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Title: Weaving the Way of Wyrd: An Interview with Brian
Bates
Author(s): Janet Allen-Coombe
Published by: Shaman’s Drum, Number 27
Publish date: Spring 1992
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WeaaingtheWay of Wyrd:An Interoiew with Brian Bates
by Janet Allen-Coombe
the book provides a fascinating nar-rative aboul Anglo-Saxon
shaman-ism-and serv€s as a focal point foith€ lollowint
interview.
)anet Allen-Coombe: 14yru1 is tlcs.ribedtut,,utnv ,]oy. it vout
boolr. The Way ofWytd. WotLli vnll erplai tuhat uyrd is?
Brian Bates: The term (yrd is theorig"jnal fonn oftoday's
a,.ird, which meansslranS€ or une\plainable. Wyrd hadessentially
the same meaninS morethan a thousand years ago in shaman-ic Europe,
but in sacred rather thanmundane realms- wyrd was the
unex-plainable force-the Sreat mysteryunderlyinS all of
existence-that wasthe cornertone of Anglo-Saxon sha-manic
practices.
The essence of wyrd is that the un;velse exists within
polarities ol forces,rather like the Eastem concepts of/nand yang.
According to Anglo-Saxonbetiefs, theuniverse origina lly consist-ed
of two mithty, unimatinably vastforce reSions-one of fire, the
other ofice. When the fire and ice mel, theyexploded, crea ting a
grea t mist chargedwith magic force and vitality. This"mist of
knowledSe" exists beyondtime, concealing wisdom about thenature of
life that may be revealed to
people traveling on the shamanic path.This creation cosmoloty
was perhapsbest preserved in Cermanicand Norsemyths and sto es. It
was also docu-mented by early Roman functionadeswho traveled
throuth Western Europe.
The meaninS of lvyrd can also beunderstood throu8h the imaSe ofa
vastweb of fibres, an ima8e thai appearsftequently in early
European literatureand artwork. The European shamansvisioned a web
of fibres that flowthrouth lhe entire universe, linkingabsolutely
ev€rything---+ach person,object, event, thought, and feeling.
Thisweb is so sensilive that any movement,thoughi, or happenint-no
matter howsmall-reverberates throughout theentire web. In some of
the incanta-hons preserved in Anglo-Saxon manu'scripts in the
Briiish Museum, thejour-ney of the shaman's soul into the
oth-erworld is facilita led by a spider spirit.When an
An8lo-Saxon,shaman want-ed to undeEtand the complexity of
. forces affectint an individual, such asduring initiations and
healings, theshaman visioned the patiem of Iibresentering that
Person.
I i{'ill never forgel the firsl time I.onsciously experienced
these fibres.One day in eaily summer, I was walk'in8aione in a
forest in EnSland, enjoy-
Brian Bates, author of fr,r Wa, o/Wwd and The way ol the Actot,
is theleadinS exponent ol a movement thalseeks to revitalize
Europe's ancienlsham.nic traditions. Workint from ascholarly and
exp€rienlial approach,he has developed . contemporarysha-manic
practic€ based on the oriSinalAnSlo-Saxon and C€lti( lraditions
asdocumented in hjstorical terts, arl,
Bom and raised in En81and, Bateslived in the Uniled Staies
during the1960s. After eaming his do.torate inpsycholoty from the
University ofOretor! he r€tumed to Entland toserve as Resear.h
Fellow at Kint'sCollege, Camb.idt€. He cutentlyteaahes (ourses in
shamanic con-s.iousness and transpersonal psychol-ogy at the
University of Sussex, wherehe also dir€cts the Shaman
ResearchProiect. In.ddition to his academiccar€et Bates directs
pl.ys in London,teaches shamanic workshops for ac-tors, and leads
experiential courses inEuropean shamanism.
Bates is perhaps best known fothis historical novel, frr? ltlay
of ylgrd,which documents in Iictional formhis research on
ancientEuropean sha-mani. practic€s. Recently rel€ased inpap.rba.k
by Hirp€r San Francisco,
20 SHAMAN'S DRUM / SPRING.'1992
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SHAMAN'S DRUM / SPRING, 1992
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ing the flowerinB wild bluebells thatblanleted the ground
b€tween the oal.sand beeches. Suddenly I sensed a Puls_rng in my
body, around mY navel, andI felt sjck. At first I thought I
wouldvomit, soI stopped and leaned againsta tIee. Then I
sawhundleds oflines ofliSht coming silently and b€autifullyfrom aII
direcrions and passinS throughrny body. They were iike shafts
oftolden sunlitht hllering thouth thetrees, only they w€re comint
fromevery antle. The image was so clearand stront tlat I started to
tollow somelines of light, walking riSht into themand alons them.
They seemed likewarm fibres suPPortinS me, and I feltas iflwere
walkingonair. The lonBerthe experience lasted, the more won-d€rtul
I felt. After a time, I lay downon the ground and went to sleep
amongthebluebells. When I awoke, the sen_sation had pass€d. I now
know thatthis experience was only an introdu€-tion to 6bres, and
that wotkinS lviththem involves not only sensory exPe-dences but
also ways of balancing lifewith tleir help.
Alle&Coombe: Anllo'Sarcn shanan'ism floutished ooer a
lhousand years a8oWhat fiode you decide to exPlore thst ofice'f or
go tt at shamani c p a t h?
Bates: During the 1970s, mY sPiritualquest led me to become
deePly in_v6lvp.l with 7en and Taoism. How-
ever, desPite the fact that I admircdthese traditions very
much,l felt handicapped by my unfamiliarity with thecu lt u ra I
backgrounds-lhe my thology,ima8ery, and physical landscaPes-whjch
tave birth lo these visionarypaths. I de(ided thatl needed to find
aWestem or EuroPean aPProach. WhenI met AIan Watts, whose writings
hadi.spired my journey into the Eastemkaditions, he encouraged me
in mYsearch to discover a Westem PaElleito these treat Easlem
Paths.
Of course, such life decisions arerarely intellectual ones. In
tetrosPe(t,I can see thatmy path into Antlo-Saxonshamanism actually
started during mychildhood. From four up to about nineyears of age,
I had manY recurnngdreams involving wolves and eagles.As a child, I
had an especially vividimagrnation and I occasionally exPeri'€nced
visrons, some during illnesses.These experiences haunted my life
andpropelled me inwards to the ima8eryof the unconscious. In the
small, hadi_tional village where I Srew uP, theadults were fairly
acceptint of my in_ner world. Latet when I moved to acity, I found
that most PeoPle werel;ked intothe material world and hadlittle
time for the inner life, so I leamedtobe much more careful about
sharingmy dreams and visions. Without mYknowing it, however, these
early exPe-riences had sensitized me to the lsayof the Anglo-Saxon
shaman.
It has often struck me that mostpaths to wisdom-the ways that
eri-able us to move forward in life-usu'ally involve toing "back"
to the realmof inner experience. Most of us hadvivid inner lives as
children, but wesoon Ieamed to deny those realities, infavor of the
consensually validated"real world." Followin8 the shamanicpath
involves reentering the imateworld we knew as children and
re_turning to that source of wisdomwhich, as adults, we have
forSotten.
My quest to 6nd a Westem Path ledme firct to learn about the
Druids.Contemporary British Druids have awell-developed approach to
sPirituality which rene.b a deep reverence forthe landscape and the
sacred forces ofnature. They look totheancientDruidsof two thousand
years ato as a sourceof inspiration, althouth they do notclaim
direct descendence from them.Because my goal was to find a Paththat
was well rcoted in the ancientAnglo-Saxon and Celtic ways of
wis-dom, I set out to find historical docu-mentation on the orignal
Druidic be_Iiefs and practices but soon becamefrustrated by the
paucity of availablematerial. Although I have a lot of re_spect for
contemporary Bitish Druids,I realized their path wasn't for me.
I then spent two years studying al-chemy, both theoretically and
Pmcti_cally. The a lchemicat practices includemany meditative
rituals focused onprocesses of inner and outer transfor_mation.
These plactices tautht me howto be sensitive to inner chanSe, how
toobserve the workings of the Psyche inresPonse to archetr?al
ima8ery, andhow to use external objects and inter-actionsas
metaphors folintemal work.However, as an esoteric magical
sys-tem,alchemy failed toaddress my Pri-mary concems-the Practices
of healing and divination.
Eventuallyl becameinvolved in th€path of Wicca, or Witchiratt I
wasfortunate iobeable to study with someremarkable women, who
tauSht memany things that would be imPonantfor my later
undeBtandint of wyrd.In the process of researching the his-torical
roots of Witchcraft, I cameacrcssa reference to lran rSr, an
obscur€ one-thousand-year-old manuscriPt in the
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SHAMAN'S DRUM/ SPRINC, 1992
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Bitish Museum (ms Harley s85).Ir.r!rga isessentially the
spellbook
of an Anglo-Saxon shaman. lt con-tains a collection of maSical
h€alin8remedies, rituals, and incantations.Historians estimate that
the documentwas written by Chnstians in the tenthor eleventh
century, although the fia-terial had probablybeen passed downorally
for severalhundred yeart fromthe pre'Christian era. At that
time,writing was the almost erclusive prov-ince of Christian monks
and mission-aries, and it was extremely unusualFor a collection of
indigenous paganshamanic healing speils io be writtenin the
Antlo-Saxon vernacular. Be-.auseofihe pagan nature ofthe mate-rial,
historians speculate that the manu-script was written by a scribe
or nov-i.e, and not by a monk.
Through researh, I learned thatportions of lrcxlrSo had been
irans-iated byAngio Saxon scholars, but thatthere had been very
litile analysis oflhe manuscript's overall content andmeaning. I
eagerly madearrangementsto eramine the original document inrhe
British Museum. Locfiu gn is abeautiful book-a small, thick
manu-script on vellum leaves. with little dia-trams and drawings
carefullyscraiched into the marSins to indjcatetheend ofonespell
and the beSinninSof anoiher. Although most of ihe en'tries !,ere
matical healinS remediesand herbal treatments, I discovercdamonB
them some rituals forshamanicinitiation and training. I
immediaielyre.ognized the manus.ript as a sha-man's handbook a
touchstone forentering the world of the anc,enl Eu-roPean
shaman.
I became tremendously excited,Personaliy and prolessionally, at
theprospect ofbreathint life back into thepractices described in
l-.cnun4l. Themanuscripl lilerally chanted my Iife,as I took on the
challenSe of rebujldingthe practice of wyd throuSh an
expe-rjential, a s well as scholarly, approa ch.
I soon found lhat evidence for thervay of wyrd is substantial,
but thai itis widely scattered in books, joumals,manuscrjpts, and
museums throuth-out Europe. One of my tasks over theyears has been
to pull together all thisinformation and integrate it- The pro-
foresl landscap€s at night and psychi,cally into visionary
landscapes.
From the start of the proiect, myaim has been to reempo$ er the
way ofwyrd as a living shamanic path.Thrcuthout this process, I
have t €dto maintain absolute intetdty, so thatreaders and workhop
participantscanse€ exactly how the historical materialis being
used. For that rcason, I haveincluded in thebiblio$aphy ofThe Wayo/
l{yrd well over one hundred refer-ences to the most accessible
material,so that read ers can explore the sourcesfor
themselves-
Allen-Coomber L TheWayof Wyrd,you prcsent Anslo-Sarcn
shaftanisnthrough the fictional expetie,rces ol watBtu d,a
Chtisliafi sctibe who applenliceslo a pagan salcerer- Why did you
choose
Bat€s: Oritinally I had intended tolvrite a nonfi.tion book that
wouldexplain the nature of wyrd, but myfirst altempts failed to
bring this won-derful material to life. I then decidedto use the
format of a fictional story inthe hope that it wou)d speak more
directly to the imagination than to theintellect. I felt that
readers would bebetter able to experience something ofthe nature of
the shamanic quest if Ilold the story through one person'sjoumey
into the way of wyrd.
While conductinS my back8roundresearch, I had studied a
historicallydocurhented mission from AnElo-Saxon England, and I
decided to usethis settjn8 for depictint someone'sinitiation into
the way of wyd. I hadleamed that when Christian mission-aries
traveled into pagan areas oI Eu-rope, they often sent a iunior
m€mberof the mission to ioumey throuSh th€countryside, gatherint
informationabout lhe rituals, beliefr and practicesof the
indigenous shamans. Since ascribe called Wat Brand, had
actuallylived at the mission I studied, I tavehis name lo the
fictional scribe in mybook. Trle Way al Wytd descrlb.sBrand's
experiences in gaininS theknowledBe of wyrd, and his initiationby a
shaman called wulf.
In preparinS the book, I wrote aseries of essays for myself on
fifty or
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cess is rather like weavint a tapestry,only the materials are
facts and ideas,images and stories. I have consultedcountless
journals and books in sub-Fcis as diverse as the hislory of
medi'cine; Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and Cer-manic social hislory;
Icelandic sagas;compa ra tive mythology, fol klore stud -iesi
archaeoloSy; and philolo8y.
My research has showed that al-thouth there were somedifferences
indetajls of expression between theAntlo'Saxons and th€ C€lts the
twomajor cultural6roupinSs in early wesrern Europe th€re was much
overlapbeiween the shamanic practices ofthese peoples. The shamans
served ashealers, d iviners, spellcasiers (particu-larly through
the use of lhe magicallanguages of runes),leaders of
sacredritualsand celebrations,.ustodians oftribal wisdom, and
advisors to warri-ors and chieftains.
After several years of studyint re-search material in ord€r to u
nd€rstandthe system of shamanism rcpresentedin lr.rtr,gr,l decided
to explorcsomeof the healing rjtuals presenled in themanuscript and
to recreate the jour-neys described in its incantations
andnarratives. My work included practic-ing medjtations, m€morizint
the sto-ries, and journeyinS-physically into
SHAMAN'S DRUM / SPRINC, T992 ?3
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An Excerpt ftomTheWay of Wyrdby Brian Bates'Do you realy belis€
lhat you cnn read
tutule events frch a hny snat.h of birdfli8nt? Do all you p€ople
believe in such
wuU rolled on to his ba& and cupp€dhis hands b€hind hi,
he.d, squintin8 p atthe sky.
'Omens ki8hten the ordinary p€rsonb€caus€ Iiey beli€ve thm to bG
predic-tions of evats Lhal are bould to haPFn:wamings from the
realms of destiny. Bulthisisromistakethetruenatureof ornen .A
srcercr.an read omens as Patt€m-Point-ers, hoh which lhe weavinS of
wyrd .anb€ admired and ftorn whi.h .onne.tionsbetween dirferent
parts of patterns can be
I was puzzled by his use of ihe tem'wyrd.' when used by nonk
oraiing pcetry,it seemed lo denote lhedeslinyorfaleof a Frson. I
explaircd lhis view to Wulfand he h@led wiih lauShter, sendinS
thesparows flappinS froh the shrubbery in
'Io undereland our ways, you mustleam lhe true meani.g of wyrd,
not theversion your masters have con.octed lo fitihen beliers.
Remember that I iold you ourworld began wiih Ine and frost? By
ther_seller neithe, fne nor irosl accolnPlishanyth,ng. Bur togelher
they deate lhesorld. Yet they musi mainiain a balance,ror loo mlch
ft€ would melt lhe frosl andex(essile frost Bould exringuish tle
fire.But iust as rhe trorlds of aods, MiddleEanh and the D.ad
are.onslantly replen-isled by rhe marryinS oI fire and fron, soalso
ihey depend upon the balarce andetemal rycle of nithi and day,
winter and
and man, weak andstrcng, moon and sun, death and 1ife.
The*forces, and .ountl6s others, ,orn the endpoints of a Eiganlic
web oI fibres whi.hcovers all worlds. The web is lhe @alionof lhe
forces and ils th.eads, shimherinSwith powe!, pass ihrough
everythinS.'
I was aslounded by Ihe ihage o, theweb, which s€emed to me both
siupen-dous and terifying. I lrembled with er_citement, Ior I krew
thal Eappa' woulddnnk in such irtorFation lik€ a hunterpinpointin8
the movem€nts of his prey.
'What is at liecenhe of tle web, WulI?Are your gods at
lhe.entre?'
WulI shiled, a littte condGendingly Iihoutht.
'You maystan ar any point on lhe weband Ii.d thatyo! areal the
centre,' he saidcryplically.
Dhappointed, I tried another line of
qu€stioning. 'Is w)rd your fto$ impor-
No- Wyrd existed Mole the tods andvrill exist after rhem. Yet
w)rd l6t! onlytror an insaant, b€caE il is the constanl.reatioh of
the forc6. Wyrd is ilself con-stant change,like the seasns, yei
b€tauseii is certed at every instart it is unchang-in& like ihe
still entre of a whirlpool. Allwe can * are lhe nppl6 dan.in8 on
toP
I staEd at him in complele .onfusion.His conc€pt of wyrd,
obvjously of vitaliEportance to him, reFatedly slipFdthrough my
fintm like an eel. I wenl ba.kto the be8inni.8 of our
conv.Ealion.
?!r wu[, you say that the fli8ht ofbnds shows you lhe paiteh oI
wyrd, ofih* fibres; if you can fedict events homwyrd, it must then
operat€ a..o.ding lo
Wulf looked at me wnh kind, friendlyeyes. He se€hed to be
enjoying hy at-tempts to unde(t.nd his myslenous ideas.
'No, Brand, there are nolaws. The pa!tem of wyrd is like the
Srajn in wood, orthe llow of a stream, it is nerer repealed
inera.tly the same *'ay. But the threads o1wyrd pass thro!8h all
lhinSs and we canopfl olrlelves to its p.ttern by obs€ringlhe
rippl6 as rt pas*s by. When you s€€ripples in a pool, you know that
somethinghas dropp€d into ihe water. And when Isee cenain npples in
lhe flitht oi birds, Iknow tlat a warrior is going lodie.'
'So wyrd makes thinSs happen?''Nothing may happen wilhoul
eyrd,
for it is prent in everythin& but wyrddoes not uake thinSs
happen. W,.rd i3created at every inst nt, and so *rrd is
ihehappen'n8.'
Suddenly I &€d o, his cryptic 6poFes. 'l slppce lhe threads
oI wyrd are toofine for anyon€ to s..?' I s.id sar.asti.ally.
wulf chuckled goodnatlredly.'Some-times they are thick as hemp
rope. But thethreads oI iyrd are a dimasion of our*lves that we
cannol SnsP with words.We spin webs of wordr yel syrd slipsthrouSh
like the wind. The ftrets of wy.ddo noi lie in our word'hoadt but
areIocked in the eul. We can only di*m lheshadows ofr€alitywilh our
wordt where-as our suls are capable of €n@untelinttle realjties of
wyrd di.Etly. This iswhywyrd i5 ac.6sible io the sorcerer the
sor-cerer sG with his soul, nol with eyes blinl-ered by the sha p€
of words.'
I knew wulfs vieNs lo be eroneus,yel I was fascinaled by them.
He spole
.bout his beliefs as conJidendy and flu-ently as Eappa
o(plaining the teachings ofour Saviour, I r6ted hy .hin on hy
handsand tried to aMlys€ Wulrs ideas as Eappar^,ould h.ve wished.
'B€ sure you uder'stand dearly der,'thint you e ad hear,'he h.d
cautioned. "You can remernber onlywhat you.ooFehend.' I tried io
identifyth€ rnain tenets of Wuff's b€lids and sub-i.rcr them io
s.lutiny, one by one
Wulf lean€d closer to me and spoke intohy 6r as if sharing .
se(rer:
"You are sEangling yoa life-force wilhwords. Do not live y'u
life *archinSaroud fd answers in your word'hoard.You will find only
words to ratioMus€ yourexp€rien(e. AUow yourself lo open up towyrd
and it will .l€anse, renew, dangeand develop your casket of reason.
Yourword-hoard should serve yolrr dpeno.e,
I tumed on him in iEilation. 'I wascho*n Ior lhis Mission
be.ause I do noiswalow everylhing l hed like a sihpleton.I ah at
hohe in the world of words.'
He smited tenily. 'Words can b€ polentma8i( indeed, but they can
also enslave us.we SEsp frcrn ,yrd liny pufis of windand store them
in our lungs as words. Butwe have not thereby captured a pie.e
ofreality. io be pored over and eEmired as ifit were a glimFe oI
wyrd. w€ nay as wellmistake our fisttuls oI air for wind itsell-
ora pitcher of water for ihe sEeam iom whichit was dipped. That is
the way we areenslaved by our own power lo narheihings.'
,t\/ly thorghis .re my FleBl affair.' Isaid sulkily. I was here
to listen to hjsb€lieft but nor io submit lo criticism oI myprivate
conlemplation.
'Thousht! are lile raindrops,' he per-3i!ted, inbodu.ing yet
eother of his inlerminable inags. They fall, Etal€ a splashand then
dry up. But the wotld oI lyrd islile the mighty oceans ftom which
rain-drops .rise and to -hich lhey retum in
Edito/r Notcr, B'orh.' Eipp. *.r w.r Br.nd! brchenr ihrMftnr
Mlld.ry, eh.r Bn d {vd B. sib.^3
Fn o, his.Ilod b 6ubli'i r 6isi6 .r rhe s.ronod, E:pp, e aiahd
ro -Erv.l lhhu8h rh.ld.gdm,a.rhdinainllrm..ton m th. b.!i.l'.nd
sup.Ett.
Frcn THE WAY OF WYRD b, Brian BatBCopyn8ht @ 1992 by arian 8.t6,
R.pnnEd byFrmi$ion oi Harper san Franc,
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sixty different aspects oI the principlesand practices of wyrd,
based on myo(periential studies and the historicalevidence
available about the Europeanshahanicpath. Theactual structure
of
'thebook and the unfoldint ofBrand'squest were dictated by these
accountsof my research.
Allen-Coombe: In your book, you de-scibe an idioiduol's life $
"o clolh uottno a loofi ." Wal rcld)ance cloes lhis im-age haoe to
&nlemporary lile?
Bat.s: Contemporary psycholoSicalscience t€aches us to imate our
iivesand psyches in terms of a machine-inparticular, a computer.
Although thatmodel bears littie relation to the or-ganic, livint,
breathing reality of thehuman experience, we continue to
ake educational, professional, busi-ness, medical, and military
decisionsas though the computer model were aclose fit to our
reality.
ln contrast, Anglo-Saxon shamaniccultures viewed each person's
life ex-pe enceasan artisticpattern evolvingon a loom. The motif of
Boddessesspinning individual fates appearsmany times in th€ spells
and storieswhich have survived and is one of thebesi-documented
aspects of Anglo-Saxon shamanism. Admiitedly, im-aSes of spinning
and weaving lveremorelamiliar in those eras, but ihe useof a
creative rather than mechanicalmetaphor is wolth
studying-espe-cially whenconsiderint how !o changeourlives. Instead
ofchanging our "lifeprotnm," we can chante our "lifedesitn," using
metaphors of color,shap€, texture, patlem, and theme.
Be(omin8 sensilive to the fibres thatpulseand rcverberate within
our livesis an impDrtant practice of the way ofwyrd. Sometimes, in
contemporarywyrd healing workshops, we paintimages of the fibres
penetrating ourlives, slarting with those influences ofwhich we are
consciously aware-people, events, hopes, and ,ears-andthen rnovint
on to fibres which can beP€tceived only though meditation andinner
visionint.
Even ifyou arehithly motivated tochange you. overall life
pattern, youcan't iust change it immedjately, as if
insertinS a nel\ prosranl inlo a com-puter-to do so would
bercbrenkvourlife. You can't alford to iose thestren8th inhereni in
what you've al-ready tot. You .an alter the pattern,expressing
previous i hemes iI] new a nddifferent ways, but developing a
newpattern must be accomplished harmo-niously, in tune wiih the
energies thatcreated the original desitn. Thereforc,when working
rrith individuals whowant to make chantes in their hves,we help
lhem to Bet a clear picture oftheir existing life patterns, and
thenwe guide thenr to rcdesign those pat-terns through use
ofartistic mcdia.
One man I worked rlith had manvpsycholotical blocks to deal
r^,ith. llehad undertaken conventional psv.ho-therapy but still
felt.onfused and para-lyzed by the multiplicity of his prob-lems.
So, belbre delvinS into lhc con-
tent ol his individual issues, \\'e sim-ply mapped them out
until lre snw anoverall pallern to his Iile. Then he ex,pressed
that pattern throueh art\\'orkand dance, creatjng a map of his
psv,chological states
We first choreographed a dnncesequer\ce lhat expressed hjs past
psv-chologicnl states and then choreo,graphed a ritual dance that
enabledhim lo transcend his blo(ks. Thc firsttimp that he performed
theentiredancewas a lremendous ca tha rt ic e\F('rienceIor him.
Each subsequent tinr!'servcdasa centerinB process, aliownrg him
toteach a stale of presence within lrim-sell and tr,as a ritual acr
oi ra,rh in hisliber.lion. O{ course- lile issups arecomplex and
necd lo bc addresscd indelail, bul this process pro\.ided hiDitrith
.1 bird's evc viet! ()F his sitrratxrr,allowing hin1 to Set his
benrtrrils Th!'
E
i
f''}il lti,
f,l
riit'.
SHAMAN'S DRUM / SPRING, I992 25
-
jmprovement in his general well'bein8
Allen-Coombe: Mrch af Brotul's ltotkr',, The Way o, Wyrd
d.nlswitlt d&,eloP'ifig personnl pait'tr. Wnt is l1r,|t'cr in
lheA Blo-Soron !nditian,and ho1L,cn peoPledeulop this k d af N|L'et
?
Batesr ln modern society, the conceptof power has been
debased-jt is usu'ally conceived ol as po\ler or.r oiherpeople. But
in the EuroPean shamani(sense, power is somethinS ihat one
haswiihin oneself. Ii is an enabling powerwhich helps people
resistbeint "ol'er-Porvered" b), olh€rs.
Forming relaiionships lvith Suard-ian spirits is one practical
way to nur_ture shamanic power. Thereare manyaccounts in European
literalure ofsha-mans transforminB into thcir Suard-ian animals,
both spiritually duringinitiations and ritually during
celebra-lions and heaiints.
An important asPect of shamanicwork is finding externalized
formssuch as creatures, animals, or runes-that nol only represent
but give mani'festation to one's inner resources andstren8ths. The
process has parallelswith contemporary creat,ve psycho-therapies in
which a personal issue isgiven form through somethinS exter-nal,
such as a paintinS or sculpture.Even though we know lhe issue
is
''inside," we seem to be better able todeal with ii once it is
translered ontosomethinS "outsjde."
Oneof thecentra! pre isesof lvyrdis thal, in .ertain states of
consciousness, the boundaries betlreen inner andouter realities
beconre permeable andcan be transcended. By i{orking i{ithguardian
aninrals, lve can 8et in touch!!ith abilities that t{ere formerly
outside our as,areness. For example,tuardian spirits can give us
ac(ess lomanv of thoseabilities that society haslabel€d
"paranom1al." By embodyinSthe fibres of wyrd lhat
reverberatethrouth us, guardian animals can helpus develop enhanced
sensitivity to d1enrYriad inlluences which.onslantlyafiect us but
remain beyond ihe scopeof olrr phvsical senses.
One h,ay that I lvork ii'ilh individu-als is to help them
connect lvith their8uardian animals. Many people ma),be familiar
with similar practices-$'here images of animals are inducedand
those animais danced-taughl inshort-term workshops. However,
inconiemPorarywyrdsha anism,weBomuch further in contactint this
deepsource of insPirational energy.
We beSin by asking people to record aniflaldreams that ihey
remenr-ber fronr childhood-nearly everyonehas had lh€m. Then i1'e
Suide indi_viduals on imatjnal journeys to meettheir guardian
anin]als. That's whcre
the real work in wyd begins-peopleresearch their animals,
observe themin thewild ifpossible, paint them, writestories about
them, and work withthem expedentjally and dramatically.This process
is very personal and im-portant, not something to be rushed.Some
people training in wyrd shaman-ism find thal tuardian animal
workbecomes a quest of high degree-asusiained path ofexploration
that illu-mjnates many aspects of their lives.
Allen-Coomb€: D?mrues ntd ginnts playa significant rcle nt'fhe
Way of Wyrd.Cnh lat discuss these beings and lheirrcletiance lo
shanlani plnclices?
Bates: Ciants and dwarves featuredsignificantly in the
initiaiory visionsofAnglo'Saxon and Cellic shamans, asmay be seen
in the accounts of sha-mans' iourneys to the upperworld
andunderworld. They also play a role insome incantations in
Ir.,,r,r,qo, but theyare Siven pilrticular prominence inshamanic
vision quesl slories in theNorse sa8as.
Later, undcr the influence of Chris-tianjty, lhc inditenous
Celtic andAnglo-Saxon spirits were redefined asantels or dcIils.
Eventually, th€ sha-rnanic imagery was preserved onl), instories
for chi)dren, where it could bedismjssed as fantasy.
ln pre-Christian European shaman-ism, Siants lvere embodiments
of theclemenial tor.es that had created rhcunilerse, and they
reprcsenled trenren'dous, unbridled porv€r. Stories relatethat the
giilnts had both kno!\,lcdgeand rvisdom, but as tiants were olIen
aSSressive-this knowledte couldonl], begained by the shamans at
grealpersonal risk.
Drvarvcs were the powers ihatlransfornred the elemenls ot the
uni-verse into mateial form. ln earl),Eu-rop€an culiures,
blacksmiths $,erc as'sociated s'ith dwarves and ma8i. be-cause of
their ability tb transform thebasic elements of Earth into
tools,weapons, and jeu'elrv. when shinransiourneyed into spiritual
realms, theyoFlen encortnlered sacred smilhs, usu-ally imnged ns
dNnrvcs, who mad€unbreakiblt, sB,ords and kniYes, i]ndbeauiiful
i(,\{'elry with mngi.al prop
26 SHAMAN'5 DRUM / SPNINC, 'I992
-
erties- These dwarf-smiths were alsoresponsible for transmuting
the body,mind, and soul of the aPPrentice intothat of the
shaman.
In ourworkhops, we work to act!vate the dwarf porvers of
transforma_tion inherent in our lives. First, Par-ticipants tell
and enact stones of thedwarl powers that theY know fromEuropean
mythology. Since over thecenturies most of these stodes havebeen
altered and tumed intochildren'smoml tales, weexamineand
rcenchantthe stories in their oriSinal shamanicvelsions. Then we
recast the stories interms of our own lives, PuttinS these"dwarf
enerty" aspects to work forour Personal tlansformation,To tually
enact our own transfor-mational tales, particularly within a8roup,
is a remarkable exPerience.Many people discover ihat sto de-tails
they had Iorgotten become manifest as the experiences are Siven
magi-cai power. lt is not psychodrama as1'\'e know it in
contemPorary Psvcho-therapy but rather an infusion of
trans-formatjonal energv into ihose impor_tant life experiences
l\'hjch have notheen resolved or celebrated-or. evenL,orce, which
ha\e been locked intoour psyches by denial or the $rongkind of
analt'sis. This work often inl,olves some suffering and sacrjfice,
bu Iit ultimatet\, creaies beautiful, magicalthings from the
elements ofour lives-,ust as the dw'arres made beautiful,magical
ihints from Earth s elements.
Allen-Coombe: i, The Way of \{yrd,wulf leoches Bnnd nbott lhe
slfiDnni.
sc aJ t Des. Cai v.n tcll ,rs dl,ori rrr.sortt othrt lnrthotlsof
canlt nicatiot) rL'ith
Bates: In recent years, many PeoPlehave become familiar with the
use ofrunes as an oracular syst€m, Runeswere much more ihan an
alphabet ofanSular shapes; thev were an impor-tant form of sacred
communication inthe way of r{yrd and were used i\'ithgrcat resPe.t
and reverence- Runes\{ere traditionallv carved into wood,rock, or
occa sionallv bone, or inio metaljewe)ry and rreaponry. Theprocess
ofcarving runes r\'as a wav ol centerinS,med jtiltinB, and
communj.:til18 wjth
Earih. The carvint of runic mess.testo thespirit B'orld i\'asan
intetral Partofmost healing and divining rituals.
Cortemporarv work in the way ofh,vrd includes the use ot rlrnes
as anoracle. Of course, just as t\'ith otherdivinatory tools, the
po$.er inherentin their use depends upon thesensitiv-ity, skill,
and journeying (aPacity ofthe person who is doinS the reading.
There are many hays of gettint intouch with the other realms.
and allshamanic culiures emplov ritualizedand sa.raliz€d means of
communica-tion w,ith spirit forces. Some culturesrse dancing,
drumminS, and chancjnt; oiher use paintinS or creaiingsacred
objecis. In the Eumpearl tradi'tion, advanced shamans often
traveledwith irained drxmmers and .haniers,who performed sound
rituals to ajdthe shamans in communicatint withthe spirit r^,orld
durinS healints andolher sacred ceremonies. There is amanuscript d
escriPtion from about onethousand years a8o of a Norih European
shamaness u'ho traveled h'iihthirty trained chanters-fifteen menand
fifteen lromen.
Allen-Coombe: Wcre lherc t'ery nanyAnglo Saron shamfl
,:ssrs?
Baies: A thousand years ago, s'henshamanic trad itions thrived
in Europe,maie and ferrale Pra(titioners \4'ereequally prorninent
and were accorded
eqLra] status. They performed somefunctions in common, althouBh
othertasks weredivided alont tend er lines.For example, women had
auihorityover rituals dealint with childb€arintand $,ere
specialjsts in divination-inreadinS ihe future of
individuals,communiiies, and the landscape.
In Anglo'Saxon shamanism, bothmale and female shamans
practicedhealin8 and presided over spiritualrituals of various
kinds, althouth usu-ally separaiely. Men followed a malepaih
ofinitiation and women folloB'eda female path, but both paths had
equalstatus. Ente nt the shamanic worldo{ the other Senderwas
considered anadvanced form of shamanism. Thoseshamans $ho were able
to acquire ele-menis of the wisdom, techniques, andinsights of the
other gender L'ere th€most hithly admired.
When Christian missionaries cametowest€m Europe, they presumed
ihatthe jndjtenous spiritual structure wasvested in the male
shamanic advisorsto the tribal leaders. Itnoring the roleof female
shamans, the missionariesconcentrated on persuading the chief-ta;ns
to outlaw male Shamans andreplace them with Christian monks
andpriests. Consequently, allhouSh themale shamani( path was
quicklydriven underground, the female sha-manic path continued lo
flourish forseveral hundred Years. Howevet, inorder to control the
still-ihriving sha'
€
.E
,3
SHAMAN's DRUM / SPRING.1992 27
-
!E
e
t
3
manic approach to Iife, the Christianauthorities eventually
turned theirwrath againsi lhe female shamans andinstigated ihe
infamous h'ilch hunis.
Allen-Coombe: l$nt sllannltic lool;ruo ld A]181a Sn].on shnnlans
tuPicollv
Bates: Probably the most imPortanttool of a European shaman was
his orher staff. These staffs were can ed !t'i thruni. inscriptions
and decorated wjihmetalilork and objects o,
symbolicsignifican€e.
Norse satas from over a thorsandyears ago describe shamanesses
jnnorthern EuroPe carryint statfs de(o-rated with ornate stonework.
AflonEoiher uses, these Power siafis enabledthe shamanesses to
journey to sPirjir€alms. The image in PoPular culturetoday of
witches flYing on maSicalbroomsticks may have evolved fromstories
of these matical staffs.
European fairy tales ar€ rePlele !vrthwrzards (arryrng magic
wands andstaffs imbued i\rith healint Powers.Today. i,e drsmiss
these stories as fanta
-
healrng iorces lrom the web of wyrd.' iometimes it was believed
that thepatient had been possessed by harm-tul spirits, and the
shaman then had todrive these sickness spirits away. Thiswork
required great carq because con-frontinS dark spirits could be
danger-ous even for an expefienced shaman,
In some cases of sedous illnest itwas believed that the patient
had Iosthis orhersoul. The shaman's task wasthen to ioumey to the
spirit world toretrieve the soul, Irffiungd containsseveEl
incantations for joumeying insearch of lost souls. It was
usuallyassumed that the soul had been stolenfor a particular
reason, or a combina-tion of reasons, that had to do with theway
ihe patient had been livinS his orher life. So, as a step in
retneving thesoul, the shaman had to flnd out whythe person's soul
had been stolen andwho in the spirit realm had stolen it.
In our contemporary wyrd practi-.alhealing work. the shaman's
job alsoincludes helping individuals reweavetheir lives into a foIm
which developstheir strengths and protects their souls.
Allen-Coombe: What lele.,ence does theM! ol uyd ha|,Y today?
Bates: I consider wyrd to be as tele-vant and poweful now as it
was forourAnglo-Saxonancestors. Althoughour ancestors lived in a
technologicallysimpler world, they were more sophis-ticated in
spiritual matters than we are,We can leam from their wisdom,
be-cause they dealt with the same mattersoI mind, body, and spirit
that we arestill grappling with today. Ifs impor-tant to remember
that althouth ourphysical and cultural environmentshave evolved
gieatly over the last fewcentlrries.---our deep inner nature
haspobably not changed much over thelast several thousand
yearc.
I also believe that theshamanic pathcan play an importani role
in solvingthe crucial personal, social, and globalissues that
confront us today. Al-though the tual forms of shamanismneeded to
solve today's problemswon't necessa ly be id€ntical to thosethat
flou shed in traditional huntingor ag .ultural communities, the
holis-tic vision of wyrd and many ofits an-
Brian Bates
cient shamanic elements its concepisof Iife force, spirit
tuardians, and in-terconnecting fibres; its healing tech-niques;
and its approaches to life anddeath--are still directly applicable
toourlives.
The basic message of The WaU olWyld is that we can recapture and
te-vitalize a shamanic approach to wis-dom that is based on
Anglo-Saxon andCeltic traditions. In reading aboutwyrd, many people
have a sense ofre{oSnition-a sense thatit's all some-thinS they
already knew, deep down,but had forgotten. The way of wyrd isthe
arche9?al shamanic wisdomof theEuropean peoples. I would like to
seethis heritage tak€ its place alongsidethe other great haditions
of spiritualliberation, for anyone to leam from.
All€n-Coombe: lNhat areyout plans forthe f11ture, particularly
in reyrd to yo t
Batesi Recentl, my personal researchefforts-both scholarly and
expeden-tial-have been concentnted mainlyon the processes of
initiation and onthe roles of male and female pathsthrough the
shamanic realms. I amcurrently compiling this material-aswell as my
findings in other areas ofwyrd shamanism-which I plan towork into a
number ofnew books.
Moteover, since The Way of Wyrd'spublication in Europe, I have
met manyremarkable people who-withoutbeing knowledgeable aboui
their Eu-ropean shamanic heritage-have beenexplodng shamanic
pEctices in their
own lives. Because I believe that it isvery important to
encourage the ex-ploration of shamanic practi.es innontraditional
settings, where there islittle cultural support for the role ofthe
shaman,I am writing a book aboutsome of these encounters.
The response to The Way ol Wfdhas been very strong in Europe
andhas enabled me to create the experien-tial Shaman Research
Project at theUniversity of Sussex. The project is anunusual
enterprise for a university,becauseour aim is not merelv
tobuil.lacademic knowledge of a'histo calform of shamanism but to
exploreAnglo-Celtic shamanism at an exp€ri-ential level. We now
have six research-ers directly involved in the proiect, andpart of
our work includes studyingasF,ects of shamanism faom other
tra-ditions around theworld. We arealsosettint up a worldwide
network ofpeople who wish to be connected withthe project on a
regular basis. Ongo-ing research includes work on guard-ian
animals, masks, masculine andfeminine shamanic paths, sacred
land-scapes, and shamanic performance.
My overall aims are to recreate andreenchant the wisdom inherent
in En-ropean shamanism and to apply itsPlactices to pelsonal
development,psychotherapy, and healing, as well asto the broader
issues of the environ-ment, education, and the arts. I aminterested
in seeing that the insights ofshamanism are introduced into asmany
appropiate settings as possible.This work is in its early stages,
and Ihope that I shall be able to report ourprogress widely as the
project unfolds.It is time for the way of wlTd to takeits place
alontside the other great sha-manicpaths, so thatits traditional
wis-dom can help us face the future.
Janet Allen-Coombe is a research psy-chologist at the Shaman
Research PrcjeCUniversily of Sussex, and is orrently writ-ing a
d(toral dissertation based on herresearch on guardian animals.
Brian Bates may be reached at the Sha-man Res€arch Projeo Arts
Building B, Universit/ of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton/ Sussex,Eneland
BNl mN
ESHAMAN'S DRUM/ SPRING, 1992