IN THIS CHAPTER
Beyond Convention
Outside Ignorance
The client typically has somehow wandered into a state of mind that effectively isolates them from the rest of the society, if only temporarily. Their society has no answers for them and, as a result, cannot but exclude them from their own consciousness. The isolated person is thus cut off from the nourishment of the community until they can resolve their unrest. This is where the shaman comes in, and why they are sought out. In many societies, any person with mental instability is told to seek out a shaman, either to be cured or to take up shamanism themselves.
The shaman, who is already permanently outside of the conventional community in some sense, is capable of grasping the degree and nature of the suffering of the client. He or she already has this experience of isolation, can measure the degree of separation of the client from the community, and guide the client to make adjustments.
The shaman calms the client, assists in their stabilization, and eventually restores the client back to the community once again. The role of the shaman is to guide the client from one state of mind to the next obvious state, and help them to stabilize. As astrologers, we do this all the time. This course will present a variety of esoteric shamanic techniques of interest to the astrologer.
