The Strong Eye of Shamanism: a Journey Into the Caves of Consciousness Trade paperback - 1999

SHAMANISM "Robert Ryan's The Strong Eye of Shamanism does indeed direct a look of power at the world's most ancient form of spirituality. Ryan's purview of this once recondite but recently rediscovered subject is befittingly broad, but also deep, suiting of the profundity of the human experience it encompasses. Contemporary students of shamanism could go far into both the scholarly and mystically instructive side of their studies with this book." --Stephen Larsen, author of The Shaman's Doorway The human psyche contains archetypal patterns largely lost to contemporary society but which shamans have employed for over 30,000 years to gain access to the spiritual world. Shamanic symbols both affect and reflect these durative patterns that exist, with uncanny similarity, in civilizations separated by expanses of time and distance. The Strong Eye of Shamanism draws together the many facets of the art of shamanism, presenting a cohesive view of the recurrent patterns of symbolism and visionary experience that underlie its practice. The "strong eye" of the title refers to the archetypal symbolism that sits at the foundation of all human life--whether in Paleolithic caves or today's temples. But society has become separated from the power of those symbols that lead us into deeper understanding of our spirituality. In this world of splintered psyches, a world in which people are in search of their souls, shamanism survives as an age-old technology of soul recovery, a living Rosetta stone that reminds us of the shared foundation that exists beneath even the most radically different perspectives. Through its study of shamanism, archetypal psychology, and symbolism, The Strong Eye of Shamanism encourages individuals--and society--to look inward and remember that the deepest forms of awareness begin with the knowledge that the answers reside within us. Author and attorney ROBERT E. RYAN is a researcher of mythology and comparative religion. He has made extensive studies of the Paleolithic caves in southwestern France and artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic period.