Regaining oneness with the Earth through the practice of ecstatic trance
• Explains how the shamanic techniques of ecstatic trance allow us to connect with animal spirit guides, shape-shift, and discover ways to help heal the Earth
• Shows how to create personal rituals to maintain oneness with the Earth and all life
• Illustrates trance postures and rituals from a variety of hunter-gatherer societies, including ancient Celtic, Norse, Native American, and South American traditions
Early man ran with the animals, lived with the animals, and was one with the wild symphony of the natural world--a time fondly remembered as the Garden of Eden, or Idunn as it is known in Norse mythology. But as humanity shifted from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of farming and cities, embracing the modern worldview of man’s superiority over nature, we began ignoring our innate connection with the Earth. Now we are waking up to what we’ve lost, yearning to heal our relationship with the Earth and rekindle the oneness with nature that we naturally enjoyed as children.
Drawing on the work of Felicitas Goodman, Thomas Berry, Ervin Laszlo, and other important voices calling for recognition of our connection with all life, author Nicholas Brink shows how ecstatic trance can return us to profound union with our Great Mother, the Earth. He details the specific healing and spiritual powers of trance postures and rituals from a variety of hunter-gatherer societies, including ancient Celtic, Norse, Native American, and South American traditions. He explains how the shamanic techniques of ecstatic trance allow us to access waking-dreamlike visions where we can connect with animal spirit guides, the six directions, and the seasons and discover ways to help heal the Earth. We can shape-shift to see through the eyes of each species of flora and fauna, interacting with life-forms in the skies, on land, in the seas, and underground, as well as journey to the realm of the dead to meet our ancestors.
Sharing personal trance experiences of healing, spiritual connection, and divination, Brink shows how these practices enable us to create personal rituals to maintain oneness with all life. He reveals the spiritual power of being one with your environment and experiencing the spirits of everything around you. And, as we reconnect with the spirit of the Earth, we can once again experience the world not only as alive but also enchanted.
Industry Reviews
“Nicholas Brink’s readable and well-documented book offers the perfect antidote for humanity’s dis-ease at this juncture in our evolutionary path. With compelling clarity, Brink illustrates how ecstatic trance and the energy of the ritual which supports it can guide modern, urban humans to mature into a spiritually conscious elderhood, as well as nourishing our soul’s hunger for ecstasy. Brink has an astonishing ability to weave anecdotal evidence from more than 2000 journal entries to support his thesis: ecstatic trance offers an experience of interconnectedness with all life, indeed, even with the cosmos which sustains us, that changes our personal storyline. This direct experience of oneness reanimates our shamanic consciousness, re-enchants our imaginations and unleashes our inherent creativity so we can contribute to the cultural transformation being called for by the planet.”
