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Utiseta: The Northern European Art of Plant Communication
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If shamanism is a naturally occurring human phenomenon which springs from the landscape globally, it would be interesting to see if the distribution of shamans is linked to natural energy lines, fields, or pockets of significant EMF activity. Geomancy anyone?
Nevertheless, there seems to be something powerful in man’s divine imagination which drives some of us, regardless of what we call ourselves, to venture into the darkness with spirit helpers, as we explore the spirit-realms by various means. Under the right conditions, shamans can see into and travel in darkness guided by the refulgent light of their spiritual heart, to find compassionate ways to understand and protect all life.
Thank you for taking the time to clarify. My spiritual practice includes the metaphysical, especially working with crystals; paying attention to and learning from life events, synchronicities and, astrology and numerology; the belief in a Creator, angels, guides, power animals, and other teachers; and the practice of Core Shamanic Journeying for wisdom, guidance and connection. After reading your article, it appears you do not believe in this combination. What are your thoughts?
Humility is the most important characteristic of a shaman. I believe the path to humility is easily obscured by the practice we use to help others. DO we use tools ( crystals, cards, etc.) because they give us credibility and hoped for validity? Can Spirit give us information, often in metaphor, that has relevance ONLY for the client? DO we try to interpret the message for the client- when we have no right to do so? When a shamanic practitioner, or any helper, gives the client the meaning of the message, we do that for our own ego. We cannot know the meaning for the client because we have not lived in the client’s skin. Interpreting the meaning of the message makes us untrustworthy as a humble being directed by Spirit.
Tough to be a shaman…… it is a way of living not an occasional practice………
Hello All, and thank you for reading, and absorbing, the thoughts I have shared in this article. I apologize, I do not see a way to respond to each of you, individually, who have commented.
Cath’rine Wyngarden, you ask: ” After reading your article, it appears you do not believe in this combination. What are your thoughts?” I can only say that I am not the arbiter of what works for you! Gawd, what a miserable self-assigned task that would be in life, eh?
valerie boyar… I concur. It is never okay, IMHO, to foist upon another autonomous being the messages, judgments, and opinions of myself (or the Spirits), no matter how well-intentioned, when such insight has not been requested.
Steve Staniek… I am not seeing any real reference to my article, just a statement of your own perceptions. Ok, cool.
I’ve particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition of Jaime’s letter and Jade’s article.
Reading the comments enriched my enjoyment further.
When people started calling me, “Shaman”, my first response was to curl up on the floor in a terrified ball—where were my Elders? Who was left to train me? I knew I was descended from three “shamanic” lineages, that only one of my four main lines did not have whatever that thing is in the blood. I am the only child of my parents, and I am of my mother’s mother’s people. But the Elders were all passed on by the time I was asked to accept what I am. And, yes, the Unseen world talks to me, vividly—and always has.
All I ever wanted to be was useful. All I ever wanted to be was for what I am to be enough.
IMHO, Jade is quite right, Steve Staniak, isn’t responding to the content of Jade’s article. Instead, he’s offering a view, a view from his window, so to speak. As we move through the current world cycle, I happen to resonate pretty deeply with Steve’s words, “Under the right conditions, shamans can see into and travel in darkness guided by the refulgent light of their spiritual heart, to find compassionate ways to understand and protect all life.”
Most of us humans have far more power and accountability here than we are ready to accept. IMHO, when we get it, finally let it in, the entire trajectory changes. Perhaps those of us born as Shaman have something to contribute to changing the trajectory of things toward wholeness. I do not know. I only know that there are some things I cannot not do, some places (both inner and outer) I cannot not go, and things I have “seen” and “heard” that I cannot unhear, cannot unsee…
I have dared to imagine that this, too, makes me, simply—human.
I’ve trained formally with the Dervishes, a Path that is (although few people know this) profoundly Shamanic. One of the sayings of the Dervishes is, “Ask 100 Dervishes, ‘What is Sufism?’ and you will receive 200 answers. I imagine. ‘What is Shamanism?’ is a similar quality of question that will yield, if we are scrupulously honest with ourselves, a quite similar effect.
So what are my two answers?
• A Shaman is a human being whose healing heals Creation—whose healing heals.
• A Shaman is a human being who can enter states of consciousness at will that are rarely available to most people, returning from that state with information that benefits the Shaman’s Community (howsoever they may define that). I am basically paraphrasing Harner here, but that description certainly has matched my experiences for nearly 60 years, so of course I like it 😉
Meaning and purpose are tricky notions—at once abstract and intimately personal. I tend to see purpose as revealed organically through what we love and do naturally and meaning-making as a creative act that makes us more human. No idea if it makes us Shamanic, but we human being types do seem to become more fully ourselves when the Web is more connected than torn and resonances of connectivity make a certain revelatory sense to our hearts.
…definitions.
Any effort to “define” Shamanism through conventional linguistics may seem convenient for conversational purposes however, it restricts the breadth and depth of its understanding.
I think we all can agree that the Universe is dynamic and not static, constantly evolving, therefore, the spiritual path we refer to as Shamanism undoubtedly has evolved throughout the millennia.
Why impose restrictions now…simply for convenience…hmmm 🤔
This discussion promises to lead to a better understanding of shamanism in its many forms. While some of us are cultural shamans, who were trained with specific tribal practices which developed over generations, many of us became shamans through our intuitive ability to travel and engage the spirit world without a supporting culture. To me, shamanism is an intuitive, naturally occurring human activity, discovered by those who are sensitive to other forces around them. We follow the inner path of the spiritual heart which leads us to the spiritual realm . Many spontaneous shamans find the path through trauma [being dismembered?] which forces open our deeper mind until we move into other realms. Global shamanism is evolving, and it has a much higher purpose than honouring the old tribal ways, which failed to heal humanity, and failed to protect us against a history of human atrocities.