I would also answer other, as to the mood stabilizers and psyche drugs that doctors prescribe with a glint of dollar signs in their eyes these days. We have no idea of the long term affects and the short term reactions and side effects can be fatal or damaging to the human psyche. If I must go through life without feeling to any extreme, then I may is well be dead. My pet-peave words are; "Oh, that's nice." In otherwords, no reaction whatsoever. A walking, talking, mimic zombie or clone of an existence.
A Shaman is to convey myth. Not only can a Shaman rehearse myth which has been handed down from the most ancient times, but they understand myth and, when the occasion arises, they convey new myth.
What Shaman "is" becomes clear by three other practices in which some Shaman function: acting as mediums of the spirits; directing communal ritual; and healing.
Most Shaman perform these functions, but they are not "necessary" elements of Shaman phenomena.
Lacking understanding of the spiritual nature of Shamanism, or being influenced by the observable practices of healing and ritual, has led some to believe that the most important function of Shaman is to heal -- to be a medicine man. It is not.
Life is short. Eternity is long. Healing the sick or injured only preserves the body for a minuscule time. The body will then deteriorate with age, die and decay or be destroyed.
It is the soul that must be preserved, and it is only those ailments of the body which effect the spirit that involve Shaman. A spirit which is not whole cannot be conducted on the Way. It will be destroyed on the Way. This is why is with maladies of the spirit that Shaman employs his spiritual power to heal.
Healing by medicine and herbs is the calling of a medicine man, not the Shaman; and while few medicine men are Shaman, all Shaman can heal the spirit without knowing a single herbal remedy.
However, it should be noted that while learning the traditions of the clan, most Shaman are instructed in diagnosing illnesses and in healing herbs, and most Shaman are also medicine men, which is often (though not always) the first step to becoming Shaman.
A Shaman is someone who has been to the end. He is someone who knows how the world really works. Knowing how the world really works means to have risen outside, above, beyond the dimensions of ordinary space and time. He has stepped outside the confines of learned culture and learned and embedded language, into the domain of what is called "the unspeakable".
The Shaman knows the transcendental presense of the other, which can be utilized in various ways, to yield systems of knowledge which can be brought back into ordinary social space for the good of the community. So in the context of ninety percent of human culture, the shaman is the agent of evolution.
The Shaman learns the techniques to go between ordinary reality and the domain of the ideas. This higher dimensional travel is available to us, and yet ordinarily not available by cultural convention out of fear of the mystery.
Shamans are people who have been able to de-condition themselves from the community's distrust of the mystery, and to go into it, to go into this bewildering higher dimension, and gain knowledge, recover the jewel lost at the beginning of time, to save souls, cure, commune with the ancestors and heal.
Five thousand years before christianity, Inanna heard the Great Below and abandoned heaven and earth to descend to the underworld, abandoning Her seven temples in Uruk, Babtibira, Zabalam, Adab, Nippur, Kish and Akkad.
She gathered Her seven "me", the seven gifts of the Gods, and prepared Herself. She put the crown of the Steppe on Her head and arranged Her hair across Her forehead; She tied the small lapis beads about Her neck, and placed the long double strand of lapis beads so they fell on Her breasts; She put a gold bracelet around her arm, (The Shaman places the copper or silver bracelet on his arm) wrapped the royal robe around Her body, daubed Her eyes with ointment and bound the alluring breastplate around Her chest.
She then took the lapis measuring rod and line in Her hand and set out for the underworld accompanied by Her sukkal adviser, Ninshubur, who was Her faithful servant and had fought by Her side. Inanna instructed Ninshubur in what to do if She did not return.
The earliest writings we have of the "Descent of Inanna" are nearly five thousand years old, and are copies of much older writings that are least 1,700 years before the copies. But even the 5,000 year old record shows that preparation and Descent of Inanna and the Trial of Shaman has remained virtually unchanged over five millennia.
Inanna arrived at the outer gates of the underworld, knocked and spoke to Neti, the guardian of the way from which no traveler returns. She told Neti that She had come to see her older sister, Ereshkigal, whose husband Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, had died. (In Sumerian astrology Gugalanna died 6700 years ago). When Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, heard this She "slapped Her thighs and bit Her lip with vengeance". She ordered Neti to bolt the seven gates of the underworld.
When Neti opened the First Gate he removed Inanna crown and when She asked, "What is this?" Neti told Inanna to be quiet, "the ways of the underworld are perfect, They may not be questioned."
At each gate she asked the same question and was given the same answer, "the ways of the underworld are perfect, They may not be questioned."
At the Second Gate he removed Her lapis beads, at the Third Gate Her double strand beads, at the Fourth Gate the breastplate, at the Fifth Gate, the gold ring from her arm, at the Sixth Gate he took Her lapis measuring rod and at the Seventh Gate he removed her royal robe so she entered naked and bowed low.
In the throne room of Ereshkigal, the Annuna, the judges of the underworld, surrounded Inanna and passed judgment against Her. Ereshkigal, fastened the "eye of death" on Her, spoke in wrath against Her and pronounced Her guilty. When Ereshkigal struck Her, Inanna turned into a corpse, a piece of rotting meat and was hung from a hook on the wall.
Shaman Initiation follow a similar course in which the aspirant Shaman descends to the underworld very much as did Inanna, though the role of Ninshubur, who can go to an Enki - God of Wisdom, evolved from the Primitive to the Priesthood of the God or Goddess who helps.
The aspirant Shaman goes into an ecstatic state, delirium caused by an illness, sensory depravation, a form of madness or an induced trance. She experiences death; demons degrade her, take her worldly possessions, torture her and cut her in pieces or hang her on hooks. She may descend to the underworld or ascends to the heavens and returns to life.
This Trial enables her to see the Spirits and to communicate with them. But that is where Shaman and Priesthood part. Shaman, like Gilgamesh, Orpheus, Hercules, Sisyphus and Odysseus goes to the Underworld but not to its darkest pit.
Nor do Shaman confront the Gods and Goddesses of the Underworld as Inanna did. Instead they meet or confront the "Guardians of the Way", and though they travel the path from which "no man returns", they do return, Shaman.
As was told to me by my Shaman and he was told by his Shaman and so on the following recounting and knowledge has been passed down for millions of years. We will start at what we know as the beginning:
Shaman & Priestress
Although Shamans are "technically" only found in central and arctic Asia, where they are called Shaman, the phenomenon, "Shamanism", is found throughout Asia, the Pacific and the indigenous peoples of North American.
Native societies of South America retain some of the shamanistic features, but the phenomena are significantly different. There are as many variations of Shamanism as there are variations of christianity.
Thus, "Shaman" is not a "universal order", but rather, a general religious phenomenon, which differs in its outward forms, but retains certain common (key) elements which make it the same wherever it is found.
Shamanism is Primitive, that is, "the first of its kind", and either exists unchanged with its original characteristics or in some cases has devolved into "lesser" religions that lack the shamanistic phenomenon. In other instances it has evolved into a Priesthood. Because Shamanism retains the Primitive, "the first of its kind", communication or communion with the Spiritual, Shamanism did not evolve from a lower form.
It is impossible for Shamans to be priests. This is because "priesthood" is specific to a God, Goddess, Demigod or Demigoddess who bestows authority to act in that God's behalf and grants control of the lesser demigods and spirits. Shaman uses the power of the Spirits, but do not control them.
Shaman is in touch with the Spirits of the "Way" or the "Path", but cannot compel those Spirits except by the Spirit's consent. A Priestess on the other hand has absolute control over the Spirits.
Which bring us to a point it would be well to remember. The mystical is not a democracy. It is not subject to mortal commands. One cannot chose to rule over the Gods, or even to be their servants. Nor can one chose to rule over the Spirits or be subject to them. Thus, either one is a Priestess and is chosen by the Gods or Goddesses to rule the Spirits, or one is Shaman and is guided by, or led by the Spirits. One cannot be both.
Blue is also part of the title for my book, Blue Fire. Synopsis below:
Blue Fire By DragonBlue (c) June 2003-2008 and beyond
DragonBlue struggles to find balance in her life and survival is her first priority. She meets and does battle with the Dark Wolf. The Wolf and his Lord of Darkness have wrecked havoc through-out the land as he hypnotizes his prey with his terrifying song so that he can kill with ease.
DragonBlue is unable yet to fly, as her wings are worthless in the wind and sky. She slays her nemesis and his Dark Lord and then finds a way to use her wings. She continues to struggle with her knowledge that danger is just around the corner and as she is starting to soar with her new found freedom from her arch enemy; she comes across a human girl named MoonChild locked away in a forlorn castle.
They continue to travel together seeking for that which they can sense yet cannot be seen. ******************* and ******************* the title to a poem I wrote a while back:
Blue
One week after moving in with the wolf disguised, Through a beating; no anger or frustration am I to realize. I am not allowed to feel in any extreme... Neither am I allowed to cry or scream. I am to do only as I am told; for to do otherwise again the violence will unfold. I will be grateful for this I have been given; a home that will never be mine-that I live in.
So I shall silently cry and wish... for my Daley Storm and internally relish~ Basking in his love that was so pure; if only I could have known this before... the door to my cage was locked into place-- like the bruises now visible upon my neck and face...
I would be a grizzly bear or a dragon, for both are at the top of their food chain and neither should be hunted by humans. Though if I were either a bear or a dragon, I would hunt humans just to teach them a lesson.
I agree with above as they answer to no one but humans and then only when we use machinery to kill them.
M agick is my calling and my salvation, A nswer to deep and searching questions. G regariously avoiding the lies I nner conflict, my lightning denies. C ircles fill complete with deep blue K issing scarcity goodbye too.
I ntellect driven by my fate N aming and releasing my hate.
T ogether with my totem grizzly bear H oming in on our path as we compare E very left and right we observe aware.
B eneath our higher road of cold pain L ies the crooked spine of freezing rain. U niversal love is what we find E asier to achieve within time.
S ubtle whispers on the wind through the leaves K eys to the noble faery to believe Y oung, my spirit is old as I grieve.
Silence is so very loud at times Identity crisis over chimes Little voices that know the way Eloquently they really say Never a dull moment in glibness Titillate ease with assertiveness
Longing for fluency to facilitate Unconditional love to communicate. Clarity in confidence and poise with style Inspired conviction, loyal with a smile. Drinking in all the persuasion of expression In complete perspicuity of rhyme and reason Tortuously logical in mundane consistency You articulate to die in the silent lucidity.
DragonBlue Forum Posts (12)
RE: Whats drug do u think is the worst and why?
I would also answer other, as to the mood stabilizers and psyche drugs that doctors prescribe with a glint of dollar signs in their eyes these days. We have no idea of the long term affects and the short term reactions and side effects can be fatal or damaging to the human psyche. If I must go through life without feeling to any extreme, then I may is well be dead. My pet-peave words are; "Oh, that's nice." In otherwords, no reaction whatsoever. A walking, talking, mimic zombie or clone of an existence.