The making of a portal, a specific kind of portal, is probably the oddest thing a Shaman can make today. Slipping in the door, a wolf in sheep's clothing, slowly devouring the flock comfortably grazing on thoughts about how the trappings of contemporary shamanism should look or function. In a sense doing something as human as making a portal by hand, manipulating the sacred and ancient materials, is an act of defiance. To make a portal that comments on nothing more than how and why it was made, the pointlessness of portals, the futility of the act and the Shaman that make them, in our post shamanic world, is just plain crazy.
Selfishness.
Portals are totally self absorbed, Shaman absorbed in them; they seek to say little about anything other than themselves and, by extension, the Shaman. You see, when you get to the heart of it, that is the only thing all Shaman, in their many various forms, have in common; the portals they produce tell you something about the Shaman. Some may obfuscate by adding extra things to their portals; extra “facts”. These however, are not facts, but vehicles, excuses to make a portal. When added to portals these opinions or extra facts become, in fact, lies.
Give and Take.
The search is not intended to yield definitive answers. Clear all channels for looking or the battle is already lost.
The Harder They Come.
While journeying deep into the mountains beyond the valley of the minds wild beasts one must try not to stray from the path least travelled. As one journeys one must focus hard so as not to imagine the road ahead. Letting one’s thoughts leave just as they arrived; some naturally harder than others. Trying to knock one off course and in the direction of some things more easily defined.
No Reverse Gear.
A Shaman shouldn’t need an excuse because a good portal is a meeting place, a mirror. The journey that leads to a portal’s closing should leave behind essential truths. We do not know how things will end. We must experience liberty and loss in equal measure and with every step into an undefined territory which lies in all directions. This message is brought to you in conjunction with The Centre For Shamanic Research. Fin..