Shamanica Institute

02/22/2026

This week we will continue discussing a few concepts that are important to understand in our spiritual journey. We will do so from the Hermetic perspective and also from the Shamanic standpoint.

- Healing deep trauma, Jungian complexes, spirit intrusions, arcanas, and the shamanic techniques employed in this transformative work

- Patological behavior and the forces behind it - how emotional wounds shape our personalities and behaviors. We will look at five key emotional injuries—rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal, and injustice—that originate in early life and significantly influence how we perceive ourselves and interact with the world.

These injuries are linked to specific masks or personas we develop as coping mechanisms: the rejected person becomes the escapee, the abandoned the dependent, the humiliated the ma*****st, the betrayed the controller, and the unjustly treated the rigid perfectionist.

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02/18/2026

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02/15/2026

The theme for this meetup is Intergenerational Trauma.

Much of what we carry in our lives is not fully ours. The fears, patterns, and pain that surface in us often belong to the generations before us. This is what we call intergenerational trauma: the hidden inheritance of unresolved grief, unspoken suffering, and ancestral wounds. It shapes our relationships, our choices, and even the way we experience life.

In the shamanic tradition, such burdens are seen not as personal flaws, but as energies that live in our field, asking to be witnessed and released. Through ritual, prayer, and sacred journeying, shamanism helps us connect with our ancestors. Not only to honor their struggles, but also to return to them what is theirs to carry, and to reclaim the gifts that are ours.

It is also our sacred responsibility to break the line of destructive patterns and abuse. When we choose to face and transform what has been passed down, we become the ones who stop the cycle and create a new legacy of wisdom and love.

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02/08/2026

The essence of shamanism is dreaming – as a way of waking up to what Castaneda calls “nonordinary reality.” Different techniques including dancing, drumming, breathwork and the use of sacred plants have been used to attain the ecstatic trance of journeying. What is common to all of them is tapping into a semi-waking-dream state, which is measurable as theta brainwave frequency. Many theories consider this brainwave to be a gateway both to the personal subconscious and to higher forms of collective consciousness.

Robert Moss has done a serious amount of work investigating the dream state. He lists ways in which we dream:
1. spontaneous sleep dreams
2. incubated dreams
3. dream reentry
4. hypnagogic experiences
5. daydreams & reveries
6. creative visualization
7. meditation
8. conscious or lucid dreaming
9. journeying or conscious dream travel
10. astral projection
11. interactive dreaming
12. dreams within dreams
13. flow states
14. continuity of awareness

Each of the fourteen ways assumes an altered/nonordinary state. And it can also be noted that these states are natural to the human being, not necessarily induced by hallucinogenic substances.

All shamanic traditions speak of life as a dream. Dreaming refers to a state of consciousness that merges the third eye and the heart center, but it's also a metaphor for dreaming the world into being, which mirrors the original act of creation. The purpose of life is to learn how to wake up within the dream.

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02/02/2026

This week we will talk about the four Yugas in Vedic cosmology

Vedic tradition describes time as cyclical, unfolding through four great ages (Yugas), each representing a gradual decline in consciousness, virtue, and harmony: Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga.

We are currently said to be in Kali Yuga. This age is marked by materialism, disconnection, moral confusion, and the collapse of traditional values. Ego, greed, fear, and addiction dominate. Truth becomes obscured, and appearance is often mistaken for reality.

Despite its darkness, Kali Yuga carries a unique gift: liberation is more accessible. Because suffering is intensified, awakening can happen faster. Even small acts of awareness, compassion, and sincerity carry great spiritual power.

To walk consciously in Kali Yuga is not to escape the darkness, but to bring light into it through grounding, shadow integration, and reclaiming personal responsibility.

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01/19/2026

This week we will explore two key psychological dynamics that emerge when the psyche is out of balance: projection and ego inflation. Both are natural functions of the mind, but when left unconscious, they can become signs of deeper fragmentation, even the roots of psychological suffering and pathology.

Projection occurs when we unconsciously place disowned parts of ourselves onto other people or the world around us.
At the heart of projection lies a split in the psyche: the persona (who we think we are) and the shadow. This split keeps us from living from wholeness.

When left unconscious, projections can create:
Conflict and judgment: we criticize in others what we cannot face in ourselves
Distorted perceptions: we see the world through the filter of our inner wounds
Victimhood and resentment: we lose our power by blaming the outside world

Becoming aware of projection calls us to take responsibility for our inner life and our actions, and see others and reality with greater clarity.

Ego inflation happens when the ego identifies with energies, archetypes, or insights that are too big for it to hold. This can occur after powerful experiences (spiritual openings, psychedelic journeys, deep psychological breakthroughs) or as a defense mechanism to mask vulnerability.

Both projection and ego inflation point to a split within the psyche and, if left unintegrated, can lead to psychological imbalance or even breakdown.

Sacred plants and psychedelics can accelerate healing and self-discovery, but they can also amplify our projections and inflate the ego if not approached with grounding and integration.

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01/11/2026

We will continue exploring the ancient Tibetan text Bardo Thodol as a practical guide for navigating states of consciousness during a psychedelic journey, with a particular focus on the transpersonal domain.

The transpersonal domain becomes accessible when ordinary identity, personal history, and self-referencing fades away. As the ego relaxes, consciousness is no longer confined to the personal story and may open into impersonal, universal awareness.

Transpersonal experiences are not pathological or imaginary. They are not hallucinations, but expressions of unfiltered consciousness, states beyond time and space and encounters with archetypal or cosmic intelligence.

In the visionary phase (Chonyid Bardo), images arise: deities, demons, heavens, and hells. These are manifestations of the transpersonal psyche, not personal fantasies. Liberation comes from recognizing these forms as expressions of consciousness itself, not as “me”.

If transpersonal states are not recognized, consciousness re-enters form (Sidpa Bardo), reconstructing identity, habits, and karmic patterns. How we return to ordinary life is shaped by how the transpersonal was encountered.

In The Psychedelic Experience, Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner describe psychedelic experiences as temporary initiations into transpersonal awareness. The authors emphasize that insight alone is not enough. Without preparation, guidance, humility, and integration, transpersonal experiences can inflate the ego rather than dissolve it.

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12/29/2025

This week we will explore the ancient Tibetan text Bardo Thodol as a practical guide for navigating states of consciousness during a psychedelic journey.

Across cultures, deep states of consciousness have always been understood as rites of passage, symbolic deaths followed by rebirth. What modern psychology calls ego dissolution, ancient traditions described as entering the bardos: transitional realms between one way of being and another.

The text outlines three main stages (bardos) that commonly arise during a high-dose psychedelic journey:

The Chikhai Bardo – Ego Death/Clear Light
This stage corresponds to the dissolution of the ego and ordinary identity. If surrendered to completely, it can lead to experiences of unity, transcendence, and direct awareness of consciousness beyond the self. This stage can feel ecstatic or terrifying, depending on one thing: resistance. When the ordinary identity collapses, the Transpersonal domain becomes accessible.

The Chonyid Bardo – Visionary States
If the Clear Light is not sustained, the mind generates symbolic visions, archetypal images, deities, heavens, and hells. These are understood as projections of one’s own psyche. Recognizing them as such leads to liberation; identifying with them leads to confusion.

The Sidpa Bardo – Re-entry/Rebirth
Consciousness begins to reassemble itself into form, personality, and narrative. This is the return to ego, identity, and life, shaped by how the earlier stages were navigated. This is the moment where patterns are rewritten (how we relate, how we choose, how we inhabit our lives). This is also where integration begins.

These states are highly sensitive. Set (mindset), setting (environment) and guidance shape the journey profoundly. Psychedelics temporarily dissolve the ego, revealing the same archetypal death-rebirth process described in spiritual traditions. Suffering arises from resistance; freedom arises from recognition and surrender.

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12/23/2025

I want to express my deepest gratitude to each of you. Your trust and commitment have been truly inspiring, and it has been an honor to walk alongside you on your journey this year.

I wish you real and lasting breakthroughs in the year ahead.
May the spirit of this season bless you, keep you safe, and surround you with the love of family and friends.
Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas!
Dan 🌵🎄🩷

12/16/2025

The Axis Mundi and the value system

The Axis Mundi is a universal symbol found across cultures: the sacred center that connects Above, Middle, and Below, Spirit, Psyche, and Body, Transcendent meaning and everyday life.

But beyond cosmology, the Axis Mundi is also a map of values. Every human being lives around an inner axis, whether consciously or unconsciously, and that axis determines what matters, what guides decisions, and what gives life coherence.

This week we will look at the Axis Mundi from a psychological perspective. Psychologically, the Axis Mundi represents the organizing principle of the self.
- When a person has a stable inner axis, values are coherent.
- Choices align across time.
- Suffering is contextualized rather than chaotic.

Without an axis, values fragment:
- impulses contradict long-term meaning
- desire overrides direction
- the self becomes horizontally dispersed, reactive rather than oriented
In this sense, values are not just beliefs, they are expressions of where the axis is anchored.

Further we will discuss Vertical vs Horizontal Value Systems, and the distinction between them.

In essence, the Axis Mundi is the hidden structure behind every value system. Tell me where your axis is anchored and I can tell you what your values will be under pressure.
When the axis is clear, values organize naturally. When it is lost, no amount of moral reasoning can replace it.

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12/09/2025

12/09/2025

In a world undergoing rapid transformation, ancient wisdom offers a compass for navigating both personal and collective evolution. This meetup explores four powerful archetypal forces: Karma, Dharma, Apocalypse, and Apokatastasis, as interconnected patterns within the psyche and cosmos.

We will look at:
- Karma as the result of action — psychological, ancestral, and energetic — that shapes our experience and repeats in cycles until brought to awareness.
- Dharma as our deeper calling — not solely duty, but the soul’s alignment with truth, balance, and service to life.
- Apocalypse not as destruction, but revelation — the tearing of old veils, the death of false identities, the collapse of illusion.
- Apokatastasis, the forgotten promise of restoration — a return to original wholeness, where all that was fragmented is reintegrated and redeemed.

Drawing from Jungian psychology, shamanic traditions, and mystical theologies, we will explore how these forces manifest in our personal stories, in the state of the world, and in the deeper process of spiritual evolution.

We will reflect on questions like:
- What must end in me for something true to begin?
- How do I meet collapse without bypassing it?
- Are Apokatastasis and Singularity one and the same?

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