The subject of Shamanism came up where some people were relying on the
dictionary definition of Shamanism, or a definition made as a result of Western
anthropologists in the past and/or New Age people later on. Dispute came when
it was stated that Native Americans are Shamanistic. Please understand that a
Shaman, or a person wholly familiar with real Shamanism thinking that some
Native Americans are Shamanistic would be miles away from a Western anthropologist
thinking that or a New Ager thinking that.
There is much written in anthropological
circles by Western scholars that has sought to "define" the many nations
of Native Americans, despite protestations that "these are wrong" from
the various Native American peoples. And there is the New Age use or abuse of
various Native American traditions, which the Native Americans strongly resent.
In all of this wrong-headedness and abuse, the word Shamanism comes up, as if
these Western people know what Shamanism is within Shamanistic cultures. The
fact is: they do not!
It is, therefore, perfectly reasonable that
Native Americans would also only know of Shamanism only from these wrong-headed
sources. As such, not knowing what real Shamanism constitutes, the Native Americans
really are in no position to say, "Yes, that's like what we believe and practice,"
or "No, that's nothing like what we believe and practice." Let us say
that someone claims you are a moozhcheena. How can you insist that you are not
a "moozhcheena" or are a "moozhcheena " if you have no idea
what "moozhcheena" means? You can't; not until someone explains exactly
what it means.
For one main thing: there is no such thing as "THE
Native American religion." Their religions vary and/or are very different
from tribe to tribe.
For the second main thing: the Western "dictionary"
or "Western anthropological" or New Age definition of Shamanism itself
is wrong.
This is now put here in the hopes that Native American peoples
can see what people that are from Shamanism and who have lived in that tradition
have to say.
First of all, the word Shaman is not an English or Western
word. It is a word well known to people of Central and Eastern Asia and the near
Arctic zone regions who practice it and who have practiced it and who live it.
Other words for "a shaman" are Boga and Uber in Turko-Tatar-Mongol languages.
Ngagspa would be a Tibetan word for the equivalent.
There are certain
specific features in Shamanism that are not in paganism of any kind and not in
polytheism or monotheism. For one, it must be understood that in Shamanism, natural
phenomena are observed and given causes and effects that are not scientific
as we understand science, but they are also not supernatural.
It
must be clearly understood (if that's even possible) that the concepts themselves
of Deity and Spirit are nothing like Western concepts of such things.
There
is a Supreme Spirit. That's as-given. Even inside of one culture, there can
be many titles for it (not names). For example: The Lord Time Devourer; Boundless
Everpresent Darkness; Incomprehensible Black Fire; Great Spirit; Great Mystery
Spirit; The Incomprehensible Thatness; The Beingness; The Be-ness; The Infinite
and Ineffable IS; The Unknowable Absolute; and so forth.
This is something
that is felt to be in all things, not just living things. It's not some
abstract idea of the mind alone. This Deity is never exclusively transcendent
or apart from all things; it is both transcendent in that it is the first thing
even before the "all that is" (Cosmos), It is before anything else was;
but it is also in all things, here, and/or all things here are in IT!.
Both. It is a force or field that permeates and motivates all that is.
As
one Native American put it when specifically asked about this: "The physical
universe consists of many individual things, including the bodies we inhabit and
everything those bodies perceive through the ordinary senses. It also exists as
an entirety - that which we call the Universe - just as our body, for example,
exists as an entirety while still being made up of discrete components which exist
individually and separately. Spirit, likewise, exists as something like a 'field'
encompassing - and permeating - all things in the physical universe. Where that
spirit permeates an individual, component 'thing' within the Universe, it too,
exists as an individual, discrete 'thing' (or 'essence' if you will) and that
individual spirit reflects (or determines, depending mostly on your point of view)
the Nature of the physical thing it is attached to. Consciousness, with its emotions,
ideas, values, moral character, etc, springs from this spirit, not from the physical
object itself. In other words, 'I' am not a body with a 'soul' or 'spirit' residing
within, but rather [I am] a 'spirit' or 'soul' residing within a particular body.
Since 'Spirit' permeates all things, everywhere, we assume that all 'things' have
spirit within them." [Note that the Native American we are quoting does not
consider himself or his people, the Lakota, Shamanistic and they might not be
if he's relying on what real Shamanism is. But his definition here is very good
for concepts that are in real Shamanism. There is more to Shamanism
than just this. There is much more to Shamanism than what is stated in the dictionary.
Also understand that in much of practical Shamanism, the concepts
can sound very simple when a stranger comes and asks about it, but the concepts
can also be things that modern day physicists understand only now. So they are
not so simple after all. The "deity" is just the first part of what
Shamanism is.
Please keep in mind that all things in the universe are
permeated and motivated by what is conceived of as Spirit.
Then there are
specific types of spirits or types of things that are considered
permanent; for instance earth, wind, fire, water, air, sky, sun, and moon. These
are things that are "permanent" - always there. They are always what
they are, they never grow old and die. That's the concept. For instance: fire,
fire is always fire; it gives and consumes, it transforms, etc. Water is soft,
yielding, enveloping, permeating, etc. Even though it's soft, water can still
overpower earth and fire. Rock is hard, silent, static and stationary. This is
known through observation and you can know the spirit of these things through
observation. There is more than one kind of observation. There is observation
with the senses such as with actual practice, trial and error - how things tend
to practically work; and there is observation with the heart and intuitive mind,
informing us of the spirit of the things, or animals. (It would be so much easier
to explain if one could just touch the earth and know its spirit! Or breathe
in the air and know not only its spirit, but it's mood.)
Then there are
the spirits of things that are not so permanent, not always there, and not always
the same: like trees, or animals, including people. When these non-permanent
things die, the Spirit lives on. How it lives on varies, just as how it lives
its life can vary. It can be reincarnated. It can linger and be very destructive
or very helpful. What a spirit lingering on after death becomes, it not necessarily
what the being was when he/she/it was alive.
Conceiving of Shamanism as
merely a trance method that is used to ward off evil spirits is incredibly naïve.
In fact, conceiving of Shamanism as a trance method to get in touch with any
spirits is also naïve. Conceiving of Shamanism as the practice of entering into
a trance for ecstatic purposes is also very naïve since there are many easier
ways to have ecstasy. There are many kinds of trances and practices that a
Shaman can do. In Shamanism, they generally aren't given specific names.
There
are the real ancestors, historical tribal figures that are very real people who
have done very real deeds and there are mythical or allegorical ancestors. Totems
are of the allegorical ancestor and can usually identify the tribe or clan. For
instance, the totem of most Turko-Tatar Shamanistic peoples is Borte Chino (Gray
Wolf) and his wife Maral Kho'ai (Tawny Doe). These are considered ancestors.
Obviously, these people did not evolve into human beings from a wolf mating with
a doe; so there is symbolic meaning. The Western dictionary definition: (noun:
emblem consisting of an object such as an animal or plant; serves as the symbol
of a family or clan. noun: a clan identified by their kinship to a common totemic
object) is not that far off; they leave out the part where the totem actually
represents an allegorical ancestor and contains a lot of abstract symbolism.
However, symbols to describe abstract things are understood fully by the tribe
to be only symbols. The language that most Shamanistic people speak is
also more intuitive/symbolic than cerebral/abstract. The things the symbols represent
are often beyond words or they are many concepts synthesized into one Idea. Also,
the banner that the tribe might use might not be the same as the totem they use.
Shamanism can be said to be using spirit ideas, based on the spirit of
the thing being observed, to describe the laws of nature and how things in nature
work, like cause and effect. Their explanation for what they are doing is not
like a western concept of it and due to Western concepts or paradigms, such things
are often impossible to communicate.
There is no inherent or innate thing
in any Shamanistic people to battle or conquer nature - as there is in ALL monotheistic
people - (read this to say that Monotheistic people who create things, tend to
create monotheism from their hearts and beings.) That's a big difference!
Animals
are not viewed as lesser or more than humans. Animals are people of other tribes.
And people are animals. That's another big difference! This is not some dogma
for Shamanistic people "concerned about the ecosystem"; they live reality
that way and always did. For instance, in order to cooperate, e.g., with a wolf,
you don't "tame" it. You get to know the wolf's culture and communicate
with it. You meet it half way, person to person. A wolf is a person, a horse
is a person. Or rather, you and the wolf and the horse are spirits that inhabit
three different bodies. You are individual spirits, but at the same time you
are all one with the Great Oneness. As such, there is no spiritual difference
per se. Spirit is Spirit, ultimately. The difference is only in the body and
well, wolves and horses do not speak our language, nor we theirs.
As said
previously, and contrary to the "anthropological" opinions, the many
trance states that a Shaman may enter are not something that Shamanistic people
do because they want ecstasy. There are far simpler ways to get ecstasy!
They do them for many and various reasons. First of all, because it's cold where
Shamanistic people come from, there is a heat-generating thing that's done where
one never has to enter a trance at all. Tibetans call this a Yoga and it might
well be a Yoga for them, but it is more like a reflex, like the diving
reflex: the heart slows down and you generate internal heat and get warm - when
it gets cold enough for this reflex to "turn on," it just happens.
There
is a trance state where one can "make big" their consciousness and relocate
their consciousness into anything, anyone or anywhere, including the "at-onement"
with the Absolute. There is a trance state wherein you realize that "all
that is" is like an illusion and that to think there is any difference
between self and non-self is illusory. There is the trance state often done by
a Shaman to guide a person dying as he is dying and after he is dead. There is a
trance state where one can "make very small" their consciousness and
relocate their consciousness inside their own body or inside another's body, example,
when you are sick you make your consciousness very very small and see what's wrong
with you. You can do spiritual battle on that small level with what is invading
your body (germs). Making herbs or medicines to help with this is not part of
the trance states, but trance states can inform you where to get the herbs, or
which herbs to use, but not necessarily. There is a trance state where you get
out of your body and get inside the totem and see through its eyes. There is
a trance state where you see people as if in the "dimension" of time;
you see the weave of life. That is, you don't see solid objects in space; you
see them as a weave moving through time and have to be able to distinguish their
particular weave from the whole web of life. This is often used to ward off evil
spirits (whether the spirits are of dead people or living people doesn't matter)
and to protect the person whose weave is being attacked (self or another). There
is a trance state where you can make your consciousness one with your own inner
flame or light and direct that flame/light. This is done to battle on a spiritual
level and can be done viewing things in a spatial way, or in a time way. There
is a trance state where you are in touch with an aspect of the Absolute
that is Unbeing, Terrible, Awful and direct that like a "wind" against
an evil person spiritually attacking self or another; that is done viewing things
in the time way, as a weave. These practices and exactly how they are done are
not things that "researchers" would likely be told about.
There
is also dream time, which is not the same as a trance state. In Shamanism,
dreams are real and they tell you something real. They can be literal or symbolic.
You can direct the dream if you wish; you can wake up and then continue the dream;
you can wake up and end the dream or continue the dream at a later time. If the
dream is a warning of things to come, and you later find yourself in that very
situation (in the West it's called déjà vu), you can alter the outcome if you
remember it from the dream.
In the West some of these dreaming
abilities are known about now and referred to as "lucid dreaming," but
most Western people can not do it. So then, if they can not do this, or any
of these things, how can they possibly understand them? They can't. These
are not things that anyone can know or understand except by doing. These
things can't just be taken outside of the whole paradigm of life they are
in and interpreted by people in a whole other paradigm of life who can't do these
things. These are things that can not be understood abstractly. They have to
be done. You know by doing, just as you know what an orange tastes like
by tasting an orange; there is nothing abstract about it. When a person so far
outside this cultural stream actually does even one of these things, either their
perception of life itself goes through a drastic change, or they can't handle
it and break down, or they become terrified of it and retreat into their churches.
As far as moral codes, ethical ideas and cultural practices go, these differ
from tribe to tribe and are usually not connected to anything necessarily spiritual
in any sense (except to consider that all things have Spirit). In other words,
the way people in one location do things is based on what is practical for that
place. That's more or less tribal and practical. The way they sing or dance,
their marriage or other practices, are not really connected to bonafide Spiritual
ideas as they are, for instance, in the Monotheistic religions. People from a
monotheistic paradigm might interpret these things as spiritual, however.
Shamanistic
people are inwardly very nomadic, even if they aren't physically nomads, they
"go with the flow" very easily. As said above, they don't innately
feel the urge to battle against the as-given things in nature or conquer them.
In Tibet, some of these trance states are considered yogas and some of
them have been given very specific names by the Tibetans. Some of the terms fit
what a Shaman does, but some do not. Using these words these days, for Shamanistic
people, is like finding words to distinguish a dog from a wolf when you didn't
used to have such specific words.
We hope this serves to inform Native
Americans (and others too, maybe) about Shamanism.
