Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Yesterday we arrived at our last station of the Trans Siberian Railroad, Vladivostok, and we have had a great adventure that's for sure. As we have read earlier this week, Paulo and Yao visited a Siberian Shaman and were part of a shaman ritual. To go on with our adventure of this month I have to tell you something more about Siberian Shamanism (or Tengriism) and that's were this episode will tell you more about.
The meaning
of the word ‘shaman’ is shrouded in linguistic mystery and various explanations
have been put forward for its origin. One theory is that it is possibly derived
from an ancient Chinese term for a Buddhist priest or monk. The Oxford English
Dictionary defines its meaning as “a priest or witch-doctor [sic] of (a) class
claiming to have sole contact with gods etc.” It says the word comes from the
Russian “shaman” and is a translation of the Tungusion word “saman.” In Siberia
and Mongolia, shamanism was known as Tengerism, meaning a reverence for sky
spirits. It reflected an animistic belief system where everything in the
natural world was alive, permeated by spirit force or, in simple terms,
inhabited by spirits.
These spirits had to be respected and appeased or else the lan would become
infertile and barren, the animals relied upon for food would disappear and
eventually the world would come to an end. To achieve this essential and vital
balance between humans, nature and the spirit world, a magical specialist was required
and the shaman took that role. He or she acted as an intermediary or middle
person between humanity and the Other, and a caretaker of cultural and magical
tradition. Their job involved conducting blessings, especially on new-born
babies, performing rituals of protection, divining the future, healing the
sick, exorcising ghosts and demons, overseeing the burial of the dead, and
generally communicating on behalf of the tribe with the spirit world and its
denizens.
Initiation into the shamanic cult could be achieved in severa different ways.
The easiest was the hereditary route where magical knowledge, power and skill
were passed down from grandfather or father to son or, more rarely, from
grandmother or mother to daughter. Sometimes children were chosen at a very
early age or even at birth by the spirits and instructed by them through the
medium of visions and dreams. Young people who suffered a serious illness or
disease or from epileptic fits, were introverted and dreamy, or had any form of
mental condition or disability, were regarded as natural shamans who had been specially
chosen by the spirits.
In later life those who felt a strong calling to become a magica practitioner
would retreat from society, usually to a remote place in the wilderness, and
undergo a vigil during which they invited the spirits to contact them and teach
them the shamani ways. When a person was actually taken on by another shaman
as his assistant or sorcerer’s apprentice, a formal initiation rite was often
carried out. The candidate offered an animal sacrifice, called on the spirits
to aid them in their task, took an oath of loyalty to their shamanic master or
spiritual clan, and accepted the special ritual regalia of a shaman’s office.
Often these initiations by either another shaman or the spirit involved a
traumatic visionary death and rebirth experience. Sometimes this included a
journey to the underworld, meetings with deities and the would-be shaman’s body
being dismembered an then put together again.
The ritual regalia given to the new shaman reflected the fac that he or she
was a special person who was separate and different from other members of the
tribe. Siberian shamans wore robes made from animal hide and fur and decorated
with embroidery, bird’s feathers, silk tassels, ribbons, bells, small mirrors,
jewellery representing symbolic motifs such as the World Tree, and assorted
metalwork such as copper discs. Headwear consisted of a conical or pointed cap
made from felt or fur or the antlers of a reindeer. Some shamans wore iron-shod
fur boots so when they stamped their feet they could drive away evil spirits.
The majority of shamans carried a ritual drum similar in shape to the
traditional Irish bodhran. These were made from an animal skin stretched over a
wooden frame and decorated with feathers and magical symbols representing
spirit journeys to the Otherworld or the shamanic cosmology. The drum was very
important and represented the symbolic and magical steed that enabled the
practitioner to travel from Middle Earth to the realm of the spirits. It was
also a magical object in its own right that contained and focused spirit force
or energy. By playing it the shaman could both attract spirits and exorcise
them. In addition to the drum a magical staff was often carried. This was made
of either wood or metal and was decorated with feathers, bells, ribbons and the
pelts of small woodland animals.
In Siberian and especially Mongolian shamanism the yurt, a traditional dwelling
constructed from a framework of wooden poles covered with animal skins and with
a central smoke-hole in the roof, was a microcosmic symbol or representation of
the universe. For this reason all movement inside the yurt was conducted, if at
all possible, in a deosil or sunways direction. This also reflected the traditional
direction of movement used in shamanic rituals and dances. The centre of the
yurt, where a fire burnt in a hearth and was seldom extinguished, was symbolic
of the actual centre of the world or universe. The column of smoke that drifted
up from the fire and left the yurt through the central smoke-hole in the roof
was symbolic of the axis mundi – the World Mountain, World Pillar or World
Tree. This links the underworld below with the heavens above and ends at the
North and Pole Star around which all the other stars revolve in the night sky.
The shamans believed in three worlds of existence connected together by the
World Tree or Tree of Life. They were the lower world or underworld inhabited
by the dead who are awaiting reincarnation, the middle world or Middle Earth,
the material plane of existence in which human spirits are incarnated, and the
upper world or Heaven, the dwelling place of the Gods. Numerous non-human
spirits also inhabit each of these three worlds. The shaman can access these
other worlds in trance by means of spirit travel. His soul body ascends the
column of smoke from the fire and passes through the aperture in the roof of
the yurt. It is interesting to note that in medieval times European witches
were supposed to fly to their Sabbats by ascending the chimney on their
broomsticks. It is obvious that this was not done physically so they also were practicing
a shamanic type of spirit flight.
Shamans can also fly through the air when they spirit travel, either by shape
shifting into the form of birds (such as geese) or by riding on the back of a
flying deer, horse or some other large animal. Again, there are many woodcuts
dating from the Middle Ages depicting witches riding through the night sky on
the backs of goats and rams. Sometimes the shaman visited the spirit world by
ascending the World Tree itself or by travelling along a rainbow. This is
another symbol that is found in Northern European paganism where a rainbow
bridge connects Midgard (Middle Earth) with Asgard, the realm of the Gods.
One of the methods used by the Siberian shamans to achieve trance and spirit
travel was the hallucinogenic fungi amanita muscaria or fly agaric. This red
capped white-spotted toadstool has a symbiotic relationship with both birch and
fir trees, which grow profusely in northern and arctic climes. It is so closely
associated with magical properties in myth and fairy tales that it is
frequently depicted in illustrations to modern children’s stories about
woodland elves, faeries and goblins.
In common with indigenous folk beliefs in the West, it was accepted in
shamanism that the spirit world was not entirely separated from the material
one. There are special places in the natural environment – sacra loci – where
the two realms meet and touch and interconnect. These can be a sacred mountain
or hill, a stone, a river, a lake, a forest or any natural landmark in the
countryside. While the shaman may be able to access such ‘gateways’ or
‘portals’ between here and there easily, lesser mortals may be unaware of them
or, if they are sensitive, they may feel they are ‘different’ or ‘other’.
Spooky places, whether natural sites in the landscape or buildings, associated
with folklore, paranormal phenomena and hauntings are usually spirit gateways.
In shamanistic belief all inanimate objects were inhabited or possessed by
spirit energy or force who controlled their environs. Some shamans taught that
living beings, especially human ones, could have more than one spirit
inhabiting their physical body. Many accepted that humans had an etheric,
astral or spirit double and this could be projected in trance or spirit travel
to roam over the Earth and also enter the Otherworld. The shamans believed that
the soul of a human being resided in a spherical or ovoid energy field that
surrounds each of us. (Source: New Dawn Magazine, Michael Howard's "Secrets of Siberian Shamanism)
Maybe you have read one of the last posts by Managua Gunn in which he mentioned a new genre in haiku, shaman-haiku. I do like that name, so I am busy to create a new Special Feature about Shaman-Haiku.
lying down on my back
watching the deep blue night sky -
feeling my spirit
feeling my spirit
wishing to be free forever
like an eagle
like an eagle
free and high in the blue sky
my Inner Path
Well ... I am lookig forward to your reactions on this post. I hope to read wonderful haiku inspired on this post about Siberian Shamanism. This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 29th 11.59 AM (CET).
