An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Shamanic Journey
The term shaman originated in Siberia and the phenomenon spread 
through northern Europe, Africa and North America. Shamanic journey-
ing is an inner experience but using the imagination. For example, 
shamans use rhythmic drumming and other devices to put themselves 
into an ASC (altered state of consciousness) and acquire knowledge for 

---

Religious and Spiritual Experience
128
healing and other purposes. Jung rediscovered this technique and called it 
‘active imagination’. The portals into the mythic realms can be pictures 
like the tarot cards or sigils like the runes.
In this process you go through your chosen portal into a landscape that 
you start by imagining – but very soon the world you are in takes on a life 
of its own and moves out of your conscious control, as this experience of 
a Shamanic journey within the Nordic Tradition attests:
I went on a course on STAV – the ancient Viking wisdom system as 
taught by a Norwegian nobleman in whose family the tradition had 
been handed down over 1,500 years. The whole system – cosmology, 
mythology, martial arts, exercise system, healing, divination, meditation 
and inner journeying methods and so forth – can be unpacked and recre-
ated from the 16 runes of the younger futhark (the runic alphabet). 
The shamanic journeying technique in this tradition is called 
utsæte: 
you go out into the forest at night, sit against a tree, shut your eyes, 
imagine you are walking into a cave, see a door with one of the runes 
on it – and walk through it into a landscape that you imagine. (You 
have been through a carefully prepared induction session in which you 
may have discovered your animal guide.) Pretty soon, however, the fig-
ures and events escape your control and take on a life of their own!
On this occasion, I found myself in quite a long chain of varied events, 
of which I select two episodes – commentary in square brackets:
I was walking along in a forest and began to feel this was rather 
slow and tedious – so I summoned a horse. The animal appeared, and 
I mounted it. It started walking, then trotting, then galloping – and 
then it took off and started to fly through the air. At the same time, 
I became aware that it was in some way like a giant white spider – it 
had eight legs. (I knew at once that this was Sleipnir – the eight-legged 
horse of Odin; and I strongly suspected where we were going.) We 
were flying over a hilly, wooded landscape that seemed endless. Even-
tually, I could see ahead a tall, thin crag on top of which was perched 
a castle. We flew toward it (I should also say that I had no control 
whatsoever of where or how we flew – I was being taken there and was 
powerless to prevent it). We landed on a high stone platform at the side 
of the castle. I dismounted and the horse trotted away. Ahead of me 
was a great door, so I walked through it into the castle.
The experience was initially very confusing. It was as though 
I had wandered into a multi-dimensional, utterly disorienting, MC 
Escher-style labyrinth of intricately fashioned woodwork; it was almost 

---

Types of Spiritual Experience
129
impossible to discern what was up, what was down, what was ahead, 
what behind – particularly as I was floating through it without gravity. 
Eventually, I found myself in a room – not very large, lit only by a 
roaring fire. Opposite me, sitting in a high-backed chair, sat a long-
haired, bearded, one -eyed figure clad in animal skins. Two ravens sat 
on top of the chairback behind him; at his feet lay two gigantic wolves. 
His single eye pierced into the depths of my being. He was inspecting 
me. . . . Finally, I said: ‘What do I do now?’ ‘You get out!’, he replied 
curtly. As I slipped away from the castle, the warriors’ feast was 
starting in the great hall . . . [Valhall, Odin]
[Odin had advised me to visit Heimdahl]. I didn’t have to keep trudg-
ing through the forest: I could do this more quickly. I materialized a 
door with the Heimdahl rune on it and stepped into Heimdahl’s realm. 
It was dark and at first I could see nothing. Then I became aware of 
thousands of tiny pinpricks of light – and then I realized that these 
were 
eyes.
I noticed that a number of bridges were curving down from 
different directions to meet in this arena. Heimdahl spoke to me – 
I never saw him, only heard him. He was welcoming and kind: he said: 
‘Come here whenever you want – you will be welcome.’ [The experi-
ence left me with an enhanced understanding of the mythology: . . . 
Heimdahl is the watchman who guards the bridge Bifrost that leads 
into Valhalla and such is his alertness and sensitivity of perception that 
he can hear the sound of the wool growing on a sheep’s back! But now 
I knew that bridges from all Nine Worlds converged on his home – this 
is reflected in his rune and he is much more than just a watchman: he 
represents an intense awareness at the centre of the universe.]
109