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A Woman's First Encounters With The Unseen Spirits Of The Earth
by Kay Cordell Whitaker
The Reluctant Shaman, published in 1991 and reflecting on the author's experiences from the mid-70's, is just as vibrant and applicable today as it was then. Kay Whitaker speaks of her life as an ordinary wife, mother and college student, and how a not so chance meeting with a husband and wife team of shaman's from the Brazilian rain forest changes her in ways that she never could have imagined.
She has been selected to be the voice of children for the future. The work that she will be taught is ka ta see - living in balance with nature, living from the Spirit, our heart center. She will be a kala keh nah seh, a builder of webs of balance. She is very explicit in saying that what she was taught is a specific type of shamanism - rooted in the Brazilian rain forest. It is not representative of Native American shamanism - in any of it's forms, although the precepts are largely the same.
It was interesting for me to note that for Kay Whitaker, this was a journey that in the beginning she fought. One that brought up great fears in her, one that forced her to look at her core life values and see where they did and did not work for her. The whole time she trained with the Hetaka's she experienced what I and many others on this path have found to be true - that we walk a dual path, live a dual life until we learn to incorporate our learning, our wisdom into our lives. This is not easy, nor simple, nor fun. Everything is questioned, and often there is a thin veil between the world we live in and the one we are studying. There is a tendency to lose your center - to react blindly, to not know where you are or what you are doing.
One of the first things that she was taught was her *song* - that vibration which is hers personally. In a very vivid encounter in the book, she was introduced to the four directions - taught how to center herself, how to meet them, and what each offered to her. Her descriptions of the visions that she had on this journey are so very real that one feels a part of the journey, and not a spectator.
The next thing that she was taught was how to use centering and the connection with the four directions to meet the essence of one of the forces of nature - in her case, the wind. Through Kay's journey we see what we bring to the connectedness with all things, what they bring to us, and how they act as power allies.
One of the greatest gifts that this book has to offer is respect for All Of Our Relations, and how to easily access them. At one point Kay is on a beach, with the scene unfolding before her - in layers. At first she realizes that she is seeing a dual scene - one in the present, and one right along side it from the 1940's. As she watches, more layers are added - from past and future timelines. We experience along with her the gateways through time - and the dual nature of time.
I recommend this book for those following a shamanic path and for those that simply want a better understanding of it. With grace, reverence and evocative writing - this book is a virtual journey into the shaman's world.
Bonnie Cehovet
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