THE |
|
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects. |
To: soc.religion.shamanism From: deane@netcom.com (Dean Edwards) Subject: Re: The Academic Question of Shamanic Studies Date: 16 Nov 1994 06:49:52 GMT ...Each person has their own expereince. This is a combination of our outer and inner lives. Without an inner life, a shaman cannot develop the personal tools necessary to function for anyone. The inner journey and the outer journey become complementary aspects. Each have their own value and usefulness. The act of connecting the inner with the outer existence is a personal thing. Sometimes it may also be done within a group, sometimes not. Such things are usually held sacred and close. Among many Siberian people's there is a keen appreciation for the symbolic significance of the pole star which they see in the night sky. All other objects in the heavens move around this central star, Polaris. It is often called 'the nail (peg) in the sky.' It connects the heavens to the earth via a great cosmic pillar. (This pillar shows up prominently in many traditions, including the celtic.) The pillar (or column) is a musical expression of light. It is sometimes called the axis-mundi here in the west. Actual initiation, in the sense in which I am speaking here, is well represented by the cosmic/world pillar connecting earth and thei heavens. It is an inner spiritual event. It also, in my expereince, has an outer component. An initiation (or for that matter, any inner experience), IMHO, is made whole by grounding it in all aspects of being, including the physical. What an outer initiator can do is to assist in the process of grounding the experience in the physical and perhaps also in the other aspects of emotion, heart, mind and spirit. ...A shaman engages in the exploration and development of their own initiation and expereince. There are also a whole lot of cultural variables. Most of the real training that a shaman experiences seems to occur inwardly and not outwardly. Applying what has been learned is another broad topic in itself. A shaman engages in the practice of being a shaman. This goes beyond desire, feeling or ritual. ...There is, it would seem, a distance that must be crossed between the Call and the actual practice. In the Shamanism-General Overview I use a lot of qualifying words such as usually and often. There are no hard and fast deliniations here. This is why we cannot specify exactly when the line between recognizing a possibility and being able to put life into it and practice it is crossed. This is an individual experience. It can have sigificant ramifications for those who work with, interact with or come to a shaman, but the one who is doing the work is the shaman. Much of this is personal and involves self development. Even in these quiet ways, a shaman can affect the community in which they live. The recognition of this seems to often lead to more obvious methods of interacting with those around her/him. There is an old street expression, "You can talk the talk, can lyou walk the walk?" A shaman may or may not talk much, but walks, swims, flies and moves beyond the ken of the mundane. Personal experience varies considerably, but a shaman does indeed put into practice a process of inner and outer life we more generally refer to as shamanism. Dean
The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org. |
Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site. |
The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories, each dealing with a different branch of religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge. Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit: |
|
interdisciplinary:
geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc. |
SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):
OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST
Southern
Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo,
including slave narratives & interviews
|