I’ve been exploring links between soul retrieval, the fragmented self, dreams as messengers, and shamanism (from an archetypal perspective). It began with a dream from which I awoke with a clear and fully formed question, “Is the Shaman an archetype?”

“Shamans and Analysts: New Insights on the Wounded Healer”, by John Merchant helped pull a few things into focus for me, including the link between trauma and shamanism or “shamanic states of consciousness”. The Shaman as archetype also goes someway to resolving the problematic issue of cultural appropriation by extending the concept of Shaman beyond a cultural phenomenon where the Shaman belongs only to groups of people in Siberia.

Drawing on Jungian psychology, John Merchant parallels border-line states created through preverbal and early developmental trauma (often associated with a damaged mother bond) and the Siberian Shaman as proto-borderline. While he does not entirely equate the two as being one-in-the same, he provides insightful and important clues into trauma and its healing gifts- the gift of the Wounded Healer.

When working with Chiron in the astrology chart, Chiron as Shaman and Wounded Healer is one who bridges worlds, transmutes, and transforms. He is the wise physician, and the inner physician in us all; the one who knows how to self-heal, and then – if it is our vocation- the ability to heal others.

Within the Siberian Sakha (Yakut) tribe, in becoming a shaman, the person must be recognised by the rest of the tribe as someone who has healed his or her own wounds. The role of Shaman is only sanctified by the recognition and acceptance of the tribe.

Another common trait of the Shaman in the making is the experience of psychic dismemberment before being reassembled in a different, healed, configuration. In our own culture the experience of trauma can be considered as a psychological or psychic dismemberment through fragmentation; healing occurs when the psyche is rewoven and integrated into one consciousness.

The conditions needed in the creation of the would-be Shaman, or shamanic states of consciousness are explored along with topics such as psychic infection, possession, transpersonal imagery, hysteria, self- mutilation, and demonic encounters.

In modern western culture, as in indigenous cultures, not everybody transmutes their trauma- the Shaman shows that it is possible through certain psychic states, ritual, and other abilities.

The shamanic path is by no means an easy one whether it is taken in an indigenous setting or in our own culture. Given that the conditions for shamanic initiation are set in pre-verbal experience, the would-be Shaman does not choose his or her destiny, at least not at the level of conscious choice.

Whether the soul chooses the necessary conditions before incarnation, or a shamanic opening is connected to ancestry and lineage are interesting points to consider.

How Chiron is connected to dreams, and working with dreams, in my opinion, is both healing and revealing.

If you are drawn to explore this in your own life -mainly through working with the birth chart- you are welcome to book a session with me by sending a message through the comments on this site, or else emailing me – karenmullensmith@gmail.com