Neshumah
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Post by Neshumah on Apr 15, 2005 15:23:34 GMT -5
Hi everyone! I thought that it would be a good idea if we could share this practice as well! I have a couple of friends that practice Shamanism and they don't stop surprising me. I hope you find it interesting as i do and i also hope more people come to join me on this search of knowledge of Shamanism.
"This is a rock medicine, the talking tree, the singing water"
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
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Post by Neshumah on Apr 15, 2005 15:26:11 GMT -5
For start, and for those who never heard about Shamanism, i would like to tell you a bit of it's history.
One of the more colourful and fascinating aspects of Tlingit ceremonial history is shamanism. The Tlingit Indians believed in malevolent spirits that interfered with their lives. Only an individual who possessed certain knowledge, i.e. the shaman, could intercede and break their power. For example, the shaman could cure the sick by driving out evil spirits; he could guarantee large fish runs and good weather. Often his powers were called upon to assure success in battle or to combat witches. A famous Yakutat shaman is credited with preventing the great smallpox epidemic of 1836 from reaching his village.
A shaman had at his command a number of spiritual helpers called yeks through which he made contact with the supernatural world. Each yek was assigned a special name and song. Yeks could assume both animal and human form, and were the subject of shamanic art, especially carved masks. The success of the shaman, who incidentally was well paid in advance for his services, depended upon the number of yeks under his control, and his rapport with them . If the shaman's efforts met with failure, he usually had an explanation for the client such as interference by bad spirits. Another payment would then be required for further services.
The appearance of the shaman must have been impressive. His hair was never cut or combed, and formed a long mat down his back. His costume- typically a hide apron, shoulder robe and crown-could be decorated with animal claws and carved bones. During his wild contorted dance to conjure up the spirit world, he often donned the mask of the desired yek. While manipulating rattles, charms and batons, the shaman would chant, groan, hiss, cry, and so forth, until he worked himself into a trance-like state.
Shamanism as a vocation was not something everyone could aspire to. It was an inherited honor bestowed upon a son, grandson, or nephew. The would-be shaman was required to venture alone into the wilderness for a period of time determined by his success or failure in meeting up with spirits. His link to these spirits were the animals of the forest who, upon "offering" him their tongues, fell dead at his feet, and then transported him to his yeks. This "gift of the tongue" contained great power for the shaman, especially when given by the land otter, a most potent supernatural force.
In addition to his responsibilities as mentioned above, the shaman conducted important large public rituals each winter season. During these ceremonies the shaman appealed to his yeks to see to the well-being of his village. Belief in the power of the shaman did not begin to weaken until the late 1800's.
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
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Post by Neshumah on Apr 17, 2005 4:31:46 GMT -5
SHAMANIC TOOLS (by a shaman called Niteshad, ShamansCave) 1- The Recapitulation: The journey towards self healing, understanding and more. 2- Energetic Movement: Useful guides for moving one's own energy in a way that helps bring about clarity. 3- Intent and Will: Tools useful for understanding the underlying cornerstones of human energy and the will to survive, evolve and move. 4- Dreaming: Understanding the dreaming nature of human energy and how it can be harnessed and integrated into daily life. 5- Personal Person: Personal power and expressing human energy in the world in a more powerful and direct way.
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
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Post by Neshumah on Apr 17, 2005 4:57:50 GMT -5
The Recapitulation Exercise
Every interaction you have had with other people in your life has tied up personal energy. Each memory you have requires energy to keep it alive and maintain the emotions you have about the encounter. Over the course of a lifetime you invest enormous amounts of energy in these things and they drain you, make you miserable, create behavior in the present predicated on the energies of the past. You will be surprised after doing even a partial recapitulation at how much energy it was taking on a daily basis to keep those things from the past alive in the present. Shamans know, or have seen, that we, as human beings, do not have an infinite amount of personal energy. We need every little scrap available to us in order to live life effectively or for shamans, to accomplish the tasks that they feel lie before them. Modern psychologists try to do much the same thing as recapitulation for their patients. On an energetic level, the changes in individuals are quite profound, even for those who practice it purely for reasons of self-healing. [glow=red,2,300]The technique is very simple.[/glow] You can make a list (of people, experiences, life events) and follow it, not a bad idea actually, or I would also suggest picking a time period of your life that you are going to recap. Begin by arranging some time that you won't be likely to be disturbed. You will need a space that compresses your energy, a closet would do, or even putting a heavy blanket over you will work as well. Quiet your mind and relax, setting the intent to retrieve your energy trapped in your past. Bring up a specific memory or event. Get it pictured right in front of your face in as much detail as possible. (Colors, sounds, smells, people involved, etc.) Turn your head to the left and exhale, then slowly turn your head from left to right drawing in the energy of the scene in front of you with your breath (inhale). When your head is completely to the right again turn slowly back to the left exhaling the foreign energy (that which is not yours) that exists from the scene. Keep sweeping the scene until you feel ?done? with it. Go on to the next event on your list, or that comes to mind, and keep doing this until you have worked through each one. Be aware of what you are doing and stay focused. If you're just starting the recap, I would suggest fifteen to twenty minutes a day just to start out, give it two weeks, then take stock of where you are. When you are finished the first time you may feel a little lightheaded, that's normal, it means something is changing. If the memories you are working with are especially painful or traumatic it may take a number of recapitulations to completely suck the energy back out of them. You will know it is working when you recall one of the memories and find that the emotions it was evoking in you have lessened, or even completely disappeared. Sometimes you may look at them and feel like they aren't even your memories, they seem as though they happened to someone else. This is a start; you may want eventually to do a complete recapitulation. Shamans are never done recapitulating; it is done over and over through a lifetime.
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Post by ~¤LilacSky¤~ on Apr 17, 2005 10:54:24 GMT -5
This is a neat idea, and I think it go's along the lines of gathering your soul pieces together that you have lost in the past, I think I will give this a try, since sometimes I feel I escape to the past too often, thanks nesh for posting this!
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
Posts: 107
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Post by Neshumah on Apr 17, 2005 12:04:07 GMT -5
I'm glad you're finding it interesting Ronni! Believe me, i've been learning a lot since i've been searching more information about Shamanism and it's changing me for good. It's been very helpfull and it makes me question and see things in a different perspective. I'll be posting every day each one of the tools and i hope people reply to this. To read books is completly different from experience it and i'd love to know if there are out there shamans or people interested is Shamanism that would like to leave their msg here!
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
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Post by Neshumah on Apr 19, 2005 7:40:29 GMT -5
Energetic Movement
There are some practitioners going around talking about shamanic trance in terms that are right out of a hypnosis textbook. The trance we're talking about can actually start that way, but self-hypnosis tends to spiral in on itself where the ecstatic trance moves outward taking you with it. It was called ecstatic because it was first arrived at through dance, drumming and general hoopla.
Shamans most often visualize a spiral as they work through trance and journeywork. The spiral is ancient. The earliest example known for the shamanic spiral in cave drawings is about 37 thousand years old. So a spiral can go in, or it can go out, we see the spiral in the beginning of learning this work in order to have something to hold on to visually. First you see the spiral. Later you become the spiral. All of this, the tools, the trance, is used to move us apart from ourselves, to allow our energy to move to other realities, through time and through space. There are steps to learning the use of any tool - all I'm doing now is hitting the high points so you can see how they have been used over time. The ecstatic trance is an aware trance and one of movement, not used to understand or see the self, as is often the case in self-hypnosis, but to see other things outside our normal awareness.
Shamans never move blindly, they move with intent. That intent may be bizarre, but it is movement nonetheless. Looking within during ecstasy can be almost dangerous; we tend to implode with the movement. Sort of like crushing a soft drink can. Because the movement you are attempting requires such great energy you would move through your own energy and out the other side dragging it down as you pass.
Now let's take a look at using natural elemental sounds. One of my favorites is water. Water can take you where you want to go. The sound of moving water, whether it is a drip, or a flowing river is a powerful natural force for movement and trance. Any sound of moving water, rain is nice too under certain circumstances. Water on our planet connects everything; we ourselves are eighty five percent water. Much like insect noise, it is just an issue of allowing it to fill your awareness and giving yourself to its movement. It is an issue of opening your own energy to connect with energies outside yourself.
To use the wind, allow it to fill you, and launch yourself into that awareness. Wind is especially good for working with the past. The wind carries us on the wings of remembrance and beyond time itself if we let it.
Fire on the other hand is a doozy. Fire is a burning energy, obviously. It can bring tremendous change, burn away things and give you clarity, but it is difficult to work with and control. There are methods for working with fire, but the old shamans held it as one for the most experienced.
Earth is a grand one and the best really. If you have trouble accessing earth go to it through water. Earth is everything. You can use it in so many ways. Many have trouble accessing earth energy due to the separation we have created in our culture. The earth itself is alive; you should know that starting out. Just like the trees you can speak with and know the earth. The old method was to bury someone; this brought them into direct life sustaining contact with earth. But to use earth energy for trance is as simple and complex as just sitting on the ground and allowing yourself to melt. When you go to earth energy, simply find a spot that likes you, there are many that will put up with our energy, we are, after all, her children. Speak with the earth, don't be shy, say it right out loud, give it that energy, ask it to take you in, to allow you to see as it sees. You will feel as though you are growing roots, the energy will rise and fill you, your vision will change and you will be in the trance moving to the rhythms of the planets. Shamans know that separation in any energy is only an artificial construct, we may speak in metaphors at times, but it all boils down to energy.
Shamans also use visual interruption to stimulate trance. You can learn to use anything. They would use a hat, or band, and they cut a fringe that hangs down into and just over the eyes, then they start dancing. The visual disruption will put you right out. Eye fringes were used by the ancient Scythian shamans, (who were all women by the way,) and they wore really funky hats and had tattoos all over. The tattoos represented power animals usually. But they also had that old familiar shaman's spiral in at least one or two spots. Visual disruption works, you can try different methods.
You should approach any of the elemental methods with reverence. Ask them to work with you and then always express your thanks. And they would do them for about three hours to achieve the really deep ecstasy. Tarot, astrology, hoodoo, numerology, etc., are all tools, which have been used by shamans.
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Post by grahamlee on Apr 30, 2005 9:51:49 GMT -5
sometimes I feel I escape to the past too often I find myself in a similar state of mind at times. I have become quite interested in shamanism since meeting my animal totem, yet I find it hard to escape the stresses of day to day life in order to begin my journey. Has anyone got any advice for me on this? Thanks!
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Post by ~¤LilacSky¤~ on May 1, 2005 8:55:21 GMT -5
Hi there grahamlee well I know for myself, when I feel overwhelmed by life, I take a time out to myself, take a walk or go sit by water, and just feel my inner self,and try to figure out where its leading me ya know. I think life now a days, is too fast pased and we all need to slow down a bit and look around a while and just breath..no thoughts, just letting it all go, I think this can help you, as it helped me many times, by taking our focus of our problems they seem to solve themselves as well. because for me it seems life always seems to work out, even if I don't think so at a time in my life.. try focus techniques, mediations that open you up to your inner self, and also introspection can't hurt..
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
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Post by Neshumah on May 7, 2005 17:23:28 GMT -5
Hi grahamlee,
it's good to know you're discovering Shamanism as well. With the time you'll find solutions for different situations even on a daily basis. Nowadays we can't live a life without stress! Towns are getting busier and technology and money is having great influence, as everyone knows. But ask yourself what really makes you stressed and why. If you have opportunity write it down every time you feel the blood coming to your brain until you're almost exploding. After a few days, maybe a week read all you've wrote and reflect on your ideas and feelings about it. Did you learn anything with those stressed moments or was it just because you were too tired and couldn't handle every thing at once? Past is part of our life and it has great influence in our personality. Negative experiences lived in the past can drag our minds for ever if we don't understand the meening and the reason for it. It can make you stronger and you can end up having a different perpective of life. So, in my opinion, you must breath, seat back and relax. And then think and look around you. Does it really worse it to be stressed? Maybe if you take things slowly you might find easier to carry on with your path and soon new ways will come to you. It is possible and you know it because it's in your heart and it's something you wish to do! Sometimes i've wondered if i'm in the right town doing the right job and that made my life upside down for a long time. I've cryed, shouted and even run away. But the situation and the questions came with me and i knew i had to stop and change a few things in order to keep my journey moving.
I hope this helps a bit. Nevertheless, you're most welcome to join us anytime you want and when you need to talk! ;D
Neshumah.x
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
Posts: 107
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Post by Neshumah on May 7, 2005 18:08:33 GMT -5
Intent and Will
Will and intent are two separate things. Each of us already operates on many levels of intent naturally. You breath and your heart beats without you thinking about, but the intent to do that is natural. Will is like the fuse, intent is the bomb. You have to gather up your materials and make your bomb before the fuse is worth anything. Will is applied to intent not the other way around. You can have the will to be successful, but if you don't create the intent on what and how to get there the will won't help.
What is intent? Intent is the unyielding intention of doing X, it has to be built up and energy applied to it. How does the universe know how much to devote to each intent? That is truly a mystery, the universe. How many times have you heard people say I'd like this or that, but it's not a big priority with me? Well, they are still spending energy on all those intentions. Wouldn't it make sense to clear yourself out of all those little things and focus on the ones that really matter to you? You learn to clear yourself out, in reality, by recapitulating and learning to become a non-person. Think of will as physical action being applied according to a plan you have already laid down which is the intent. Shamans hollow themselves out so that when they focus their intent it is as powerful as possible. One must be careful about what they intend. It is hard to deal with sometimes. Like they say, be careful what you wish for. I'm wondering if it is possible to intend without realizing it. There is, ultimately intent can be gathered and you can use other people's intent, or the planet's itself to accomplish things. But you already function on a deep level with intent, it essentially keeps you alive, to understand the true nature of intent and as they say, travel to the heart of it you must come to know how it functions in you on that nonverbal level. People always want to start out focusing their intent on things outside themselves, like I want this or I need that to happen, when the first thing they should be looking into is internal.
How do you "apply energy"? thoughts? feelings? something indescribable? Start out, with words in your head, begin with something small and apply intent. Say to yourself, "I want to X," and eventually you will begin to feel an energy which you can discern from other energy and learn to work directly with that.
"Decisions aren't good or bad, a decision by it's very nature is just a decision."
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
Posts: 107
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Post by Neshumah on May 7, 2005 18:34:12 GMT -5
Dreaming
Lucid Dreaming
How do I do something more useful the next time lucid dreaming happens?
If you are really lucid dreaming then you need to alter the fabric of the dream to one of your choosing. I would suggest going somewhere where you can look at something to see how it's situated, then the next day, going to see if you're correct. If you're correct in what you saw in the dream, great, keep that set of feelings and movements when you dream, if not, try again. Just pick a setting somewhere that won't change before you see it the next day, but of which you are not physically aware of it's arrangement when you are dreaming. This is verification and it can be something really small, as you said, the position of a pencil someplace you can check on it the next day.
Preparing and Using Dreaming Stones
A dreaming stone can help you focus your dreaming energy and control dreaming, dreams can also be stored in the stone.
Shamanically, stones of various types have been used over the eons for an enormous variety of purposes. Some shamans hold certain types of stones to be of particular value due to their intrinsic energy and properties. Stones have been used for healing, oracular work, dreaming, storage of energy of various types, and on occasion for chucking at the heads of stubborn students. Dreaming stones in particular seem to have come into use fairly early on as shamans labored to understand the dreaming world and gain a foothold there for their work. Dreaming stones charged by the shaman were used to treat night terrors, insomnia, and other ailments we now associate as sleep disorders.
Very often shamans bestowed 'special' stones on their students telling them to keep them with them always and to sleep with them especially. Some shamans explained why, others didn't, they are a rather taciturn bunch when considered as a whole. Depending on the nature of the stone and the charge of intent placed in it by the shaman the student would often find their dreams changing significantly. These were often the first steps into disassociating reality for the student in ways that changed the essential nature of how they saw the world. The student would be given instruction on how to use the stone in dreaming once it became apparent they had associated with its energy. Sometimes the shaman would give contraindicated advice based on the student's experience in dreaming in order to create a conflict internally, which could bring about an abrupt schism in their ability to use their awareness in a linear way. Today most people use the concepts differently, but it is always good to keep in mind the essential energy of the practice has not changed.
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Neshumah
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You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
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Post by Neshumah on May 7, 2005 18:51:57 GMT -5
Personal Person
Detachment - Passion - Compassion Emotional energy is a part of personal power and you need to clean and understand it, and use it in ways that can seem very alien.
The goal is to no longer be a victim of your emotions, but to connect with them as an act of power, whether it's love, anger, sexual energy, depression, grief, etc. Our emotions are manipulated by our conditioning and the connections we have with the past and people. That's what the recap does, cleans all that out so you can connect with your emotions in an honest way, learn true detachment and then act from a place of compassion.
But in the beginning of the process, once you reach a clean place, you may seem very aloof, even cold; it's only through acting with a detached compassion, ready to die for the intent to heal yourself, that you once again become someone people are drawn to emotionally.
Regular detachment is the place all human beings can reach with a little effort. It allows them to let go long enough to gain a new perspective. It is not, however, the same as shamanic detachment. It can help them heal, though. Shamanic detachment moves from a place of polar opposites, it takes the heart of each emotional pole of existence, feels them all equally at the same time and creates a detached space which is devoid of personal perspective or emotion - true detachment. You start that process by learning your own death through, hopefully, le petit mort.
Using Stalking in Healing
Generally what I do is stalk a position for or with the client. Let?s say I look at them and see X is their big problem, but going to X is going to create angst, or a negative reaction. I will instead stalk a position of Y, which is connected to X, but which is not threatening. Then let them make the connection, that way they feel like they solved their own problem, which also helps in their future ability to heal themselves.
Sometimes with the disease itself you have to stalk a position in order to alter the energetic makeup enough to create the opening for healing. Somebody has aids, for instance, aids is incredibly aggressive, but you can stalk the virus itself by altering the energy it's after enough to cause it to basically go around in circles until you can attack it more directly. Same thing with Hepatitis C - you're changing the environment, it has it's own energetic expectations. If you stalk a different environmental position for the person's energy, you screw with its expectations. Once that's accomplished you can alter the disease itself, or in some cases cure it that way. Bacteria, viruses, etc, all are living organisms, they have their own expectations, needs, goals and intents, from the outside altering the landscape just enough to cause it to have to adjust weakens it and in some cases can actually destroy it. If you take a fish out of water in other words, it dies. So you stalk the position and alter the landscape, of the person you're working on of course. You do all that without investing your own energy, it's their energy, their healing. I prefer those cases the doctors have given up on, that are incurable, that are impossible, that is where the greatest challenge lies and that is where we test ourselves and learn.
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Post by ~¤LilacSky¤~ on May 8, 2005 18:56:50 GMT -5
thanks for all the great information Nesh, I was wondering if you have anything on shaminism and prosperity.. Im working up some rituals and Im interested in what the shamans did for prosperity,and luck, thanks...
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Neshumah
Conjurer
moderator
You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
Posts: 107
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Post by Neshumah on May 9, 2005 5:05:42 GMT -5
I'm buying a new book soon and i believe it has something about it. However, and because i'm not sure, i'll chase it up for us and i'll let you know!
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Post by ~¤LilacSky¤~ on May 9, 2005 6:41:44 GMT -5
I found a prosperity ritual Im going to do today, with a friend, hopefully she joins me, shes more wiccan, but thats okay, I think we can do this together, Im lookiing forward to it!!! thanks nesh..
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Neshumah
Conjurer
moderator
You don't choose the things you believe in, they choose you!
Posts: 107
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Post by Neshumah on May 9, 2005 10:09:07 GMT -5
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Post by ~¤LilacSky¤~ on May 9, 2005 10:26:00 GMT -5
thanks Nesh, I will definatly try this as well, good searching!
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Post by nani on May 10, 2005 12:01:20 GMT -5
wow really lots of informations, thanks Nesh, its all very interesting. Need a bit to go deeply through all that. Just yesterday I`ve heard "Gabriele Roth`s" new shamanic-music-album in the radio. She has done it in America. I`ve worked lots with her music for dance-therapy years ago. best regards Nani
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Post by ~¤LilacSky¤~ on May 10, 2005 14:53:23 GMT -5
cool nani I never heard of her, perhaps you can provide a link, it sounds interesting..did you guys ever get the song done that we were talking about doing togther? If so I want to hear it and I would like to hear more stuff that you've done..
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