A Modern Day Dismemberment

The Task of Re-Membering

Currently we are in the midst of the dismantling of a system. In fact, I would say that we are undergoing the dismantling of several systems—a political system, a governmental system, and a cultural system to mention a few. The disassembling of these systems is throwing many of us into personal crises—affecting some more directly than others. From the shaman’s point of view, we are undergoing collective and personal dismemberments.

Traditionally in shamanic traditions, an animal devours the person or tears their physical form apart limb by limb until it is completely dissolved and destroyed. This can be quite violent and scary, or it can simply be a stripping away or a shedding. Changes are often felt in the body, including pain or feelings of emptiness. The result of a dismemberment is the death of the former self, the death of the ego-consciousness, the death of the person we knew ourselves to be and a drastic shift in consciousness occurs. Dismemberment strips away our attachments to and identification with our personal identities, including our restrictive and conditioned belief systems, our perceptual systems and biases, and even our inherited energies from limiting ancestral and cultural stories and patterns. It is often a stripping away of all that we have been. It is the death of a former way of being in the world that no longer supports who we are becoming.

Following a dismemberment, there is a remembering: a process of being put back together, a reassembling of all the parts of the body into a new form. When this occurs, the initiation is complete. A new self emerges with a new perspective and a new way of being in the world. Dismemberment is both a deep shedding and a healing as we emerge in a new form. The process can lead to a change in how we inhabit our bodies and our relationships with them. In fact, in many ways, we grow a new body energetically. There is often a restoration of vital energy. We come into our power. We may find that specific gifts or purposes have been restored, uncovered, or offered to us.

Sometimes, we may experience a partial dismemberment, in which a diseased part of the body is removed or destroyed. When we are put back together, a problem associated with that part of the body is significantly lessened or completely gone.

Shamanic dismemberment is not limited to shamanic journeys and visions or dreams of animal attacks. Dismemberment also occurs through the ordinary experiences of life, such as a serious or life-threatening illness or injury, the loss of loved ones and relationships, the loss of familiar abilities, or the loss of home or work. Anything that shatters our sense of self and destroys our ability to function in the world in our usual ways can be a dismemberment. Sometimes, these types of dismemberments can last for months or even years. They are often referred to as the “dark night of the soul.”

Dismemberment allows us to come into deeper alignment with our own spirit by shedding what’s been familiar and seemingly safe. After a dismemberment, we often experience a deeper love for the earth and its diverse communities. We come into what the Andean shamans call Ayni, a reciprocal relationship with all that is, attuning to what restores balance and harmony in our lives and in the world around us.

Dismemberment transforms our awareness of who we thought we were. A dismemberment may do lots of things. It reorganizes our consciousness to a certain extent and our perception of ourselves. Since perception determines reality, Our reality changes and we see the world differently. We become more aware of the potential within us and learn how to work with a sense of self that is more whole. This usually results in a better alignment of body and soul; often better emotional, psychological, and spiritual health; and a deepening awareness of our interconnection with all beings. Dismemberment reorganizes our consciousness and clears a path to fulfill the soul’s potential by freeing us from the limiting beliefs and baggage of the past. This works both for the individual soul and well as the collective soul.

A client, Sharon*, reported that she felt like nothing she had previously known or understood made sense anymore. Sharon shared that many pieces of her life just didn’t make sense anymore and that she felt very lost. I had the sense that Sharon was going through an initiation process, a process of letting go of all that she had been, the stories of her family and their expectations, collective stories of who she was supposed to be in order to fit in and be accepted, and the narrative by which she had defined herself as a way to cope with the emotional and spiritual wounds she had suffered in her life and to make herself good enough and be loved.

During this time, Sharon experienced a dramatic dismemberment that confirmed my intuition. The language and images of dismemberment can be violent and intense, possibly even shocking. Sharon spontaneously experienced an intense and violent dismemberment during a shamanic journey. Leading up to this, Sharon reported that her anger at her spouse was starting to take a darker turn. She stated that, at times, she felt she was starting to hate, and that wasn’t okay with her. She decided to journey to her Power Animal, Bear, to see if Bear could help rid her of her “heart of hate.”

As Sharon described it:

I (Sharon) found an opening into Bear’s cave. I was frightened, but I faced Bear and asked Bear to help rid my heart of hate. Bear put a paw on my chest and knocked me over and then ripped open my chest and began eating my heart. I had many shudders go through my body. Then I was observing my body, and I saw Bear crush and eat my head in one bite. Bear proceeds to eat most of my flesh and some of my bones. Bear then drags what remains of my carcass onto a big fire and lays down beside it and goes to sleep. I watch as my carcass burns, and I also have a sense of the rest of my body digesting inside the Bear. Bear, at last, gets up and shits me out. I recognize this is a dismemberment, and now I have to come back together. I try to start that process but realize I can’t make it happen. For now, I have to be the pile of shit and the burned-up ashes of my bones.

Sharon is realizing that the journey has a life of its own. When we place a sincere intention for a journey, the spirits will work to accomplish that intention. Sharon realized that this took the form of a dismemberment. She also knew that following a dismemberment, we are supposed to come back together. However, as she tried to will this, she realized that she couldn’t make this happen. The message of the journey was “to be the pile of shit and the burned-up ashes of [her] bones.” She recognized that this process would take some time, and she surrendered to the process.

While Sharon’s dismemberment occurred during a shamanic journey as part of her own soul’s path of healing and evolution, many today are undergoing such a dismemberment in real time, feeling the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain of the ripping apart of their lives. Like Sharon, they are unable to force the “re-membering” and reorganization of their lives into the new collective and personal consciousness that is yet to emerge. The practices of shamanism have been used for millennia to bring harmony and well-being to the village. One of those practices that can assist in the dismemberment-remembering process is journeying. In journeying we can enter into the spiritual realm of non-ordinary reality and seek guidance, information and assistance from the helping spirits.

Recently a network of shamanic healers that I am a part of met to journey for guidance, assistance and healing to bring balance and harmony during this time of upheaval and transition. One of the participants who was suffering because her son’s employment was directly affected by recent funding cuts journeyed to the root chakra of Mother Earth to seek guidance and help for this time. She received this message from the earth. Mother Earth takes care of herself, and she is in the process of restoring balance. Then a giant serpent entered the side of the cave. The serpent said "If you are a mite or something small on my skin when I shed it, you experience a lot of upheaval." The journeyer reported that she saw all humanity on the surface or skin of Mother Earth, some experiencing great upheavals.

She received additional guidance. Getting angry at those you feel are responsible for this upheaval is not the path. It will only lead to more turmoil and strife. It will feed the agenda of fear and isolationism and will not help us to see the humanity of others. Balance is needed, not by suppressing our anger and fear and thereby having it come out in negative ways onto others. Rather, recognize these are shadow parts that need understanding, compassion and healing.

This person reported that this journey helped her to release her own anger at certain people she felt responsible and not act out her fears and frustrations at what is happening but to take responsibility for finding healing and balance for what is getting triggered in her own life as a result of this current transition.

By taking to heart the message of this person’s journey—to understand that Mother Earth is restoring balance to a system that has become out of balance and by taking responsibility for our own healing and balance we will assist Mother Earth in restoring balance during this dismemberment process. As each of us manages our own dismemberment and re-membering process, we assist the re-membering of a time when we walked in the garden as one with Spirit and all life.

*Shared with permission