Shamanic Cosmology
The Four Worlds of The Shaman
by Scott Silverston
Shamanic Cosmology describes four distinct worlds. These worlds encompass both the physical, material world, characterized by tangible reality, and the Spirit World, which is further subdivided into the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds. Physical reality exists solely within the Middle World, whereas the Upper and Lower Worlds are purely spiritual domains without any corresponding physical element.
The Upper and Lower Worlds
The Upper and Lower Worlds are inhabited exclusively by benevolent, compassionate, and healing spirits. Encounters within the Upper and Lower Worlds are trustworthy and conducive to profound personal healing, as they do not contain parasitic or malevolent entities
All beings that one encounters in the Upper and Lower Worlds are truthful and life affirming. The Upper and Lower Worlds are safe spaces to receive deep and profound personal healing. Transformative healing is often vulnerable so one of the first prerequisites for embarking on a deeply healing journey is that we do so in a safe space. When you first start out with shamanic work it is best to limit your journeying to the Upper and Lower Worlds to ensure safety and integrity.
The Middle World
The Middle World is inhabited by a broader spectrum of spirit temperaments and intentions. Middle World Spirits are not exclusively life affirming nor trustworthy. While some Middle World Spirits may be helpful or protective, others may be lost, mischievous, or even malicious. Some Middle World Spirits serve as guardians for specific cultures, places, or communities, yet may exhibit hostility toward outsiders who do not show respect or seek permission when entering spiritually active areas. Our physical reality is a mirror of what's happening in the Spirit reality of the Middle World.
Venturing into the spiritual domain of Middle World requires significant discernment comparable to navigating a large and foreign city in physical flesh reality. You don't go walk around in the Middle of Times Square with a stack of $100 bills hanging out of your back pocket, that would be a naive thing to do. We're not going to do that, and we don't do that in the Spirit World either. Avoid indiscriminate interactions with Middle World Spirits. It’s not a place to idly dabble, to open oneself to whatever arises, or to invoke random spirits for fun.
Please don’t use Ouija boards or anything like that. If somebody says to me “I had a spirit talk to me”, I generally reply by saying “that’s interesting, what kind of spirit spoke to you?” It is important that people who are starting out with spiritual exploration begin to think in these terms and to understand that the diversity of temperaments and agendas in physical flesh reality reflects a similar diversity of these qualities in the spiritual sphere of the Middle World. We want to be clear about that.
Safety Guidelines for Learning Shamanism
The Middle World is different than the Upper and Lower Worlds. In the Upper and Lower World, all trustworthy, all life affirming, all benevolent. That's why Shamanic Spirit Medicine starts by learning to journey exclusively in the Lower and Upper Worlds, and we wait until you have cultivated the requisite experience, skill and strength before journeying in the Middle World.