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
Mystic > Arendiwane, Karadji, Shaman, Shamanic Principle, Wise One
Related Terms
Drums, Guardian Boards, Holy Ones, Quartz Crystals, Sacred Pipe, Sacred Stones, Shamanic Principle, Spirit Lodge
Notes
Healing
In ancient times, shamanic practice was linked to the powers of women, and ancient Goddess worship.
"Nine thousand years ago in Old Europe (throughout the Balkan areas, the Mediterranean, and the Ukraine) women were the shaman rules of the agricultural city-states. Within their temples and in their fields they performed magical mind-body practices and visualized the crops healthy and plentiful. They envisioned members of their community as prosperous. The shaman women of Old Europe descended from a much older feminine tradition of sacrality that originated in the Palaolithic period, in which women symstematized magic practices to secure plentiful food sources from the plant world. They created magical practices to protect women during pregnancy, and to bring their bodies into balance after childbirth. The magical practices of Old Europe were a continuum of feminine sacred tradition that was based on growth and nurturance."[1]
An almost universal aspect of shamanic practice is healing. [2]
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. Amongst the Jivara, Shamanism is basically a man's job, though a few women shamans exist. [3]
Healing is a central component of the Mazatec shaman's practice.[4]
Trance Channeling
"Possession-trance and spirit mediumship, the latter involving verbal communication, are the most salient characteristics of the pau’s dramatic healing rituals. During these altered consciousness states, the countenance of the pau changes, taking on the wrathful appearance of their deity and speaking with a commanding voice, impatiently demanding obedience, sometimes hurling insults at those present."[5]
"A shaman may be defined as a man or woman who is in direct contact with the spirit world through a trance state..." [6]
"In other words, it would be more correct to class shamanism among the mysticisms than with what is commonly called a religion.[7]
"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")."[8]
"The Jivaro believe that the true determinants of life and death are normally invisible forces which can be seen and utilized only with the aid of hallucinogenic drugs. The normal waking life is explicitly viewed as "false" or "a lie," and it is firmly believed that truth about causality is to be found by entering the supernatural world or what the Jivaro view as the "real" world, for they feel that the events which take place within it underlie and are the basis for many of surface manifestation and mysteries of daily life."[9]
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. [10]
Footnotes
- ↑ Jamal, Michele. Shape Shifter: Shaman Women in Contemporary Society. New York: Arkana, 1987. p. 5
- ↑ Peters, Larry. Tibetan Shamanism: Ecstasy and Healing. California: North Atlantic Books, 2016.
- ↑ Harner, Michael J. The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfals. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1972.
- ↑ Wasson, R. Gordon, George Cowan, Florence Cowan, and Willard Rhodes. Maria Sabina and Her Mazatec Mushroom Velada. Flo. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
- ↑ Peters, Larry. Tibetan Shamanism: Ecstasy and Healing. California: North Atlantic Books, 2016.
- ↑ 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 Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfals. London: Robert Hale & Company, 1972. p.134
- ↑ 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.
