Books about shamanism

[寒月 Hanyue]

Part Three: The Call To Become A Shaman

 

The "call" to become a Shaman is very unlike the "call" that many practitioners of Pagan religions have felt, the call to leave their old religion and go searching elsewhere. Almost universally, that particular call makes the seeker feel as if, when they finally encounter the chosen "right" path for them, they have "come home" on some deep level. The "call" to be a Shaman feels a lot more like getting kicked off a tall building than it does like arriving safely home. I actually refer to the call to become a shaman as a "curse", because, unlike the very strong call many of us have to come "home" to our particular religion or philosophy, or the very strong call that many of us have to become initiated "priestesses and priests", the initial stages of the call to become a shaman are truly life threatening, and refusal to accept that call can result in very real death.

 

The initial stages of the call to shamanic work can seem as if the Gods have truly abandoned one. It is the real-life equivalent of the "ordeal" that is a feature in Initiations to many traditional paths of Witchcraft or other forms of the Old Religion. It is usually accompanied by a traumatic, life-threatening, life-changing experience, one that at first makes the recipient despair of survival, if they are even conscious during the ordeal. If conscious, it is usually a feature of the experience that the potential shaman survives largely through his or her own efforts, against all odds and to the astonishment of those standing around the bedside or other crisis venue. If the shaman appears to lose consciousness or even appears to die, what usually is said to happen is that survival is achieved by the direct intervention of the spirits. This experience may consist of one or more of the following possibilities.

 

Being struck by lightning and surviving

Surviving a "fatal" traffic accident

Suffering a severe physical illness and recovering.

Suffering severe emotional or mental illness and recovering

Recovering from an "irreversible" coma

Suffering from severe drug addiction or alcoholism and recovering

Surviving serious suicide attempts without outside intervention

Having a near death experience such as those on an operating table

Surviving an attempt at being murdered

And so forth.

 

There are probably many more than these. Whatever happens, it is always an extremely close and unmistakable brush with death. Whatever the unique circumstances, the survivor of such an experience is changed forever by the first "walk between the worlds." He or she is thenceforth subject to interaction with other realms of existence whether that interaction is actively sought after, or actively avoided. The door is opened, and can subsequently never be closed.

 

Having such a near-death experience is not an indicator by itself. Either preceding or following this event (but often preceding it even from childhood) there are further signs that are usually unmistakable indicators of the call to shamanism. These signs often include such things as being subject to falling into trances, either light and day-dreamy, or deep and profound, and in those trances communicating with their own ancestor spirits, and other spirits, who may torment them until they follow the call having dreams or visions in which their own ancestors or other spirits tell them they are chosen to be a shaman having lucid dreams or visions in which spirits kill them, remove their flesh, internal organs, and so forth, sometimes devour them, and then replace those things with divine or magical flesh, innards, and so forth and bring them back to life having dreams or visions in which they are visited by a "spirit husband or wife" who has intimate relations with them, teaches them, gives them helping spirits of certain kinds, and so forth. Often this "spirit husband or wife" will threaten to kill the potential shaman unless he or her accepts both them and the call to shamanize.

 

"waking dreams" in which the person loses consciousness for moments, as in petit mal epilepsy, and when returning to consciousness speaks in other languages unknown to the person. In these instances, the shaman-to-be may appear to be babbling gibberish, but is not talking nonsense but actually saying things that make sense if the language is translated. However the call manifests itself, the experiences seem to escalate over time until the person may appear to him or her self, as well as to others, to be actually losing their mind if the call is ignored. Only if a direct acceptance of the "kick" to become a shaman is conveyed to the spirits will the manifestations be likely to cease or come under the shaman's control. If, on the other hand, the person so afflicted continues to resist the push, the worst can and does ensue in time. A person usually cannot refuse the call to the shaman's vocation without becoming seriously physically or mentally ill, or even dying. So, what happens if a person is "called" and chooses to respond affirmatively? How, then, does the process of actually BECOMING a shaman take place? Let's talk about the spiritual initiation of the shaman, and how it differs from other such initiatory experiences.

[寒月 Hanyue]

[寒月 Hanyue]

My apologies, I thought J, Bearwalker's 'So you wanna be a shaman?' was only 3 parts, and his other writings I remembered were separate articles I'd also saved. When re-formatting the above to post it I found that there are in fact 13 parts!

 

Part Five: Is Your Calling Real?

Part Six: Types of Trance

Part Seven: Patterns of Shamanism

Part Eight: Something About Symbols

Part Nine: Something About Tools

Part Ten: Spirits

Part Eleven: Spirit/Power Animals

Part Twelve: What and Why of Costume

Part Thirteen: Getting Started

 

So you wanna be a Shaman.pdf

 

So I've attached the original pdf I'd archived elsewhere. Save me formatting and posting each part. While J.Bearwalker has died, his work and community does continue and so please be respectful. I hope others find benefit from his writing, these writings were once freely available.

 

http://www.toteg.org/

 

Best

Edited April 21, 2012 by snowmonki

[寒月 Hanyue]

I also highly recommend this film;

 

http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Runner-Atanarjuat-Natar-Ungalaaq/dp/B00007L4ON

 

It is an Inuit film, made by Inuit's starring Inuit's based on one of the their old legends. And quite accurately portrays (certainly in comparison to Hollywood) their "shamansim" and aspects of "witchcraft" etc. I have no idea what extras appear on which regional dvds. All I know is that unfortunately the Region 2 edition does not have the original documentary with the French anthropologist who was a consultant. Which was partly why the film had been recommended to me. The French edition does not have english subtitles on the extras either

 

It is not everyone's cup of tea however

 

Best,

[Birch]

I also highly recommend this film;

 

http://www.amazon.com/Fast-Runner-Atanarjuat-Natar-Ungalaaq/dp/B00007L4ON

 

It is an Inuit film, made by Inuit's starring Inuit's based on one of the their old legends. And quite accurately portrays (certainly in comparison to Hollywood) their "shamansim" and aspects of "witchcraft" etc. I have no idea what extras appear on which regional dvds. All I know is that unfortunately the Region 2 edition does not have the original documentary with the French anthropologist who was a consultant. Which was partly why the film had been recommended to me. The French edition does not have english subtitles on the extras either

 

It is not everyone's cup of tea however

 

Best,

Thanks Snowmonki for taking time and effort to type all that out. I have planned to read it tomorrow morning:-) I will have a look about this French problem.

[寒月 Hanyue]

Thanks Snowmonki for taking time and effort to type all that out. I have planned to read it tomorrow morning:-) I will have a look about this French problem.

 

You are most welcome,

 

Haha. No typing, but taking the text from the pdf (I couldn't find the word doc version I have somewhere) the formatting and paragraphs got all screwed up So I had to play with it to make it legible before posting.

 

 

Best,

[Birch]

Ok:-)

Thanks for posting the pdf!

[sirius]

roger n. walsh/ "the spirit of shamanism"

 

serge kahili king/ "the urban shaman"

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Thanks for the contributions everyone

 

 

Interesting video:

Shamans of the Blind Country (1981) Part.1

[surfingbudda]

I strongly recommend Call of the Great Spirit: The Shamanic Life and Teachings of Medicine Grizzly Bear My link

The best book on Native American spirituality I have read, it is a personal account of a native american's reconnection to his heritage and finding his path as a medicine man. Personally I stay away from books that offer "step by step" shamanism or spirituality, because to me its not that black an white. I enjoy reading books like this or Mysteries of the Life Force: My Apprenticeship with a Chi Kung Master by Peter meech My link. These books offer the wonder and possibility of whats out there and encourage people to find their own teachers to learn and grow from.

 

Peace,

SB