RP: Shamanism

[Sekhmet]

Shamanism

            A curandero, a witchdoctor, a shaman, priest, sometimes in the most ordinary of worlds called a seer. Ordinary people with ordinary lives, and ordinary, natural abilities to heal, control the weather, alternately cause human suffering, even travel to the upper and lower worlds as well as have a hand with influencing the events of their tribe though in some cultures a shaman is equally an outcast as much as a valued talent. Shamanic religions evolved as the traditional healing practices of Siberia and Mongolia per Wikipedia, which does not reference the existence of shamanism in the Americas (North and Latin America) exstensively. Native Americans value the shaman as a “religious specialist”, a bard, but with a role similar to that of the Roman Catholic priest, as someone with the ability to commune with the gods or spirits in mediation between mortals’ pain with the divine. Shamans for the Native Americans also had some acting talent on the side of their main duty, which was to heal. Although to some who are Native, it may seem as though western peoples are hijacking their faith by integrating shamanism with witchcraft in some circles though this article attempts to explore aspects of shamanic studies as understood in an anthropological perspective. “Religion” is a loaded term whose range of meaning according to Turner  “varies in different social and historical contexts. Nevertheless, most definitions of religion refer to the recognition of a transhuman controlling power that may be either personal or impersonal. A religious specialist has a culturally defined status relevant to this recognition” (p. 89).
            Given the structure of society’s religious desires, a shaman arose from tribal migrations in the Americas while the priesthood began in the cities. A prophet will maintain a dialogue with G-D while the shaman will be a personable hero with spirits and lesser deities on behalf of his tribe, his people, and his community. A prophet is someone who rocks the boat while the shaman gently steers the boat the prophet is rocking while asking the prophet for input on where they want to go. Shamans are lawyer-priests in that they divine for justice when consulted by family members in kin groups as to the virtuous nature of what is going during community disputes. Mediums and shamans divine with the assistance of a spirit who discover the cause of illness. It can be noted that the New Age shaman of modern Western society will integrate knowledge of Western medicine into their diagnosis while the shaman of South America may simply acknowledge the cause of illness as an ancestral spirit who came back for revenge on a family or tribal member. The first knowledge of God or divinity that humans had came from earth events such as natural disasters, or the movement of animals such as snakes used in ancient Rome. Shamans will view medicine from the psychosomatic perspective more than the Western healer though modern ideologist, are slowly attempting to integrate holistic theory into practice. Turner refers to the preliterate society’s understanding of “bodily symptoms regarded as signs that the soul or life principal of the patient is under attack or has been abstracted by spiritual forces or beings” (p. 93). Shaman’sCave.com utilizes the dreaming technique as one that integrates the rational mind with the body since reason instills fear that stops the processes of trapping your attention.
        The idea that an illness results out of personal sin or high stress from being surrounded by others who are sinning is an attempt to understand why someone was ill from a spirit or witch. Process by which the dreaming body is connected to the physical body is the province of the experienced shaman because the dreaming body can become intense enough to draw back into the real world. A witchdoctor is unlike a shaman in that the witchdoctor is like a shaman and a priest who divines illness based on complex social relationships gone awry. Beyond all the other duties of the shaman, is the ability to go into a trance, often an attempt to enter the land of the spirits known as the Dreamtime by the aborigines of Australia. Shamans are close to their dreams by being able to interpret the upper, middle and lower states of dreaming. Lack of dreams can lead to temporary psychotic behavior featured by intense anger. Mid-level sleep relies on story lines, being powerful and chaotic. But upper-level dreaming features as a type of storytelling device called a journey. Not all shamans however, feel that taking drugs is a required gateway into realities of consciousness since a drug can be an impulsive door-opener from learning true discipline.
              Some priests or shamans are called to do their work from birth, to lead an aesthetic existence often without a budget that precludes material goods. The role of the shaman is to train their mind to move beyond the rational, “The dreaming body doesn't reason; it is apart from that, which is hiding in the other half of yourself which is asleep. But the dreaming body in order to act must be able to assimilate a reality, even this one, so it runs back through the rational part of the other side, even when it is separate. It is accumulated in unique ways through experience with the dreaming body, in other words, intended dreaming, controlling dreaming, using that energy. Like exercise, it can't work efficiently if you never use it. It's something to work on, but pressuring yourself won't help, you have to chop wood, carry water. Shamans are built from the ground up,” (Shaman’s Cave.com).
         Through comparison to the Catholic Church’s practices and perhaps their hierarchy as a model, a shaman’s role can be seen as more utilitarian than just an intercessor between God and man who cannot become like God. Turner calls African societies stateless, which in 1972 may have been true but with the coming of Independence this is not the case when African countries started forming their own states after colonial powers gave them sovereignty (independence. Among the Nuer of Nilotic Sudan, a shaman or specialist has the power to maintain a ritual relationship in being close to the earth which allows him to bless or curse, cleanase a killer from his sins of bloodshed, even to perform the rites of reconciliation for people who are ending what is called a bloodfued, making the role of the shaman one who restores the right relations between society, spirits and the universe. Magic, Witchcraft and Religion, An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural, leaves the Von Furer-Haimendorf definition of priest vs. the Turner comparison of shaman out in the open. Priest in neo-pagan traditions refers to a person with power to communicate with the Goddess in rituals while a religious leader does not stick to running just a coven but an entire segment of their community. This article then states that small-scale societies lack religious specialists as well-trained as the priests of more advanced peoples, perhaps such as the Roman and Greek empires. In 1970 this may have been a generalization made from ethnocentric ideation though the author is using the word priest instead of shaman to prove a point.
      “Wizard” is used in Africa to describe the shaman, in the source, Nervous Conditions, by Tambudazai’s grandmother, to describe the colonization of the continent by the white people as well as a certain segment of African society that seeks to curse others or cure them of snakebites. Tambudazai is the main character of this novel, a girl pursuing an education much to her societies’, even her families’ distaste. Tambu’s grandmother and other individuals in small-scale societies believe in sorcery the way most people in the Western world believe in viruses or germ theory, of which the role of a shaman Wikipedia lists as being one of contradicting Western scientific rationale by being able to manipulate DNA as well as viruses.
        A shaman has a high responsibility not to be taken lightly, which means that their inner demons must be conquered. These people know how to control dreams Shamans sacrifice years learning the art of shamanism by fasting in the forest, of which Brown feels that the marketable shamanism of the West has truly hijacked the shamanic traditions of the Americas that a man he lived with in the country that he studied, Peru and the Aguruna Indian, Yankush, who worked for a lifetime of discipline to be reduced to a “set of techniques for personal development, stripped of links to a specific landscape and cultural tradition. New Age enthusiasts are right to admire the shamanistic tradition, but while advancing it as an alternative to our own healing practices, they brush aside its stark truths” (p. 113), the stark truth that a shaman is a warrior who fights the human heart, dart or no dart. Yankush heals two women who have a stomach problem and a throat problem, the other with a discomfort in her back and lower abdomen by an anticlimactic sucking on the location of their illness. Modern shamans in North America particularly frown on physical contact with their clients. Although shamans are found in societies all over the world, and believed by their constituents to have the ability to communicate directly with the spirit world, Brown is offended by the average Santa Fe New Age follower who uses shamanism for personal-development, stripping it of links to a specific landscape and cultural tradition but for their own healing practices unaware of the significance their hijacking has. Though it seems that the first skill a shaman learns is having control over dreams in the astral.

      Works Cited
Brown, Fobes Michael. Magic, Witchcraft and Religion article: Dark Side of the Shaman, Natural History, The American Museum of Natural History, November 1989, pp. 8-10, 1989.

Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. Seal Press, 1988.
Lehmann, Arthur C. Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion, An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural, Fifth Edition, Mayfield Publishing, California State University, 2001.

Shaman’s Cave.com


Turner W. Victor Magic, Witchcraft and Religion article: Religious Specialists. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, David L .Sills, Editor. Vol. 13 pp. 437-44: 1972.

Wikipedia.org: shaman, Safari Browser; Wednesday December 28, 2005.

[SleepWalker]

Their are deeper meanings behind what the shamans put forward, they are not fully undertsood.
What happens is someone attempts to make up a reason when reason is not neccessary so there is not one, it is for the fearful to attempt understand where the shaman needn't the shaman knows through the shamans lot.
To liken them to roman catholics is not something I would attempt in analogy for certain reasons, which might upset some catholic people.
Brown can be offended all he likes it says more about him then anyone else, shamanism doesn't appear to have rubbed off on him.
A lovely Summary Sekhmet
*hugs
*gives sticker


       

[Emira]

Shamanism

   Originally derived from the language of the Tungus tribes of Siberia, a shaman acts as a mediator between the spirit realm and the physical world.  Although in recent times the word shaman exists as a kind of umbrella term for any sort of tribal healer, not all “witchdoctors” and “sorcerers” are truly shamans.  In anthropological terms, a shaman is a practitioner that 1) enters altered states of consciousness (often termed ecstasy) to acquire knowledge and power, or to help their community 2) has one or more spirit helpers.
   Many different derivatives of shamanistic traditions have cropped up throughout the world.  Every culture developed a slightly different means by which to accomplish their needs.  For example, many of the shamans of South and Central America utilize a pshycodelic drink derived from the ayahuasca or “soul vine” to enter into ecstasy.  In contrast the shamans in Mongolia and southern Siberia where known to enter trance only on rare occasions when prayer and sacrifice failed, and they also did so without the aid of outside substances.  During ecstasy, the hidden meaning of the world/ objects reveals itself to the shaman.  In this way, the shaman observes any nonordinary aspects within an ill person or community at large.
   The method of abstracting adverse influences from a patient differ from tradition to tradition; however, they often involve some form of prayer, the shamans spirit helpers, and often drawing the influence out of the patient.  In most traditions, spirit helpers are represented by objects known as totems (in English, various other names exist as well) whose true potential can only be observed in ecstasy.  Some cultures, such as the Inuts, hold that the spirits can directly effect the physical realm (ex: moving objects, creating wind, etc,) yet, most cultures dictate that the spirits can only subtle effect the physical via shamans, or the ill will or stress of the patient/community.
   Every culture has it’s own from of deciding who is to become a shaman.  In some, the shaman is chosen based on blood lineage, in others they are called to the practice later in life, no training maybe required, or as much as five years or more maybe needed.  Despite these differences the cultural purpose of the shaman is often the same.  The shaman often acts as much as a friend and psychological healer to their patients as the do a physical or spiritual aid.  Often it is the shamans perogative to suffer with their patient, or to take on a personal sacrifice should they fail in their duties.  In this way they act as a support for the patient who takes assurance from the fact that their illness and struggle is as much the shamans as it is their own (their was a really good description of this idea in The Way of the Shaman, but I can’t find the stinking quote right now.)

   Demant Jacobson, Merete. Shamanism: Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to the Mastery of Spirits and Healing. Berghahn Books, New York
   Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. Bantman Books, New York.
   Vitebsky, Piers. The Shaman. Duncan Baird Publishers, London

Alright, that’s a short summary of what I found, and I didn’t have any time to look at neo-Shamanism.

[Sekhmet]

Their are deeper meanings behind what the shamans put forward, they are not fully undertsood.
What happens is someone attempts to make up a reason when reason is not neccessary so there is not one, it is for the fearful to attempt understand where the shaman needn't the shaman knows through the shamans lot.
To liken them to roman catholics is not something I would attempt in analogy for certain reasons, which might upset some catholic people.
Brown can be offended all he likes it says more about him then anyone else, shamanism doesn't appear to have rubbed off on him.
A lovely Summary Sekhmet
*hugs
*gives sticker


       

Thanks for the input but I don't think I'm too worried about offending the Catholics. Anybody can offend anybody. I will take the risk! 

Happy generic holidays since I'm wondering if I may offend you by saying Merry Christmas. I didn't know that had gotten offensive. At least in the US. Therefore, happy New Year.

[Creature]

HOLY MAMA OF CHILLI PEPPERS! 11:56PM central standard time, Thrusday the 29th.  4 minutes before the end of due date.  Creature does everything in the last minute likes cutting it close.

Enjoy: (note: this has not been proofread yet. Will do that tomorrow.)

edit 12/30/05: proof-read once.  If anyone notices any typo-s or anything like that, please PM me to let me know.

Distance asked me to let you guys know that his paper may be a bit late due to family vacation.

Shamanism

Man's earning for understanding, experience, and control of the world of gods and spirits dates back to the time before the beginnings of civilization.  To the very dawn of humanity can this thirst for spiritual understanding be traced.  On the stone walls of the caves our ancestors dwelled in we can glimpse the reflections of this search for knowledge, forever engraved into the fabric of the ages by the artists of long ago.  But it is not just this testament in paint and stone of our ancestors spirituality and religion that has survived to our day, it is their very practices themselves.  These, grouped under a common term, Shamanism, are practiced to this day in all corners of the world.  Shamanic practices in Asia, North and South America, Siberia, Greenland, Indonesia, Australia and other places, however remote from each other, bear certain uncanny similarities.

Shamans are said to be able to both heal and harm with magic.  They operate in a trance, and use common techniques to achieve that trance.  They fly to places where gods and spirits dwell, free imprisoned souls and bring back from those ethereal realms messages of prophecy and wonder.  They speak with spirits of the animals and are even said to have control over natural phenomena.

The word “shaman” comes from the Siberian Tungus language.  There may be a bit of disagreement among the sources as to the exact meaning of the word.  Some say the exact translation is “one who knows” (Wikipedia), yet another source claims that it comes from word saman which means “one who is excited, moved, or raised” (Stein, 14).  The word “shaman” was first used in print by Avvakum Petrovich, a Russian priest who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century.  It appeared in his autobiography where he describes his encounter with a shaman on his expedition to Siberia. (Narby, 18) Within various cultures there are other, native terms for “shaman”, such as karadji (translated as “clever man”) in Australia, manang or dukun in Indonesia, Txiv Neeb (“father/master of spirits”) among the Hmong, miko (female shaman) in Japan, angokok among the Eskimo. (Stein, 25-29)

A shaman fulfills several roles in his or her community.  He or she is a doctor, a leader, a prophet and a magician.  Shamans are feared, loved, and respected among their people.  But even so, the road of a shaman seems to be a lonely and painful one, especially in the beginning.  A person can be initiated into shamanhood in three ways: by voluntarily choosing the path of a shaman him(or her) self and seeking an experienced shaman as a teacher, by inheriting the role (if one comes from a family of a shaman), or by receiving a “call” to shamanhood from spirits.  Of the three, the last is considered to produce the most powerful shamans.

Often times the “call” to become a shaman is anything but welcome to the future practitioner.  It is always believed to come from the spirits, whether it be mythical ones, spirits of plants or animals, or ghosts of dead shamans, and can take various forms.  Sometimes a spirit my come to a man in his dreams, other times the spirits may possess him, causing sickness and madness, with only possible cure being the initiate's acceptance of his role as a shaman.  Sometimes a physical accident, such as being struck by lightning or nearly killed by an animal is considered a message from the spirits demanding future shaman's acceptance of the call.  Whatever form the “call” may take, it better be answered in affirmative, least the shaman-to-be suffer great consequences, such as sickness, madness, or even death.

The dreams that act as this “call” to shamanhood, and once the call is accepted, the dreams and visions that are part of initiation, often have a distinct theme of death and rebirth running through them. (Lommel, 53)  The future shaman often has a dream or vision of being eaten by his future totem animal spirit and then having his body re-created by it, or of having his body cut up into pieces by spirits then put together again.  Sometimes in the vision, shaman's body parts such as eyes, brain, or bones are replaced with new ones that are better equipped to perceive and interact with the spirit world.  Sometimes the future shaman's power animal spirit enters into his body to permanently become part of it and thus give shaman its power.

Once the call is accepted, the shaman-to-be undergoes a painful, lonely, physically and mentally trying ordeal of initiation. 

True wisdom is only to be found far away from people, out in the great solitude, and it is not found in play, but only through suffering.  Solitude and suffering open the human mind, and therefore a shaman must seek his wisdom there.

Said shaman Igjugârjuk in his interview with the explorer Knud Rasmussen (Narby, 82).

Whether the art is being taught to him by a live shaman or by the spirits, the initiate becomes almost completely isolated from his community.

The young novice, the 'newly inspired' looses all interest in the ordinary affairs of life.  He ceases to work, eats but little and without relishing the food, ceases to talk to people and does not even answer their questions.  The greater part of his time he spends in sleep.
Some keep to the inner room and go out rarely.  Others wander about in the wilderness, under the pretext of hunting or of keeping watch over the heard, but often without taking any arms of lasso or the herdsman.
-- Waldemar Bogoras quotes a shaman in his 1904 work The Chukchee. (Narby, 54)

The physical ordeals of initiation often come when the initiate shaman goes out by him or herself into the wilderness where, in order to receive visions from the spirits that teach him or her the art, they undergo extreme hypothermia, hunger and thirst.  In the Native American shamanic tradition, the initiate often has to stay in the extreme heat of the “sweat lodge” for extended periods of time in order to receive his or her initiation visions.  Physically, the shaman initiate trains not only to have extreme endurance to pain, hunger, and other discomforts, he or she also trains to have stamina that surpasses that of ordinary men.  Shamans train to drum, dance, and sing for hours without stopping.

After the performance [the shaman] must not show any signs of fatigue, because he is supposed to be sustained by the 'spirits'

-- Waldemar Bogoras (Narby, 54)

During the trances, shamans are sometimes said to have an almost preternatural immunity to pain.  In 1724  French Jesuit missionary Joseph François Lafitau wrote:

In this state of enthusiasm their spirit seems absorbed in that which possesses them.  They are no longer themselves, like those diviners of whom Imablichus speaks, in whom the outside spirit operated in such a way that not only did they not know themselves but they had no feeling and did not feel any hurt during that time so that one could touch them with fire without burning them, pierce them with blazing spits, then rain axe blows on their shoulders and cut their arms with razors.  Indeed, in these ecstasies one can see them swallow fire, walk on burning coals without being hurt...
Furthermore, they stick long pieces of wood down their gullets, coil living surpants in their breasts, and do a thousand other tricks that appear to border on marvelous. (Narby, 23)

If the physical ordeals of shaman's initiation are trying, to say the least, the mental ones are even more so.  Some scientists attribute characteristics of shamanic practice to different mental and physical disorders: schizophrenia, epilepsy, etc.  There is a curious fact, however, that psychologists have yet to explain.  That fact being that even though that the person who is called to become a shaman may suffer what could be called a dangerous madness, once the person accepts the call and becomes a true shaman, they are able to obtain an absolute control over their condition.  No FDA approved drugs, no trips to the psychiatrist. Waldemar Bogoras writes:

There are cases of young persons who. having suffered for years from lingering illness (usually of nervous character), at last feel a call to take to shamanic practice, and by this means overcome the disease.

But that isn't all.  Not only does the shaman overcome his or her own “disease”, he or she is now able to cure others.  In shamanic cultures, both mental and physical diseases are usually thought to be caused by one of two things: a foreign malevolent spirit (or spirit-object) being present within the person's body or person's soul being stolen away and held prisoner in the spirit world.  If the case be the first, the shaman removes the foreign entity out of the person's body during an elaborate ritual.  If the second, the shaman has to leave his or her body and fly through the world axis or axis mundi (Wikipedia) into the spirit world and bring the sick man's soul back.

This soul travel into the spirit realm corresponds quite nicely to the modern term “astral projection”.  Some shamans even mention the “silver cord” that connects the spirit body and the physical body. (Lommel, 99)  Often shamans use herbal substances to help bring about the spirit journey.  One of the often mentioned substances is tobacco juice or smoke, others include psychedelic mushrooms, ayahuasca, etc.  Once the desired state is achieved, shamans often use symbols to aid in the spirit travel, such as flying on the backs of snakes, eagles, climbing to the sky on ropes or ladders, using holes in the ground (often called kivas in the Zuni Native Americal tradition) to descend into the underworld.  Legend has it that the shamans of old could travel to physically travel to the spirit world.

On the spirit journey shaman is tested.  He or she encounters various obstacles, spirits, and gods.  For the journey to be successful those must be overcome or, in case of gods and powerful spirits, appeased.

Once the soul of the sick person is brought back, it is not unusual for the shaman to issue him or her a set of taboos to observe.  Taboos are given much importance in almost all shamanic traditions.  Anything can be a taboo: from prohibition of working on certain days and under certain conditions, to eating certain foods, wearing certain clothes, to ways to kill an animal.  Failure to observe a taboo could result in dire consequences such as sickness, death, or other such great tragedy to the person who breaks it and his or her family.  Sometimes a set of taboos is given to the shaman him or her self by the spirits during his or her initiation.  For example, the late nineteenth century Russian ethnographer and linguist Vladimir Ilich Jochelson writes in his observations of shaman's custom regarding his drum, “It was in its case because the drum must not be taken out of the house without its cover.  A violation of this taboo may result in bringing on a blizzard.” (Narby, 59)

Curing diseases is not the only function of the shaman.  Other uses of shamanic magic include: fertility magic, ensuring luck during a hunt, causing sickness or death of enemies, prophecy through evocation and invocation of gods and spirits, being a medium between the dead and the living, interpretation of omens, control over elements, burial rites and guiding the souls of the dead.

Nearly all of shamanic magic is done while shaman is in a trance.  The trance is induced by rhythmic drumming, singing, dancing, and sometimes drugs. This active trance often ends with loss of consciousness and/or complete physical and mental exhaustion. (this bares resemblance to Austin Osman Spare's techniques of achieving magical gnosis, now widely used in Chaos Magick).  Oftentimes, a shaman not only goes into a trance him or her self, but puts the audience under a mild trance so that they become participants in the experience (Lommel, 25)

The evidence found in the cave paintings of the Neolithic age suggests that one of the primary functions of shamanic magic was communication with animals spirits to appease them after killing them and to aid in successful hunt in the future.  Animal spirits later on take on more roles as shaman's teachers and regular aids.  Snake spirits are widely known to aid in shamanic initiation and often aid some shamans in spirit journeys.  Other popular animals include bears, eagles, and wolves.

Over time, a shaman acquires friendship spirits that become his regular helpers.  In some traditions shaman has one main helper spirit, who's physical representation (often in form of a poppet or a wooden doll) he carries with him.  Sometimes the shaman invokes a spirit or a god to enter and temporarily posses his body while he is on a spirit journey.  As far as Gods and Goddesses go, there is usually not a set pantheon for all shamanic traditions, but there are ones that are similar, such as Lord of the Animals, Mother of the Animals, Lord of the World, The Great Spirit, Mother of Sea Creatures, etc.

Shamans had and continue to have an important role in their societies.  The fact that shamanism survived for millennia, in spite of prosecution by church and state, to this day and is still in force all over the world, and that its elements are so similar no matter where it's practiced, makes one wonder whether there may be truth hidden within it that humanity has an obligation to learn.  It may be true that there can not be one true religion.  But shamanism is not a religion.  It is a way of life.  Shamans are not priests, for they do not “preach” but live their spirituality.  They need no books or hearsay to know what a god or spirit says, they know it firsthand, having talked with the entity themselves.  They need no myths or legends to tell them what the afterlife or spirit world is like, for they have visited it themselves.  Let us hope that this great practice shall continue to survive as it has for millenia and that eventually the secrets of shamanism will be secrets no more, but knowledge and skills available to all.

Bibliography:

Lommel, Andreas, Shamanism: The beginnings of Art, translation from German by Micheal Bullock, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York – Toronto,  1967

Narby, Jeremy and Huxley, Francis, Shamans Through Time: 500 Years on the Path to Knowledge, Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin. New York, 2001

Stein, Wendy, Shamans: Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, Inc, San Diego, California,  1991

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaman December 28, 2005.

[Sekhmet]

I'm soo happy you used this source:

Stein, Wendy, Shamans: Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, Inc, San Diego, California,  1991

[Creature]

I'm soo happy you used this source:

Stein, Wendy, Shamans: Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, Inc, San Diego, California,  1991

Why? You like that book?

[Sekhmet]

Yeah, the opposing viewpoints series is fantastic. I will veer towards the mundane world of academia for a moment.

Its great material for when you're trying to do something compare/contrast rather than full-on expository/explication which is always a pain in English writing if analyzing literature.

But also, for argumentative papers, that series is perfect. I'd even use it for speeches. In general, I had an essay in that text I cited that was compare/contrasted enough to fit in. I hope people didn't get too wiggy with my mention of the shaman/priest analogy.

I feel called to shamanism but I am afraid of hijacking a faith. Hell that's probably something for the spirituality board. Thanks, Creature - happy new year.

[Australian Warriors]

Apologies to everyone looking forward to the live aboriginal chat, i had someone set up and ready but unseen offences on this forum unfortunatley really screwed me up. I'll be happy to reschedule in the meantime ,but give me at least a week for me to get the questions answered.
Many apologies,
AW

[Fromadistance]

Agh.  Sorry, I admit this is pretty crappy.  Give me a break on this one, I've got big bad midterms going on right now, I think its miraculous I did it at all :-).
In all seriousness, sorry, the next one will be better.

Shamanism

Shamanism is one of the oldest divinatory and healing practices in the world, and is thought to have existed for over 20,000 years.  Evidence of the various types and traditions of shamanism have been found in North and South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia, and many methods and practices of shamans have stimulated the development of modern day "New Age" or magical techniques.
Originally shamans were the spiritual leader of a people, who claimed contact with spirits beyond a normal person's comprehension, would function as a healer, mediator between people and the spirits.  These spirits are part of an invisible world that exists simultaneously with the one we all know and love so much.  This invisible world affects the lives of the living, thus the shaman's duty as a mediator between this world and the people in our world is extremely important. 
Shamans have also had the ability to control the weather, divination, and the ability to travel to other planes of existence attributed to them.
There are generally two ways to be initiated as a shaman: to be "called" or to inherit it.  The idea of heredity in this case is pretty clear.  Being called is seen as "spontaneous and involuntary election by the Supernaturals" (http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/s/shamanism.html).  Being "called" could involve a "vision quest," being struck by lightning, or surviving a very severe near death incident or disease.  There were other ways to be "called."  One may also attempt to learn to become a shaman without having been "called" or recieving the ability through heredity, but these shamans were often viewed as less effective and not true shamans.
Shamanic practices involved gaining knowledge and power from spirits and the invisible world, divination, and healing.  Shamans could also make people sick and/or kill them.  These things were done in different ways depending on the culture and specific shamanic tradition they came from.  For example, in the case of healing, one method was to combine knowledge of herbs with their abilities in order to heal, others entered the body of the sick person to find the spirit making them sick and would then heal the person by removing the offending spirit.  Shamanism was a widespread practice and many different forms of it existed and exist today, each with its own unique set of techniques, methods, and beliefs, but all of them have in common the basica qualities of shamanic practice.

http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/new-age/NA0801W3.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism
http://deoxy.org/shaover.htm#2
http://www.crystalinks.com/shamanism.html

whew...

Distance

[Creature]

Ok! Great work, everyone. Here's the log of the Shamanism chat.  It's not very big, considering the fact that only me and Emira showed up, but that's k. Let's hope more people will be preasent for the next chat.

<Creature> As log as there are at least 2 people, we can have the chat,right?
<Creature> So. What are your thoughts on Shamanism?
<Emira> Lol, okay, I think it should stay tribal, the neo-Shamanism movement seemed pretty redicoulus to me
<Creature> How so?
<Emira> It seemed to me like it was such an easilly adaptable system that people would just skew it and call it shamansim even though it didn't have bases in any specific tradition and didn't persay follow the basic ideas of many shamaistic cultures
<Emira> of course, I also found some pretty crapy web sites on it
<Emira> And what about yourself deary?
<Creature> True true.  Do you think that the real shamanic tradition can be properly adopted to the modern urban and sub-urban environment?  Or would the shaman who tried to practice the traditonal way would be hauled off to the nuthouse?
<Emira> I think most of us could be dragged off to the nut house.  Although, I do think it can be adapted; however one must take into acount ones full surrondings ex: I'm not going to be using a panthar as my totem because I've never seen one
<Creature> From what I understand, the shaman does not choose his/her totem, the totem animal chooses the shaman, though.
<Creature> Did you find any parallels from shamanism to other magick traditons, other then Chaos Magick?
<Emira> Yeah, I suppose the totems do chose the shaman...
<Emira> Well, I found corolations between it and most other things that relie heavily on symbolism, elemental magic, astrology, so forth
<Emira> and also between some it and some of the traditions that developed from the Baachic (sp) rituals of ancient greece
<Creature> Cool stuff.
<Emira> Okay, you share now
<Creature> Ok Well..
<Creature> It seems to me that because shamanic practices have survived for so long, almost un-ultered they pretty much have to contain something that may be akin to a "universal truth" of sorts.  The most basic form of magick that works. They have pretty much everything that the other magick traditon do, but in a more direct way, so to speak.
<Creature> It seems they have a more direct approach than the other magical/esoteric traditons do to a lot of things. Like spirit communication, for example.
<Creature> All that thing about suffering, though, and undergoing physical trieals during initiation... I wonder if that's 100% necessary.
<Emira> I sort of thing so, if you go with the idiom of the "wounded healer" then their comunity function sort of does require them to understand suffering
<Creature> I wonder if many shamans die during the initiation process.
<Emira> It probably depends on the intiation
<Emira> Actually, one of the books I read the guy mentioned being very affriad that he would die in his intiation because it involved ingesting a psycoactive drug that might cause him to run blindly through the jungle
<Creature> Yeah. The drugs are the only thing that bothers me about shamanism.
<Emira> Have you thought about using Shamanistic elements in your practice?
<Creature> Yeah, actually. My goal right now is to learn to astral project.
<Creature> I'm thinking of using drumming tapes, dancing, etc to try and acheive AP.
<Creature> And not just AP. Sigil charging too. Use that stuff to achive gnosis. Spirit communication is also a technique I wouldn't mind learning.

For those of you who missed that chat, do feel free to continue on the discussion in this thread.

[Australian Warriors]

I feel sorry for you.Looking forward to the chat and only two people showed up. Aww.

[Creature]

It's alright. No big deal.  I'm sure more people would have attende had they been able to.  Let's hope the next chat will have more participants.

EDIT:

Just wanted to add that since we're doing this project, there's no reason not to feel in the gaps in our Veritas Wiki while we're at it.  Here's a new Shamanism page:

http://vsociety.net/wiki/Shamanism

Feel free to edit it to add stuff.  Keep in mind to keep stuff short, sweet, and to the poing.  Goal being to present as much essential info in as little space as possible.

[Creature]

Here's Australian Warriors' interview w/ an Australian Aboriginie shaman:

AW:

I interviewed Cohir(spelling?) which means Dirt or Ground or Earth in Aboriginal.
Darlot / Wardandie Tribal Elder
When i say "I", i mean Cohir.

AW: What is the goal/purpose of an Aboriginal Shaman?

Cohir: our goal is to be a helper,a protector,a gauardian of my people and the spirits people
My people could help a deceased person continue to afterlife or cure someone.

AW: What is your view of the world?
We belive that people should live and work together, as a large tribe or family, and live with the land. Alll the killing is not good for anyone, and is not a good way to find peace in afterlife. We are very spiritual , i have recieved visions from spiritual life forces that solve a problem.

AW: What about skills do you have? How do you initiate a new shaman?

Cohir:You must have strong belief in the mysticism of the rainbow serpent,and other spiritual areas of our area. For a young shaman, a ritual with totems of the sky hero and rainbow serpent, sometimes we bless with plants, sometimes we reenact a part of time from a previous shaman in the ceremony, beating sticks and drumming, the colors of red, black and white. This ceremony places the shaman in a trance, were he recieves his goal from the spirit that chose him.

AW: In your language what are you referred to and what does that mean?

Cohir:In my language, Shaman practice is called Barabine buyu walarr(spelling?)
It means Man of the Spirits or Spirit Contact

AW: Are herbs used in shaman(what for)

Cohir:Yes, we use all kinds of plants for healing, to cure poison, and occasionally we mix plants that produce traces for visions/spiritual contact.

AW: What is the vital ingredent to your workings?

Cohir:The igredient to shaman prractice varies from tribe to tribe but in my family it is to sucessfully complete spiritual fulfillment and enlightment.

AW: Does astrology/star signs play a role in your work?

Cohir:No,astrology does not affect ,except to tell stories. however, the setting of the sun, the back of a snake etc and very symbolic to us and we can recieve visions from that.
We tend to use natural earth based things for our symbols eg rock,animal,bird,tree.

AW: What is the significance of your atrwork?

Cohir:my tribes artwork is very important to us can tell stories of how a member lived their life, what lessons they want to pass down to us.
All aboriginal artwork is special because it is like pouring in our soul into it.

AW: Skeptical/fearful people?

Cohir:We do not bother explaining to skeptics, they tend to disrrespect our beleifs/joke about.
For fear, we may show them a piece of spiritual item,relax them with songs,dances to get them comfortable. Occasionaliy our visitors recieve a vision of how to solve a problem( eg were lost wallet) or come to us sick and return healed or feeling better.

AW: How would one distinguish between true visions sent by the spirits and those created by your mind/imagination?

Cohir:We know that it is spiritual communication because the feeling you get through visions and enlightments is undescribable. Our ansestors for generations have been teaching how to do it, so if it is our imagination is never a problem.

AW: A lot of scientists who studied shamanism make the mistake of associating it with mental illness, to dispell that myth, could you describe to us what makes a shaman different from someone who is suffering from halucinations brought on by a mental disease?

Cohir:These comments are very upsetting to both me and my tribes. It makes me very sad when people put of our beliefs as "just myth".
We enter trances that can cause confusion, happiness,sadness,alter concious,hypnosis etc. A mental person does not experience these things such as we.