Phoenix is pleased to offer the Diploma of Shamanic Practice to be delivered by Dr Rafael Locke. This course will be delivered in 2010-2011. This is a comprehensive training program for people wishing to further develop shamanic and psycho-spiritual modalities based on traditional techniques that have been adapted to modern contexts and healing methods. It is an advanced course and prospective students will need to have a Diploma of Transpersonal Art Therapy, Transpersonal Counselling, or its equivalent to enroll. Phoenix Institute will deliver this IKON Diploma.
The Diploma will be limited to 22 participants. This course is a one off program that may not be offered again.
The main outcomes of the program are:
- to develop and deliver shamanic healing techniques
- to develop proficiency in psycho-spiritual ritual work
- to develop techniques for personal and professional growth in healing arts
- to understand the relationship between shamanic practice, mental health and spiritual crisis and emergence work
- to understand and work with issue relating to soul loss, sorcery and parapsychology
It should be noted that this course is not training people to be shamans, but to be able to use shamanic technologies for personal and professional development.
ACCREDITATION & MEMBERSHIP
The course is accredited by the International Institute for Complementary Therapies. Membership of the Institute is available upon graduation along with access to professional practice insurances.
Membership of the Australian Shamanic Practitioners Association is available on graduation.
INTRODUCTION - THE SHAMAN: VISIONARY PRACTITIONER
Shamans represent the oldest profession ever recorded. Their profession is found in Paleolithic art, sculpture and funerary objects. It is also found deeply inscribed on our psyche as a species. For the shaman is the steward of the soul, the being who facilitates the journey from birth, through all of life’s transitions, and into death and beyond. This is a journey that defines our human status in the world. It is the stuff of myth and memory as the shaman journeys with us and beyond, unfolding the stories of lives and possibilities in the service of our realization and healing.
The shaman is a visionary practitioner who journeys into other states of consciousness (worlds): the world of the body, feelings, life energy, soul and spirit. To do so, the shaman incorporates the world of myth so that navigation becomes possible and so becomes the living example of how meaning can be found or generated in the midst of despair and separation from all that could nourish us. Shamanism has re-inspired psychotherapy, medicine and science. It is an immensely practical profession which engages and expresses all of the possibilities of our human nature. It allows service to others through healing and ritual and the re-creation of the self and our society.
THE PROGRAM
The program has been developed over the last twenty years by Dr. Rafael Locke through research and participation in shamanic practice in a number of cultures around the world - the Americas, Caribbean, Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia, for example. Commencing in 2004, a series of fascinating and challenging courses has been offered as a sequence for personal and professional development. All of the courses retain a faithful connection with shamanic traditions as well as translating shamanic work into modern idioms of psychology, medicine, anthropology and other disciplines.
CURRICULUM
The program is divided into 3 Parts
PART 1: Foundations: Shamanism as Visionary Practice
This first level of the program offers a comprehensive introduction to shamanic practice which will also have a strong intellectual base. The shamanic approach to health, illness, and human development will be compared and contrasted with that of the paradigms of traditional biomedical science and mind-body medicine. Detailed examination of the methods and cultures of contemporary medicines will be made so as to provide students with a clear grasp of where shamanic practice can fit in Australian society.
Module 1. Visionary Practice I: Shamanic Worlds and Practices
This first module explores the fundamental nature of shamanism in human history and culture. It looks at the ways in which shamanism is a part of evolutionary biology and anthropology. A detailed examination of the notion of visionary practice is undertaken and the many faces of the shaman unfolded - priest, healer, medium, story teller, magician, and so on. Shamanism is linked to life in contemporary society in a practical way and there is a special focus on shamanism and healing, connecting it to other healing modalities. Shamanic initiation and understanding personal pathways.
Module 2. Visionary Practice II: Shamanic Journeys
Exploring shamanic states of consciousness. Shamanic initiation re-visited, crisis/madness and healing. The shamanic journey as symbol and tool. Exploring states of consciousness: types of trance, divided consciousness, dreams and other states. Personal medicine. The medicine wheel in Australia. Shamanic divination. Using visionary/spiritual intelligence. Projection: out of the body journeys. The shaman and death.
Module 3. Visionary Practice III: Foundations of Shamanic Healing
The shamanic body and the dreaming process. Fundamentals of shamanic healing in four major processes:
1. Entering the landscape/dreaming
2. Tapping the stream
3. Visiting the seat of the soul
4. Perceiving the energy of life
This is a systematic and practical training program which uses the drum, rattle, symbol, medicine objects and medicine wheel as essential tools. This module focuses work on shamanism as a healing vocation, focusing on healing with individuals, groups, and communities.
Module 4. Visionary Practice IV: Types of Ritual in Shamanic Work
Ritual, myth and symbol in healing practice.The meaning of ritual and how it is used in shamanic practice. How ritual works psychologically, socially and parapsychologically. Working with people to develop ritual processes and implementing them effectively. Types of rituals and specific needs of clients. Personal and social rituals. The transformation process.
PART 2: Advanced Practice Skills
Module 5. Advanced Shamanic Practice I: The Journey of the Soul
The journey of the soul. The major focus of this module is the area of soul damage and soul loss. This is central to traditional shamanic practice but is also relevant to contemporary society, our lives in stressful times. Exploring traditional ceremonies for working with soul damage and loss. Related notions of spirit illness, the call and the opening of the pathway. Entry of the soul into this world and exit. Types of problems which arise, diagnosis and treatment.
Module 6. Advanced Shamanic Practice II: Sorcery and Counter-sorcery
Shamanism, healing and sorcery. Type I and Type II sorcery: The psychological, parapsychological, social and political aspects of sorcery. How ritual sorcery is performed, its meaning and impact. Sorcery, illness and madness. Diagnosing sorcery: distinguishing sorcery effects from other forms of illness and disability. Setting up and executing counter-sorcery measures.
Module 7. Advanced Shamanic Practice III: Possession States
Shamanism, possession. Gaining a working knowledge of possession in shamanic work as a tool and also as a problem which shamans deal with. Unpacking the types and stages of possession and its relation to obsession. Possession and madness. Possession and consciousness.
PART 3: Shamanic Worlds: Culture-Specific Practices
Module 8. Shamanism: Three explorations
Looking at shamanism in Africa [the !Kung Bushmen], in the Caribbean [Vodun in Haiti] and in South America [Peru and Brazil]. This module will compare and contrast these forms of shamanism and draw from them valuable tools for shamanic practice in a range of settings.
Module 9. Australian Shamanism
Spirit of earth and sky. Shamanism in Australia. Aboriginal shamanism explored, concepts of the Dreaming. Europeans in Australia and the development of a pan-Australian shamanism. Mythology and ceremony for our times. The Australian physical and spiritual landscapes: the totemic world, the elemental world, the symbolic world. Practising shamanism in Australia.
Module 10. Contemporary Practice Topics
This module covers the range of factors which a shamanic practitioner will need to understand and incorporate into practice in Australia. This includes matters relating to mental health, medicine, ethical and legal issues as well as refining diagnostic abilities. Setting up and building a successful practice: pitfalls and promises.
PRACTICUM
In addition to the 10 modules, participants will also be required to complete an additional practical requirement Vision Quest
Vision Quest
11. Practical Placement/Case Study or Vision Quest
Traditional path-seeking through ordeal. Every student who wishes to be certified as a practitioner is required to undertake either:
a) 3-day vision quest in the central desert. This ritual will consolidate the shamanic perspective and inform each student of their personal path and medicine. Details available closer to the date of the quest.
Should you choose this option, please note the Vision Quest is not included in the course fees and will be an additional cost.
b) practical placement/case study – more details to be provided upon enrolment in the course.
STAFF
Dr. Rafael Locke is the founder and director of Ikon Institute and the Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society. He has worked extensively with shamans in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia. He is an initiated and practising shaman, widely versed in medicine ways. He has trained people in shamanic techniques in the US and Australia over the last 20 years. He has published several books, including Altered States of Consciousness and Psi (with Edward Kelly), The Gift of Proteus: Shamanism and the Transformation of Being and Throwing the Bones: Fundamentals of Shamanic Practice.
Other Staff
The program draws upon the highly skilled personnel of Ikon Institute and the Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society, a national organization as well as others within the national and international communities who have extensive experience in shamanic practice.
