by Sandy Dollar

Sandy Dollar was a regular voice on alt.religion.shamanism in the mid-2000s, sharing a series of personal lower-world journeys conducted following Michael Harner's core shamanism method. This post, dated January 2006, represents her final journey in the series — and is among the most unusual. Departing from drum-based practice, she enters a meditative trance, descends through rock and lava to the Earth's iron core, and there meets Mother Earth in human form: a Native American–Aboriginal figure, racked with pain, her body the body of the world. The meeting carries an ecological prophecy and a personal commission. Sandy Dollar closes her journey series by inviting others to begin their own.

This journey took a new twist to a shaman type journey, done in an altered state of consciousness. The journey was done without drumming, but like in a state of meditation (similar to a trance). This worked for me, so not sure if drumming is the only way to journey.

First I purified my body by fasting on just fruit juice (without sugar), then bathing and washing my hair. So now I am clean inside and outside. I did not smudge or drum for this journey. I took my compass (the one my father owned when he was alive) out and found the four directions — north, south, east and west — then marking off the very center, for this is the spot where I entered the earth. I went through dirt, rock, caves and two bodies of underground water, more rocks and then lots of lava for a very long time. (This felt very warm but did not burn me.) When I got to the Core, this had a completely different feel — like something heavy — and to my surprise was actually a Crystalized Iron Core which was not liquid, as the scientists think. I grounded myself to this core using a rope made of "light." I then continued on until coming out through a rock wall, in what I would describe as a bowl-shaped area under a rock cliff.

I could see that I was in another world within the earth, where there is blue sky with high thin clouds and a big body of water (no sun visible but had light). I walked down to the water, which sloped gently down; looking into the water I saw lots of small pebbles, rocks and no sand. I turned around and called "Mother Earth." She just appeared out of the ethers, facing me.

You know when you journey to the lower, middle or upper worlds, people, animals and etc. are not what they appear to be and can be something completely different. Mother Earth could not appear as she really is, so took a form that I could relate to. When I saw her hair it was pulled back (could not see what was holding it in back) and was kinky — it made me think of the Aboriginals — then seeing her coloring and features which were Native American. The dress she had on was short-sleeved, Early American (west), with small print and an apron of solid very light blue, with ruffles at the breast area; looking closer, I found that it looked sewn into and was part of her dress. I could see some kind of growths near each elbow, in the shape of a Roma tomato, except the ends were pointed. They were loose and flopped when she shifted her arms about. I could see that several of her front teeth had been knocked out. I was not able to see what the rest of her body looked like because her dress went almost to the ground.

She then started telling me about all the pain she was feeling all over her body (which is the earth). She said the pain was beginning to be unbearable. I asked her how I could help her and she said for me to take care of her wherever I lived. So from then on I started picking up trash along the roads, planting tree saplings and planting other seeds that help the soil. She said that in a few years, she was going to get rid of what was causing her pain. With that said, I came back from my journey.

My question to all here is: Was the original beings both from the same continent where life began? Native Americans and Aboriginals — I think Australia broke off and floated away from Africa at one time, and the same thing for New Zealand. The Mayan Calendar stops at December 21, 2012, then begins again. The earth has been destroyed before, at least three times according to history. So is this new cleansing just a few years ahead? The consciousness of Mother Earth will determine when it takes place, along with all the people's consciousness that share this great Turtle Back world.

This is the last of my shaman journeys for a while. I hope these journeys have inspired all you new and old reading the newsgroup. Remember that most of my previous journeys were done using Michael Harner's book The Way of the Shaman. Happy journeying to you all. Remember to keep your journal to record your journeys. There is really no bad journey and the education here is something they don't teach in public school.

Colophon

Written by Sandy Dollar and posted to alt.religion.shamanism on 6 February 2006. This is the concluding entry in Sandy Dollar's journey series, which began with standard core shamanism techniques following Michael Harner and evolved over multiple posts into an independent vision practice. The series documents a lay practitioner's sustained, sincere engagement with lower-world cosmology over several years. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Works Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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