Category: Applied Shamanism
On the Air: The Sober Shaman Podcast: Episode 6: Isa Gucciardi on Shamanism, Buddhism, & the Evolution of Souls
On the Air: The Sober Shaman Podcast: Episode 6: Isa Gucciardi on Shamanism, Buddhism, & the Evolution of Souls On this episode of The Sober Shaman Podcast, host Randal Lyons speaks with author, founding director of Sacred Stream, and creator of Depth Hypnosis, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. Join them in their discussion on shamanism, Buddhism, healing […]
Blog: New Beginnings, New Potentials at the Spring Equinox
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Since December’s winter solstice season, when the days were shortest and the nights the longest of the year, the days have been growing steadily longer and the nights shorter. Now, at the time of the spring equinox, they are of equal length. The spring equinox is always a time of renewal and rebirth as the earth reaches this point in its relationship to the sun.
In the Sacred Stream Center garden, there is new growth – and new members of the plant community. We have several new pitcher sage plants which are known for their powerful healing capacities in restoring health and well-being. Their beautiful purple flowers are always at the height of their bloom during the spring equinox season. This year, we celebrate their coming as we celebrate the renewal of the year along with the new moon which dawns just after the equinox on March 20.
Blog: Plant Medicine: Moving Between Worlds
By Sebastian Segovia
In 2005 I turned eighteen. My parents were getting divorced. We were about to lose our house with the bank and I was finishing high school and starting university. I was beginning to experiment with alcohol and recreational drugs. That is when my mom decided to take me to an Ayahuasca ceremony as my birthday present. This was the moment my world open to the sacred world of plant medicine.
I first studied plant medicine with the Kofan tribe of Putumayo, in Colombia. We have had an ancient tradition of plant medicine in our country for centuries, and this indigenous community was the first to share ayahuasca openly with non-native people, long before the plant became mainstream. Taita Querubín Queta Alvarado—108 years old now—was the first shaman (“Taita” in Spanish) I received yagé (ayahuasca) from. His lineage made it possible for ayahuasca to travel all over the world back then, and it was from his hands that this medicine touched my heart for the very first time.
Article: Healing and Awakening with Buddhism and Shamanism
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
I’ve been exploring Buddhism and plant medicine and psychedelics for about six years now. One area that I find really absent in a lot of the conversations on psychedelics and spirituality is indigenous shamanism, and it’s hard to find people who know much about that, and also have some kind of Buddhist framework. That’s why I was so excited to hear about your work and listen to some of your talks.
The main question I’m working with in this book is how can we engage with plant medicines as tools or technologies to support awakening? How can we understand the psychedelic experience and also the outputs of psychedelics through a lens that is with the intention of awakening? When I heard about Depth Hypnosis and your work, I thought it would be amazing to talk to you and hear your thoughts on this. You’ve spoken about the catalytic power of shamanic practice and how you feel that there’s potential in that to be harnessed by Dharma practitioners in service of Awakening. This seems to be the focus of your work with Depth Hypnosis, so maybe we could start there.
Blog: The Shamanic Journey and Metaphor
By Clementine Moss
I understand metaphor. I have been blissfully falling into the written word since See Spot Run or something similar. When I learned to read, I remember the rising images from the page, pictures becoming alive because of what the words were spelling out.
When I learned to journey, I began to understand the symbols of my inner world.When we recognize that our stories are not our full identity, then we can release them from ruling us, along with the patterns and behaviors that weight them. I found Eastern meditation practices and discovered my identity beneath stories. I found Shamanism and learned to sneak up behind the stories, unravel them in a way that allows me to clear my perception and experience life, each moment, more fully.
Article: The Unseen Teacher
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Teaching and learning have never been separate for me. As a learner, I have always been keenly aware of the fact that I am being taught from within as I try to master a skill. I can feel the internal teaching change me in a different way than the external learning changes me. I remember being taught how to sight read as I was learning to play the piano. My piano teacher taught me the concept of matching the notes on the page with the notes on the keyboard, but when I read the notes on the page, I could feel an unseen teacher aligning me with the music. I was being taught how to play the piano, but I was also learning a new alignment to the world.
The experience of participating in learning in the external educational environment and receiving teaching from within simultaneously is a phenomenon that has revealed itself to me in different ways bit by bit over time. This experience has many facets to it, but it is always present in every teaching situation regardless of the subject being taught or whether or not I am ‘officially’ the teacher or the student.
Article: To Weave a New World: Shamanic and Tantric Practice
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
To enter the world of Tantra is to enter a world beyond the ordinary. Through a series of catalytic processes, the spiritual seeker is drawn along a path that promises nothing less than the revelation of the nature of reality. This is a promise that also lies at the heart of shamanic practice. Yet the ‘reality’ that reveals itself when the shamanic initiate steps beyond the threshold of ordinary awareness is conceived of differently than that of Tantra.
The reality that is the focus of Tantra lies in the understanding of the human mind. The reality that is understood through shamanic practice emerges through an intimate interface with the unseen powers of the natural world. These two realities are not exclusive from one another, but the thrust and focus of these two practices are at least initially different.
Both systems provide stages of development to educate the initiate as they deepen their understanding about the nature of reality. These stages of development constitute the heart of the practices. Let’s explore these wisdom traditions further and deepen our understanding of how these two paths cross and separate in the process of providing an education about the nature of reality.
Podcast: Episode 80: Shamanism and the Inner Experience
On this episode, Laura Chandler highlights an excerpt of a talk given by Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. called Shamanic Paths to Inner Experience. Traditional shamanic cultures have long held an understanding of nature, spirit, and non-ordinary realms of being that contemporary cultures have lost touch with in the larger mainstream of experience. In this fascinating talk, Isa Gucciardi explores some of the ways healers from indigenous traditions have accessed larger aspects of consciousness and the realm of the unseen, for guidance, healing, and insight and speaks about their relevance for us today.
Blog: Reflections on the Winter Solstice
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
As the nights have been growing longer as we approach the winter solstice, I have been reflecting on the relationship between light and darkness from a new perspective. We often think of light and dark as being opposite of one another. In some cases that is true. From one point of view, the light of day is the opposite of the dark of night. But from another vantage point, dark and light are moments of the same cycle of change. That cycle of change determines our experience of reality in utterly fundamental ways. The sun rising and setting is basic to our experience on earth. Yet, we don’t often think about the fact that the sun rising and setting dictates when and how we do almost everything we do. We may not often think about how our lives might be structured without this baseline rhythm the play of light and dark creates.
Video: Shamanic Paths to Inner Experience: The Shamanic Journey
The shamanic journey is an ancient method of altering consciousness using a repetitive sound such as a drum beat in order for the shaman to connect with their helping spirits. In contemporary times, people are turning to the shamanic journey to assist them with healing the earth and its inhabitants. In this talk, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses the shamanic journey and the guidance that is available in the complex inner cosmography of the shamanic initiate. Isa is the author of three books, creator of the therapeutic model Depth Hypnosis, and the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream.
Video: Shamanic Paths to Inner Experience: Mediumship
From Tibetan oracle traditions to Christian mysticism, mediumship has long been part of the esoteric teachings of mystery schools. In many shamanic cultures, the phenomenon of medium-ship was an import role played by the shaman who would act as a bridge between the spirit world and the mundane. In this talk, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses the phenomenon of mediumship and explores the requirements of the shamanic initiate to be able to act as a medium. Isa is the author of three books, creator of the therapeutic model Depth Hypnosis, and the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream.
Video: Shamanic Paths to Inner Experience: Psychotropic Plants
Plant medicines like ayahuasca, peyote, and iboga have made their way into popular culture as more and more people seek transitory experiences to find healing and direction in their lives. However, the use of plant medicine dates back to ancient Egypt and even earlier and is an important part of many shamanic practices and indigenous cultures. In this talk, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses how the ingestion of psychotropic plants provides valuable education in the shamanic initiate’s development. Isa is the author of three books, creator of the therapeutic model Depth Hypnosis, and the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream.
Blog: Reflections on the Fall Equinox
By Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.
Around the fall equinox of 2018, as I was doing the fall garden clean up, I realized that a small California Live Oak had planted itself in the center of the garden at the Sacred Stream Center. I was very excited to have the oak choose our garden, but everyone else was worried that the oak would get too big and block out the other plants. I knew there was no way I would interfere with the oak’s plans, as we are visitors to its habitat – not the other way around.
Only 200 years ago, the land on which the Sacred Stream Center sits was covered in California Live Oak. The hills throughout California were dotted with these majestic trees, which can indeed grow very tall and spread their canopies widely. An oak taking up residence in that patch of ground would have had the flowing water of Strawberry Creek nearby and lots of laurel and bay trees keeping it company.
Video: Shamanic Paths to Inner Experience: The Vision Quest
Vision quests have long been part of the shamanic experience, particularly as initiatory rites of passage. Most involve undertaking a difficult task and take place in nature and often lead to transcendent life-changing experiences. In this talk, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. discusses this process of seeking guidance within the world of nature that is found in many different cultures and can be practiced by modern people today. Isa is the author of three books, creator of the therapeutic model Depth Hypnosis, and the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream.
Video: Shamanic Paths to Inner Experience: Visionary Experiences
Visionary experiences are found throughout history and in every culture. From the visions of holy men and women in the Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions (to name a few) to the prophecies of Nostradamus, Hildegard of Bingen, and Edgar Cayce, visionary experiences are more common than we think. In this talk, Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D. delves into the role of visionary experience in shamanic Earth-based wisdom cultures. Isa is the author of three books, creator of the therapeutic model Depth Hypnosis, and the Founding Director of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream.