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So very many are asking the same question these days: “What is happening around us?” We see severe climate change, massive oil spills, and species dying off. We see corruption in banking, politics, and religions around the world. We see fear, anger, and hopelessness in our communities. Many shamanic practitioners theorize that this is a shamanic dismemberment — the experience of being taken apart, devoured, or torn to pieces on a global scale, allowing for a shift of awareness and transformation of collective consciousness.

In a shamanic dismemberment, the individual dies the little death, which is the surrender of the ego. At its deepest level, the dismemberment experience dismantles our old identity. It is a powerful death-and-rebirth process. The experience of being stripped layer by layer, down to bare bones forces us to examine the bare essence of what we truly are.

In his book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Pinchbeck developed the hypothesis that we are undergoing a transition to a new realization of consciousness, which will be embodied by a new fundamental paradigm that takes into account what Carl Jung called “the reality of the psyche,” which is to recognize that its contents have a living reality, along with new social, political, and economic systems that mesh with this realization. Pinchbeck sees the rapid evolution of technology as an expression of this unfolding of consciousness. The acceleration of planetary crises can either incite a planetary awakening and a shift into a regenerative planetary culture based on sustainable principles, or a destruction of human civilization in its current form, and perhaps extinction for our species.

The emerging viewpoint coming from the shamanic community suggests the times we live in have an underworld theme of planetary and cosmological initiation. Entrance into the Lower World is most often precipitated by physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual events that force the surrender of our ego. Who we believe ourselves to be is not who we really are. No matter how many years one has been expanding and developing their consciousness, no one is exempt from this shamanic death-and-rebirth. This is a shamanic initiation on the grandest cosmological scale.

The caveat is to not swing into polar extremes of grandiosity or deficiency. Many may view this as either an opportunity for transformation or detached withdrawal. Others may react from fear and view this as impending doom and gloom. Rather, view the melodramatic experience as a test of spiritual maturity. This provides the opportunity for letting go and surrendering our ego defensiveness. We are being given the opportunity to surrender to the great tide of change, so that new dreams and visions can emerge. We can participate in the world's rebirth by following our own deepest instincts, each contributing our sacred part by following that which holds for us the greatest sense of truth and meaning.

The positive side of global dismemberment is that it eventually leads to a rebirth; to new ways of being. The darkness which had seemed endless and impenetrable is at long last revealed to be simply a very difficult passage — the proverbial tunnel, at the end of which is a brilliant, welcoming light. To learn more, look inside my guide to becoming a shamanic healer, Shamanic Drumming: Calling the Spirits.