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The Sacred Shamans Shamanism is one of the oldest magical and religious traditions, relics of which still trigger the major religious faiths of the modern religious world. The function of the shaman is to people the concealed powers behind the simple appearances of nature. Shaman possesses concrete knowledge of nature. All shaman powers are experienced through intuition, in states of trance or during mystical visions.
Native American shamans possessed healing powers, could communicate with the dead and the outer world; some claim they could also influence the weather conditions and control movement of animals. Shamanism should not be thought of as a single centrally organized religion, as there are many variations. Yet despite these cultural differences three things are shared by all forms of shamanism. First it is the belief in the existence of a world of spirits, mostly in animal form that are capable of acting on human beings. The shaman is required to control or cooperate with these good and bad spirits for the benefit of his community. Second is the inducing of trance by ecstatic singing, dancing and drumming, when the shamans spirit leaves his or her body and enters the supernatural world.
Third, the shaman can treat some diseases, usually those of a psychosomatic nature, as well as can help the clan members to overcome their various difficulties and problems. Shamanism is the more adapted to Siberian and North American native cultures because hysterical tendencies seem to be common among the peoples of the Arctic, giving rise to the term Arctic hysteria. Hysterical seizures, cramps, and trances are the simpler expressions of it. Eskimos will suddenly run wild, tearing off their clothes and rushing out, plunging into a snow bank and sometimes freezing before they can be caught. In North America, victims fall into a state, generally on being startled, in which they lose command of themselves and cannot help repeating the words and actions of others. Shamanic spirits originate in the prehistoric world of nomad hunters and gatherers, whose culture was dominated by animals and bird-like beings.
The main helping spirits are the loon, eagle, bear, reindeer and sturgeon. In North America the loon is a mysterious bird which appears in many myths. Sometimes the chief spirit dwelling in the shaman is that of his ancestor, or of a deceased predecessor. Spirits are said to choose a person destined to be a shaman and may leave a special mark on him that comes from the god.
Both spirits and other supernatural forces worshipped by human beings are regarded as concrete entities. Some shamans divine by the bow into which the spirits collect; from the quivering of the bow and its sound as it is bent with greater or lesser force by the diviner as he holds it close to his ear. Another method is by looking into fire along the bows string. Sometimes the shaman holds a small bow in the right hand, with his thumb and forefinger holding the middle of the string, thereby balancing the bow.
Then he waits for it to move on the string as on an axis, so that he can answer the questions of enquirers. The invisible power of the spirit that the shaman is questioning moves the bow. Magical healing is one of the main functions of Native American shamans. Various views are held concerning the origin of disease: the patients soul may have been stolen by a spirit or it has strayed; a magical object (or objects) has entered the patients body; or the sufferer is possessed by hostile spirits. Soul loss appears to be connected with partial loss of consciousness, as in coma, fever or delirium. Intruding spirits cause physical injury and ailments, but no loss of consciousness.
The shaman summons his helping spirits to assist him in removing the intruding object (animate or inanimate) by sucking movements, sweeping with feathers and so on. Illness is regarded as an alienation of the soul. A shaman also has the power of summoning spirits to come to him. Thus he can speak directly to spirits and ask what they want, which is his form of divining.
Not only this, but a shaman deals with sickness in various ways through these same powers. If you have a disease spirit inside you, he can detect it and he knows how to send it off, perhaps by having a personal contest with it. Or you may have lost your soul -- this explanation of illness turns up almost everywhere in the world -- and the shaman gets it back. It has probably been enticed against its will by a stronger demon, and taken to the lower regions, and only the shaman can go after it, see it, identify it, and return it. Trance, a transcendent state of awareness, constitutes an important part of shamanism. Trance, ecstasy and possession by spirits are the same thing in some forms of shamanizing.
Students of religion call ecstasy trance and psychopathologist's refer to it as ecstasy. Genuine ecstasy is a psychogenic reaction according to the dictates of the visionary's mind, so expressing the conscious and unconscious desires of the ecstatic shaman. The idea of flight and speed with reference to shamans are all figurative expressions for ecstasy, which is controlled throughout the ritual in conformity with traditional prescriptions. Shamans seem to flourish, as might be expected, mainly among people whose religion is not highly organized and whose social structure is also simple and loosely knit. Something that can be called shamanizing often exists in other cultures and cults, but when it does, it is apt to be subservient to some higher political or religious authority.
A true shaman is a lone wolf, following his own dictates, and so a well-developed cult, with important gods in it, cannot tolerate any such free booting approach to the supernatural, and is bound to restrict this kind of activity, and to deprecate the importance of shamans, mediums, and their like. If shamanism were a conspiracy or a purposeful fraud, it would attract only the clever and the unscrupulous, interested in their own aggrandizement, and the public would shortly see the snare, being no bigger fools than we are. But shamanism is religion, and the things that keep the public from rejecting it are religious characteristics: shamanism does something to help them, and the shamans themselves are inside the system and believe in it too. A sick shaman will call in a superior shaman to cure him. Actually, shamans are among the most intelligent people of the community and their position is one of leadership. Bibliography: Carlson, J.
American Shaman: An Odyssey of Global Healing Traditions. Routledge, 2004. Charles, L. Drama in Shaman Exorcism, Journal of American Folklore, 66 (260); April-June, Boston, 1953.
Stanley, M. Shamanism: A Concise Introduction; Routledge, 2002.
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