Page 36 Volume 3, Issue 2 October 2010 The Journal of Shamanic Practice above me. As I proceeded in this fashion, I was suddenly confronted by a stream of people coming hastily from the opposite direction. One of them stopped at the sight of me and said, “You shouldn’t go any fur- ther—there’s been a terrible earth- quake!” “That’s alright,” I replied, surprised at my own calm. “I have cancer anyway.” As often happens with such dreams, I allowed my plans for the day ahead to erase it from my mind. And yet years later I can still recall it. It must have had some effect, however, for within a year, I had quit my job in UC Berkeley’s IT Department. My older daughter, Krystal, had gone to college; my younger daughter, Leigh, who had never accepted my remarriage, had moved in with her father; and my husband Lewis and I had moved to Mendocino County to join the rest of the city’s expatriates on California’s North Coast. My Path to Shamanic Initiation Within a few short weeks of our exodus and reestablishment in a tiny two-room cabin on Cameron Road in Elk, all hell broke loose. One of my cats was killed on the road the day we moved in. Leigh telephoned to say that her father was moving the family to Georgia. The win- ter rains began early and, overcome by loneliness and grief, I soon developed constant, excruciating abdominal and back pains. Over the next several months, despite many visits to a local doctor, the pains—accompanied by I define a shaman, first and foremost, as a healer. A shaman possesses specific talents or abilities that help others and themselves to communicate with the unseen spirit world and thus, attain healing and/or greater lev- els of harmony with the world(s) at large. This healing is energetic and requires the shaman to be a seer of sorts – to be able to see into a person and the spirit world – to get to the heart of the matter and act on behalf of the one being healed. First Dream The path was narrow, winding tightly around huge red boulders, and stretched far into the distance. I inched forward, clinging to the right side of the cliff that towered There has been considerable controversy in recent years about the validity of spontaneous shamanic initiation. Advocates insist that this is the most authentic method by which a shaman is “made.” Detractors, on the other hand, believe that only through a process of many years of rigorous training with a practicing shaman can an acolyte become an adept. Rather than argue the valid- ity of one method over another, this paper discusses the experience of one shamanic practitioner—my- self—and correlates my experience, as well as those of various clients and students, to theories of sponta- neous initiation prevalent within both historic indigenous societies and the contemporary shamanic community. During a period of three years (1983-1986), I was spontaneously initiated and worked shamanically to heal the catalyst of my initia- tion—ovarian cancer. This experience in- spired and continues to inform my current work as a shaman, transpersonal psycholo- gist, and founding director of a nonprofit or- ganization devoted to the healing of individuals, communities, and the planet. Introduction What, precisely, is a shaman? While there are many versions of shamanic practice that run the gamut from the path of power to the path of heart, the following definition, offered by Rhian- non, one of my shamanic studies stu- dents, is the one best suited to this article: SHAMANIC PRACTICE Spontaneous Shamanic Initiation Valentine McKay-Riddell, PhD