Shamanism

Shamanism --- I felt some definition is appropriate -- to remind myself constantly about the importance of the guarding of ones soul and the souls of those around us. Society is becoming more and more soul less, I think now more then ever are we engaged in a day-to-day psycho-spiritual war and most of us aren't even aware of the playing field or the rules. Shamans represent the figure or individual that guides there tribe/people to salvation. There are many definitions of Soul as well. but essentially it is that part of us that is the metaphysical personality. To be in touch with and recognize our soul is to be in touch with are spiritual beings and gives us the ability to operate in the 8th circuit. Spiritual Intelligence.

Shamans represent the oldest profession ever recorded. Their profession is found in Paleolithic art, sculpture and funerary objects. It is also found deeply inscribed on our psyche as a species. For the shaman is the steward of the soul, the being who facilitates the journey from birth, through all of life’s transitions, and into death and beyond. This is a journey that defines our human status in the world. It is the stuff of myth and memory as the shaman journeys with us and beyond, unfolding the stories of lives and possibilities in the service of our realization and healing.

Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. [2] A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman, pronounced /ˈʃɑːmən/, /ˈʃeɪmən/, (|ˈshämən; ˈshā-|) noun (pl. -man(s)).[3]

Shamanism encompasses the belief that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls, to separate evil spirits from human souls, or to ameliorate illnesses of the soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.

Nerville Durvey comments on this -

--"Clearly the scared aspects of life may be found and how to understand the intuitive, infinite and profoundly meaningful visionary moments which arise in all of us at different times. Yet our dominant western culture is hardly supportive in this regard. We are surround by an urban technology which has done its best to demystify the world. Stanley Hopper has written, appropriately, of the 'impoverishment of symbols' from which we have all been suffering and notes that in our consumer culture, mythological traditions have been so inverted that -

Ahura Mazda is known today as an electric light bulb, the spirit Mercury is the name of an automobile and Pegasus, splendid in the antique sky, though recognized almost everywhere today is recoginsed nevertheless in the diminished guise of the flying Red Horse - trademark for a gasoline.

In essence capitalism although it produces an array of fantastic products that seem to impress us. The pace, speed and volume of production leaves no space for mystery or myth - rather it sucks the soul out of what it produces in order to push forward continued innovation. No space is left for appreciation or understanding of culture. It is all illusion.

Next - the magician