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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

SHAMAN'S DRUM / SPRING, 1992

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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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

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,

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!'

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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'

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SHAMAN's DRUM / SPRING.1992 27

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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