Shaman
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Shaman
A Shaman is an indigenous individual who engages in Connection Practice, typically with the aid of Connection Supplements, in order to make a strong Connection to The Fabric for the purposes of healing, gathering information and insight (divination, clairvoyance), or harming another person.
Syncretic Terms
Related Terms
Drums, Guardian Boards, Holy Ones, Quartz Crystals, Sacred Pipe, Sacred Stones, Shamanic Principle, Spirit Lodge
Notes
"A shaman may be defined as a man or woman who is in direct contact with the spirit world through a trance state..." [1]
"In other words, it would be more correct to class shamanism among the mysticisms than with what is commonly called a religion.[2]
"In Central and Northeast Asia the chief methods of recruiting shamans are: ( 1) hereditary transmission of the shamanic profession and ( 2) spontaneous vocation ("call" or "election")."[3]
The Jivaro Indians of the Ecuadorian Amazon recognize two types of Shaman, a bewitching shaman or a curing shaman. Both kinds take a connection supplement, natema, in order to enter the supernatural world. [4]
There are certain common elements of the shaman's experience including the sensation of a soul as separate from the body, feelings/visions of flight, metamorphosis into an animal, bird, fish, or spirit possession, reptiles, snakes (anaconda), and large felines, especially Jaguars. [5]
Citation and Legal
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Footnotes
- ↑ Harmless, William. Mystics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. p. xi.
- ↑ Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. p. 8.
- ↑ Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. p. 13.
- ↑ Harner, Michael J. “The Sound of Rushing Water.” In Hallucinogens and Shamanism, edited by Michael J Harner, 15–27. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.
- ↑ Harner, Michael J. “Hallucinogens and Shamanism: The Question of a Trans-Cultural Experience.” In Hallucinogens and Shamanism, edited by Michael J Harner, 155–75. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.