ASA Ask a Shaman anything.

a reply to: Caver78

Ok then, I'll give it up.

I'm sorry. My intentions were good.

And so another potential Shaman to be, hung up it and moved on with his life.

Can't say I didn't try.

Be blessed!

Ankh

It depends on the community though I guess, and I'm not sure I've proved my mettle yet.

Maybe I shouldn't give up so easily, that's not the Shamanic way..

Still happy to answer any questions posed.

I've discovered many wonderful things and would be happy to share more.

Be blessed!

Ankh

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

It's very easy to have a thoughtful Q&A without being deeply offensive.

By tossing "Shaman" around you are minimizing for one, an indigenous people of the arctic region. In general you are appropriating a label that is earned over years within indigenous cultures.

By not recognizing this, right there, from the onset doesn't speak well of ANYONE who's done the same. Many people
are thoughtlessly using the word Shaman in their metaphysical pursuits. It's a particularly disturbing since it's nothing more than cultural theft from indigenous peoples who have already been "run over" by dominant cultures.

I'm saying this to make you THINK.
Right out of the gate, you started out by saying "I'm a thief" (shaman) ask me anything!"
I can't imagine this was your intention, but it is the reality of the situation.

Then you self described as more of a Christian-Mystic.

It's hard to think of a question for you when I'm watching you still deciding "what you are". IE where in the metaphysical spectrum you are. None of this is meant as an attack, it's to mirror back and get you to THINK. To think about what you mean, versus what you are saying.Because they are very much at odds with each other.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Cheers for the reply, very informative.

I've had my "experiences" as entertaining as they were for brain, mind and soul, I reckon the shaman ship has sailed for me, I barely smell the flowers any more and vivid colours give me headaches.

I did learn something though, cheers.

originally posted by: Caver78
Neoshamanism is more accurately what you are "self-describing". Most are aware that the term Shaman is used only for those born or trained in Siberia. Altho it's been co-opted for all kinds quasi spiritual whathef#&ery.

Some members of traditional, indigenous cultures and religions are critical of neoshamanism, asserting that it represents an illegitimate form of cultural appropriation, or that it is nothing more than a ruse by fraudulent spiritual leaders to disguise or lend legitimacy fabricated, ignorant and/or unsafe elements in their ceremonies.[7][8] According to York (2001) one difference between neoshamanism and traditional shamanism is the role of fear.[9] Neoshamanism and its New Age relations tend to dismiss the existence of evil, fear, and failure. "In traditional shamanism, the shaman’s initiation is an ordeal involving pain, hardship and terror. New Age, by contrast is a religious perspective that denies the ultimately [sic] reality of the negative, and this would devalue the role of fear as well."[10]

en.wikipedia.org...

That said legitimate healers don't self-proclaim. They are known by reputation in their communities.
Using the moniker "shaman" is misguided at best and deceptive at worst.

Thanks very interesting. Thank you for your contribution. According to the above description (underlined), I qualify.

What people don't seem to understand is the need for and importance of modern day Shamans who aren't interested in just some sort of "new age" feel good sentimentality.

Ok. I'll bite..

What do you know about the specifics of the separate dark or evil evolution of consciousness?

What does that say about a loving god? Souls that are lost in complete karmic darkness and can't get up? Their skandhas have been so perverted that literally everything they do end up being evil. There are such spirits, aeons old.. what do you think their existence is like? How much love and light do they get to experience in their hellish realms? How long will their endless torture persist? Let's acknowledge the dark truths, I know what people don't wanna know..

And I wanna hear the harsh truths, that's what I deal with. Whenever someone starts spouting too much love and light - and I'm not saying you're doing that here - my mind automatically shuts off. I tire of dealing with cliché mantras.

Ken Wilber had this quite appropriate quote I remember:

"Real compassion kicks butt and takes names, and it is not pleasant on certain days. If you are not ready for this fire, then find a new-age, sweetness-and-light, soft-speaking, perpetually smiling teacher, and learn to relabel your ego with spiritual-sounding terms. But stay away from those who practice real compassion, because they will fry your ass, my friend. What most people mean by 'compassion' is: please be nice to my ego. Well, your ego is your own worst enemy, and anybody being nice to it is not being compassionate to you."

I find that finding a real teacher, and I mean someone that really knows his stuff, and when I say that I mean a person that is proficient at working with the highest yogas. Teachers below that level cannot teach in a proper masterful way, such teachings are always filled with flaws and distortions.. it's fine, it works for most but not for someone that wants to take his practice to the highest level. They can't even read your mind. A real master has to know his students in and out to be able to lay out a sufficiently good curriculum. And they have to be able to work with higher spirits and such teams. You can't expect some random yoga teacher to be able to teach you this stuff. The generation stage practices and such things. You need a real master for that. That's hard to find.

A lot of people know their stuff of course, but they're rarely high adepts.

Let me make it clear that I can still see a great deal of wisdom in what you're saying. Didn't want to forget that. I don't make myself out to be that knowledgeable myself either. But most of us know at least a few things in this "trade"..

Most modern adepts would do well to study the treasure trove of traditions comparatively in this age when we finally have the chance. To any serious student this is a scientific endeavour.

We also have to talk about the age of the spirit in a scientific way. For example, how deep is someone's understanding of karma? Do they have deep even personal och intimate knowledge of the karmic economy and the dynamics of karma, reincarnation and cosmological evolution? Has he practised the highest yogas or been taught in some other capacity? Does he have knowledge of past lives and other such situations?

Has the adept travelled the worlds knowing them personally? Does he have a great master to teach him or does he have to rely on familiars and gods? How much needed is his presence and what is his purpose? What do you think the difference between a master like Jesus and a normal dabbler is? That whole spectrum? And if this is sort of like a finite zero sum game who gets to have a valuable resource like that? Familiars teaching them through telepathy and such things?.

What I am saying is there's a spectrum here, between someone like your average student of the occult, Blavatsky and then someone like Jesus. This is the difference between a reindeer shaman and a moose shaman in the Sami noaidi tradition. Long and rich traditions and lineages of shamans and magicians and their collective knowledge is very important. Having a teacher like that, like Don Juan in those books. The difference between Tibet and other countries. In ancient days the Sami noaidi were the most powerful of sorcerers around. But a high adept can also be taught magic and esoteric sciences directly by gods and other entities. Even by one's higher self or by Buddhas. Who do you suppose they bother teaching that kind of stuff and how incredibly rigorous do you think that kind of training actually is?

"According to an old tradition there are two kinds of shaman: the reindeer shaman and the moose shaman. You can become a reindeer shaman if there is no one else to take the shamans duty in the community. A moose shaman is born and called to this commitment by the spirits - willing or not."

Do you not suppose that perhaps Blavatsky was taught? That all great masters are highly prioritised and are therefore tutored to maximise their positive influence of humanity? And what of the other side.. the dark side?

This is the great game..

a reply to: TheLaughingGod

I'm not sure, but when I was going through my great trials and tribulations of the Spirit, a useful allegory that I employed was that of Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, as a type of Jesus (who was likely teased and bullied as a child).

So that would make me a Reindeer Shaman I guess.

Jesus' form of teaching and discipleship seemed to involve a clean break from the rest of society and the madness where to follow him meant leaving everything behind, even tradition.

He was very uncompromising.

I actually recommend the plunge into the dark night of the soul, and when you go against evil and when it comes against you, that's the testing ground and the fire of purification.

Another way to think of it is that it's inevitable that a person's "house" will be tested and that winds will blow and rains beat upon it, figuratively or literally as God tends to show signs and wonders when these things are happening.

I suppose people need a Shaman or helping hands to guard and protect a person from being totally crushed and driven stark raving mad by the process of transformation.

Yes, compassion will rip your ego apart and fry you, out of love.

I think a big problem for most people is that they think they know who they are and what they're all about, when that image or representation is and has to be the very furthest thing from authentic, and therein begins the terror for the ego.

It's also important to remember that on the other side of the terror and the testing, is great humor, mirth and charm.

Many people these days, due to bad training, are really as hard as rock, and when they crack, God willing, they'll fall right apart if not for the aid of real love to catch them, and envelope and reintegrate them.

Jesus loved the people that he really gave it to, as much as his own gentle flock of loved ones. In part, his great hoodwink was designed to bring his victimizers and those they marshalled, to their knees.

Of course he used their own violence against him, against them, but such was his great genius, and that of John the Baptists who colluded with Jesus to hatch the conspiracy to go head to head with evil empire and all manner of corruption and evil in the human heart.

I don't think that anyone can be TRULY happy, or funny or fun, authentically, until they've filled at least one small bowl with their tears.

It's said that the true gentleman is someone who never hurts another person's feelings, unintentionally.

So any teaching that denies or negates fear and how to handle fear, is a bad teaching. It's not all sweetness and light, but, there is great joy on the other side of the ordeal for those with the courage to go through with it.

To really love, we must be willing to be crucified for the sake of love. Jesus is just the most explicit model of that idea.

“When love beckons to you follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. And when he speaks to you believe in him, Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth......

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love. And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself."

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully.”

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

~ Kahlil Gibran

As to the karmic wheel and it's paradox leading to cataclysm, that's in large measure what the work of Christ was sent to resolve.

Deep thoughts..

Absent true and authentic Justice, good-natured, good-willed, authentic humor and charm, dies and withers away.

We've all fallen victim to the absurdities of the injustices of the vicissitudes of life, and the sins of the father.

But if you asked us to trace it (the injustice) to it's source and origin in history so that we might know precisely who to blame and how much hell to give them, we becomes lost in a fog of causation, through which at best we might perceive one Neanderthal hitting another on the head with a rock.

My point is that if we can perceive an authentic Justice, who's height is only matched by a tender mercy, forgiveness and compassion, but not without compromise, and who's MO is real love, including love's own reason and logic - then our humor is restored.

Everything that's worthwhile in this life is filled with joy as a possibility, but joy is what we get on the other side of sorrow, and, as needed, a necessary or meaningful suffering for the sake and cause of what it right and true, and loving (no matter how painful),

This is the model, the authentic model of leadership and the light of it. It's not in a wrongful persecution of an innocent man who we can't relate to because he was a half human/God hybrid from conception.

We simply MUST be willing to die at some level, to be reborn from above (what's real and true in Spirit). It's a pointer, a model.

We must have the courage to mourn both the world and our own failed and miserable selves, and be with that sorrow and suffering until, lo and behold doesn't a "hand" come along in that willingness, and bravery, to experience the sorrow and the fears, and go into them - and eliminate it, utterly, in the joy that transcends it; where the mirth and that lost childlike wonderment is restored; where we are restored to sanity.

We simply must be willing to recognize that we were insane, and that we didn't have the first clue about anything, let alone a full portion of everlasting joy and satisfaction and happiness, since it really does transcend the sorrow and the suffering and the strife.

To follow him in the way of the cross, to pick up your cross and follow him, doesn't mean that the ordeal is the end of the line, but the beginning of new life and a newfound sense of unfettered joy and free and full self-expression as an "untouchable".

There are no more demons when the whole of creation shouts out it's acclaim of Buddha, or of the sons of God (same diff).

They wouldn't dare be caught red-handed trying to molest one of God's own, and once caught, once found out, by taking your case to the highest level, including the cross of Jesus Christ, they are bound, double-bound, and banished.

There is no Satan in the love of God, and the truth that sets us free is that we are that love, at core.

Jesus is my elder brother.

This doesn't make me a little Jesus though, because I too was saved by Grace, but while also being given a mind to understand it and the communication skills to impart it to you, my fellow man.

Fear not - after fearing. Know the joy on the far side of sorrow and suffering, and the reintegration and regeneration of the new life and light, when the stone is also rolled away from your tomb, as it was mine.

It will happen inevitably anyway, whether through a mid-life crisis or near death or in one way or another. Those winds will come and the rains will beat upon our foundation. Might as well get it over and done with while still on the way, so as to more thoroughly enjoy the full portion of joy and happiness.

And if we want to have more fun, then we have to start taking ourselves much more seriously, and not as seriously both.

When we take Jesus seriously, as an authentic model of what's involved in this narrow way that leads to life, oh while we might get crucified for the sake and cause of love and truth and everything that's worthwhile in life, we will also have a share in the resurrected life.

I feel that what makes me a type of Christian-mystic "Shaman", is that I was given a small portion of the experience of the cross to bear, because God knew that I could handle it. The experience itself is irrelevant, but it certainly gave me a lot of insight.

And when we carry that cross, and we all have one to bear, at some level we also have a share in it's immense joy as an act of pure love that knew full well that as painful as it would be, that it wasn't the end of the story, and that's the problem with Christianity in as much as the resurrection is just a footnote, although I suppose even Jesus might have needed some privacy and unmolested peace and happiness after all that, even while understanding that the space of joy and of heaven that he was generating would contain his martyred friends. So even then, there would have been great sorrow and sadness in the joy and freedom of the resurrected life on the other side of the ordeal.

Most of us of course aren't that far ahead of the curve.., but it's nice to know that hope flies swiftly, even in the face of extremely challenging ordeals and all manner of sorrow, suffering and injustice.

To retain love in the face of all that, is to retain one's own sense of mirth and joy which also transcends it. Or, if we don't have the stuff to do that, have it restored by the master himself, who could.

This also sets us free from the duality of should and shouldn't, and free from sin and evil.

It's like life as a flow of living water with a tree of life on either side, the tree of the duality of good and evil, conspicuously absent the scene.

So the living water is freely available and I am the bride of Christ if I'm a monkey's uncle.

Best regards,

Ankh

Know anything about wendigo or skinwalkers? I know a young person down the road that claims to have one scaring him at night when his father's at work. We live in rural northern Wisconsin so bears, wolves and other critters are around. But he claims it's a skinner as he calls it. Any ideas what could help? Thanks.

a reply to: Natas0114

Even though I'm not that kind of Shaman I do have an idea, sure.

Find out from him directly what does those wendigo or skinwalkers in, or what banishes them, overpowers them, and then find a talisman to represent that mythology and put it in a special place of his choosing, but somewhere very convenient, then encourage him not to fight it, once conquered, but to further explore his powers within the context of that growing mythology and faith base.

If you can help him form a working mythology or theological frame of reference that overpowers the skinners (whether real or imagined it makes no difference), and to distill that mythology down to a single object of power, and then suggest to him that the power is really within, after it's been working for a while, and there it is, an overcoming or a banishment, because only he can do that effectively.

You could add to it the burning of incense or any other thing that he discovers may be useful in dealing with them.

And if you were just having me on the whole time, then good one! LOL

a reply to: JedemDasSeine

Best Thread Shamanic Feedback to countering crazy Mashup Religions & Mix-ups

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

No, I wasn't messing with you, poor kid is terrified. And honestly I'm a little worried myself. He showed me some trees on the property that were completely mangled. I've seen what bears can do- it's not bears.. I've never seen a healthy red oak get opened up to the heartwood before- I am at a loss for words because I also thought it was just a kid who was dealing with issues, till I saw the trees. No 13 yr old could do that., I don't really know what to think right now, but I'm definitely open to suggestions. Thanks

Hi there OP, you mentioned about complete body healing and looking '10 years younger'. Could you maybe dedicate a reply to elaborate on this further? Right now I feel that my body is dragging me and I am not my best 'me'. I crave for that healthy and clean feeling inside however I have no clue on where to start. I don't know anymore which foods are truly good for the body and which ones are proclaimed 'good' as disinformation.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

This thread has had a few months to gestate....so to speak.

Do you still feel that you are a Shaman?

If so - search yourself.....and answer this question. Who (and what) am I?

If you are a shaman, you can already feel me pushing. Even before I post this....correct?

Hi......[waving]

Yes, I am the opposite sex - intelligent infinity would have it no other way....

Greetings:

From www.TheSelf.com


YOUR REAL SELF
That alone is real which never changes.

Anything subject to change is unreal.

By such definitions the body and mind are unreal, as both are subject to change.

If you relax with no body sensations, awareness (consciousness) alone remains.

If you empty your mind even for one second, awareness (consciousness) alone remains.

As the screen is seen when the movie stops, awareness is realized when your mind is quiet.

Only awareness can be aware of awareness (in silence).

Only consciousness can be conscious of consciousness (in silence).

Before this body, you were aware (as consciousness).

While in this body, you are aware (as consciousness).

After this body, you will remain aware (as consciousness).

Your real Self is always consciousness.

by Pardeep


namaste