Creature's research paper on shamanism:
Part of
Veritas History of Magick Resarch ProjectShamanismMan's earning for understanding, experience, and control of the world of gods and spirits dates back to the time before the beginnings of civilization. To the very dawn of humanity can this thirst for spiritual understanding be traced. On the stone walls of the caves our ancestors dwelled in we can glimpse the reflections of this search for knowledge, forever engraved into the fabric of the ages by the artists of long ago. But it is not just this testament in paint and stone of our ancestors spirituality and religion that has survived to our day, it is their very practices themselves. These, grouped under a common term, Shamanism, are practiced to this day in all corners of the world. Shamanic practices in Asia, North and South America, Siberia, Greenland, Indonesia, Australia and other places, however remote from each other, bear certain uncanny similarities.
Shamans are said to be able to both heal and harm with magic. They operate in a trance, and use common techniques to achieve that trance. They fly to places where gods and spirits dwell, free imprisoned souls and bring back from those ethereal realms messages of prophecy and wonder. They speak with spirits of the animals and are even said to have control over natural phenomena.
The word “shaman” comes from the Siberian Tungus language. There may be a bit of disagreement among the sources as to the exact meaning of the word. Some say the exact translation is “one who knows” (Wikipedia), yet another source claims that it comes from word
saman which means “one who is excited, moved, or raised” (Stein, 14). The word “shaman” was first used in print by Avvakum Petrovich, a Russian priest who lived in the second half of the seventeenth century. It appeared in his autobiography where he describes his encounter with a shaman on his expedition to Siberia. (Narby, 18) Within various cultures there are other, native terms for “shaman”, such as
karadji (translated as “clever man”) in Australia,
manang or
dukun in Indonesia,
Txiv Neeb (“father/master of spirits”) among the Hmong,
miko (female shaman) in Japan,
angokok among the Eskimo. (Stein, 25-29)
A shaman fulfills several roles in his or her community. He or she is a doctor, a leader, a prophet and a magician. Shamans are feared, loved, and respected among their people. But even so, the road of a shaman seems to be a lonely and painful one, especially in the beginning. A person can be initiated into shamanhood in three ways: by voluntarily choosing the path of a shaman him(or her) self and seeking an experienced shaman as a teacher, by inheriting the role (if one comes from a family of a shaman), or by receiving a “call” to shamanhood from spirits. Of the three, the last is considered to produce the most powerful shamans.
Often times the “call” to become a shaman is anything but welcome to the future practitioner. It is always believed to come from the spirits, whether it be mythical ones, spirits of plants or animals, or ghosts of dead shamans, and can take various forms. Sometimes a spirit my come to a man in his dreams, other times the spirits may possess him, causing sickness and madness, with only possible cure being the initiate's acceptance of his role as a shaman. Sometimes a physical accident, such as being struck by lightning or nearly killed by an animal is considered a message from the spirits demanding future shaman's acceptance of the call. Whatever form the “call” may take, it better be answered in affirmative, least the shaman-to-be suffer great consequences, such as sickness, madness, or even death.
The dreams that act as this “call” to shamanhood, and once the call is accepted, the dreams and visions that are part of initiation, often have a distinct theme of death and rebirth running through them. (Lommel, 53) The future shaman often has a dream or vision of being eaten by his future totem animal spirit and then having his body re-created by it, or of having his body cut up into pieces by spirits then put together again. Sometimes in the vision, shaman's body parts such as eyes, brain, or bones are replaced with new ones that are better equipped to perceive and interact with the spirit world. Sometimes the future shaman's power animal spirit enters into his body to permanently become part of it and thus give shaman its power.
Once the call is accepted, the shaman-to-be undergoes a painful, lonely, physically and mentally trying ordeal of initiation.
True wisdom is only to be found far away from people, out in the great solitude, and it is not found in play, but only through suffering. Solitude and suffering open the human mind, and therefore a shaman must seek his wisdom there.
Said shaman Igjugârjuk in his interview with the explorer Knud Rasmussen (Narby, 82).
Whether the art is being taught to him by a live shaman or by the spirits, the initiate becomes almost completely isolated from his community.
The young novice, the 'newly inspired' looses all interest in the ordinary affairs of life. He ceases to work, eats but little and without relishing the food, ceases to talk to people and does not even answer their questions. The greater part of his time he spends in sleep.
Some keep to the inner room and go out rarely. Others wander about in the wilderness, under the pretext of hunting or of keeping watch over the heard, but often without taking any arms of lasso or the herdsman.
-- Waldemar Bogoras quotes a shaman in his 1904 work The Chukchee. (Narby, 54)
The physical ordeals of initiation often come when the initiate shaman goes out by him or herself into the wilderness where, in order to receive visions from the spirits that teach him or her the art, they undergo extreme hypothermia, hunger and thirst. In the Native American shamanic tradition, the initiate often has to stay in the extreme heat of the “sweat lodge” for extended periods of time in order to receive his or her initiation visions. Physically, the shaman initiate trains not only to have extreme endurance to pain, hunger, and other discomforts, he or she also trains to have stamina that surpasses that of ordinary men. Shamans train to drum, dance, and sing for hours without stopping.
After the performance [the shaman] must not show any signs of fatigue, because he is supposed to be sustained by the 'spirits'
-- Waldemar Bogoras (Narby, 54)
During the trances, shamans are sometimes said to have an almost preternatural immunity to pain. In 1724 French Jesuit missionary Joseph François Lafitau wrote:
In this state of enthusiasm their spirit seems absorbed in that which possesses them. They are no longer themselves, like those diviners of whom Imablichus speaks, in whom the outside spirit operated in such a way that not only did they not know themselves but they had no feeling and did not feel any hurt during that time so that one could touch them with fire without burning them, pierce them with blazing spits, then rain axe blows on their shoulders and cut their arms with razors. Indeed, in these ecstasies one can see them swallow fire, walk on burning coals without being hurt...
Furthermore, they stick long pieces of wood down their gullets, coil living surpants in their breasts, and do a thousand other tricks that appear to border on marvelous. (Narby, 23)
If the physical ordeals of shaman's initiation are trying, to say the least, the mental ones are even more so. Some scientists attribute characteristics of shamanic practice to different mental and physical disorders: schizophrenia, epilepsy, etc. There is a curious fact, however, that psychologists have yet to explain. That fact being that even though that the person who is called to become a shaman may suffer what could be called a dangerous madness, once the person accepts the call and becomes a true shaman, they are able to obtain an absolute control over their condition. No FDA approved drugs, no trips to the psychiatrist. Waldemar Bogoras writes:
There are cases of young persons who. having suffered for years from lingering illness (usually of nervous character), at last feel a call to take to shamanic practice, and by this means overcome the disease.
But that isn't all. Not only does the shaman overcome his or her own “disease”, he or she is now able to cure others. In shamanic cultures, both mental and physical diseases are usually thought to be caused by one of two things: a foreign malevolent spirit (or spirit-object) being present within the person's body or person's soul being stolen away and held prisoner in the spirit world. If the case be the first, the shaman removes the foreign entity out of the person's body during an elaborate ritual. If the second, the shaman has to leave his or her body and fly through the world axis or
axis mundi (Wikipedia) into the spirit world and bring the sick man's soul back.
This soul travel into the spirit realm corresponds quite nicely to the modern term “astral projection”. Some shamans even mention the “silver cord” that connects the spirit body and the physical body. (Lommel, 99) Often shamans use herbal substances to help bring about the spirit journey. One of the often mentioned substances is tobacco juice or smoke, others include psychedelic mushrooms, ayahuasca, etc. Once the desired state is achieved, shamans often use symbols to aid in the spirit travel, such as flying on the backs of snakes, eagles, climbing to the sky on ropes or ladders, using holes in the ground (often called
kivas in the Zuni Native Americal tradition) to descend into the underworld. Legend has it that the shamans of old could travel to physically travel to the spirit world.
On the spirit journey shaman is tested. He or she encounters various obstacles, spirits, and gods. For the journey to be successful those must be overcome or, in case of gods and powerful spirits, appeased.
Once the soul of the sick person is brought back, it is not unusual for the shaman to issue him or her a set of taboos to observe. Taboos are given much importance in almost all shamanic traditions. Anything can be a taboo: from prohibition of working on certain days and under certain conditions, to eating certain foods, wearing certain clothes, to ways to kill an animal. Failure to observe a taboo could result in dire consequences such as sickness, death, or other such great tragedy to the person who breaks it and his or her family. Sometimes a set of taboos is given to the shaman him or her self by the spirits during his or her initiation. For example, the late nineteenth century Russian ethnographer and linguist Vladimir Ilich Jochelson writes in his observations of shaman's custom regarding his drum, “It was in its case because the drum must not be taken out of the house without its cover. A violation of this taboo may result in bringing on a blizzard.” (Narby, 59)
Curing diseases is not the only function of the shaman. Other uses of shamanic magic include: fertility magic, ensuring luck during a hunt, causing sickness or death of enemies, prophecy through evocation and invocation of gods and spirits, being a medium between the dead and the living, interpretation of omens, control over elements, burial rites and guiding the souls of the dead.
Nearly all of shamanic magic is done while shaman is in a trance. The trance is induced by rhythmic drumming, singing, dancing, and sometimes drugs. This active trance often ends with loss of consciousness and/or complete physical and mental exhaustion. (this bares resemblance to Austin Osman Spare's techniques of achieving magical gnosis, now widely used in Chaos Magick). Oftentimes, a shaman not only goes into a trance him or her self, but puts the audience under a mild trance so that they become participants in the experience (Lommel, 25)
The evidence found in the cave paintings of the Neolithic age suggests that one of the primary functions of shamanic magic was communication with animals spirits to appease them after killing them and to aid in successful hunt in the future. Animal spirits later on take on more roles as shaman's teachers and regular aids. Snake spirits are widely known to aid in shamanic initiation and often aid some shamans in spirit journeys. Other popular animals include bears, eagles, and wolves.
Over time, a shaman acquires friendship spirits that become his regular helpers. In some traditions shaman has one main helper spirit, who's physical representation (often in form of a poppet or a wooden doll) he carries with him. Sometimes the shaman invokes a spirit or a god to enter and temporarily posses his body while he is on a spirit journey. As far as Gods and Goddesses go, there is usually not a set pantheon for all shamanic traditions, but there are ones that are similar, such as Lord of the Animals, Mother of the Animals, Lord of the World, The Great Spirit, Mother of Sea Creatures, etc.
Shamans had and continue to have an important role in their societies. The fact that shamanism survived for millennia, in spite of prosecution by church and state, to this day and is still in force all over the world, and that its elements are so similar no matter where it's practiced, makes one wonder whether there may be truth hidden within it that humanity has an obligation to learn. It may be true that there can not be one true religion. But shamanism is not a religion. It is a way of life. Shamans are not priests, for they do not “preach” but live their spirituality. They need no books or hearsay to know what a god or spirit says, they know it firsthand, having talked with the entity themselves. They need no myths or legends to tell them what the afterlife or spirit world is like, for they have visited it themselves. Let us hope that this great practice shall continue to survive as it has for millenia and that eventually the secrets of shamanism will be secrets no more, but knowledge and skills available to all.
Bibliography:Lommel, Andreas, Shamanism: The beginnings of Art, translation from German by Micheal Bullock, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York – Toronto, 1967
Narby, Jeremy and Huxley, Francis, Shamans Through Time: 500 Years on the Path to Knowledge, Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin. New York, 2001
Stein, Wendy, Shamans: Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, Inc, San Diego, California, 1991
Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaman December 28, 2005.
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