Preface
This is a book about success, the success of the shaman
over the ages and the success that you can achieve by follow-
ing the shamanic way.
We wrote this book because we saw a need for the ancient
art of shamanism to be reframed in the context of the
twenty-first century. This has been particularly challenging
because we have not wanted to change the meaning of any
integral concepts but simply to make them more available to
the everyday person. We did not want to be purists in this
endeavor either, but rather pragmatists, weaving basic sha-
manic approaches together with age-old understandings
about consciousness.
What follows is a short history describing the paths that
led to our writing this book.lose
How did I, a Basque-Mexican-Irish-American, become
involved in the world of shamanism? Answering this ques-
tion brought numerous half-forgotten memories to the sur-
face of my awareness. I discovered that many threads wove
the rich pattern of my current interest in shamanic ways. As
a small child growing up in East Hollywood, California, I
spent much time with my Mexican grandmother, who filled
me with stories of her childhood and the brujos of the Yaqui
Indians in northern central Mexico, where she had lived. She
was in awe of them and, being a fervent Catholic, she
crossed herself many times as she told me strange tales of
their methods and practices. She herself practiced some of
their ways, and to my impressionable young mind, the magic
and power of the shamanic perspective became a way of life.
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