all you need to do is listen to us!" than to exert the enormous efforts required to acknowledge, and extirpate the ego's weaknesses, the chief one being, of course, susceptibility to manipulation by forces far more devious than the human mind can fathom.

Don Juan says that Seers must be paragons of virtue by their will and intent in order to override the nearly invincible laxness of the human condition and programming. To say "One doesn't need to know anything on a specific topic when the information isn't coming from oneself but from a higher source," is so astonishing an example of this laxness and manipulation that it is difficult to understand how a person can write it without being immediately assaulted by the insanity of such a view!

One of the necessary conditions of learning to truly SEE is to be able to bring the mind to focus on anything with uncommon force and clarity. Yet, what is learned during these periods of focus is usually unavailable to normal recall." [Castaneda, The Fire From Within, 1984]]

Obviously, great polarized strength is necessary here. SEEING is to witness the unknown and to glimpse the unknowable. The unknown is veiled from man but is within the reach of man's reason if he is sufficiently polarized and amplified! The unknowable is the indescribable, the unthinkable, and the unrealizable. It is something that may never be known to us in our human estate, but seers who are in the grip of laxness and programming don't let THAT stop them!

"...there have certainly been attempts to imbue the [ineffable unknown] with attributes [it] does not have. But that always happens when impressionable people learn to perform acts that require great sobriety. Seers come in all sizes and shapes. ...There are scores of imbeciles who become seers. Seers are human beings full of foibles, or rather, human beings full of foibles are capable of becoming seers. ...The characteristic of miserable seers is that they are willing to forget the wonder of the world. They become overwhelmed by the fact that they see and believe that it is their genius that counts. A seer must be a paragon in order to override the nearly invincible laxness of our human condition. More important than seeing itself is what seers do with what they see." [Castaneda, The Fire From Within, 1984]

Apparently the effort required to bring this learning to normal consciousness is staggering and impossible for most people because they have no "vessel of knowledge" prepared to receive it. He further tells us, and this is corroborated in other teachings, that to interact with the unknown, but that which is ultimately within the reach of knowing through great work, is energizing, exhilarating and fulfilling even when it is also full of apprehension and fear. It seems that one of the effects of enlargement of the perceptual field is a combination of sheer joy combined with a frightening feeling of sadness and longing. This is apparently because a full field of awareness includes all the opposites in perfect balance.

But, even on the level of the unknown that is ultimately accessible to human perception, Seers who truly See often go to pieces on finding out that existence is incomprehensibly complex and that our normal awareness distorts all and perverts with its limitations.

Don Juan remarked that:

"In the life of warriors it was extremely natural to be sad for no overt reason. ...Whenever the boundaries of the known are broken, a mere glimpse of the eternity outside is enough to disrupt the coziness of our controlled awareness. The resulting melancholy is sometimes so intense that it can bring about death. ...The best way to get rid of melancholy is to make fun of it." (Castaneda, 1984)

But, to interact with the unknowable is to become drained or confused, open to oppression and possession. The bodies of such seers lose tone, their reasoning becomes flawed, and their sobriety wanders aimlessly.

The Cassiopaeans have said:

A: The bottom line is this: You are occupying 3rd density. You are by nature, STS. You can be an STO candidate, but you are NOT STO until you are on 4th density. You will NEVER grasp the meaning of these attempted conceptualizations until you are at 4th and above.

To make this point a little clearer, let me add that, before the "Fall," human beings were 3rd density STO, which means that they were ALIGNED with 4th density STO. We have already discussed what this reality must have been like in terms of the megalith builders who were able, by their interaction with Celestial forces, to manifest all that was needed without assault on the environment of Earth.

Don Juan tells us that the Seers of ancient times were "men capable of inconceivable deeds. They were powerful sorcerers, somber and driven, who unraveled the secrets" of existence at our level. They were able to "influence and victimize people by fixating their awareness on whatever they chose." This is an important key in terms of Frequency Resonance Vibration that cannot be overstressed.

There are two positions in the study and understanding of awareness: Sorcerers vs. The Warrior Who Sees. They Both practice the same Seeing, the difference is Intent. The Sorcerer practices to control others. The Warrior practices to become Free.

The Cassiopaeans designate these two positions as "Service to Others," and "Service to Self." Those who wish to control others are Serving Self, those who wish to become free and help others who wish to become free are Serving Others.

Shaman is another way to describe the Warrior who practices to be free. A Shaman is not a magician or a sorcerer although he CAN play those roles if he chooses. He is not a healer, though he can play that role also. A Shaman is far more; he is a psychopomp, a priest, a mystic and a poet. Shamanism is NOT a religion, it is a function, a role, a magico-religious phenomenon specific to certain individuals who have ecstatic capacity permitting "magical flight" to higher realms, descent into the underworld to battle dark forces, mastery over fire, matter, time and space. Unfortunately, as Don Juan noted, in the present time, the Shamanic acts are acts of great laxity, distortion and aberration.

The word "shaman" comes to us through Russian from the Tungusic "saman." The word is derived from the Pali samana, (Sanskrit sramana), through the Chinese sha-men (a transcription of the Pali word).

The word shaman, may be related to Sarman. According to John G. Bennett, Sarmoung or Sarman:

"The pronunciation is the same for either spelling and the word can be assigned to old Persian. It does, in fact, appear in some of the Pahlawi texts...The word can be interpreted in three ways. It is the word for bee, which has always been a symbol of those who collect the precious 'honey' of traditional wisdom and preserve it for further generations. A collection of legends, well known in Armenian and Syrian circles with the title of The Bees, was revised by Mar Salamon, a Nestorian Archimandrite in the thirteenth century. The Bees refers to a mysterious power transmitted from the time of Zoroaster and made manifest in the time of Christ."

"Man" in Persian means "the quality transmitted by heredity and hence a distinguished family or race. It can be the repository of an heirloom or tradition. The word sar means head, both literally and in the sense of principal or chief. The combination sarman would thus mean the chief repository of the tradition..."

"And still another possible meaning of the word sarman is... literally, those whose heads have been purified." [John G. Bennett, Gurdjieff: Making of A New World]

Those whose heads have been purified! What an interesting idea! Especially when you consider the concept of Frequency Resonance Vibration and Orientation/Polarization.

We already suspect that these ideas are far older than Zoroaster. And for those who have supposed that the concept of the shaman was stimulated by Buddhism, I will point out that other studies have shown that, even before the intrusion of Buddhism into Central Asia, there was the cult of Buga, god of the sky, a celestial worship that antedates Sun and Moon worship.

The central theme of Shamanism is the "ascent to the sky" and/or the "descent" to the underworld. In the former, the practitioner experiences Ecstasy, in the latter, he battles demons who threaten the well being of humanity. There are studies that suggest evidence of the earliest practices are in the cave paintings of Lascaux with the many representations of the bird, the tutelary spirits, and the ecstatic experience (ca, 25,000 B.C.). Animal skulls and bones found in the sites of the European Paleolithic period (before 50,000 - ca. 30,000 B.C.) have been interpreted as evidence of Shamanic practice.

The "ecstatic experience" is the primary phenomenon of Shamanism, and it is this ecstasy that can be seen as the act of merging with the celestial beings. And merging results in Forced Oscillation that changes Frequency. Continued interaction with Celestial beings is a form of Frequency Resonance Vibration.

The idea that there was a time when man was directly in contact with the Celestial Beings is at the root of the myths of the Golden Age which have been redacted to the Grail stories of the 11th and 12th centuries. During this paradisal time, it is suggested that communications between heaven and earth were easy and accessible to everyone. Myths tell us of a time when the "gods withdrew" from mankind. As a result of some "happening," i.e. "The Fall," the communications were broken off and the Celestial Beings withdrew to the highest heavens.

This is exactly what the Cassiopaeans have told us regarding our former alignment with 4th density STO and our present alignment with 4th density STS, and which we have examined to some extent in earlier sections of the present work.

But, the myths also tell us that there were still those certain people who were able to "ascend" and commune with the gods on the behalf of their tribe or family. Through them, contact was maintained with the "guiding spirits" of the group. The beliefs and practices of the present day shamans are a survival of a profoundly modified and even corrupted and degenerated remnant of this archaic technology of concrete communications between heaven and earth.

And, again, the Cassiopaeans suggested this perspective, which was confirmed in later studies. But we will come to that later.

The shaman, in his ability to achieve the ecstatic state inaccessible to the rest of mankind, was regarded as a privileged being. More than this, the myths tell us of the First Shamans who were sent to earth by the Celestial Beings to DEFEND human beings against the "negative gods" who had taken over the rule of mankind. It was the task of the First Shamans to activate, in their own bodies, a sort of "transducer" of cosmic energy for the benefit of their tribe. This was expressed as the concept of the "world tree," which became the "axis" or the Pole of the World and later the "royal bloodlines."

It does seem to be true that there is a specific relationship between this function and certain "bloodlines." But, as with everything that has been provided to help mankind, this concept has been co-opted by the forces seeking to keep mankind in darkness and ignorance. The true and ancient bloodlines of the First Shamans have been obscured and hidden by the false trail of the invented genealogies of the Hebrew Old Testament supposedly leading to certain branches of present day European royal and/or noble families, which seek to establish a counterfeit "kingship" that has garnered a great deal of attention in recent times.

As we have already noted, BEFORE the Fall, every human being had access to communication with the higher densities via the "Maidens of the Wells," or the union between the right and left hemispheres of the brain and alignment with the 4th density STO. Because of their alignment, their frequency, and the lack of STS dampers, it was a simple matter to amplify Frequency Resonance Vibration.

AFTER the Fall, it seems that a specific genetic variation was somatically induced by the incarnation of certain higher density beings who "gave their blood" for the "redemption of man." That is to say that they changed the body and DNA by Forced Oscillation. It is likely that this was done through the female incarnations because of the role of the mitochondrial DNA, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here, so we will leave that for the moment.

Nevertheless, the presence of this DNA, depending upon the terms of recombination, makes it very likely that there are literally millions of carriers of this bloodline/Shamanic ability on the earth today. And it is for all of YOU that these pages are being written.

In this present time, there are indications that Cosmic changes of monumental proportions are "in the wind." There are also indications that a particular "time element" is involved, and all the forces of darkness seek to deceive and obfuscate at levels never before achieved in order to distract, confuse, dilute and defuse the abilities of those who may be the bearers of the "circuits of change" for all humanity.

The Sufis have kept the "Technician of Ecstasy" concept alive in their tradition of the "Poles of the World." The kutub or q'tub (pole of his time) is an appointed being, entirely spiritual of nature, who acts as a divine agent of a sphere at a certain period in time. Each kutub has under him four awtads (supports) and a number of abdals (substitutes) , who aid him in his work of preserving and maintaining the world. The interesting thing about this idea is that the individual who occupies the position does not even have to be aware of it! His life, his existence, even his very physiology, is a function of higher densities extruded into 3rd density. That this has a very great deal to do with "bloodlines," as promulgated in recent times is true, but not necessarily in the ways suggested. Again, we will come to that soon enough.

Q: (L) But isn't the nature of a person determined by their soul and not the physical body?
A: Partially, remember, aural profile and karmic reference merges with physical structure.
Q: (L) So you are saying that particular genetic conditions are a physical reflection of a spiritual orientation? That the soul must match itself to the genetics, even if only in potential?
A: Yes, precisely.
Q: (L) So a person's potential for spiritual advancement or unfoldment is, to a great extent, dependent upon their genes?
A: Natural process marries with systematic construct when present. [Cassiopaeans]

In the present time, it seems that those with the "bloodline" are awakening. It is no longer feasible to be a "Pole of the World" who is asleep, because, as we will soon examine, there are some very serious matters of choice and action that may be incumbent upon the awakened Shaman. The first order of business seems to be to awaken and accumulate strength of polarity.

Shamans are born AND made. That is to say, they are born to be made, but the making is their choice. And, from what I have been able to determine, the choice may be one that is made at a different level than the conscious, 3rd density linear experience. Those who have made the choice at the higher levels, and then have negated the choice at this level because they are not able to relinquish their ordinary life, pay a very high price, indeed.

A shaman stands out because of certain characteristics of "religious crisis." They are different from other people because of the intensity of their religious experiences. In ancient times, it was the task of the Shamanic elite to be the "Specialist of the Soul," to guard the soul of the tribe because only he could "see the unseen" and know the form and destiny of the Group Soul. But, before he acquired his ability, he was often an ordinary citizen, or even the offspring of a shaman with no seeming vocation (considering that the ability is reputed to be inherited, though not necessarily represented in each generation.)

At some point in his life, however, the shaman has an experience that "separates" him from the rest of humanity. This Native American "vision quest" is a survival of the archaic understanding of the natural initiation of the shaman who is "called" to his vocation by the gods. A deep study of the matter reveals that those who seek the magico-religious powers via the vision quest when they have not been "called" spontaneously, generally become the "Dark Shamans," or sorcerers; those who, through a systematic study, obtain the powers deliberately for their own advantage. (Again, Don Juan's distinction between the Sorcerer and the Warrior who practices to be Free.)

The true Shamanic initiation comes by dreams, ecstatic trances combined with extensive study. A shaman is expected to not only pass through certain initiatory ordeals, but he/she must also be deeply educated in order to be able to fully evaluate the experiences and challenges that he/she will face. Unfortunately, until now, there have been precious few who have traveled the path of the Shaman, including the practice of the attendant skills of "battling demons," who could teach or advise a course of study for the Awakening Shaman.

The future shaman is traditionally thought to exhibit certain exceptional traits from childhood. He is often very nervous and even sickly in some ways. (In some cultures, epilepsy is considered a "mark" of the shaman, though this is a later corrupt perception of the ecstatic state.) It has been noted that shamans, as children, are often morbidly sensitive, have weak hearts, disordered digestion, and are subject to vertigo. There are those who would consider such symptoms to be incipient mental illness, but the fact is extensive studies have shown that the so-called hallucinations or visions consist of elements that follow a particular model that is consistent from culture to culture, from age to age, and is composed of an amazingly rich theoretical content. It could even be said that persons who "go mad," are "failed shamans" who have failed either because of a flaw in the transmission of the genetics, or because of environmental factors. At the same time, there are many more myths of failed Shamanic heroes than of successful ones, so the warnings of what can happen have long been in place. Mircea Eliade remarks that:

... The mentally ill patient proves to be an unsuccessful mystic or, better, the caricature of a mystic. His experience is without religious content, even if it appears to resemble a religious experience, just as an act of autoeroticism arrives at the same physiological result as a sexual act properly speaking (seminal emission), yet at the same time is but a caricature of the latter because it is without the concrete presence of the partner. [Eliade, Shamanism, 1964]

Well, that's a pretty interesting analogy! It even suggests to us the idea that one who attempts to activate a Shamanic inheritance within the STS framework of Wishful Thinking, has an "illusory" partner as in the above described activity, with similar results. In other words, Sorcery is like masturbation: the practitioner satisfies himself, but his act does no one else any good. And, by the same token, a Shaman who operates without knowledge is like the proverbial premature ejaculation: he gets everybody all excited, and then leaves them hanging!

But, such amusing vulgarities aside (even if they DO make the point remarkably well) the thing about the shaman is that he/she is not just a sick person, he is a sick person who has been CURED, or who has succeeded in curing himself!! This point can't be overemphasized! Those who aspire to mysticism, to the Shamanic path, and who still remain frail or sickly in physical, material or spiritual terms, may not yet have been presented with the initiation, or, if they have, may have failed to pass. The possibility of achieving the Shamanic powers for Service to Self also exists, so great care has to be used in trying to "see the unseen."

In many cases, the "election" of the shaman manifests through a fairly serious illness which can only be cured by the "ascent to the sky." After the ecstatic vision of initiation, the shaman feels MUCH better! After the response to the calling of the gods, the shaman shows a more than normally healthy constitution; they are able to achieve immense concentration beyond the capacity of ordinary man; they can sustain exhausting efforts and, most importantly, they are able to "keep a cool head" in the face of experiences that would break an ordinary person.

Another point that should be emphasized is that the Shaman must be able to be in full control of himself even when in the ecstatic state! (Trance channelling with no memory of what transpired is NOT the activity of a fully fledged Shaman!) This ability to "walk in two worlds simultaneously" demonstrates an extraordinary nervous constitution. It has been said that, the Siberian shamans show no sign of mental disintegration well into old age; their memories and powers of self-control are WELL above average.

Don Juan calls this state being "impeccable." This idea is also reflected in the archaic systems of the Yakut, where the shaman must be "serious, possess tact, be able to communicate effectively with all people; above all, he must not be presumptuous, proud, ill-tempered." The true shaman emanates an inner force that is conscious, yet never offensive. At the same time, it should be noted that a true shaman may evoke very negative responses from those who are under the domination of the STS polarity.

Getting back to the infirmities, nervous disorders, illness of crisis and so forth that are the "signs of election," it is also noted that, sometimes an accident, a fall, a blow on the head, or being hit by lightning are the signs from the environment that the shaman has been elected. But, being "called" is not the same as being "chosen," or, more precisely, choosing. "Many are called; few choose to respond."

But, this choosing is a process. And it is a process of struggle and pain and suffering because, in the end, what is being killed is the ego. I have taken you, the reader, through many of the stages of this process vicariously, and I know that it is affecting you in many of the same ways it affected me, judging by the mail I have received. Many of you have been through the processes of initiation already. Many of you are struggling with the process of death of the ego and striving for rebirth as the Shaman - he whose head has been purified. In any case, many of you know that this can be a process of many years and many stages, sometimes including many illnesses, many accidents, and many assaults to the physical body as well as the soul.

The pivotal initiation of the Shaman occurs after a long period of "preparation." In retrospect, I can see this was the process, but as I was going through it, I had no idea that this was what was happening. I was just struggling through the illnesses, the accidents, the suffering, the trials, the tribulations, the lessons and so forth that seemed to just be the path of my life in generic terms. I didn't see them as tests, or that they manifested in my life as the "call." It was only AFTER the "choice" that I began to make the discoveries that explained the process of my life, and which I am now sharing with you.

And, for many of you, reading these pages has had a similar effect - initiatory - though the present series was not begun with that intention. It just, more or less, took over and began to "write itself." So, for those that want "just the facts, ma'am!" I apologize. I'm not going to change it, but I acknowledge your right to want something different.

Returning to my "descent into Hell" and the sensation of being "stripped of everything," yes, there had been other steps in the process, other choices, visions and experiences. But none of them were like the moment of being completely stripped to the bone of all belief in anything and everything I ever held as true, including all my beliefs and illusions about my personal life and relationships and my very self!

The pathology of the Shamanic path seems to be part of the means of reaching the "condition" to be initiated. But, at the same time, they are often the means of the initiation itself. They have a physiological effect that amounts to a transformation of the ordinary individual into a technician of the sacred.

(But, if such an experience is not followed by a period of theoretical and practical instruction, the shaman becomes a tool for those forces that would use the Shamanic function to further enslave mankind as we have already noted.)

Now, the experience that transforms the shaman is constituted of the well known religious elements of suffering, death and resurrection. One of the earliest representations of these elements is in the Sumerian story of the descent of Ishtar/Inanna into the Underworld to save her son-lover, Tammuz. She had to pass through 7 "gates of Hell" and, at each door or gate, she was stripped of another article of her attire because she could only enter the Underworld Naked. While she was in the underworld, the earth and its inhabitants suffered loss of creative vigor. After she had accomplished her mission, fertility was restored.

A later redaction of this story was the myth of Persephone/Kore, the daughter of Demeter, who was kidnapped by Hades/Pluto. In her grief for her daughter, Demeter denied fertility to the earth. After hammering out an agreement to have her daughter with her for part of the year, this was the agent of the manifestation of seasons. We can see that this represents a very ancient account of the cyclical nature of time. But, even more, we can now see that it is a Shamanic tale of descent of the "daughter" of the Greater Soul unit into 3rd density where it is entrapped by the forces of darkness, and the searching of Demeter for her daughter is the calling of the higher self to the Shamanic path. And, of course, we note that in the oldest versions, it was the separation of the goddess from her consort which would indicate the separation of the dual energies and the hemispheres of the brain.

In any event, in this descent into the underworld, the Shamanic visions represent it as dismemberment of the body, flaying of the flesh from the bones, being boiled in a cauldron, and then being reassembled by the gods and/or goddesses. Suffering, death and resurrection.

A Yakut shaman, Sofron Zateyev, states that during this visionary initiation, the future shaman "dies" and lies in the yurt for three days without eating or drinking. ...Pyotr Ivanov gives further details. In the vision, the candidate's limbs are removed and disjointed with an iron hook; the bones are cleaned, the flesh scraped, the body fluids thrown away, and the eyes torn from their sockets. After this operation all the bones are gathered up and fastened together with iron. According to a third shaman, Timofei Romanov, the visionary dismemberment lasts from three to seven days; during all that time the candidate remains like a dead man, scarcely breathing, in a solitary place. [Cf. Eliade, 1964]

According to another Yakut account, the evil spirits carry the future shaman's soul to the underworld and there shut it up in a house for three years (only one year for those who will become lesser shamans). Here the shaman undergoes his initiation. The spirits cut off his head, which they set aside (for the candidate must watch his dismemberment with his own eyes), and cut him into small pieces, which are then distributed to the spirits of the various diseases. Only by undergoing such an ordeal will the future shaman gain the power to cure. His bones are then covered with new flesh, and in some cases he is also given new blood.

According to another account, the "devils" keep the candidate's soul until he has learned all of their wisdom. During all this time the candidate lies sick. There is also a reoccurring motif of a giant bird that "hatches shamans" in the branches of the World Tree which is an allusion to the "Avian bloodline" as opposed to the Reptilian. (But more on that later!) The following excerpts are from the available accounts obtained in field research, recounted in Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy:

...The candidate ...came upon a naked man working a bellows. On the fire was a caldron "as big as half the earth." The naked man saw him and caught him with a huge pair of tongs. The novice had time to think, "I am dead!" The man cut off his head, chopped his body into bits, and put everything in the caldron. There he boiled his body for three years. There were also three anvils, and the naked man forged the candidate's head on the third, which was the one on which the best shamans were forged. ...The blacksmith then fished the candidate's bones out of a river in which they were floating, put them together, and covered them with flesh again. ...He forged his head and taught him how to read the letters that are inside it. He changed his eyes; and that is why, when he shamanizes, he does not see with his bodily eyes but with his mystical eyes. He pierced his ears, making him able to understand the language of plants.

...The Tungus shaman Ivan Cholko states that a future shaman must fall ill and have his body cut in pieces and his blood drunk by the evil spirits. These throw his head into a caldron where it is melted with certain metal pieces that will later form part of his ritual costume.

...Before becoming a shaman the candidate must be sick for a long time; the souls of his shaman ancestors then surround him, torture him, strike him, cut his body with knives, and so on. During this operation the future shaman remains inanimate; his face and hands are blue, his heart scarcely beats.

...A Teleut woman became a shamaness after having a vision in which unknown men cut her body to bits and cooked it in a pot. According to the traditions of the Altain shamans, the spirits of their ancestors eat their flesh, drink their blood, open their bellies and so on.

...In South America as in Australia or Siberia both spontaneous vocation and the quest for initiation involve either a mysterious illness or a more or less symbolic ritual of mystical death, sometimes suggested by a dismemberment of the body and renewal of the organs.

...They cut his head open, take out his brains, wash and restore them, to give him a clear mind to penetrate into the mysteries of evil spirits, and the intricacies of disease; they insert gold dust into his eyes to give him keenness and strength of sight powerful enough to see the soul wherever it may have wandered; they plant barbed hooks on the tips of his fingers to enable him to seize the soul and hold it fast; and lastly they pierce his heart with an arrow to make him tenderhearted, and full of sympathy with the sick and suffering.

...If the alleged reason for the renewal of the organs (conferring better sight, tenderheartedness, etc.) is authentic, it indicates that the original meaning of the rite has been forgotten.

...Then the master obtains the disciple's "lighting" or "enlightenment," for [this] consists of a mysterious light which the shaman suddenly feels in his body, inside his head, within the brain, an inexplicable searchlight, a luminous fire, which enables him to see in the dark, both literally and metaphorically speaking, for he can now, even with closed eyes, see through darkness and perceive things and coming events which are hidden from others...

The candidate obtains this mystical light after long hours of waiting, sitting on a bench in his hut... When he experiences it for the first time "it is as if the house in which he is suddenly rises; he sees far ahead of him, through mountains, exactly as if the earth were one great plain, and his eyes could reach to the end of the earth. Nothing is hidden from him any longer; not only can he see things far, far away, but he can also discover souls, stolen souls, which are either kept concealed in far, strange lands or have been taken up or down to the Land of the Dead.

...The experience of inner light that determines the career of the Iglulik shaman is familiar to a number of higher mysticisms. In the Upanishads, the "inner light" defines the essence of the atman. In yogic techniques, especially those of the Buddhist schools, light of different colors indicates the success of particular meditations. Similarly, the Tibetan Book of the Dead accords great importance to the light in which, it appears, the dying man's soul is bathed during his mortal throes and immediately after death; a man's destiny after death (deliverance or reincarnation) depends on the firmness with which he chooses the immaculate light.

...The essential elements of this mystical vision are the being divested of flesh. ...In all these cases reduction to the skeleton indicates a passing beyond the profane human condition and, hence, a deliverance from it.

...Bone represents the very source of life. To reduce oneself to the skeleton condition is equivalent to reentering the womb for a complete renewal, a mystical rebirth. ...It is an expression of the will to transcend the profane, individual condition, and to attain a transtemporal perspective.

...The myth of renewal by fire, cooking, or dismemberment has continued to haunt men even outside the spiritual horizon of shamanism. ...The myth of rejuvenation by dismemberment and cooking has been handed down in Siberian, Central Asian, and European folklore, the role of the blacksmith being played by Jesus or other saints. [Eliade, Shamanism, 1964]

A couple of important things to note are the ideas that the candidate must be "under the control" of demons or beings that torture and torment him in order that he may learn their wisdom, and that this process confers greater "powers" on the initiate. A present day experience that is so similar to this initiation is the Alien Abduction scenario. Unfortunately, just as was reported among the Shamanic stories of "failed initiates," there are many who have embraced the tormentors and become possessed by them to one extent or another. And, in a deeper sense, we can observe that the very fact of our existence in the STS 3rd density reality constitutes an initiation over many, many incarnations. We must suffer the lies before we can perceive the truth!

So now you see what I am doing. I am sharing with you the knowledge of the process of initiation which many of you have experienced with no context; I am assisting those who have asked, in the process of being stripped to the bone; of suffering, dying and, hopefully, being resurrected; of becoming a Shaman; of becoming one whose head has been purified.

All of what follows from here on out must be understood to apply ONLY to those who have accepted the CALL. If your life has not followed the Shamanic pattern, none of the following can be construed to apply to you. If, on the other hand, you do think that your call is to be "one whose head has been purified," then you should study a great deal more until you arrive at your own "initiation," at which point YOUR choices will be clear to YOU. But, for the sake of those who are already "there," the following remarks are being made as generalities to be applied ONLY if or when they "fit."

Now, let's go a step further into practical matters. As I said, after the "initiation" that I passed through in my "descent" into Hell, the world changed for me in profound ways. The profundity of the change was at a level I could not fully fathom in my consciousness, but it bore fruit almost immediately. My view of all my relationships, all my actions and interactions with the world changed in incalculable ways. I could literally "see the unseen" dynamics of every exchange between myself and other people in all situations. And by seeing, I was able to choose that reaction that was truly expressive of Unconditional Love, of Truth, of ultimate Beauty in Cosmic terms. I no longer saw with my human eyes nor was I ruled by my human emotions. This does NOT mean that I did not feel them! But I had already made a choice of the greatest magnitude in terms of putting aside all human egoic need for comfort and illusion, and I was simply not able to ever view anything the same way again.

One of the first acts of application of this new state of being was, as I have chronicled, the reordering of my personal life which included divorcing my husband and bringing to a halt all manipulative interactions between myself and my children, close friends and associates. Many people saw this as "becoming hard" or a certain "coldness" or lack of love and caring. But, the TRUTH is that, as long as I participated in these dynamics, I was FEEDING the Service to Self forces. I understood my position: that I needed to gain strength. I also knew that I needed to be strong in my polarization for the sake of others, not just those immediately in my life. I also realized from looking back over my life that I was particularly vulnerable to having people placed close to me who were there for the express purpose of draining my life force because it was very potent, and by manipulating me to give in the STS dynamic, I was a powerful feeding machine to amplify those energies! I also understood that those who are NOT awake are completely subject to this manipulation. More than this, I understood that I must battle for the souls of those I loved and that this could even mean physically and emotionally abandoning them so as not to amplify the STS frequency in them. I knew that if I continued to act as their buffer, I was making it almost impossible for them to overcome their own predator. Such a price was so high that I couldn't bear to consider it.

Yes, I realize the love that I felt for my children which made me think that we could or would travel into the higher levels together might be a trap, but at least I knew for sure that, if it was their soul choice, they needed to wake up and do it fast, and they would NEVER do with me there being manipulated into giving amplification to their STS frequency! I understood that it was NOT love to do anything that prevents another from learning a lesson that they are here to learn, no matter how hard it is to watch when someone you love is suffering. You must love another as they ARE in order to be able to allow them to learn their own lessons, and this is the most bitter lesson of all for the human part of one who chooses to serve others in the Cosmic sense.

If I was kind or giving to my children, thinking that it would "teach" them something about being kind or giving, I was NOT accepting them as they were. That does not mean I stopped being kind or giving, nor does it mean that I stopped being a parent and imposing necessary discipline that is part of the parent-child soul agreement, it simply means that I knew that if I was doing it because I expected them to change, or because they were manipulating something from me by intimations that it would produce some result favorable to me, it was the WRONG reason to do it. I also knew that when they did things that required a disciplinary response, they were ASKING me to discipline. Most asking takes place in action, no words!

In the case of my ex-husband, I realized that, by continuing to support him emotionally in his choices which, most of the time, if not ALL of the time, happened to be in direct opposition to my own, I was either expecting this support to "convert him" to my view, or I was simply giving up my free will. I understood that his choices were his and fully worthy of his pursuit. They just weren't mine. And, by the same token, MY choices were not his and I could no longer ask or expect his support simply because he was my husband. I knew that this amounted to being a vampire myself! Not only that, I understood that, by his behavior, he was ASKING me to release him. Even if it was not conscious nor part of his social and religious programming. At a very deep soul level, he was being guided to behave in ways that were subtle, yet definite asking for release. To refuse such asking, would NOT be Love!

In the case of the husband and wife relationship, this is a most difficult thing to assess because it is a relationship based on commitment to similar goals and ideals and intimate interactions of assimilation and identification with one another. When you fully realize that the giving of energy to the Service to Self alignment in ANY respect is to help it grow while you are diminishing your own possibilities of increasing the Service to Others dynamic, you are faced with very difficult choices at the most intimate level. And, it is actually IN and THROUGH these choices and their activation that you are marrying your knowledge to your will! If you perceive, make the correct choices for true STO dynamic, implementation will powerfully amplify your Frequency! And the closer the relationship, and the harder it is to DO it, to overcome the illusions of programming, the more profound the effect it can have on the amplification!

In terms of a marriage partner, yes, of course, you can still have similar goals of raising your children, of paying your bills, of building a nest egg for retirement. Can't we say that "Serving Others" might constitute "giving of support" to such mundane human pursuits while the other aspects of our lives, our spiritual pursuits, are kept separate? Not only that, but when one looks at divorce, one is looking at possibly losing one's own financial/physical/emotional support system which may be detrimental especially when children are involved, so isn't that very Self Serving?

In the case of a marriage, this is where the rubber hits the road in terms of applying one's knowledge and choices. It all depends on your idea of what marriage is supposed to be and what your life goals are, and whether or not they can harmonize.

For most of us, marriage constitutes a commitment to support and sustain another person physically, emotionally and financially "for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."

Note the key words: "support and sustain."

Now, if it becomes clear that the marriage partner is at a level or position on the "learning cycle" that is different from the individual who is "waking up," what is the level of responsibility? One might think that it is their responsibility to stay in the marriage because they simply ARE married or committed. In this case one then has to think very carefully about the term "RESPONSE - ability."

How are you going to respond to a person who makes choices to act as "food" in the Service to Self hierarchy? How are you going to respond to a person who is still "lost in the illusion" that he has free will and the power to choose his destiny, and is completely unaware of the forces that dominate our world? How are you going to support a person who makes choices to NOT expand his or her knowledge base to the same extent that you have, a person who is content to stay in the locked room and doesn't care that it may be locked. He or she has not even arrived at the point of checking the door! If you have left your own "locked room," are you then going to move into the locked room of another person?

Well, you can continue to support them, in which case your energy amplifies their own STS frequency AND feeds the STS dynamic THROUGH them. Okay. That's cool. You can think that this is something you are willing to do as an act of Love and Giving because Loving and Giving are your ideals. But there is something far more important here and that is: if, at the soul level, they have set up lessons so as to be eventually brought to the point of an STO choice, your continued support and sustenance prolongs the period of time it will take them to do it! It may even be that, by your support, the individual will not learn what they incarnated to learn in this life and will be obliged to do a whole additional life (or more than one), over again. If you are trying to "save" them you are doing far more harm than good.

A friend of mine recently wrote to me about a clue he was given about this very matter:

I don`t think that we can `save` anybody BUT we can help many others in SAVING THEMSELVES (well, I guess you could call that a form of saving if you want, it`s only semantics). When I went to sleep last night, I sort of asked: if there is anything to us `saving` others, show me how it`s done. And I had this dream, just before waking up... Basically, I was facing someone of the `other camp`, we were in a sort of fight/discussion, until he said: please, release me, help me out of this. It was said in all honesty, sincerely. Then, `something` of me or something `came out` of me, sort of melted with this individual and HE CHANGED COMPLETELY, IN A SORT OF MORPHING WAY. VERY STRANGE!!!

And the key was in what the soul of the other was crying: PLEASE RELEASE ME! And this is, indeed, the way! To release that soul to enter fully into the lessons they have chosen without your interference or support except to Love them AS THEY ARE. The something "came out" and "melted with the individual" was this Unconditional Love that allowed them to BE as they are, at their level, fully and completely so that they could GROW out of it! He "gave free will" and discontinued his feeding of the STS frequency, thereby releasing the soul to change in its own way and time!

So, in the Cosmic scheme of things, which is TRUE Love and Giving? To support and sustain a person in illusion with all the attendant "food" that is implicit in the marriage relationship, to continue to amplify their STS frequency, or to RELEASE them to lessons - the giving of what is truly appropriate to their actions/asking - that may eventually facilitate their own growth and/or initiation, if not in this life - in the next?

Of course, the question then becomes: can you withdraw support from the dynamic and still support the person? The fact is, in terms of soul choices, it is impossible to intimately support a person who is aligned to a certain soul choice without also supporting that person's choices.

But, it is here that a very hard look has to be taken at the self to inquire WHY you would want to continue to support and sustain a person who is part of a dynamic that you have chosen NOT to feed any longer? (Again, I repeat that what I am saying here is ONLY for those who have taken the step toward full initiation!)

Are you staying in the relationship because of financial considerations? Is it "for the children?" Or because you don't see how you could continue your path of learning without the financial backing of the marriage? If it is for financial considerations relating to yourself, it is easy to see that YOU are the vampire. You are offering an "illusion" of love and support in order to obtain something that YOU want or need. If you are staying for the sake of the children, you need to be very careful how you think this is going to benefit them. In the first place, at some soul level these children are learning by observing and experiencing. They observe and experience a vampire dynamic and they grow up to emulate it in their own lives. Is that what you want for your children? In another sense, if you are in a relationship where there is "feeding" going on, one or both of the marriage partners is going to HAVE to obtain energy from somewhere, and the most likely sources are going to be the children. Is THAT what you want?

The key is, can you stay in the relationship without EXPECTATION of ANYTHING being changed or made better by your presence and/or support?

The essential thing about the STO Shamanic path is to give only when ASKED. And then, to give ALL that is asked. This pretty much excludes giving to those of the STS orientation because they NEVER ask! They manipulate, they demand, they beg, they even ask with their words but not their actions. This issue of "asking" is a thing you can only see by seeing the unseen. Perhaps one way to think about it would be that you can tell if someone is really "asking" if there is NO expectation on their part that you will give to them what they are asking! And, there is no condition placed upon YOU as to whether or not you say yes or no. In other words, if you say "no," (because you cannot say yes for whatever reason) you are certain that there will be no break or decline in your relations. And the same thing applies to the self. If you "ask," are you really asking? Or, is there some string attached such as "if you love me you will say yes," or "see what I have done for you; now it's your turn," whether implied or not?

The essential thing to know is that Service to Others is the path of spiritual love, which is entirely distinct from the love of the world and self-love. The whole secret of True Magic lies within the laws of the divine proximity. As you grow closer to Love as God the creator expresses it, you grow closer to God. And God loves everything exactly as it is. That is WHY it IS!

The more a person becomes assimilated to the Service to Others orientation, the more effective his choices become, but, at the same time, to others his existence becomes incomprehensible.

Now, it is pretty easy to practice these terms when giving to strangers or associates that are not intimately involved in your life. It's a lot harder to do it in close, personal relationships! But that is where it is most essential for the Shaman!

The reason for this is the particular role the Shaman plays in the Cosmic dynamics of all times, and most especially the present - that of the Spiritual Warrior.

...Shamanism is important not only for the place that it holds in the history of mysticism. The shamans have played an essential role in the defense of the psychic integrity of the community. They are preeminently the antidemonic champions; they combat not only demons and disease, but also the black magicians. The exemplary figure of the shaman champion is the mythical founder of Na-khi shamanism, the tireless slayer of demons. The military elements that are of great importance in certain types of Asian shamanism are accounted for by the requirements of war against the demons, the true enemies of humanity. In a general way, it can be said that shamanism defends life, health, fertility, the world of "light," against death, diseases, sterility, disaster, and the world of "darkness." [Eliade, 1964]

The fundamental and universal function of the Shaman is to have the force necessary for what we call the struggle against "the powers of evil." This does NOT mean going and duking it out with a demon or arguing over which channeled information is right or wrong or praying for World Peace or sending Love and Light to war-torn Bosnia. It doesn't mean doing spirit release or exorcism (though it could include such things in certain circumstances).

What it DOES mean is the constant and ever present need to sustain a very particular Frequency Resonance. What the Shaman represents is a "Pole of the World," through which the energies of Creation can be transduced into 3rd density. They are required to manifest in their bodies certain frequencies that can only be developed in relationships where the life force of the Shaman is ENHANCED by the interaction, not drained.

And, the "battling of demons" is clearly a clue that the STO Shaman must amplify the STO frequency and avoid amplification of the STS dynamic. That is where the true battle is being fought.

In the stories of the ancient Shamans of great power, it is often noted that, if they become a Shaman at a point in their life when they have a spouse and family, very often the Shaman is given a new "spirit spouse" whose most important function is to prepare special food for the Shaman so that he/she can do the special work. Sometimes this "spirit spouse" was an actual "second wife" or husband, who moved in with the family. In cultures where Shamanism was understood, if the original wife was not "suitable," she at least understood the necessity for a "special wife" to fulfill the function of "feeding the shaman." Of course, there are some stories of first wives who did NOT take well to having a second wife, even if it was only a spirit and not embodied in another woman, and the result was generally a conflict that ended in the death of the first wife. (Or husband if the shaman was a woman.)

The point of this is not that it tells us something in a literal sense, but that it is symbolic of the the Shaman's spiritual need to interact with beings that "feed" rather than drain. A conclusion could be drawn that the STO Shaman must be in direct interaction, on an intimate level, only with someone who is "alike." In such a case their energies will exchange, commutate, and expand from the interaction. They will "push each other's swing." They will set up a Frequency Resonance Vibration between them that is so powerful that they will naturally "grow."

And, of course we know by now that the forces of darkness will bring forward many of their own candidates for this intimate interaction who are NOT alike for the purpose of making sure that the Shaman never gains sufficient strength. At the same time, the presence of the such persons in the Shaman's life CAN serve the all-important function of assisting in the "breaking down" and stripping of the flesh from the bones in preparation for the initiation. But, once the initiation has occurred, it is CRUCIAL for the Shaman to ACT in order to immediately strengthen his polarity. It is better to be in NO relationship than to be in one that both drains and damps the self and feeds and amplifies the STS frequency.

And by acting based on the subtle clues in his environment, including his own body, his ability to SEE grows as well. And when his ability to see increases, he is better able to make choices based on seeing the unseen which act in a beneficial way for the entire STO polarity. The more the Shaman exercises Free Will and ensures the Freedom of Will of others, the more available the energy of Free Will becomes to the entire planet. And this has a huge implication: the more Free Will is available, the more the STS domination will NATURALLY DECREASE! The fewer people who are "available" for feeding, the less the STS orientation can grow!

The Shaman is a "specialist in the sacred." They are able to "see" the spirits, to go up into the sky and meet the gods, to descend to the underworld and fight the demons, sickness, and death. The shaman's essential role in the defense of the psychic integrity of the community depends above all on his ability to SEE what is hidden and invisible to the rest and to bring back direct and RELIABLE information from the supernatural worlds.

There is an astonishing likeness between the accounts of Shamanic ecstasies and certain epic themes in archaic oral literature. The shaman's adventures in the other world, the ordeals that he undergoes in his ecstatic descents below and ascents to the sky suggest the adventures of the heroes of the great myths and epics from Gilgamesh to Perseus, from Odysseus to Perceval. It is extremely likely that most of the motifs, as well as the characters, images, and clichés of these myths and stories are of ecstatic origin. In this sense, they become essential for study to those following the Shamanic path because they are, in all likelihood, narratives of shamans describing their journeys and adventures in the superhuman worlds.

We have termed the ecstatic experience a "primary phenomenon" because we see no reason whatever for regarding it as the result of a particular historical moment, that is, as produced by a certain form of civilization. Rather, we would consider it fundamental in the human condition, and hence known to the whole of archaic humanity; what changed and was modified with the different forms of culture and religion was the interpretation and the evaluation of the ecstatic experience. What, then, was the historico-religious situation in Central and North Asia, where, later on, shamanism crystallized as an autonomous and specific complex? Everywhere in those lands, and from the earliest times, we find documents for the existence of a Supreme Being of celestial structure, who also corresponds morphologically to all the other Supreme Beings of the archaic religions. The symbolism of ascent, with all the rites and myths dependent on it, must be connected with celestial Supreme Beings; we know that "height" was sacred as such, that many supreme gods of archaic peoples are called "He on high," "He of the Sky," or simply "Sky." This symbolism of ascent and height retains its value even after the "withdrawal" of the celestial Supreme Beings... Hence we must conceive of Asiatic shamanism as an archaic technique of ecstasy whose original underlying ideology - belief in a celestial Supreme Being with whom it was possible to have direct relations by ascending into the sky - was constantly being transformed by a long series of exotic contributions culminating in the invasion of Buddhism. The concept of mystical death, furthermore, encouraged increasingly regular relations with the ancestral souls and the "spirits," relations that ended in possession. The phenomenology of the trance underwent many changes and corruptions, due in large part to confusion as to the precise nature of ecstasy. Yet all these innovations and corruptions did not succeed in eliminating the possibility of the true Shamanic ecstasy; and we have been able to find examples of genuine mystical experiences of the shamans, taking the form of "spiritual" ascents...

More than once we have discerned in the Shamanic experience a "nostalgia for paradise... [Eliade, 1964]

And again we are brought to the question, in practical terms: What are we supposed to DO? Let's look at something we have brought up before and see if we cannot find a clue here:

A: First, some blockbuster stuff for the Knighted ones... Look upon a detailed map, and reflect, remember lonely journeys from long ago, and begin to unlock shattering mysteries which will lead to revelations opening the door to the greatest learning burst yet!!
Q: You said "knighted ones," as though there were some significance to the name...
A: Discover...
Q: Is there some genetic engineering here?
A: No, not in the sense you are thinking. But, all are in some sense. [...]
Q: (L) Well, what I REALLY want to know is WHY have we had all of these CRAZY things happen in our lives, and all of these people ranged all around us seemingly placed there, or manipulated deliberately to affect us negatively. I mean, am I wrong, or is this not a VERY unusual and crazy situation?
A: Why do you think?
Q: Well, I have no idea!
A: Because you are of the extremely rare and few who have the abilities to put the puzzle together.
Q: So, what are we supposed to do? (TK) Discover.
A: Yes.

Q: [In terms of the Quest, the Search for the Grail], what is the meaning of 'The Widow's Son?' The implication?
A: Stalks path of wisdom incarnate. Perceval was knighted in the court of seven.
Q: The court of seven what?
A: Swords points signify crystal transmitter of truth beholden.

Q: (L) In studying the myths of the Golden Age, I have found that the 'Seven Sages' are supposed to be the original Celestial powers that were the benefactors of mankind before the Fall. You once said that Perceval was 'knighted in the Court of Seven' and that the swords' points signify 'crystal transmitter of truth beholden.' Do these seven sages relate to this 'Court of Seven' that you mentioned?
A: Close.
Q: (L) When you said 'swords points signify crystal transmitter of truth beholden,' could you elaborate on that remark?
A: Has celestial meaning.

Q: (L) Who was worshipped by the people who built Stonehenge?
A: Complicated. Spirit, stars, energy.

Q: In reading the Celtic legends, I discovered that Cassiopaea was part of a Triple Goddess construct along with Andromeda and Danae, Danu, or Don, as in Tuatha de Danaan, or the court of the goddess Danu. So, in other words, the supreme goddess of the Celts was Cassiopaea. Rhys states it explicitly. Cassiopaea is found in the zodiacal area of Aries, the 'lamb,' where Cepheus the 'rock' and 'king' is also found, as well as Perseus, 'he who breaks' - with one of the stars in his foot being called 'breaker of rocks.' The representation is of Perseus overcoming the serpent, and the ancient Celtic engravings of the horned god show him gripping two serpents by the throat. I would like to understand the symbology here...
A: You are on the right track.
Q: What is the symbology of the 'breaking of rocks,' as in the alchemical texts, as well as related to Perseus as 'he who breaks?'
A: Occurs at a time when rocks break, as in the electromagnetic impulses that emanate from earthbound rocks when sheared by tectonic forces, and much more importantly, the possible utilization of said forces whether naturally or otherwise induced.

Q: I have a few questions on the subject of Cassiopaea. On several occasions you have described Cassiopaea or the Cassiopaeans, the unified thought form light beings that transmit through Cassiopaea, as being the 'front line of the universe's system of natural balance.' On another occasion you said that Isis was a 'vanguard.' Now, it seems to me that something that is at the front line is also a vanguard - that the definitions are interchangeable, or similar. In reading through all the various myths and legends, it occurs to me that the similarity between the imagery of Queen Cassiopaea and Isis is quite