Shamanism

Shaman, "One who sees in the dark"

Shamanism is often described as "the first spiritual practice" of humanity, with animism being one of the chief beliefs. It is an ancient healing tradition and a way of life that connects with nature and all of creation. The word shaman probably originates from the Tungus tribe in Siberia. Western anthropologists coined this term and have used it to refer to the spiritual and ceremonial leaders among indigenous cultures worldwide. The word shamanism can be used to describe the ancient spiritual practices of indigenous cultures, as well as some anthropologists also use the term to describe unrelated magico religious practices found within the ethnic religions of other parts of Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas. 
 Another source of the origins of shamanic practice lies in the study of psychotropic plants. The ethnobiologist R.G. Wasson proposed that all major world religions grew from psychotropic experiences, and most shamanic cultures have some form of psychotropic plant associated with them.

Historian and philosopher, Mircea Eliade writes in his book  Shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism equals 'technique of religious ecstasy'. Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments and illness by mending the soul and spirit. 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 and to ameliorate illnesses of the human 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."

In many cultures, the shaman also fulfills the role of the psychopomp. This may include not only accompanying the soul of the dead, but also vice versa: to help at birth, to introduce the newborn child's soul to the world. 

Shamanic cosmologies are frequently formed from three regions, a middle world corresponding to the everyday world on earth, an upper world related to the sky and celestial realms, and a lower or underworld, which reaches deep down into the earth. These three regions are often connected by a central axis, an opening through which the shaman travels on his or her journey, which may be represented as tree. The tree connects the three regions with the branches touching the sky, while the roots go into the underworld. The axis may also be likened to a pillar, a ladder or a mountain, but all the variations of shamanic cosmologies function like spiritual road maps. When a shaman journeys to spiritual realms, she or he seeks to understand the relationships between different realities and to mediate any breakdown in communications that affect the social group/s.

Techniques of Modern Shamanism

By Phil Hine

 Vol 1-3 is a collection of practical exercises, the aim of which is to enhance awareness of the world around us. The first part of this ebook deals with basic sensory exercises, while the second half deals with trance states, and some of the basic group dynamics involved in helping other people into them. These works requires that we learn to extend our perceptions from the ordinary, to see the extra-ordinary which lies within it. Many of the techniques require group exploration, since it is impossible to grow in total isolation from others. The books cover a range of subjects from the shaman’s tools to discussions of concepts such as ‘Urban Shamanism'

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For further reading on Shamanism:

Secrets of Shamanism: Tapping the Spirit Power Within You

By Jose and Lena Stevens

 

Shamanism In The Age Of Reason: Psychedelic Information Theory

By James L. Kent

 

 

 

Animism

Animism is probably one of man's oldest beliefs along with Totemism and Naturism, from its earliest beginnings it was held that spirit existed in everything, that the world is profoundly alive. The trees, rocks, wind, rain, rivers, birds, thunder,  all natural objects and phenomena are alive and have vital essence and consciousness giving them the potential ability to communicate with other beings. Animism further attributes soul or spirit to abstract concepts such as words or metaphors in mythology. Consciousness or spirit is a quality of the entire universe and world, rather than the exclusive possession of humankind.

Varieties of animism can be found in the worldview of countless indigenous people from every geographical area and period of time, from paleolithic ages to the modern. Though animism is widely found in the religions of indigenous people, aspects and forms of it are found in Shinto, Hinduism, Buddhism and Pagan faiths to name a few. 

Throughout European history, many philosophers like Aristotle, contemplated the possibility that souls existed in animals and plants as well as people. There have been sharply divided and varied thoughts as to the original concepts of animism held by primitive peoples.

The nineteenth century anthropologist Edward Tylor (1832-1917) claimed that the origins of religion lay in animism, which he defined as a "belief in spirit beings". Tylor saw the origin of religion in individual psychology, he thought that in primitive humans the idea of religion arose from the notion of a soul which came from dreams. The soul was  transformed into a spirit being after death, leading to the development of ancestor and spirit cults. 
 "Primitive Culture" (1871) By Edward B. Tylor

 Tylor was later criticized by another British anthropologist Robert Ranulph Marett (1866-1943) who was convinced that primitive man had not developed the intellect to form such simplistic explanations as Tylor proposed. Marett suggested early religion was more emotional and intuitional in origin. He theorized that early man recognized some inanimate objects because they had some particular characteristic or behaved in some unusual way which mysteriously made them seem alive. He believed early man treated all animate objects as having a life and will of their own, but he argued that animism was preceded by an earlier form of belief, a magical "pre-animism" characterized by an impersonal force which Marett identified with the concept of mana. 
Marett's idea of mana was developed in The Threshold of Religion (1909), Anthropology (1912), and Psychology and Folklore (1920).

Alfred Irving Hallowell’s  (1892-1974)
In his essay Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View
Instead of discussing animism in terms of individual “souls” that can be cleanly separated from a “body,” Hallowell introduced the term “other-than-human persons” to denote those beings that the Ojibwa people of south-central Canada perceive to have the fundamental qualities of personhood, consciousness, will, and the ability to communicate with other persons. Persons can come from any class of things, a few examples, Hallowell cites instances of stones, shells, thunder and trees being treated as “persons” in this sense.
 
Graham Harvey (2005), in  "Animism: Respecting the Living World", defines animism with the view that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are humans. http://www.grahamharvey.org/

Why Witchcraft and Magic (The Occult Arts)

"The Occult"  - "Concealed"

[1] The dictionary definition of magic is that it is the art of using spells to invoke supernatural powers to influence events. This is the general description and it is important to consider in greater detail what these supernatural powers are and which events are to be influenced. The Encyclopedia of Magic & Witchcraft advocates that magic is a word that describes the inner nature of the beings that make up the universe ~ the spiritual part of all things. The spirit forms a hidden dimension to the ordinary, everyday world that we inhabit. Most of the time we are unaware of it (hence magic often being called "the occult" ~ literally "concealed") and when something uncanny happens, we tend to put it down to coincidence. What we call coincidence today would be interpreted very differently by people of cultures other than our own, or by people from varying times in the past. Unfortunately, magic is often used as a derogatory term used to encompass all that orthodox religion disapproves of or prohibits and is therefore frequently viewed in negative terms. 

Asking why I study and practice the occult arts would be like asking why I make decisions. Making decisions is a part of being manifested into this realm and life (as we call it), you can not escape making decisions. One can delude themselves with believing they don't or can't make decisions, but the truth is, that is choosing not to choose, which is making a decision, and so it is with Magick.

For me, it makes no sense to think in terms of,  "I want to work magick," but rather, "I want to learn to consciously direct the magick I already unconsciously work." Describing the 'Occult, Hidden' part of eating, "I sit down and eat a wonderful meal, I clean the table and dishes.....(occult things happening for a few hours).......then I sh', sit on the throne and eliminate out what I ate. Unless I have something wrong in my digestive system, I don't remain consciously aware of the food, where it is or what is happening to it and my body, as it makes its journey to the finally resting place under the porcelain throne and back to mother earth. 

Magick is creating and rather it is liked or not, there is no escaping being a creator.  Some will say, "No No!", we are the creation not the Creator, and for them, that is what they have created for themselves, a world and existence where they are blinded to their own powers of creative magick, most have handed their powers over and constantly feed images of helpers in the form of deified powers to take responsibility or blame for them. Even the Christian bible tells of the image that you must give your powers over to so that it can live, the beast that was and is, but yet is not...

Magick, as with decision making, we can't revise our decisions (nor the forms we give powers and life to) until we become aware and see that we are the ones deciding.  Creating and directing the course of change (Magick) requires one to become aware that they are in fact one of the vital participating links in directing the creative powers of existence.

I think it absolutely the height of our abilities to form an image and breath life into it, so much so, that we do this without realizing that we are doing it, like a viper, we have bitten ourselves, poisoning our reality with a blind feverish delusion that all we are, is the subject and substance being acted upon, never seeing how we take part in the creative process. Our physical hands, the left and right can come together, working to mold and form beautiful works of art, yet when our unseen hands come together and move upon a form, the art will animate.

  Like Marianne Williamson says,

 “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
  
So, the art and practice of Witchcraft, for me, is the practice of consciously crafting and directing Magick (creative life force), the tools and methods I utilize in my craft are a reminder that I do not seek communion with the divine as if I were cut off and separate from it, but rather that I am in constant 'communion' (communication, relationship and contact), with the Divine powers of existence and that I can not, in truth, escape participating in that communion, but I can choose to sleep and ignore it for a while.

My true practice is in considering how it is that I am already relating to the Divine, and then consider what direction/changes need to be made. 

Many Blessings'






 
References:

[1]  The Encyclopedia of Magic & Witchcraft, Susan Greenwood (Pg. 10)