Are you all familiar with shamanism?

Life centered magic? Not necessarily life centered, but definitely spirit centered, living or otherwise.

In our role-play shamans are primarily healers. Is this the case or do they do more? Oh, they certainly do more though some of it is part of what inspired today’s topic on Dark Shamanism.

The shaman, or feminine shamanka, is a person in tune with both the natural and spiritual worlds. In the shamanic model, the spirit world and the natural world have no real division so all events that take place in the natural world are seen to have a spiritual counterpart as well.

The Greek word for the spirits of the features of the world is “daemon” which just denoted a spirit that exists on a level between humanity and the sovereign divinities. However they may have been thought of, in many cultures the closest thing they even had to “gods” were just elder spirits, beings so old and wise and powerful that you didn’t bother them for fear of showing disrespect.

The shaman you most often hear about is the one who manages to live in peace with the people of their tribe, but it being a big world both naturally and spiritually, often even a “normal” shaman would change and take on characteristics that their people found more disturbing, even in time perhaps intolerable.

So it is not true that shamans tend to be eccentric hermit types? Maybe that image came about because of the narcotics they use to help them focus? Actually, not really. What they had to be willing to do though was separate their own activities from the daily routines of the tribe. The materials a shaman sought for their rituals and healing practices were well outside the normal use or understanding of most of the tribe, and the things the shaman kept observational tabs on often had to be observed in such a way as to not disturb what was being observed. One person could watch and learn and understand. Small groups would disrupt everything.

Was standing apart like that a sort of defense from the tribe? Defense for the tribe, actually.

Even modern neuroscience is establishing a link between genius and creativity and insanity. The shaman would at times withdraw as they felt a phase coming on, and their behaviour while withdrawn led to a great deal of stories about strange human-like monsters in the woods. The legend of werewolves stems from this as even the word shaman is originally of European origin.

The shamanic practices gave their students a broad vision of the world as they knew it and a sense of things as they were happening and as they might happen in the future. It also gave them an altered sense not only of their personal capacities, but even their own identity.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~