comment on 'shamanic'.
just posting this for future reference as a comment I made on lupa's journal
Just to add this is all very interesting reading and I look forward to what thoughts come out of it. I've been churning it over in my mind for a while myself.
On a surface level, and in the past my sense of shamanic and shamans has been academic, fluffy-magicy, fantastic and distant from the here and now. Shamans and shamanic are from another time or place.
But on a deep level, something different has been going on and, especially in the last few days, I feel that I have something in me that IS being pulled-shaped by a process that feels at least it is heading into a 'shamanic' path, even though I don't know what it involves yet. And I'm not trying to sound big headed or pretentious about it. The reality of this deep stuff is very different to the surface ideas I mention above. The reality for me seems to be that I still feel on an initiation for something else that in itself has taken about 6 years so far, and has been increasingly challenging and required some courage. A key part of it/shamanic stuff I would say is death, facing death, facing the shadows, and going through wound-healing death-rebirths. And this isn't the light and airy sounding ego-death that comes from lots of zen meditation, but more of a feeling the life-mind you have built up over the years being ripped apart by vultures down to the bones. Echoing other people, shamanic over other traditions seems to be more bloody, earthy, dangerous. It feels a path that you can't chose to give up, you can only go forward or go mad. Anyway I'm waffling on and maybe this isn't the time and place to write this but hey. :)
I'm still and will be for a while trying to discern what this is all about and whether I will live through it and where it will go. It feels as though digging deep into forgotten memories. What has been really helpful reading the above comments is the focus people make on shaman/shamanic relating to tribe and community. This ressonates a lot and I would say is true. At the moment I am learning/realising a lot about how I fit into the people and world around me, how my actions can influence others, and while this sounds obvious it is a big shift to REALLY grasp when I am used to living in the individualistic boxes that the UK/USA types cultures promote.
Something I do wonder though, is that the tribe that is served could be as small as your own family and friends network, to a community of local people or maybe today the challenge is to deal with the increasingly globalisation and that the 'tribe' is perhaps worldwide. hmm
anyway so here are my thoughts so far in answer to the question. shamanic activities involves a mixture of healing(self/others) and knowledge/info/wisdom gathering about the world.shamanic is experiential, not academic. shamanic involves breaking down the barriers between matter/spirit. Shamanic is embracing the totality of life as is not pushing the light or the dark or even separting into those categories. Shamanic is NOT historical or from other cultures but can exist and perhaps is about getting right into the here and now...and perhaps the power objects can include computers and cars as much as rattles and feathers? Shamanic practice is not a set of techniques to be applied as and when but a whole lifestyle shift, that involves perhaps continual deaths and rebirths. And all of these to be done with the intent/purpose of working for nature/community/tribe rather than for personal gain/promotion (as seems to be the case with a lot of neopagan type stuff. ?????
Just to add this is all very interesting reading and I look forward to what thoughts come out of it. I've been churning it over in my mind for a while myself.
On a surface level, and in the past my sense of shamanic and shamans has been academic, fluffy-magicy, fantastic and distant from the here and now. Shamans and shamanic are from another time or place.
But on a deep level, something different has been going on and, especially in the last few days, I feel that I have something in me that IS being pulled-shaped by a process that feels at least it is heading into a 'shamanic' path, even though I don't know what it involves yet. And I'm not trying to sound big headed or pretentious about it. The reality of this deep stuff is very different to the surface ideas I mention above. The reality for me seems to be that I still feel on an initiation for something else that in itself has taken about 6 years so far, and has been increasingly challenging and required some courage. A key part of it/shamanic stuff I would say is death, facing death, facing the shadows, and going through wound-healing death-rebirths. And this isn't the light and airy sounding ego-death that comes from lots of zen meditation, but more of a feeling the life-mind you have built up over the years being ripped apart by vultures down to the bones. Echoing other people, shamanic over other traditions seems to be more bloody, earthy, dangerous. It feels a path that you can't chose to give up, you can only go forward or go mad. Anyway I'm waffling on and maybe this isn't the time and place to write this but hey. :)
I'm still and will be for a while trying to discern what this is all about and whether I will live through it and where it will go. It feels as though digging deep into forgotten memories. What has been really helpful reading the above comments is the focus people make on shaman/shamanic relating to tribe and community. This ressonates a lot and I would say is true. At the moment I am learning/realising a lot about how I fit into the people and world around me, how my actions can influence others, and while this sounds obvious it is a big shift to REALLY grasp when I am used to living in the individualistic boxes that the UK/USA types cultures promote.
Something I do wonder though, is that the tribe that is served could be as small as your own family and friends network, to a community of local people or maybe today the challenge is to deal with the increasingly globalisation and that the 'tribe' is perhaps worldwide. hmm
anyway so here are my thoughts so far in answer to the question. shamanic activities involves a mixture of healing(self/others) and knowledge/info/wisdom gathering about the world.shamanic is experiential, not academic. shamanic involves breaking down the barriers between matter/spirit. Shamanic is embracing the totality of life as is not pushing the light or the dark or even separting into those categories. Shamanic is NOT historical or from other cultures but can exist and perhaps is about getting right into the here and now...and perhaps the power objects can include computers and cars as much as rattles and feathers? Shamanic practice is not a set of techniques to be applied as and when but a whole lifestyle shift, that involves perhaps continual deaths and rebirths. And all of these to be done with the intent/purpose of working for nature/community/tribe rather than for personal gain/promotion (as seems to be the case with a lot of neopagan type stuff. ?????