All objects in the physical world have a “spirit”. This spirit is the source of power. Shamans communicate with the spirits of both living things and what are considered inanimate things. Through this connection, from which they gain an understanding of the world around them and beyond, you will learn greater power than you can imagine.
As a basic premise, shamans believe that all natural objects, plants and animals, and every human being has his or her own unique spirit body. This spirit body can be visible to those around people like a brightly colored flame or a warm wave. The spirit body usually extends around people from eighteen inches to about three feet and corresponds to how people feel and what they think. Brighter colors have higher vibrations and darker and duller colors have lower vibrations.
Some believe that the size of the spirit body shows how strong a person is spiritually. This is mostly referred to as the aura. Because shamans communicate so closely with the spirit world, it is easy to get lost between the real world and the spirit world. Shamanism is the ability to live with one foot in the real world and the other in the spirit world, and not forget who and where you are. This is done through maintaining balance, grounding and a sense of reality, or mental awareness of physical existence. Shamans must recognize where they are, all the time. This is one of the reasons that shamans seem powerful, as they always know where they are.
People who are familiar with and proficient in shamanic methods can quickly make an inner journey as they walk down the street. One way shamans focus is through the use of certain images. One such image is the Tree of Life. Its roots are in the Lower World, also called the underworld or the world of the dead, where shamans go to speak with ancestors to find lost information, or to learn about the causes of illness and other things to control the physical body.
Traveling to the world of the dead should not happen without guidance. The trunk of the tree is known as the Middle World. The trunk is often seen as a square with sides corresponding to the four directions and seasons. This is the magical version of our reality, and shamans enter it to solve everyday problems. The branches of the tree are in the Upper World. This is the place of the future, of creative power and flight. No one world is better or more important than the other, and most shamans used roughly this guide for traveling the Tree.
Another image is the healing wheel, also known as a mandala. It is a circle that is divided into four parts (sometimes eight), which symbolizes the four directions. The circle of the wheel symbolizes the Middle World, the sky above it is the Upper World, and the earth below it is the Lower World. The center of the circle is the center of the universe, and the whole circle, including the Upper World and the Lower World, spiral toward the center. Each person has a different place on this wheel that shows where their spiritual center is in relation to the center of the circle. The better you know your center, the more power you will have.