best thought" appears like a shamanic mantra
(Myrsiades, 2002).
XVII
The shaman must undergo a ritual transgression
to be indoctrinated into the realm of the
shamanic, the dream state. This involves crossing
the "axis mundi" into the dreamscape (Harvey &
Wallis, 2007). Moreover, shamanism is understood
in primitivistic cultures as being a state embraced
by or contested upon an individual who has
previously undergone a certain idiomatic
transformation by nature or by nurture.
Throughout his travels, to mountainous regions in
the USA and abroad (e.g. Japan) Gary Snyder
informs us that "he was forever changed by that
place of rock and sky" (Reisman, 2012). Here he
has undergone a shamanic transformation, one
that is more acutely aware of "the energies of
mist", "a chaotic universe where everything is in
place". Snyder is drawn in by the yogic
implications of space and temporality and of "a
loving concern for all things"(Reisman, 2012).
This is an exemplar of the transformation he has
undergone, one from mortal to shaman. Snyder's
soul becomes lost in the dyad of "the dynamics of
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