A Shamanic Teaching about Creation and The Web of Life

Shamanism Blog by Scott Silverston

The Story of Creation is an active event; happening in present time, unfolding before our eyes; and we are the authors.

Every single one of us is writing the story of the Creation of the Earth; here and now and into the future. Just as our past actions (and the actions of our ancestors) have written the story of times that have come before; so too do the actions that we take today write the story of our present and of our future.

When we understand Creation in this way; we are then able to step fully into our responsibility for care taking of the Web of Life.  We are Custodians of the Earth; our collective actions, woven together, are responsible for creating our future and for maintaining the balance of the Web of Life.  When one strand of the web is out of balance, the whole web is affected.  Conversely; when we take an action to heal and re-balance the web; that action reverberates through the web in a positive way.

While talking with some of the Aboriginal Artists who we met on our travels to Central Australia earlier this year; I began to observe the depth of their connection with the land and to see that their connection is rooted in their understanding that Creation is a continuing present time event.  

As defined in Wikipedia:

A songline, also called dreaming track, is one of the paths across the land (or sometimes the sky) which mark the route followed by localized "Creator-beings" during the Dreaming (Creation of the world). The paths of the songlines are recorded in traditional songs, stories, dance, and painting….

Listening to the song of the land is the same as walking on this songline and observing the land….Traditional Aboriginal people regard all land as sacred, and the songs must be continually sung to keep the land "alive".

As Westerners born in a modern society; most of us are disconnected from the land and the traditional songs which keep the land alive.  As a result of this disconnection, we must now each find for ourselves the songlines we are meant to sing.  When we find our songs and sing the story of our life into being; we add a line to the symphony of the story of Creation.  When we sing our song; we take responsibility for our own creations; and for our guardianship of the land upon which we walk.  At its essence, to sing our songs is the reason that we are alive.

When I observe human behavior; both on a global, political level and on a smaller, inter-personal level; I often find myself wondering why someone would act the way they do to try to cause harm to another.  With so many people saying that they want to “Save the Earth”; why is there so much division and infighting among people who state that they share the same objectives and needs?

In my Shamanic Journeywork, I have been shown that the root cause of these issues is in the subversion of Creation mythology; programming our western minds from the time of birth into believing that Creation is a past event; something that has already occurred and for which we have no responsibility.   It is a mythology deeply rooted in our society; pre-dating our birth by millennia.

As such, we have become disconnected from our purpose of being in the world and constantly seek justification for being alive.  This unconscious search for validation is what drives the perverse actions of self-sabotage and also makes people who are energetically sensitive vulnerable to taking on the negativity of others.  By contrast, when we are rooted in the knowledge that Creation is an ongoing, present time phenomena; we understand that singing our unique song as it connects us to the land is the very purpose of life itself.  We need no further validation for our existence.

Whether we believe that “In the beginning, God Created Heaven & Earth in 7 Days & 7 Nights” or that in the beginning was a “Big Bang”; what is being missed is that the Creation is still happening and that our focus must be on continuing the Creation in balanced and healthy way in present time.   It doesn’t matter if your focus is on your personal family harmony or on the broader picture of bringing balance to the Web of Life; we must take responsibility as Custodians of the Creation in Present Time.

In my personal Shamanic Journey Work, I was shown a negative, global agreement that has been plaguing humanity for thousands of years: "I am willing to sacrifice the health and survival of myself, others and the planet in order to receive the acknowledgement, validation and justification for being that I crave".  It is an unconscious agreement that operates as the water in the fish bowl where we swim; and we are mostly blind to it because we have lived within it since our birth.

This larger, global agreement underlies the more personal agreements that justify greed on an individual level such as “I will do whatever is necessary to get what I want”; agreements which seem to run the operating systems of the people who control the levers of power within the society.

In our Intermediate Shamanism Course; we learn to uproot negative agreements from our life and replace them with new ones that allow us to live a more balanced and grounded life. I encourage all of you who have completed our Shamanic Training to journey and discover for yourselves how to uproot the variations of this global agreement that may exist in your life and replace it with new agreements that allow you to fully embrace your life’s purpose and sign your own unique song.

When I did my own Shamanic Journey to replace the global agreement above; I received a new agreement from my Power Animal.  This new agreement has helped me remain rooted in the core truth that we are all part of the Creation that is unfolding here and now in present time and in so being; we are responsible for singing our song lines and carrying our medicine in a positive way that nurtures the ongoing health and balance of the Web of Life and the present and future well-being of humanity.