Seeking Shamans

You can not deliver yourself into the world of shamanic destiny, you are born to that destiny, it matters not if you study, practice, believe, feel, shamanic destiny is born with you no matter how you sugar coat it, also it is delivered through the Mother, it is your ancestors who choose you to become their messenger.

Enlightened thinking is achievable through dedication to yourself and truth in what you follow, lies do not exist in a shamanic mind, and the spoken word is only used when there is something that needs to be said, not when you have something to say.

Would not the most sacred of messengers, the builders of tools for hunting use a dremel if they lived today? after all what is most important the traditional way of napping an arrowhead, or the feeding of your people?

Just like building your tools wisdom will guide you to the most effective path to reach your destiny, after all a straight line is not always the quickest way to a destination.

Groovy thread.

Makes me all paranoid and #.

You know...that blue light in the middle thing?!

(very obscure reference)

Really, I dig this thread.

I have wondered at the locales!

New Mexico..wow love the place, sense of "Yawn"..haha (riddle)
Germany or European guy...scary people live in Germany (sorry Carl Jung Archtype given to me by the MSM)
YEa what ever...

MY ADVICE IS THIS!

When, on board a jet, always let out a REBEL 2 minute YEAHHHHHHHHH upon takeoff and landing.
This calms the nerves and breaks the ice for everyone onboard.

Hello all.

I am a good friend of Scurvy's who's practice is carried through with myself.
This is an excellent thread; and I have some questions myself.
While I'm shackled to labour, once I arrive home, I shall elaborate.

But I have questions merely about inner travel, and signs of progression... while things happen all the time, I am not entirely sure what it all means.


For example, the other night, I saw this .... wormhole type thing in my third eye, which I ... focused on and let manifest... and while this happened, I saw an eye emerge and it opened, and in the pupil I saw a flower spinning, so I spun it as fast as I possibly could (at which point I experienced an odd speed in my mind I experience only in heigtened states of mind) And as this speed increased I saw more things manifesting behind my eyes, but then I felt as if I spun it too fast, and then I felt odd, and opened my eyes, and it stopped.

I realised it is possibly just a chakra spin; but it started manifesting realistic things behind my eyes.

I am just curious about where I am headed.

to walk between the worlds and to beable to 'function normaly' can be very hard indeed, it will change you and your life. i have lived between the veil all my life and i'm still, at 34 just getting the hang of it. living in modern society and the other can be quite a strain unless you have clear bounderies on this existance and others. day to day reality i find has to be to some degree separate from the realities experienced as a shaman, so i find grounding myself is paramount to my daily life.
i find that going with (at risk of sounding new agey) the flow helps and can keep me open to my true path, i find that if i try to hold things in, to fight my way then things can go belly up.
i work maily in a solitary way but have 2 'sisters' whom i work with regulary, we get together to exchange and amplify our energy and just to talk to.
becarefull of joining a group as such as these are often rideled with troubled enery's, find a couple of like minded folk whom are supportive and positive with each other. its easier when you are walking this path to have a couple of buddies to chat to.
good luck
m x

reply to post by Scurvy



Scurvy.

How where the storms in Regina?

I have always had an interest in religeon as well as Shamanism.

Tell me, when you think of an modern Shaman what are the first few images you get in your mind.

Looking forward to the answer.

Hey, I'm interested in shamanism, too.

I've read all the previous posts, and they were enlightening. It sounds like we're in agreement, pretty much, about the ego of the shaman.

Shamans are often people who have experienced severe psychological shock or trauma in childhood. Mystics are often characterized by having found nothing particularly special in themselves.

I'd like to be able to quiet my mind of all thoughts arising from the neurotic hum of fear and desire, and then to listen in to the other thoughts that drift through my awareness like a guest listening attentively to a host's anecdotes. I think that if I can succeed in this, then maybe it would be possible to change my perspective as a guest to that of the host.

Maybe what happens to shamans is that they are violently stripped of their role identity, and there is simply no other perspective to know but that of the host. Over time, the ego returns but is never the same. The coherence and self-awareness of the species-wide consciousness is laid bare to the eyes of shamans and mystics, and this is why I group them together.

What distinguishes them is culture.

Originally posted by carslake

Here let me introduce you to some 'Shamans' for the want of a better word illusionsaregrander, anti-tyrant, JanusFin, Scurvy etc.... Can you see their insight. All have different paths with the same destination.

[edit on 24/7/08 by carslake]

I do not consider what i said before to have been flippant, carslake.

Just like Shamanism, there are a great multitude of different beliefs and practices on this planet, and i find merit in all.

It may well be the case, after all, that such beliefs are merely a more advanced/diversified form of shamanism, one that gives others the ability to experience the inspirational genius of the self-realised mind if they're lucky.

Shamanism may have arose when the first human began to think about what would happen if he struck two specific rocks together (creative destruction.), but there are a number of different faiths i feel hold equal merit, if not more, with shamanism.

I'd place that number at 6, by the way, and yes the majority of them are eastern.

Taoism and Buddhism for example, provided me with a very particular tool i needed to appropiately grasp Shamanism, so it may be the case that one could argue that i follow that particular 'ism' while gaining a greater understanding of the Variety that shamanism has to offer.

One's journey lasts a lifetime, not at the point of concept.

It would be worth pursuing a greater understanding of many faiths rather than one, as i find it adds character and perhaps even gives the individual a greater sense of cultural differences in the way people follow their faith.

It would be difficult to appreciate the true value of other religions, if i focused my spiritual being along one path with a great many forks...

Originally posted by applebiter

I'd like to be able to quiet my mind of all thoughts arising from the neurotic hum of fear and desire, and then to listen in to the other thoughts that drift through my awareness like a guest listening attentively to a host's anecdotes.

Quieting the mind is difficult. For one, thing, only the mind itself can bring forward the desire to quiet the mind. So, you then have the background noise of the mind, (what you originally wanted to silence) and now you have introduced the desire to silence, ( a new noise) and all the related frustrations and such when one finds the mind even noisier than before.

Once I was told, when asking how to solve a problem, that "Seeing the problem is the solution." Just noticing the noisy mind, in the example you provide. Listening to it, watching it ramble, rant, weave this way and that. The quiet that comes from watching is not that the mind itself ever completely shuts up, it is the quiet that arises from distance. In the process of watching, at some point, you realize, not think, "If I am watching, I am the watcher. I am not actually the noisy mind." The mind can continue on in its rambling all it wants, you dont either silence it or "kill" it. You set it aside as "you" for a moment, a while. "You" allow yourself to be the silent watcher, who watches all things, including the noisy mind. In that space, the space of looking, watching, inquiry, "insight" not thought is free to express and arrive.

Originally posted by applebiter
Maybe what happens to shamans is that they are violently stripped of their role identity, and there is simply no other perspective to know but that of the host. Over time, the ego returns but is never the same. The coherence and self-awareness of the species-wide consciousness is laid bare to the eyes of shamans and mystics, and this is why I group them together.

What distinguishes them is culture.

I would agree. The label is arbitrary. And, I feel you are also right in the sense that generally speaking something has occurred that has weakened the identity and its sense of being in control. And, more importantly, the sense that it ever COULD have control. Sometimes this process may be violent, sometimes it is like a slow drip of water, not so violent, but persistent. I think it is often "un-sought" in the sense that that which "seeks" (that aspect of self that has goals, aims and ends) is the very thing that hinders.

Koans, life experiences, dreams, meditation, any event or series of events that can show you the limit of the mind, and show you that you possess a mind, are in association with one, but are not the mind, is likely to be the beginning. One you see the boundary of the mind, and you realize you are beyond that limit as well as within it, sets you somewhat free.

This doesnt mean that that experience cannot be then grabbed onto by the mid itself, and used to strengthen the self of "ME, Mine, I (the mind) am special and different." Or, conversely, it can send the ego into a state of despair, (which also lends it strength) "I am NOT special if I am an aspect of infinity, I want to be my own individual special self." Sort of a reverse specialness, derived from a sense of having lost something.

Really, what is to be seen is "not illusion." It isnt about creating wild images in the mind of spinning universes, of eyes doing this that and the other, the mind can create all sorts of things. It ultimately is about seeing "What Is." Without the veil of illusion (or delusion) that the mind imposes. Not predicting the future, not visiting past lives, but a deep inquiry as to "What Is, Here and Now."

Edit to add;

Just to be clear, the "future" or the "past" could be seen, but it would be experienced as a "now," if and when the "idea" of linear time unfolding slipped and the "All that is" was perceived "all at once" as well.

[edit on 26-7-2008 by Illusionsaregrander]

I believe their may be person's who might be called a Shaman.

Of course we have those who are far removed from civilization who carry on the ancient ways.

The largest virgin band of forest in the world is in Northern Canada.

There are persons who live their who do not have a birth certificate and to whom English is a distant second language.

They speak and think in the language of their forefathers..Cree or Denai...depending on the persons background.






[edit on 26-7-2008 by whiteraven]

that book "the way of the shaman' was of some help in indentifying myself..
(Not as a Shaman, because that is an actual position in ones social order)
but as a person that was attuned to that shamanic way of life & world view...
but that was OK because in the late 1960s the communal mentor/shamanic figure/counselor was an accepted member of the commune---(who also did their required panhandling and whatever to help support the commune)
in the last ~40 years i'm just a weirdeo or eccentric to the rest of the world.


yoga, breath execises, chanting, are other ways to enter the non-ordinary reality world... drums are OK, but it seems so NativeAmerican spirituality connected.
I came from a Lithuanian heritage & DNA base, so i'm not from the Siberian stock of shamans/shaminic practicioners... or even the nordic/slavic lineage... the Lithuanian shamans were forced out centuries ago by the Roman Catholics... we were the last peoples that had the theme from the 'Conan the Barbarian' cult theme which originated in the areas around the Black Sea (Eur-Asia) some 5,000 YA

my friends are Owl/Turtle/Cave Bear,
my soul has been around here for over 1,500 years
i do not do healig in the traditional sense, like the laying-on-of-hands...
bt i do practice soul journeys into the underworld...and confront many strange beings/entities on a live-let-live basis, there is no hatred or fear, there is only the wiley nature of outsmarting them to make them ineffective and irrelevent in my or another persons life.... so they just go or fade away!

prophecy or forecasting is a bitter pill...
one can tell a story, but it is up to the listener for whom the message is about to be astute enough to recognize the story/message...
one cannot bop 'em over the head with a 2X4..


please dont bug me with questions...
You, yourself know the right direction or you wouldn't have started the path of questions one after the other


zen