Shamanic Journey to the Lower World to Meet a Power Animal

From Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide (the book ships with drumming tracks) and her teaching materials:

1. Create sacred space. Quiet, dimmed room. Ingerman recommends clearing/harmonising the space — e.g. smudging, lighting a candle, opening with a simple acknowledgement of the helping spirits and the directions. Turn off the phone; disengage from ordinary thoughts and concerns.
2. Lie down, eyes closed, body relaxed. Most people journey lying flat. Cover your eyes (a bandana/eye-cover) to remove visual distraction. Take some slow breaths to settle.
3. State a clear intention. For the first journeys the intention is simply: “I am going to the Lower World to meet a power animal who is willing to work with me.” Ingerman: a clear intention “can help people have a more focused journey.” Repeat it a few times so it’s fixed.
4. Choose and picture a real entrance into the earth. Bring to mind an actual opening in nature you have seen — a cave mouth, a hollow tree, a spring, an animal burrow, a hole among tree roots. Start the journey from a real place you know. The drum begins (use her CD/track, a live drummer, or an online drumming recording).
5. Go down through the opening. Riding the drumbeat, imagine yourself entering the hole and travelling down — through a tunnel, down roots, into water, however it appears — until you emerge into a landscape (the Lower World). Let the imagery come; don’t force or pre-script it.
6. Meet a power animal. Notice the animals you encounter. Ingerman’s traditional confirmation cue: an animal that shows itself four times, in different views/positions, or one that clearly offers to work with you, can be taken as your power animal. You can ask it: “Are you my power animal?” and ask it to show you around or to answer your question. Interact, observe, receive.
7. Heed the callback beat and return. The drumming track changes to a rapid “callback” beat (and then a return rhythm). On that signal, thank the power animal, and retrace your route — back up the tunnel/down the path you came, out through the same opening, back into your body in the room. (If you don’t have a recording, you can click two sticks together in a fast return beat.)
8. Come fully back and record it. Wiggle fingers and toes, open your eyes, sit up. Write the journey down immediately — Ingerman stresses journaling, because journey memory fades like a dream and meaning often surfaces on review.
9. Build the relationship over time. Power animals are met through repeated journeys; she encourages dancing your power animal, greeting it daily, and returning with new questions. (Sourcing: the entrance-into-the-earth, four-times confirmation, callback beat, and journaling instructions are Ingerman’s documented teaching, attributed; wording is faithful paraphrase with short quoted phrases.)

Sandra Ingerman (b. 1952), psychotherapist, author, and shamanic teacher, trained with and taught alongside Michael Harner at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies; she is best known for soul retrieval (Soul Retrieval, 1991) and Medicine for the Earth.

The journey method she teaches is Harner’s core shamanism — a deliberately culture-neutral distillation of techniques (drum-induced trance, three “worlds,” helping spirits, power animals) found across many indigenous traditions. → (Ingerman, Harner).

It is the foundation on which her healing work (soul retrieval, extraction, divination) is built.

Core shamanism (Harner) — the direct parent; identical journey structure.

• Indigenous shamanisms worldwide — drum/rattle trance, spirit allies, world-tree axis; the cross-cultural sources Harner abstracted from.
• Guided imagery / hypnotherapy — same induction logic (relaxation + focused imagery + a returning cue) in a clinical register.
• Active imagination (Jung) — engaging autonomous inner figures and dialoguing with them.
• Pathworking (Western esoteric) — guided symbolic inner journeys to meet archetypal figures.
• Yoga nidra / hypnagogic practice — using the relaxed borderland state for inner work.

“I’m just imagining it.” Ingerman’s standard reassurance: use the imagination — that is the vehicle, not a sign of failure. Report whatever comes, even if faint or fragmentary.

• Over-controlling the journey. Scripting every step blocks the spontaneous imagery. Set the intention, then let it unfold.
• Skipping the return. Always ride the callback beat back out the same way and re-enter your body; don’t just “stop.” It closes the practice cleanly.
• No real entrance. Starting from a remembered real place in nature grounds the journey; inventing an abstract portal tends to be less stable.
• Not journaling. Memory evaporates; write it down at once.
• Drumming wrong. Use a steady, monotonous beat (recording or steady drummer), not music with melody/changes, which pulls attention.