At the essence level all is one, everything and nothing combined in the great void that the ancient Hindus called the Akasha, the Taoists in China call the Tao, and our current quantum physicists call the zero point field or quantum field. The physical universe, where our personalities reside, is dualistic, made up of many parts and boundaries. At the most core level this physical universe is made up of vibrations, frequencies, light waves, waves that become particles when we observe them. This physical universe is made up of a web of frequencies and distinct sub-frequencies that all influence each other and often combine to make up various complex experiences. We take this for granted but in so doing we fail to understand the nature of this reality and how it works. When we fail to understand how our virtual reality works we are not able to interact with life in a highly conscious way in order to create exactly what we want.

The medicine wheel is an ancient shamanic map that indirectly refers to this web of frequencies and organizes them for us. There are as many medicine wheels as there are tribes in this world and yet although there are important differences, certain basic aspects are always the same. Here we are going to use the medicine wheel as a basic tool to understand something more about the fields of frequencies we interact with each day. It would be tempting to think of these fields as a spectrum occupying higher and lower positions in relation to each other but that would not be exactly right. The truth is that these fields co-exist, are nested together, are equal in value and do not form a spectrum with higher and lower positions . However each field or frequency is actually a set of vibrations that can be used either positively or negatively as the case may be. Rather than think of the negative as bad, it would be more accurate to say that using the frequencies negatively simply produce a different set of results, for example more suffering than the joy of using them positively.

How many of these fields are there? That is an unknown. There are sets of frequencies that as humans we definitely experience and there are some that cannot be experienced in the human form but may be able to be experienced in some other form in other parts of the universe that we have no knowledge of. Life is everywhere in this universe and there is a web of frequencies with an infinite set of connections that exists as background support for experiences everywhere.

Another way of speaking about these frequencies would be to site the Archetypes that C. G. Jung spoke of, or the morphic fields referenced by Rupert Sheldrake. These refer to major common experiences that appear to exist in the collective unconscious. They are common to all humans, by agreement at the deepest levels and they emerge when needed to catalyze spiritual, physical, emotional, and psychological transition and change.

Before going further with this topic let me provide some examples of what these fields look like. We can definitely say that one field is the masculine with all its attributes such as generosity, protectiveness, strength, forcefulness, and action orientation. It also carries the qualities of violence, control, and aggression. Obviously this field has many subfields within it. Another field is the feminine with it’s attributes of receptiveness, nurturing, support, and balance while alternatively exhibiting chaos, voraciousness, and manipulation. Again the feminine has many vibrations within it depending on what we seek to experience. Additionally the field of the feminine includes the subfield we call mother represented by the South direction of the medicine wheel.

Other fields or sets of frequencies are related to beauty, clarity, connectedness, wisdom, playfulness, animals, plants, minerals, gems, wind, water, earth, and an almost infinite list of other qualities that we experience and come into contact with as human beings.

Let us examine this a little further. All animals are related to the same field or frequency. However each animal is unique and has its own specific qualities and gifts, something that shamans call their medicine. If we want we can call up the frequency of animals in general, or we can call up a subcategory of animals such as  insects, birds, reptiles, four legged mammals, fish, crustaceans and so on. If we want to be more specialized yet, we can call up a specific type of reptile like turtle, lizard, or snake or subcategory of birds such as birds of prey, corvids, vultures, hummingbirds, parrots and so on. If we want a specialty we can call up eagle, raven, condor, love bird and so on. Thus within the bigger field of animals in general are tens of thousands of animals that are part of this field but have their own unique flavor of the field. The same would be true of plants, or minerals, or semiprecious and precious stones.

Good hunters, animal trainers, horse whisperers, and animal researchers are all tuned into the field of animals and some are resonant with the fields of specific animals like chimpanzees. These skills are not random and not curious anomalies but the result of focused collaboration with certain real fields of reality whether the person is conscious of it or not. Nothing is accidental. The same would be true for fire breathers, hydrologists, electricians, carpenters, metallurgists, nuclear physicists, meteorologists, zoologists, oceanographers, and so on.

The field of weather has rain, snow, sleet, wind, warm, cold, calm, tempest, thunder, lightening, humid, and so on. Obviously these are related to other fields that have to do with water, air, fire, and earth. Thus fields can work together or apart. This is why the fields are a tapestry or web working together in many combinations for our benefit. Shamans understand this and call it the web of life.

When we are feeling playful it is because we have either entered the field of play unconsciously or because we have deliberately called it up through an intention or through our desire to do so. Obviously that field is not exclusive of others so we might be in the field of play at the same time we are in the field of gratitude, love, or connectedness. We might choose to go to an amusement park where thousands of people tend to call up that field when they go there making it easy to enter it. On the other hand we may get a painful text message while at the amusement park and we disconnect from the field of play even though others are still enjoying it. In other words the fields are always available at all times and in all places. We resonate with them by choice, desire, or out of need and sometimes out of resistance. You perhaps have heard the story of Victor Frankl, a Jew, who was able to call up fields of joy as he was incarcerated in a concentration camp during the Nazi regime. While others around him died like flies, he was able to keep himself alive by working with specific fields and frequencies. He called them up for his own benefit while others languished because they forgot them.

Sometimes we withdraw from specific fields or sets of frequencies so that we can focus on something else. By withdrawing from too many fields we can experience feeling quite cut off and even depressed because we are not actively participating in any of them. This causes us to become quite vulnerable and can even lead to our death.

We can help ourselves by calling up various frequencies specifically and going into resonance with them. In the example of feeling cut off and depressed we could call in the frequency of connectedness and it would automatically begin to open doors and windows to feeling related. Someone we care about might just call spontaneously or stop by or a friend might drop their dog by for dog sitting for the evening. If we have been confused over something we can call in the frequency of clarity and as it is activated confusion automatically begins to clear up. Why? Because we are going into resonance with the frequency of clarity and that clears up the ambiguity or denseness. Since these fields of frequencies are already present we have been under their influences all our lives and all our lifetimes as humans so we know them well. They are home. The problem is that we forget they are present by becoming distracted or falling under the influence of psychological parasites and we let our personal dial slide off the frequencies cutting us off from their benefits. Being resonant with them is like being on the golden line. Being out of resonance with them is like falling off the golden line making life difficult, an experience of struggle and resistance.

Calling up a field takes practice but it can be quite easy. If confused you can simply say “Clarity Please” and the field of clarity will instantly manifest and begin to clear up confusion. If faced with a public speaking event you can say “Inspiration, stability, and humor please” and that is what will arise to support you. If you are feeling afraid you can simply say “I call up the field of courage” and it will support you instantly. People have a hard time believing this because it seems too simple and yet it is in fact that simple however it is easiest when you believe it. If you don’t believe it how can it open?

Each of the fields is connected to one of the seven directions of the medicine wheel. Each direction is a collection of a great number of fields. The fields of birth and inspiration are in the East. The fields of release and dreaming are in the West. The fields of beauty and actualization are in the South, the fields of power and community are in the North. The fields of father and wisdom are above, the fields of mother and fertility are below. The fields of presence and vital awareness are in the center. Each direction has a great many fields yet they can be activated singly or as a group depending what we want to activate.  When we call up the East to ourselves we can either call up new beginnings or we can call up inspiration or both at once. All fields are available for free. They are the ground of being of this physical plane, clearly gifts of Spirit.

Gifts of Spirit is not something that scientists care to investigate but make no mistake, these frequencies are as real as your car, a chair, or your breakfast and are just as influential if not more so in your life. Some day soon they will be understood more clearly most likely in terms of quantum physics.

Since these fields are hard to measure through present scientific technologies, they are not acknowledged as such by the world of science. Because of their training, their reputations, and the all important government money for grants, scientists do not like to speak of anything that cannot be quantified. Antimatter is extremely difficult to quantify as well. We suspect its existence because so much of the energy created in the Big Bang vanished afterwards. We have to account for it but where did it go? So scientists are currently handicapped by their insistence in quantifying everything. Anti matter will some day fuel our spacecraft, but not until they can get beyond their self imposed restrictions. Shamans and mystics have known about the fields of frequencies we have been speaking about here, forever. They are a fact and they influence all people’s lives everyday in major ways. Some day people will laugh that they were not believed in during the early 2000’s just as we are amazed that people not so long ago were ignorant of electricity, radio waves, and so many things we now take for granted.

In fact the frequencies are so fundamental to our lives that they are like the proverbial sunglasses pushed onto our foreheads that we cannot seem to find. They are too close to notice but not for shamans who are trained to take nothing for granted, to not accept appearances under any circumstances. How then can a shaman or anyone for that matter walk on hot coals without being burned or pick up a hot coal and place it in their mouth without incident. Fire is a field, a frequency the Huichol people call Tatawari’. Tatawari’ can be called upon to offer its powers, to help, to provide support and so on. Certain shamans are specialists at working with the field or frequency of fire. They can call upon its spirit (a conscious frequency) and receive its special gifts. In some cases this might be for the purpose of healing someone of a bad infection or fever, or to help weld a bone that is not properly mending. Dine (Navajo) medicine men are particularly good at this but the reality is that this is practiced all over the world. Why? Because calling up frequencies to help quite simply works. You call up a frequency, go into resonance with it or in other words become it, and its gifts are made available to you. The more practice you have doing this the better you get at it. However in order to become it you have to let go of personal agendas and that takes much personal discipline.

Sometimes a shaman or adept can become so proficient at calling up a frequency that it happens almost automatically and here it can become a problem. There is the story of a Native American weather shaman who could call up storms or dissipate them as the case may be. He had an excellent local reputation for this work and was called to Chicago during a big drought to remedy the situation. When he got there the media would give him no play considering him a quack. So he became angry and vowed to show them he meant business and predicted that he would call up a huge storm that people would not soon forget. As predicted a huge thunder storm materialized out of nowhere during his short visit and the deluge created much flooding and havoc in and around the city.

The truth is that this happens to each one of us even though we are not aware of it. Some people are masterful with certain frequencies and call them up regularly as a part of their work. Master carpenters are proficient with many types of woods all from the frequencies of trees. They can create masterpieces of furniture and other delights with this. Others do this with metals or with whatever frequencies they specialize in. Sometimes due to bad moods they can use these frequencies in ways that are not for everyone’s good.

This business of fields or sets of frequencies is obviously a vast and important topic needing our attention. The important thing is that from a shamanic perspective it is begging to be understood better. In these days when most of the earth’s population has cut itself off from nature and from the shamanic perspective of life, this knowledge is needed more than ever to bring us back into our personal power. Powerlessness is nothing more than ignorance, forgetting the source of power all around us, forgetting the gifts we have been provided so that we not only survive, but thrive on this planet. This short article represents a call to action to utilize the powers all around us for our and others well-being. It is but a brief reminder of what has always been and is still available.

JOSÉ STEVENS

José Stevens PhD is an international lecturer, corporate team builder and organizational coach, consultant and trainer. A psychologist, licensed clinical social worker and author of more than twenty books and numerous articles, he is also co-editor for A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism and a board member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. He is the founder, with his wife Lena, of the Power Path School of Shamanism and The Center for Shamanic Education and Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youth in indigenous cultures. He has completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol Maracame in Mexico and has studied with the Shipibos of the Amazon and the Paqos of the Andes for the last thirty years.

Go to: www.thepowerpath.com