Monday 4 June 2007

Shamanism or Neo-Shamanism?

...

When I first started reading books stating they were about "shamanism" and/or "shamanic practices" I had no idea of the origins of the word at all. In the past the word "shaman" was used by a select group of people from one area of our planet, but in recent times it has been adopted to cover a vast range of similar or "almost the same" concepts that originally were never called shamanic. If you put the word "shaman" into a search engine I guarantee that at least two thirds of the websites you find will be dealing with "neo-shamanism" rather than the original thing.

Answers.com describes it as:

Shamanism is the oldest form of human healing. It is a type of religious medicine that originated over 25,000 years ago in the Paleolithic hunting cultures of Siberia and Central Asia. The English word shaman is derived from the Siberian Tungus word "saman", which is defined as a technique of ecstasy. The shaman is considered a great master of trance and ecstasy. He or she is the dominating figure in certain indigenous populations.
Over time people have used the word to label various primitive cultural healers who followed "shamanic" ideas or practices. Cultures where the priests/healers connected in trance and/or meditation to both the spiritual realms and the earthly world of nature. Thus the African witchdoctor and the Native American Medicine man can be called "shamans" even though in their own world this word was never known to them.

My first contact with the word "shamanism" came through two Native American friends. The one had a brother who was a medicine man and the other was studying healing himself. Neither of them ever used the word "shaman", but the links they gave me to read did eventually lead me to that word. They had no problems with the word themselves, but I have found that some Native American people find the fact that their varied beliefs have been swept into one basket labelled "shamanism" offensive. The peoples of the Americas have as many different spiritual and religious systems as any other continent. Labelling them all with one generic heading is unfair, but generic labels do make human communication far easier. In this case it might be better to say that what you find out on the net nowadays is most likely "neo-shamanism". A modern invention of "New Age" (another dreadful label) ideology.

A shaman was/is a healer "called" or chosen by his/her ancestors or God to heal and act as a bridge between the worlds of the living and the dead. You don't decide to be a shaman - it picks you. Neo-shamanism is a lot more complicated. Neo-Shamanism is gaining popularity, I suspect, because a lot of our modern religions have been losing touch with their mystical side.

Taking Christianity as an example - more and more churches are trying to be logical, Politically Correct and scientific. Being progressive is fine, but in gaining a more "modern" attitude they have lost a lot of their original mystery. Where in this modern world is there room for the visionaries and mystics? If St Francis was to walk into the wilderness today he'd most likely be taken away to a nice little mental home. As for those who see visions.. would anyone today build a new Lourdes based on a vision? If someone today wrote inspired by God would we add his/her writings to our Holy Books as was done in the ancient past?

Modern (Neo-) shamanism has spread to cover a vast range of ideas from the very good to the rather tacky, but all have one root - people wanting to deepen their connection to the mystical spiritual side of themselves. At its best this modern "patchwork quilt" can be amazingly beautiful and inspiring. Personally I have no problems with patchwork.. when it is done with love and respect for the cultures each patch piece is taken from. Some of the world's best Art and creativity have come from the sharing and patching together of the best of different cultures. ..
Photo property of Digiology@MORGUEFILE.COM
...

10 comments:

  1. You may find it interesting to know that "Epimenides" spent a substantial part of his life growing up and later on working in Africa.

    Btw, I believe the philosopher you were looking for is Diogenes of Sinope.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow very interesting!!! Wish to know IF there is any chance that I would be picked for being a shaman :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. wooo nice, shamanism... mystic - i just love these mystical stuff :D

    post something about your psychich abilities

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with what you said about Christianity. Speaking from a Christian perspective, I think God is logical, but He is also mysterious. The farther we go with human logic, the farther away we get from the true spirit of God. They seem to be mutually exclusive.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Michelle,
    you bring out a subject i am so much interested in. Shamanic truth has a lot to offer to our time and our world.

    God willing i will come back again. thanks for this valuable post.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Epimenides

    That is interesting! You may find it interesting to know that my great great grandfather was born in Crete. :-)

    And thank you for Diogenes.

    ---------
    Hi Mother Hen

    From what I see on your blog you already are an earth healer so you don't need to be a shaman - you already are a healer. :-)

    ------
    Hi Shan

    Maybe.. :-)

    ----------
    Hi Jeff

    "The farther we go with human logic, the farther away we get from the true spirit of God."

    Well said!

    I think logic is over-rated. You only have to look at how pure logic makes computers "think" to understand how useless logic can be. LOL

    -----------
    Hi Sadiq

    Thank you. I look forward to seeing you here again.
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. You know, i took that Belief-o-matic test thingy for curiosity's sake, to see where i fell on their 'spiritual thought continuum'. I came up mostly earth-based religion, so 'they' automatically assumed i was pagan, whatever that is. Just another name...the next closest categories were all the way from Buddhist to Universalist to Friends Society and Liberal Judaism.

    I was raised Presbyterian but, you know, i think we have made up a whole bunch of stuff since Jesus spoke his clear and not-so-sludgy message. I wonder if he dropped by, he'd just say, "What the heck are you people talking about???"

    I like the spiritual patchwork quilt path i guess if i need to be called a ...something...

    Love, min

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Min

    I did the test too. I came out as Society of Friends "Quaker", which was quite strange because I have always been rather fond of their ideas/style.

    Yeah, I sometimes think Jesus would be surprised at how some people have interpreted his words. I know the poet Robert Frost was amused/dismayed at what people thought he'd meant with his poems.

    Thanks for stopping by. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. My scores reflect neo-paganism
    :-O, although I think that may be because I used the "not applicable" button quite a lot or maybe because I AM a neo pagan... (didn't know). After that I have Mahayana Buddhism and Unitarian Universalism - now I just need to look them up and see what they all entail - Interesting, Interesting, Michelle... :-) First time I ever attempted to define my beliefs, which have been shifting in any way. This interesting article and the comments led me to the test.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Jacques

    I think you're right with the "not applicable" kind of sending you into neo-pagan, but I must admit the test did surprise me and make me think... and read up on some religions/ideas I'd never even heard of! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Hi,

Older posts are moderated to stop spammers, so replies will go up, but please be patient. :)