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.To bring back to an original state that which was in primordial times whole andis now broken and dismembered is not only an act of unification but also a divine remembrance of a timewhen a complete reality existed.The occasional androgyny of the shaman is one inflection of paradise,where the two become one.The death of separation dissolves all worldly distinctions, and balance isattained.The shaman thus becomes a double Page 85being that like the philosopher's stone, the Rebis, has the potential of transmutation as an intrinsiccondition.39The second phase in the initiations often involves the administration of hallucinogenicpreparations by the master-shaman to the neophyte.Its purpose is to induce trance in orderto dispatch the initiate on the profound soul-journey to the Otherworld.In the Desanainitiation ceremonies, narcotic preparations are taken to induce trance in a particularsequence, which corresponds to stages of rebirth.Yet, in contrast to the Uralo-Altaicshamans, their ecstatic transformations are not ascent- or descent-journeys into the world ofspirits, but consist of raptures of colors and forms.The trance is meant to be a gateway to anintrospective experience, aimed at helping the novice gain awareness of his own existence, tomeditate, and observe his own reactions to the psychotropic drugs.An echo of a strongsexual tenor permeates all the aspects of the trance.In turn, the preparation of ayahuascaoryajé, as it is called in different parts of the Amazonis laden, too, with an array of sexualsymbolisms, and the actual process of mixing the psychotropic ingredients is connotative of anintercourse between the yajé vessel, a metaphor for the female body, and the mixing rod, ametaphor for the male principle.40 Insemination is a transformative process, leading to birth ora symbolic rebirth.The allusions, in the drag ceremonial, invoke sexual intercourse as aprocess in transformative rebirth, and not as a mere representation of the physical act.The psychotropic plants employed for the induction of trance for shamanic journeys arenumerous and used frequently in combinations.In the Western Hemisphere, the mainvarieties include the psilocybe, peyote, datura, coca (a stimulant only), and yajé (also yagé; orayahuasca, a Quechua term meaning "the vine of the souls" or "the vine of the dead")a tree-climbing vine of paramount importance in the Amazon rain forest.In the Old World, we havethe fly-agaric, psilocybe, datura, opium, ergot, and, of course, hemp (a stimulant).Thedrinking mead, in use among the Norsemen and the Celts, was probably different insubstance from what we know it to be today.The existence of the all-important bee-goddesscult in Neolithic Greece, which persisted into later times, may point to the mead as being asignificant hallucinatory drink, if not even the divine nectar.41 Curiously enough, the secretknowledge of mead was stolen from the abode of the Norse gods by Odin, almost in thesame manner of betrayal and cunning as Ixion's theft of the nectar from the Olympians.The third main element in the initiation must allude tothe ecstatic soul-journey, induced byentering the shamanic state of consciousness (SSC), a phrase aptly introduced by MichaelHamer.During this Page 86transcendental voyage, the new shaman will hopefully meet his or her "power animals,"frequently of the opposite gender, who are likely to remain his lifelong assistants.One ofthem may even become the shaman's spiritual spouse.Occasionally, the shaman maytransform himself into an animal "spirit-helper" or, as the case stands in the northwestAmazon, he may be fortunate enough to meet his own avatars, 42 such as the jaguar, theanaconda, or the harpy eagle.Clearly, the shaman's technique of ecstasy is the main component in the shamanic state ofconsciousness.I speak of the shamanic state because, I believe, there is only onequantitative shamanic state of consciousness, as opposed to such forms as spirit possession,for example.SSC may be experienced in varying degrees of amplification (power), intensity(depth), and wave-frequency (level), but there still is only one.An experienced shaman mayenter into a very deep ecstatic trance, which may effect the superficial appearance ofinduced death.Nevertheless, even in such a state, it is very uncommon for the shaman to losecontrol over his or her personality.The individual retains cognizance or apprehension ofpurpose and becomes actively involved in the encounters with the spirit-beings of theOtherworld
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