Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 2 Number 2, July 2001
_______________________________________________________________
by
Who
are the ‘gods’ in our western theatre?
Who do the actors commune with when carrying out the act of theatre?
In Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of Artaud’s Theatre
of Cruelty, the notions of existence, birth and death are peeled back
existentially revealing “that there has never been an origin.”[i]
He speaks about the ‘representation’[ii]
of life by Western theatre rather than a ‘primordial and privileged site’[iii]
where imitation is destroyed and we are once again connected with transcendental
principles. Derrida, via Artaud’s
work, is questioning the place of theatre which merely reflects, represents and
imitates[iv]
life, imprisoning actors and spectators alike in the hands of the text and the
‘author-god.’[v]
Derrida quotes both Artaud and Freud in their references to the power of
dream imagery and text as desirable states for the language of the stage,[vi]
linking the state of dream to the transcendental. Within Derrida’s text lie the keys to “the Closure of
Representation”[vii] and the redemption of
Western theatre. This involves the recreation of the metaphysical and
transcendental connections through the remembering of dream states and the
penetration of the forces of our origin.[viii]
Antonin Artaud states:
“The
theater is a passionate overflowing
a
frightful transfer of forces
from body
to body.
This
transfer cannot be reproduced twice.
Nothing
more impious than the system of the Balinese which consists,
after
having produced this transfer one time,
instead
of seeking another,
in
resorting to a system of particular enchantments
in
order to deprive astral photography of the gestures thus obtained.”[ix]
Thus
we enter into the realms of dreams, rituals and the place of ‘forces’ within
the theatre. Many notable theorists
including Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba have attested to the
“irradiation”, “expressive metaphysics”[x]
and “a quality of energy”[xi]
of eastern or Asian performance presumably as compared with western performance.
When Stanislavsky’s ‘spiritual realism’ was converted to the
‘method’ we lost the chapter on yoga, meditation and ritual as techniques
for the training of actors. As the
focus became one more of psychology and emotional archaeology did we lose the
interest and perspective of the soul? Ritual certainly remained an area of interest although not
necessarily connected with energies of a higher nature or source.
Could this be the separation Derrida was referring to?
Has the sense of the ‘sacred’ within the ritual of performance been
preserved in eastern theatre and removed in western theatre?
It’s useful and perhaps necessary at this point to enter into a
discussion of the concepts of ‘religion’
and the ‘sacred’.
Mircea
Eliade states that the sacred “…. is the experience of a reality and the
source of an awareness of existing in the world.”[xii]
Whilst this is a very open interpretation of sacred, it also invites us
into the quest for ‘the source of awareness’ which is the quest facing many
shamans and spiritual people throughout the world.
Standard academic definitions of religion tend to focus on either the
superhuman or sacred features of religious worlds.
In
an approach to defining religion that can be traced back to the
nineteenth-century anthropologist, E. B. Tylor,[xiii]
religion is essentially an engagement with superhuman transcendence.
In these terms, religion is a set of beliefs and practices in relation to
spiritual, supernatural, or superhuman beings that rise above and go beyond the
ordinary level of human existence. In
another approach to defining religion, which can be traced back to the work of
the sociologist Emile Durkheim,[xiv]
religion is a set of beliefs and practices related to a sacred focus that
unifies a human community. From
this perspective, religion invests life with sacred meaning and power through
beliefs in myths and doctrines, through the practices of ritual and ethics,
through personal experience, and through forms of social organisation.
Mircea
Eliade in The Sacred and the Profane[xv]
discusses the very elusive qualities of the word ‘sacred’ without however,
suggesting a constant definition. Eliade
repeatedly identifies the sacred as the real, yet he states clearly that “the
sacred is a structure of human consciousness.”[xvi]
This suggests a social construction of both the sacred and of reality.
Yet the sacred is identified as the source of significance, meaning,
power and being, and its manifestations as hierophanies,[xvii]
kratophanies,[xviii] or ontophanies
accordingly (appearances of the holy, of power, or of being).
Corresponding
to the suggested ambiguity of the sacred itself is the ambiguity of its
manifestations. Eliade does state
that believers for whom the hierophany is a revelation of the sacred must be
prepared by their experience, including their traditional religious background,
before they can apprehend it. To
others the sacred tree, for example, remains simply a tree. This is an indispensable element of Eliade’s analysis that
any phenomenal entity could be perceived as an hierophany with the appropriate
preparation. He argues that in
order to become whole or attain the “ideal of humanity”[xix]
we construct a ‘superhuman’ level in which, in order to access, we must
leave behind “natural humanity”.[xx]
So we need to create these rituals, rites and ordeals in order to become
part of ‘divine’ action.[xxi]
The approaches to these acts invariably become sacred because they are
part of a journey towards the ‘higher self’ or ‘God.’
The
connection to theatre and ritual here is an obvious one, further underlining the
roots or ‘essence’ of theatre while at the same time revealing its loss.
The fact that the sacred is also often ‘taboo’ to different groups is
a more interesting observation raised by Eliade.
The element of power being made manifest as an integral aspect of the
sacred being made manifest places the sacred act, ritual or object into an arena
where veneration and fear also emerge.[xxii]
In many cultures, what is considered ‘sacred’ is also considered out
of bounds or forbidden. “He longs
to go beyond it (his natural profane state) and yet cannot wholly leave it.”[xxiii]
Has theatre forsaken the ‘sacred’ in order to become ‘commercially
viable’? David Tacey addresses
the loss of the sacred within Australian culture in his book The
Edge of the Sacred, in which he
states:
“We
must now respectfully throw off the secular iron mask and move to a new level of
development. The sacred lies in wait for our approach.....If the human ego can
learn to live in the presence of the sacred without being overwhelmed by it then
a genuine spirituality can emerge from the creative interaction of humanity and
the sacred.”[xxiv]
By
reclaiming the sacred, theatre can embrace a ‘genuine spirituality’ rather
than fear of the unknown or ‘taboo ridden’ rituals.
An education towards this way of being has already begun with writers
such as Tacey, however to bring the notion of ‘sacred’ within the spiritual
back into the theatre we need to address the training of the representatives,
the story tellers, the actors. Tacey
addresses the seeming lack of spirituality in our culture, concerned that when
‘religious vision is lost, the people perish’:[xxv]
Eliade’s
work also illuminated the idea of an age-long search for meaning where the
sacred is more than an idea, it is an experience where the world means
something: “it lives and speaks to the religious person.”[xxvi]
He connects the idea of ‘religious man’ to an “infinite series of
experiences that could be termed cosmic.”[xxvii]
Although a ‘religious man’ to Eliade included anyone who acknowledged
a ‘god’ in their life, this loose definition was still limited to more
traditional religions, east and west. However,
Eliade’s ideas on the sacred move us towards a clearer understanding of
constructions of meaning via religion as opposed to the existential dilemma of
the non-religious.[xxviii]
Within this he suggests that “the ‘irreligious’ still behave
religiously”[xxix]
without being conscious of the fact that they are conditioned by myths, rituals
and taboos from religious ceremonies of other eras.
All
of this serves to support the premise behind the re-development of the sacred in
the theatre which is the fact that we, as human beings have constructed our
meaning through religious rituals for thousands of years.
If theatre is to remain meaningful to us it must reconsider these roots
in the light of today's changing views and interpretations of meaningful
religious and spiritual experiences. It would be very difficult to identify
these changing views without identifying the challenge to the patriarchal voice
by the feminist and indigenous voices. As
David Tacey notes:
“If
the human ego can learn to live in the presence of the sacred without being
overwhelmed by it, then a genuine spirituality can emerge from the creative
interaction of humanity and the sacred.”[xxx]
Tacey
identifies “secular humanism” [xxxi]
as a product of the ego which is determined in western society by the
“patriarchal hero”.[xxxii]
If the ego is determined by the patriarchal voice then spirituality could
be seen to be framed today by the voice of the ‘receptive other’ which
includes the indigenous voice with the feminist voice.
In his discussion of the ‘hero’ and the ensuing decline of the
patriarchal values, Tacey suggests that:
“As
the masculinist pubs, churches, convents and barber shops go broke or close down
in Australian cities, new age bookshops and ‘awareness centres’ are popping
up everywhere.”[xxxiii]
He
addresses the growth of interest by the general public in “non-patriarchal
esoteric arts and sciences”[xxxiv]
as a sign that the idea of “feminine mystery”[xxxv]
is arriving as the “dried out world of patriarchy”[xxxvi]
begins its decline.
“In
the ritual, one has to have participants who are invisible and can actually
produce a result that is unexpected. And because we take the risk or the
initiative of putting a request to the spirits to intervene in our affairs,
their coming turns our activity (ceremony) into a ritual...... The gods
themselves will not enact the ritual without us.....So Spirit is our channel
through which every gap in life can be filled.”[xxxvii]
The
above quote of Patrice Malidomas’ addresses an aspect of ritual often
forgotten in the rituals of Western Theatre, the invisible presence of the
‘gods’. Invisible presence is not a concept
embraced in the west outside the established church. For performers to be
acknowledging the invisible presence of 'god-like' forces in our theatre, some
fairly large areas of actor
training and rehearsal need to be addressed. When considering the rituals that
might be carried out by actors of our western theatre before a performance,
it’s not hard to see that there are very few involving the ‘sacred’ or
‘spiritual’. One might well ask
at what point in history was western theatre ‘connected’ to the force of its
essence? Schechner in his book Between Theatre & Anthropology
talks about the significance of ritual in both rehearsal and preparation.
“Immediately before going on stage, most performers engage in some
ritual. The Noh actor contemplates his mask, Jatra performers in
Bengal worship the gods of the performance, Stanislavsky advised 30 seconds of
silent concentration.”[xxxviii]
Although eastern, western and indigenous performers all engage in some
aspect of ritual, it appears the western actor rarely acknowledges the presence
of a ‘god’, or higher self when acting out the ritual.
There are many ways to define ritual and one was that of Malidoma in the
previous quote. For a broader understanding of ritual in the performative sense
a comparison of Richard Schechner's five different viewpoints on ritual stated
in his introduction to Victor Turner’s book The
Anthropology of Performance and
Victor Turner’s definition sheds an interesting light on the subject. Schechner considers ritual to be:
“1)
As part of the evolutionary development of organisms - including, but not
limited to, the development of the brain;
2)
As a structure, something with formal qualities and relationships.
3)
As a performance process, a dynamic system or action.
4)
As experience, as what a person individually or as part of a collective
feels.
5)
As a set of operations in human social and religious life.”[xxxix]
Whereas
Turner writes that ‘ritual’ is
‘transformative’[xl] as “the performance of a
complex sequence of symbolic acts.”[xli]
A ‘dynamic system’ (Schechner) suggests movement that would transform
the performer to some degree, however Turner is using ‘transformative’ to
describe a movement that will move the performer to a new status and social
position (within the tribe). Turner suggests further that ritual is transformative as it
transforms personal and social life crises such as “birth, initiation,
marriage, death, into occasions where symbols and values representing the unity
and continuity of the total group”[xlii]
are celebrated and reanimated. Meyer
Fortes [xliii]
defined ritual as “a procedure for prehending the occult”[xliv]
and saw ritual as a way of humankind attempting to connect to or ‘handle’
seemingly unmanageable powers. Both
Turner and Fortes seem to support the notion that rituals are involved with
forces beyond our knowing and seeing in attempts to come to understanding of the
meaning of the greater events in life, such as, birth and death. Turner and
Schechner developed a common interest in the arena of performance and ritual,
both acknowledging the cross-over of the process and ‘dynamic systems’ which
is possibly why Schechner’s definitions appear to be more anthropological than
performative.
The
parallels between performance and sacred rituals are fascinating.
Schechner writes at length on this investigation into the sacred and
transformative elements of performance.[xlv]
Have we lost the ‘sacred’ in our performance because it’s become a
‘product’? “When the consumer
audience comes in, the ‘spiritual powers’ depart.”[xlvi]
Schechner talks about the focus of a sacred performance of the Yaqui Deer
Dance[xlvii]
for a very specific audience for which the performance is intrinsically designed
and performed. The moment it is
taken out of this context and performed for non-Indian people, the ‘spiritual
powers’ are removed. “Understand
that the spiritual benefits of the song are withdrawn if the song is
commercialised.”[xlviii]
One might say it is the location, intention, purpose and type of audience
that defines the nature of the performance.
Many church services could be considered as ‘sacred’ in the respect
of the common aims of audience and performers.
The purpose could be to come closer to ‘god’ and to enter a higher
state of self through prayer and singing of religious songs.
How is our mainstream theatre removed from these signifiers?
Our western audience comes to the theatre to witness a story.
One they might know or one they’re curious to know.
They don’t usually know the performers or many others in the audience.
There is no particular approach by the performers to the material or any
particular approach to the playing stage as a sacred space or a site of exchange
between the ‘gods’ and humans. This
is one comparison between observed anthropological sites of performance and
experienced western performance. Eugenio Barba has developed and founded a school for the
study of performance called the School of Theatre Anthropology.
Although incorporating the word anthropology, there is little reference
to the nature of the more indigenous performances, particularly those of the
shaman. Barba describes Theatre Anthropology as:
“the
study of the behaviour of the human being when it uses its physical and mental
presence in an organised performance situation and according to principles which
are different from those used in daily life.”[xlix]
Nowhere
in this description is a mention of forces at work within and around the
performer. It is a very scientific
description and serves the purpose of describing a large body of research into
performance. Mostly the
descriptions of energy within this work revolve around a balance between the two
poles of the ‘anima’ (softness) and ‘animus’ (vigour)[l]
as well as acknowledgement of the way performers of the ancient arts like Noh,
Commedia and Balinese Dance describe their use of energy.
The dance of the soul is rather overlooked as is the real ‘secret art
of the performer’, the ability to commune with the ‘spirits’ on behalf of
the people and to act as a medium between these ‘higher forces’ and the
audience.
One
interesting state of the performer which seemingly transforms the performer and
often deeply moves the onlooker is the state of trance.
I
Wayan Lendra in his article on ‘Bali and Grotowski: Some Parallels’ compares
the state of trance to the state of “a powerful actor, whose ‘presence’
deeply affects the spectators.”[li]
Driving the body past its physical boundaries is a known method of
creating altered trance-like states. An
actor entering into an altered state does not necessarily connect with a sense
or state of ‘god’ or ‘sacred’. The
difference between a ‘Sacred Altered Act’ and an ‘altered actor’ is that
of connectedness between the actor and her/his higher self or ‘god’.
The performance of an altered actor is invariably disenabling for the
actor and a less connecting experience for the audience as they witness an actor
who is unaware of the potential sharing of the journey through the ‘higher
self’. Richard Schechner
differentiates between “transformation” and “transportation”[lii]
when dealing with the altered states of the actor. The “transportation performance” is one where the actor
moves from the ordinary world to the ‘performative world’ and is transformed
in that journey but when the performance is over, the actor returns to the
starting place not permanently altered or transformed.
Whereas the “transformation performance” actually achieves a
transformation in the actor which is relatively permanent.[liii]
One example given by Schechner of a transformation performance is an
initiation rite which in itself is “the means by which persons achieve their
new selves.”[liv]
Similarly, Barba states that “Actors of the classical Asian
theatres.....possess a quality of energy which stimulates the spectators’
attention....they have a core of energy, an unpremeditated knowing and
suggestive irradiation, which captures our senses.”[lv]
I Wayan Lendra writes that in Bali after intense rituals of purification,
the performer is finally ready to seek taksu: “the ultimate spiritual power
that allows the performer to present his or her art in its truest form.”[lvi]
Balinese consider the arts as a “tool for bringing out the expression
of the inner spirit, our true nature.”[lvii]
Is the “expression of the ‘inner spirit’ the ‘force of its
essence?” Lendra’s article
highlights the depth of the spiritual rituals of the Balinese performers, citing
examples of the cultural beliefs in the presence of other entities or spirits
and the responsibility of the artist to become a medium for the audience.[lviii]
In both kinds of performance the actor is altered but we could say that
it is the “transformation performance” which is closer to the Sacred Altered
Act as opposed to the performance of an altered actor.
Schechner
writing on the effect of Grotowski’s training methods on his actors notes that
“ex-Grotowskiites have been surprisingly unsuccessful in starting their own
theatres or feeding what they’ve done with Grotowski into their own theatre
work.”[lix]
Grotowski was a field researcher of performance rituals, denying the
spiritual and religious. “He
(Grotowski) intentionally prevented it from knitting in with any social,
aesthetic or religious system.”[lx]
Is the denial of the spiritual or ‘receptive other’ responsible for
the final ‘separating’ and ‘stripping down’[lxi]
of Grotowski’s actors resulting in a ‘disabled act’ for the actors and
audience? The separation of mind
and soul is what has occurred in our western theatre. Somehow the rites of the shaman have been lost to us, despite
the attempts of Stanislavsky, Chekhov and in a different light, Grotowski.
What can we learn from shamanism in the light of a search for a more
connecting theatre? As Richard Schechner observes:
“Among
primitive peoples the creative condition is identical with trances, dances,
ecstasies: in short Shamanism.”[lxii]
The
ability to consciously move beyond the physical body is the particular
speciality of the traditional shaman. These
journeys of soul may take the shaman into the nether realms, higher levels of
existence or to parallel physical worlds or other regions of this world.
Shamanic Flight is in most instances, an experience not of an inner
imaginary landscape, but is reported to be the shaman’s flight beyond the
limitations of the physical body.[lxiii]
It is important to note that shamanism is
a method, not a religion. A
method which is often associated with the religion known as Animism, but
distinct from it...Animism is basically the belief in spirits.
Spirits are defined in Shamanism as “those things or beings which are
normally not seen by people in ordinary states of consciousness, but are seen by
the Shaman in the Shamanic state of consciousness.”[lxiv]
Shamanism
is classified by anthropologists as an archaic magico-religious phenomenon in
which the shaman is the great master of ecstasy. Shamanism itself was defined by the late Mircea Eliade as a
technique of ecstasy.[lxv]
During the state of ecstasy, often a trance condition, the shaman leaves
his/her body and makes contact with the spirit world while retaining
consciousness. Ecstasy comes from
the Latin root ex statis, to stand
outside oneself. Interestingly, one
of the earliest researchers into aboriginal shamanism was Mary Antoinette
Crispine Czaplicka in 1914. Her work on shamanism, mostly in a publication entitled
Aboriginal Siberia,[lxvi]
was used by Mircea Eliade for his publication “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques
of Ecstasy”.[lxvii]
Shamans are mostly healers who are in contact with and work creatively
with the supernatural forces which aid them in their work.
In all Tungus languages this term (saman/shaman) refers to persons of
both sexes who have mastered spirits, who at their will can introduce these
spirits into themselves and use their power over the spirits.[lxviii]
Shamanism is “a method, a psychic technique”[lxix]
with origins traced back to the Alpine Palaeolithic period, 30,000 to 50,000
years ago. There are many possible
interpretations as to what constitutes a shaman:
“Shamans
know about energy and how it works both in the environment and the human
body...They know about the spirit body and how to communicate with it.”[lxx]
A
shaman may exhibit a particular magical speciality (such as control over fire,
wind or magical flight). The
distinguishing characteristic of shamanism is its focus on an ecstatic trance
state in which the soul of the shaman is believed to leave the body and ascend
to the sky (heavens) or descend into the earth(underworld).[lxxi]
The shaman makes use of spirit helpers, with whom she or he communicates,
all the while retaining control over his or her own consciousness (examples of
possession occur, but are the exception, rather than the rule).
The ability to consciously move beyond the physical body is the
particular speciality of the traditional shaman.
It is this quality of shamanism that could hold a key for the actor, to consciously move beyond the physical.
Many religions, new age practices and ancient rituals involve this
quality, seeing it as a desirable state where communication between one reality
and another imagined or dreamt can take place.
Dr. Jeanne
Achterberg, noted author and educator [lxxii]
states in her article entitled The
Shaman: Master healer in the Imaginary Realm:
“The
shaman is plugging into a data bank that can'‘ be known in the normal, waking
state of consciousness.”[lxxiii]
Achterberg
also writes that:
“Medical
historian, Gordon Risse (1972) claims that in the state of consciousness used in
shamanism, mental resources are employed which modern persons either no longer
have access to or are not interested in using.”[lxxiv]
In order to
journey to the other dimensions of existence a shaman induces an altered state
of consciousness in herself similar to a state of self-hypnosis. While in this
shamanic trance she is in complete control; able to take her consciousness and
subtle bodies into non-physical reality where she visits the heavens and hells
of existence, communicates with and controls spirits, gains information,
retrieves souls, and makes subtle changes in reality which may affect the
physical world. [lxxv]
A classical,
and fairly accurate descriptive definition of hypnosis is “a condition or
state of selective hypersuggestibility brought about in an individual through
the use of certain specific psychological or physical manipulations of the
individual.”[lxxvi]
The key words here are “selective hypersuggestibility”.
A hypnotherapist uses that selective hypersuggestibility in order to help
bring about desired changes in an individual.
On the other hand a person practising shamanic techniques uses that state
in order to fine tune her senses in order to see, feel, hear, and smell more
vividly while travelling in the other worlds.
One
interesting example of accessing shamanic journey states is a series of
experiments conducted by Felicitas Goodman in 1977 with graduate students from
Ohio State University.[lxxvii]
Goodman was investigating the relationship between controlled posture and
trance experiences. The exercise involved asking the students to adopt the
positions of “selected body postures where the religious context seemed self
evident.”[lxxviii]
Each posture was drawn from different meditative disciplines including
shamanic and aboriginal art.[lxxix]
Apart from the discovery by Goodman and the students that many of the
postures released specific energies within the body, they also found that most
of the postures were conducive to shamanic journeys where other realities were
consciously entered and experienced. The
reports of these journeys are very similar to the journeys experienced by the
student and professional actors using the Shamanic Meditational Journeying[lxxx]
exercise to find their character. For
example, the following accounts are from three completely different people in
very different situations and countries who experienced forms of shamanic trance
and journeying.
1.
“I felt that I was rising up right away and saw some spirits dancing. I saw a
river flowing downward toward a mountain, so I entered it, became a fish and
followed its flow. I arrived in a misty forest, I left the river and started
walking among the trees. Suddenly I
saw a black wolf. It had a white
spot. I merged with the wolf and
then became part of the mist.”[lxxxi]
2.
“I looked around and saw a monkey who stared at me then pointed at a snake who
was just about to strike. It bit me
and as the poison went into my system I felt immense heat.
It passed through me and I was myself again.
Next to me swam a fish that showed me its family and invited me to join
them. I felt that the fish was telling me ‘all is one, I am the
same as you’.”[lxxxii]
3.
“I am entering a wet, muddy land, it is a faraway place.
I have never been here before. I
am becoming the earth, it swallows me, in a huge sucking action, I am gone,
underneath the soil - then I am spat out. Now
I see my character, in the distance, she dances, she is covered in mud.
All that is clearly visible is her vibrant orange hair.
Her movement is wild and frenetic one minute and then soft and controlled
the next. A deer nudges me and
tells me it is time to leave now....”[lxxxiii]
These
are exercises based on shamanic trance rituals which alter the individuals’
energy states whilst maintaining an awareness.
Various exercises were created involving a type of creative visualisation
shamanic meditation for the actor who journeys to discover and meet their
character. For instance, after
entering a state of relaxation through whatever methods are appropriate,[lxxxiv]
an actor would enter into a world constructed by another part of their mind on
behalf of the character; i.e. not a pre-designed space but one that arrives
spontaneously for the character to exist in.
As they enter into this space through the trunk of a tree, their
character is waiting there for them. The
character either enters the actor or takes them by the hand and leads the actor
through the landscape of the world of the play.
This is a space where the character will teach the actor about themselves
and other characters in the play. The
actor is called back after 30 -40 minutes and immediately writes down the
information they received. They then share some of their story with the rest of
the group. Often information gained in this way is incorporated into the
production.
To
shamanically ‘visit’ the sites of the play and to feel the environment
assists the actor in the creation of another reality.
The actors smell the aromas of the kitchen, the dusty surrounds, the lack
of water. They feel what it’s
like to be afraid of the well so that when they all have to visit the well in
Act 3 their senses are tuned to the state of fear and the consequent revelation
and release. The meditation journey
on ‘Fear in the Well’ went as follows:
Relax your body.
Let the body breathe by itself, not consciously.
Observe your body breathing.
Bring the character up on an imaginary screen in front of you.
Note the age.
Tell your character (mentally) you’re taking her on a journey, tell her
its ‘below’.
Take her by the hands and pull her into your body.
Become her, breathe her.
Walk backwards to the sound of drumming, you are alone and going to the
well.
It’s cold, the path is receding.
Hot breath on the back of your neck as you’re standing at the edge of
the well.
You begin your descent into the well down the ladder rung by rung.
It’s getting colder and darker, you look up and see the entrance,
it’s very small.
You reach the bottom, there’s something down there.....
From
this point on, the actors all experienced varying degrees of fear as they
explored the well in their imagination. As
a result of this journey , an
enormous amount of material was generated as background information,
given circumstances, for the characters who feared the well.
The
importance of ritual and ceremony is highlighted for the actor as well as
connecting with the earth via the rituals.
This links the actor’s energy to the energy of the earth and provides
profound material for the work the actor is engaged in.
Actors
using the Shamanic Journey technique to journey to the world of the play
experienced the landscape clearly and often had powerful
‘experiences’ with their characters. Steve Mizrach writes in his article ‘Ayahuasca, Shamanism,
and Curanderismo in the Andes’:
“Many
claim their ‘soul flight’ takes them to familiar locations which are
close-by, and that they navigate among landscapes using recognisable
landmarks.”[lxxxv]
Mizrach
discusses at length the use of Yage (also known as ‘the visionary vine’) by
Andean shaman. Mizrach identifies
the affects of Yage as:
“The
experience that the Yage plant confers on Western users is so similar to
accounts of the Near-Death Experience (NDE) (as noted by would-be shamans such
as Alberto Villoldo, Michael Harner, and Terrence McKenna) that some are sure
it’s practically a gateway to the spirit world.”[lxxxvi]
He
goes on to say that many Andean shamans using Yage, experience the following:
“1)
the feeling of separation of the soul from the body, and taking flight.
2)
visions of jaguars (interpreted as positive), and snakes and other predatory
animals (usually thought to be negative).
3)
a sense of contact with supernatural agencies (Andean demons and divinities).
4)
visions of distant cities and landscapes (thought to be clairvoyance).
5)
detailed reenactments of previous events (thought to be retrocognition.)”[lxxxvii]
Although
this altered state of consciousness is accessed or catalysed by the use of a
powerful hallucinogen, it seems that the journeys of the Andean shamans and the
students not using drugs have several aspects in common.
They are:
1.
The notion of a journey from one reality to another which appears as real
as the one left.
2.
Visions of and encounters with animal entities that either assist or
challenge the traveller sometimes resulting in a ‘shamanic death’ where the
traveller is reborn by being killed by the animal.
3.
Sensations of
flight. Sometimes as a bird, disembodied or in their own body.
4.
All five senses
are active in the ‘imagined landscape’.
5.
Retaining of the ‘conscious state’ throughout the journey.
Shamanism
has many different meanings in different cultures with no final authority on its
interpretation because of its oral traditions, age and cultural spread.
As
we become a global economy with vastly improved systems of communication and
travel, the melding of cultural aspects is inevitable.
As a ‘white’ Australian I have relatively little knowledge of the
indigenous culture of my own country yet have felt a need to access the
‘spiritual’ life of this land and the forces within and around it.
Much has been published and shared on the American Native Indians, their
cultures and their approaches to life. So
has an enormous amount of literature on anthropological studies of shamanism
throughout the world. This
information on other cultures has given a voice to a previously inarticulate
spirituality within myself. Quite a
few of the actors who worked with elements and ideas from shamanism responded in
similar ways which suggests that although not born of our culture, there are
aspects of shamanism that we feel ‘at home’ or at one with, spiritually.
Theatre
reflects our culture and in doing so, reflects the people in that culture.
The actor is not only our representative but also our mirror.
Training our actors with a sense of ‘spiritual realism’ in mind not
only incorporates a necessary part of our culture but also an entire aspect of
the self left out by the training systems of the past sixty or so years. Actors have always sensed energy, from the audience, from
each other and within themselves. One
of the struggles of the spiritual approach to acting in the western world is the
establishment of the spiritual nature outside the regimes of the church.
Language
is particularly important when attempting to establish new or alternative ways
of exploring the inner worlds of self.
Re-assessing
the ‘sacred’ is another way to assist the actor in their search and inner
journey. Finding a language that is
accessible to actors and directors with different spiritual or religious beliefs
is definitely one of the challenges and can only come about with further
exploration and experimentation. As
previously stated, the way we train actors affects their ability to reflect the
many dimensions of our humanity and our potential back to us.
The state of the actor reflects the state of the tribe.
One would assume this would naturally include the inner state as well as
the outer. The silent partner of
the actor is spirit. How do we
language this place of spirit today?
The
radical feminist voice has perhaps begun this journey, questioning and
deconstructing thousands of years of a language that as effectively
‘possessed’ the concept of spirit as one belonging solely to the church.
The ‘receptive other’, the female, the feminine, the indigenous, the
pagan, all have been omitted from the dominant discourse.
As Helene Cixous observes:
“Night
to his day-that has forever been the fantasy. Black to his white. Shut out of
his system’s space, she is the repressed that ensures the system’s
functioning.”[lxxxviii]
Barba,
E. 1995 The Paper Canoe Routledge, London UK.
Barba,
E. & Savarese, N. 1991 The
Secret Art of the Performer, Routledge London & New York.
Cixous,
H., 1993 Three steps on the ladder of writing, trans., S. Cornell & S.
Sellers, Columbia University Press, New York, USA.
Cixous,
H. & Clement, C., 1993 The
Newly Born Woman, University of Minnesota Press, (First published 1975 in
French, and English in 1986).
Derrida,
J. 1995 Writing and Difference. Routledge, London, UK.
Eliade
M. 1963 Patterns in Comparative Religion. Transl. R. Sheed, Meridian Books,
New York, USA.
Eliade
M. 1976 Occultism, Witchcraft & Cultural Fashions. University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, USA.
Eliade
M. 1959 The Sacred and the Profane. Transl.W. Trask, Harvest Books, New York
Eliade
M. 1961 Images and Symbols. Transl. P. Mairet, Harvill Press, London, UK.
Goodman,
F.D., 1988 ‘Shaman’s Path’ in
Shamanic Trance Postures, (ed.)
G.Doore, Shambhala Publications. Boston/London.
Harner,
M. 1980 The Way of the Shaman, Bantam
Books, Harper & Row. New York USA.
Lendra, I
Wayan in Zarrilli, P. B., (ed.) 1995 Acting
(Re)Considered: theories and practices, Routledge, London & New York.
Lommel,
A. 1967 Shamanism: The Beginnings of Art,
McGraw-Hill, New York, USA
Mayer,
D. & Richards, K.(eds.) 1977 Western
Popular Theatre , Methuen, London, UK.
Mitter,
S. 1992 Systems of Rehearsal, Routledge, London & New York.
Schechner,
R. 1988 Performance Theory Routledge,
London & New York.
Schechner,
R. 1985 Between Theatre & Anthropology,
University of Pennsylvania Press, Pennsylvania, USA.
Stevens
J. & Stevens L., 1988 Secrets
of Shamanism, Avon Books, New York, USA.
Tacey,
D. J., 1995 The Edge of the Sacred:
transformation in Australia, HarperCollins, Blackburn North, VIC.
Turner,
V. 1988 The Anthropology of Performance , Paj Publications, New York, USA.
Turner,
V. 1982 From Ritual to Theatre Paj Publications New York, USA.
Walsh,
R. N., 1990 The Spirit of the Shaman, Publisher Tarcher L.A. USA.
Zarrilli, P.
B., (ed.) 1995 Acting (Re)Considered: theories and practices, Routledge, London
& New York.
[i] Derrida:1995:232
[ii] Derrida:1995:234
[iii] ibid.
[iv] “Is not the most naive form of representation mimesis”? Derrida:1995:234
[v] Derrida:1995:237
[vi] “It is not a question of suppressing the spoken language, but of giving words approximately the importance they have in dreams.” Artaud:1977:111
[vii] Derrida:1995:232
[viii] Derrida:1995:248
[ix] A Artaud 1946 in J Derrida 1995:250
[x] “ Therefore we must create word, gesture and expressive metaphysics, in order to rescue theatre from its human, psychological prostration.” Artaud: 1977:69
[xi] Barba:1995:15
[xii] M Eliade 1963:154
[xiii] Bryan Rennie. website ; http//www.westminster.edu/staff/brennie/eliade/introduction.htm
[xiv] ibid.
[xv] Eliade:1959.
[xvi] Eliade 1969:i; 1978: xiii
[xvii] “To designate the act of manifestation of the sacred, we have proposed the term hierophany” (Eliade:1959:11).
[xviii] “manifestations of power” (Eliade:1963:14).
[xix] Eliade 1959:187
[xx] ibid.
[xxi] ibid.
[xxii] Eliade 1963:14/15
[xxiii] Eliade 1963:18
[xxiv] Tacey 1995 :6
[xxv] Tacey 1995:8
[xxvi] Eliade 1959:165
[xxvii] Eliade 1959:170
[xxviii] Eliade 1959:14-18
[xxix] Eliade 1959:205
[xxx] Tacey 1995:6
[xxxi] Tacey 1995:186
[xxxii] Ibid
[xxxiii] Tacey 1995:192
[xxxiv] Ibid
[xxxv] Ibid
[xxxvi] Ibid
[xxxvii] Malidoma:1993:127
[xxxviii] Schechner 1985:105
[xxxix] Schechner in Turner 1986:10
[xl] ibid.
[xli] Turner 1986:75
[xlii] Turner 1986:157
[xliii] Fortes was a William Wyse professor of Anthropology and Archeology at Cambridge, influenced by Freud and an influence on Turner.
[xliv] Turner 1986:158
[xlv] Schechner defines performance as “the whole event, including audience and performers...anyone who is there” (Schechner:1985:85).
[xlvi] Schechner 1985:6
[xlvii] Schechner 1985:4-10
[xlviii] Schechner 1985:5
[xlix] Barba 1995:vii
[l] Barba 1995:81 These terms are not used in the same way that Jung uses them.
[li] Lendra (ed.) Zarilli:1995
[lii] Schechner 1985:125
[liii] Schechner 1985:126
[liv] Schechner 1985:127
[lv] Barba:1995:15
[lvii] ibid.
[lviii] ibid., p.149
[lix] Schechner 1989:106
[lx] ibid.
[lxi] ibid.
[lxii] Schechner 1988:41
[lxiii] These methods for exploring the inner landscape in a fully conscious way are what informs the Shamanic Meditational Journeying exercise developed over five years by myself and the actors working on each of the three projects of “Hedda Gabler” in 1994, “The Golden Age” in 1996 and “Alabama Rain” in 1999.
[lxiv] Harner:1980:4-5
[lxv] “A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be Shamanism = technique of ecstasy” (Walsh 1990:10).
[lxvi] No details easily found for this other than it exists in the British Library in London.
[lxvii] Eliade. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1964
[lxviii] Shirokogoroff was one of the earliest explorers of the Siberian Tungus people (Walsh 1990:9).
[lxix] Lommel 1967:148
[lxx] Stevens & Stevens 1988:11
[lxxi] “The Shaman specialises in a trance during which their soul is believed to leave their body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld” (Walsh 1990:23).
[lxxii] Co-author with Frank Lawlis of Bridges of the BodyMind. Author of Imagery and
Healing and Woman As Healer. Co-author of Rituals of Healing: Using Imagery for Health and Wellness. Faculty Member, Saybrook Institute, San Francisco. Director of research for the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, Saybrook Institute, San Francisco.
[lxxiii] Jeanne Achterberg. Ch. 6 in “Shamanism” compiled by Shirley Nicholson. 1990:108
[lxxiv] Ibid.
[lxxv] Ibid.
[lxxvi] Ibid.
[lxxvii] Dr Felicitas Goodman is a psychological anthropologist. Until her retirement (1979) she taught at Denison University. She is the author of several books, the most recent being How about Demons: Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World (USA1988) p54
[lxxviii] ibid
[lxxix] ibid
[lxxx] Developed by the writer as part of her doctorate and ongoing investigation of actor
training techniques involving spiritual and shamanic influences.
[lxxxi] From an account by a student working with Shamanic Trance Postures with Felicitas Goodman in 1997 (Goodman:1988:54).
[lxxxii] An account by a student working with Shamanic Journeying with myself on the production of “Hedda Gabler” in 1994.
[lxxxiii] Claude Widtmann (Besheb) in “Hedda Gabler”.
[lxxxiv] In rehearsals I would usually take the actors through some fairly strenuous exercises for an hour or more then talk them through relaxing images while they lay on the floor. Often music would be playing in the background.
[lxxxv] Article titled “Ayahuasca, Shamanism, and Curanderismo in the Andes” by Steve Mizrach.
[lxxxvi] ibid.
[lxxxvii] Villoldo:1990
[lxxxviii] Cixous:1993:67