200 SECRETS OF SHAMANISMPower songs are valuable because they introduce a new
element to your approach. Singing bypasses the usual mind
chatter that tends to reduce your power, and also allows you
to shift into a different mind-set before taking on a difficult
task or challenge. Power songs remind you of your hidden
resources and great guidance and support system. They let
you know that you are not alone.SHAMANIC DANCING
Dancing is an integral part of many shamanic ceremonies
and rituals, for good reason. It is an excellent method of
creating balance and harmony between the web of power
and the ordinary physical world. Movement through sha-
manic dance is both an expression and liberation of emotion,
and a vehicle for transformation. It allows the dancer to shift
from one state of consciousness to another extremely rapidly
and promotes the kind of trance states so valuable for sha-
manic work.
Shamanic dance has a number of important functions.
First of all, it communicates a story or a set of feelings to
those watching. The dance transforms the atmosphere so
that everyone observing becomes the participant of a vision,
a hunt, or an adventure. Everyone present, including those
watching the dance, are transformed in the process and thus
prepared for the communion with the spirit.
Additionally, the patterned movements of the dance—the
postures and gestures—create openings through which the
spirit world becomes accessible. Shamanic dance prepares
the dancer for deeper internal experiences. Through the
shifting movements of the dance, shamans unleash powerful
energies within their own bodies. The vigorous flow of ges-
tures releases the energy dams at all the joints. This is im-
portant because at the vertebrae are located the seven main
spirit tunnels and at the other joints between bones are lo-
cated many smaller ones. Dancing creates harmony and bal-
ance within the body, aligns and helps to unblock the
tunnels, and sets up a proper foundation for extensive jour-
ney work.
After or during a journey, dancing helps people put their
experience into form, helping them remember what hap-
pened. Dancing the experience not only communicates it to
others, but increases the likelihood that the dancer's vision
will manifest into reality. Dancing a successful hunt seen in a
vision, for example, increases the possibility that the next
hunt will indeed be bountiful.