An Interview with RavenWolf: Part Two
Interview by Mark Ardagna
RavenWolf served a seven-year apprenticeship to three Lakota Shamans. At the conclusion, they commissioned him to make Shamanism accessible to those drawn to the Path, and to ease their transitions to the Shamanic lifestyle. Mark Ardagna, a student of Shamanism, conducted this interview with RavenWolf.
Did you receive any direct conformation of the Path's presence in your life and understand your relationship to Shamanism and vise versa?
Yes, I most certainly did. As time went by, the Path starting speaking to me, if you will. And our relationship grew more intimate and intense. You see, the Shamanic Path, or life force, is alive and distinct. I had a number of experiences, some of which amazed me at the time.
One day I was walking home from school and I suddenly felt the need to be alone with the Path. I took a different route home so that I could avoid others as much as possible. I began to feel a ball of energy encompassing my heart. As I walked, a brilliant light emerged from my chest. I was concerned that someone would notice the strange, startling phenomenon, so I hurried towards home. I realized the light had some thing important to share. I realized the light was a component of myself, and that it was also an absolute form of the Path manifesting itself.
I came upon a Catholic Church and rushed in, hoping I would be alone. The light in my chest continued to expand until the interior of the entire church was bathed in the soft golden light. I felt a warm, loving presence. Suddenly, I heard a voice telling me that I had a very special mission and that throughout my life along the Path I would always be protected. This energy, or Godforce, I believe to be much stronger then the Spirit which the Catholic Church recognizes. The light itself was a kind of offspring or by-product of the relationship between the Path and my essence.
I felt I had been entrusted with many special secrets due to my openness and trust. I was aware that I was now ready for my teachers to come to me and teach me the ways of the Shaman. This did not inflate my ego, however. Instead it had an opposite effect. From that point I've had an overwhelming respect and compassion for humanity and all things in nature.
The light did a most remarkable dance-like movement as it folded itself back within my chest through my heart chakrum. I knew the light would make itself known to me again someday. This occurred some years later when I needed to experience the sensation again and to reaffirm my mission in life. I learned more about this phenomenon through an individual I met some time later. He had a very similar experienced in a Mexican monastery where he had been a monk. Shortly afterward he left the brotherhood to pursue Shamanism.
He told me that he knew several people who'd had a similar experience at San Luis Rey. He helped put me in touch with some of them. They talked about others having the same experience in a church in Pennsylvania. It turned out to be the same church in which I had my dramatic experience. They also informed me of the heavy American Indian activity that had taken place there many years before.
It is a universal law that sacred sites are always sacred. Often a church, temple, or shrine is built upon the same sacred Indian site many years later, knowingly or subconsciously. Shamans are psychic focus points in the cosmos, on the human level. The sacred sites are focus points on a terrestrial level. When the two overlap, when a natural shaman finds his way unto a sacred site, this opens a psychic doorway.
So if the Shamanic path and the Shamans themselves are so interrelated. When did the Path finally bring you to another Shaman?
My first encounter with a Shaman was with one in the Spirit. An Indian friend invited me to go on a camping trip of sorts. We planned to spend some time in a cabin his family owned. We stopped near the cabin because the road was in poor condition and it had rained recently. My friend walked ahead to see if the road was passable. Soon he disappeared in the distance while I waited in the car.
Just as I was about to go to see what he was doing, an elderly Indian came up to the side of the car. He said he was my friend's grandfather and was very friendly with me. He said he was glad to see his grandson and me and was happy we had come to stay for the weekend. The elderly man left and soon my friend return to the car. He said the road was clear and that he was sorry he took so long to get back to the car. I told him I didn't mind and that his grandfather and I had a wonderful talk. My friend turned pale and gaped at me. I quickly asked him why he had not told me his grandfather lived in the cabin. He told me his grandfather was a Shaman who had died many years ago. I described the man and his basic mannerisms and he confirmed the man was his grandfather. He said his grandfather had been very close and had taught him much of the Indian way—the Red Road as he called it.
I told my friend in detail what his grandfather had said. He recognized some of the phrases his grandfather had used. He told me they indicated that I was to be taught certain things. This was just one of many weekends I spent up at the cabin learning about the Shaman's path. I learned that his grandfather had been a healer all his life and that I, too, was a healer. He told me not to worry where I would receive the proper training to awakening these skills. I would know what I was to do and I would do it well.
So I had quite a bit of foreknowlege of the Shaman and Indian Way before I truly started my apprenticeship. The important thing I have always remembered is that when you need confirmation or encouragement, it will come—not always when you want it, but certainly when you need it. The Shaman's path is a mystical one and there is no need to seek it out. It will find you when you are ready.
I hope that this interview will be of help to someone in some way. In fact, I have no doubt that this is why it came about.
Mitakoyin Oyatsin. All my relations. | 
