Interview with Ms M. Atkinson.

Shinju - So first of all, thank you very much for doing this. It's really kind of you. I really do appreciate it.
Maggie - You're welcome.
Shinju -Can you first, for the tape, tell me who you are and what you do?
Maggie -Maggie Atkinson and I'm a mother.
Shinju -OK. First question, what to you, is a shaman?
Maggie -A healer, a journeyer to different worlds and a transporter of different energy.
Shinju -So its more like you have descriptions in your head of what a shaman could be.
Maggie -Yes.
Shinju -You don't have conditions, they must do this, they must do that.
Maggie -No.
Shinju -Right, do you consider yourself to be a shaman?
Maggie -Possibly.
Shinju -Possibly? Why yes, why no?
Maggie -Possibly no because I 'm currently going through lots of difficulties in my life, I feel quite stuck in conventional reality and possibly yes because I've been told I'm a healer and have shamanic qualities and in the future I may be able to use those.
Shinju -You find because you're energetically stuck, that almost disqualifies you?
Maggie -Yeah.
Shinju -Could you tell me a bit about the other shamans you have met
Maggie -I've met a medicine woman, she was the one that told me that I'm a healer. She's going to be running a set of courses, which will go through the different animal spirits and plant spirits, and I'm really interested in getting involved in that, that's going to be in the spring time
Shinju -What was she called?
Maggie -She's called BJ.
Shinju -Oh, Ok, interesting, Catriona mentioned BJ.
Maggie -She's quite well known in these circles.
Shinju -Fair enough, what part do drugs play in Shamanism?
Maggie -Quite important, but not totally essential all the time.

Shinju -What do they do?
Maggie -They take you onto a different reality, away from the conventional reality.
Shinju -Do you find shaman need to be away from conventional reality in order to work?
Maggie -At times, yes.
Shinju -How do normal people fit into the life of a shaman?
Maggie -I don't know, sorry. (Laughs)
Shinju -How do they fit into your life?
Maggie -I find, like my partner Jimi, they are quite grounding, he keeps me in a construct of normality, in the conventional sense.
Shinju -What makes a piece of artwork shamanic?
Maggie -The symbol it holds. I was just talking about this in my art group. I was saying that when I'm defined as being mentally ill, I produce really good artwork, which is very spiritual. I find powerful messages that I can portray on a piece of artwork and it comes from the spirit rather than from what is conventionally around you.
Shinju -What sort of reaction do you get from people looking at this spiritual art?
Maggie -People are just amazed by it.
Shinju -Does it perhaps take them out of consensus reality?
Maggie -I think so, yeah.
Shinju -So you're bringing, perhaps, a little bit of that other world into their lives?
Maggie -Yeah, definitely, it transforms negative energy. I believe that patriarchal society is quite a negative reality, which is what we live in at the moment and I try to bring in more feminine energy into the conventional reality.
Shinju -Do you put a lot of feminine energy into your work?
Maggie -Yeah.
Shinju -What sort of imagery do you use?
Maggie -There was one picture I did with a woman coming out of the sea with a Celtic cross in the distance on a hill. She had a cross in her crotch coming out so the energy was being transformed into a positive energy. It was quite controversial I suppose.
Shinju -Yeah, I can see some Christians not liking it
Maggie -Quite a lot of my artwork uses crosses, not intended to be disrespectful. It's intended to try and invert. The inverted cross symbolises to me something that's feminine transferring that negative energy and sending it down to the ground and transforming it into a positive energy.