The Shamanic Narrative of Tigger’s Bounce

My guest blog this month come from my friend S. Kelley Harrell. Kelley's
an urban shaman who lives on the opposite edge of the continent from me.
We became friends on a listserve. I read her new book,
Gift of the Dreamtime, which is now out in its second edition. It's
a terrific book. I hope you'll read it, too. Here's Kelley--

“Bouncing is what Tiggers do best. —Tigger, from A. A. Milne’s
Winnie-the-Pooh

Since the birth of our twins a little over three years ago, I've delved
back into children's literature in an entirely new way. As someone who
works as a shaman, I'm always intrigued by the shamanic narrative told
in everything. This narrative is the story told to the shaman by the body
or emotions, through symbols which are interpreted to bring healing to
the individual. We each have this collection of symbols, some unique, some
joined in collective meaning. In reading to my children a narrative I commonly
find is the story of soul wounding and healing.

The most basic view of what a shaman does, thus the basic principle of
the shamanic narrative, is an imbalance of power. Power is either missing
from a place that it should be, or is in excess in a place where it shouldn’t
be. A common state that results from this imbalance is called soul loss,
perhaps the most common ailment shamans work with. Though I refer to it
as "soul shelving,: it's a state in which one (or more) of the infinite
facets of the soul has wandered out and cannot reconnect with the manifest
consciousness.

Wandering out is our natural state of widening our awareness, and we often
accomplish this through dreams, creative processes, engaging new ideas
and feelings. Upon experiencing trauma, soul parts leave and often can't
reconnect with the earthly consciousness, resulting in the state of PTSD.
How this reaction to trauma manifests can range from severe self-destructive
behavior to mild depression, the onset of physical illness, or the general
sense that one isn't quite one's self anymore. This interrupted flow of
life force abrupts personal power.




In reading to our kids, I see this journey from wounding to loss of power,
to victorious balance and empowerment in children’s stories. Take the beloved
Winnie the Pooh character, Tigger. Everyone knows him for his ability to
revel joyfully in life, specifically for his ability to bounce as both
a way to experience joy and share it with others. Because it is his most
fond pursuit, it is his soul's expression. Laura Driscoll’s The Search
for Tigger’s Bounce, a later addition to the Winnie-the-Pooh series based
on works by A. A. Milne, describes such a journey from soul wounding, through
the story of Tigger’s lost bounce.




One day Pooh observes that Tigger isn’t his usual bouncy self. Specifically,
Tigger is moody, his tail is drooping, and he’s very still. When Pooh presses
him about feeling down, Tigger says, “I think I’ve lost my bounce!”




He can recall when he last bounced and that he doesn’t feel like bouncing
now, but he doesn’t know the root of his lethargy and woe. Tigger realizes
that his bounce has gone away, and that it went away so suddenly he didn't
know where he lost it. This is a typical description of the lethargy and
sense of disconnection that occurs with soul loss. Senses and awareness
we had prior is simply gone. Tigger’s ability to articulate how he feels
and the symptoms around not being able to bounce demonstrates how we can
intellectualize that we should be able to do something, be aware that it’s
not working properly, yet we can’t just by knowing those things force it
to be fixed. This is a nother symptom of soul loss.




His friends offer to come along and help him look for his bounce. This
is a common facet of the shamanic narrative—the acquisition of spirit allies—Nature
spirits, angelic guides—who support and assist along the way to healing.
Eeyore, Piglet, Roo and Pooh set off to help Tigger find his bounce.




Roo suggests that Tigger return to the place he last had his bounce so
the group can search for it there. This return to the source of imbalance
is akin to the induction into trance in the shaman’s decoding of the narrative,
and is also symbolic of Tigger having to face what caused his bounce to
leave. In the shamanic narrative there is always some realization of returning
to the source of trauma—figuratively or literally—in order to heal it.




In observing the stream where Tigger was playing when he lost his bounce,
the group learns that he was bouncing on a fallen tree trunk, which bridged
the stream’s banks. While bouncing on the fallen tree, Tigger realized
he was above water and become very afraid.




Pooh then deduces that Tigger’s bounce had been startled out of him. Having
an aspect of the soul leave in times of duress is a classic feature of
soul loss. Often in trauma one can articulate the feeling of a part of
self leaving, afterward feeling fragmented or that something is missing.
In this case, Tigger’s bounce was missing. In being faced with a deep fear,
his power had left him.


The group looks high and low for Tigger’s bounce, only no one finds a
thing. No one can identify exactly what Tigger’s bounce looks like, so
they aren’t sure how to find it!




Drawing on the expertise of yet another ally, Christopher Robin, he points
out, “I think you got startled on that tree trunk. And then you got worried
about bouncing. But you could never lose your bounce,” he says. [1] Christopher
Robin represents the voice of the shaman, interpreting the symbols of Tigger’s
story of losing his bounce, drawing meaning from them so personal to Tigger
that he acquires a context in which to understand, thus overcome, his fear.




With the support of his allies and through the process of them witnessing
his journey to reconnect with his bounce, and with Christopher Robin’s
affirmation of his power, Tigger gains the confidence to try to bounce
again. In the shamanic narrative, gaining the support of one’s tribe is
the deepest fostering of healing. It is the bestowal of power. Within that
support, power is recognized, thus balanced, and the wound released.




In the end, just like Tigger, we may not know where we lose bits of our
power, but we fully recognize their absence. Armed with the insight of
the shamanic narrative in All Things, we gain support to go back and find
our bounce.




[1]
The Search for Tigger’s Bounce, Laura Driscoll. Disney Enterprises,
Inc., 2004.

My friend Kelley is author of
Gift of the Dreamtime – Awakening to the Divinity of Trauma, now
out in its second edition. Her shamanic practice is Soul Intent Arts. You
can Google her name and gets lots of hits and also find her on
Facebook, 
Twitter, and @SKelleyH,
GoodReads, and (good for her!!!) the
Huffington Post. Check her out. She's very wise. Tell her I said hi.