By Evan Aleister Rainer
It is a basic requirement in your early Shamanic training that you understand and get practical
experience with the use of masks as soon as possible. At least before your first serious shock in training.
The subject of masks has been for so long shrouded in mysterious tribal references and subsequently
forgotten about. It is essential recover this knowledge to be able to master the practice of assuming and
discarding masks at Will.
To begin with, we assume the Shaman to be aware of the random nature of traveling into other
dimensions and back into this one. Then we assume that he or she is serious about what they are doing
and realize that it is not a once in a lifetime opportunity but a lifetime in which there is an opportunity.
Take it or leave it, but if you take it, study the following instructions closely, they may save your life.
From the room you are sitting in you suddenly find that you are distinct from the other creatures in the
room. At this point you must:
1. Become aware of what has just happened, namely a shift of consciousness into the edges of a
chamber or parallel world just adjacent to the one that we habitually all crawl about in.
2. Drop all pretensions of being a conscious, important, capable, multi-skilled, superbly adapted being
and realize that you stand on the edge of an action of being and creative power such as you have no
concept of and which certainly has no concept of or concern of you.
3.With your new-found humility, which is the only possible survival-kit for the beginning Shaman, try to
focus your attention on what is around you, both within and without. That means, what remains of your
physically oriented senses and what you are perceiving with your inner senses at the same time.
4. Try to locate yourself in this space and do not, repeat, do not, try to LEAVE THE SPACE, under any
circumstances, especially if someone is asking you to politely respond to some incredibly important
question such as `Would you like more honey in that tea, dear'? Get the message? Good, because if you
don't you will have crash-landed on your take-off. Not a joke.
5.Keep a sense of humour about all this, even though there is nothing to laugh at.
6.If you keep attention directed on to the inner and outer incidents, without responding to them in any
normal or usual way, you will have started to grasp the difference between a Shaman and a mortal. And,
even better, you will merge back into your normal consciousness with a gentle sliding sort of motion that
you will only notice after you have completed it.
7.Remember that the basis of all genuine spirituality is the experience you are having, and endeavor to
defend the experience from the primate; your own and others.
If you can do the above, and it will take practice, then you can call yourself a genuine Shaman, if only a
beginning one. Can you stand the status?
So what does all this have to do with masks you ask? Well you just started to build one if you followed
the above instructions. And there are ways to prepare for these lifetime opportunities. You can practice
with ordinary masks, and consciously experience the way you feel. You will feel different. If you don't,
you are dead and shouldn't be reading this anyway.
Practice putting them on and taking them off in private and public places, until you get the hang of it.
Take a walk through an art gallery, and realize that you have just assumed a mask. when you leave the
art gallery, consciously remove the mask. Become aware of when you are using a mask.
