It was late into the night that I drank a mixture of what appeared to be pulverized herbs.
The haunting sounds of a song suddenly appeared around me, intensifying my feelings of being utterly lost in an alien universe. The sounds that kept drawing me in, had a pleading quality that made me want to weep with sorrow.
As I started singing, I realized my song was inviting the spirit of the herb to move into my body. I wanted it to stop, to be over but in that moment I knew it was too late, I had left this reality.
I was canoeing through the infinite stream of the unconscious mind, and the song was my solitary paddle. It was up to me to avoid the rapids and control the currents by making the song more beautiful, by begging the Spirit of the herb to guide and heal me.
This was my initiation into shamanism. But before this experience, I had to first understand and identify the signs of my shamanic calling.
WHAT IS A SHAMAN?
At its most basic level, shamanism can be understood as a collection of ancient techniques that help to awaken and expand consciousness, as well as heal humanity’s inner wounds.
Shamanic practice is the earliest known form of religion that our ancestors experienced. The different number of spiritual techniques used to expand our conscious and provoke mystical experiences was astonishing. These techniques ranged from chanting, fasting, and nature immersion, to incessant trance dancing and ingesting hallucinogenic plants.
Unlike most religions where the main concern is finding answers, the Shaman is more interested in provoking you to ask the right questions that will lead you to experience truth. The Shaman doesn’t pursue meaning: he or she creates it by bringing the sacred to an otherwise mundane reality.
The word “Shaman” first originated in Siberia as the word “samarambi” meaning “to excite oneself,” and “sam-dambi” meaning to dance. The shaman, therefore, excites himself into a divine frenzy or ecstasy through drum beating and dancing, until he passes into a trance when his spirit leaves his body.
Recommended: 7 Signs Your Inner Shaman is Awakening
The scholar of comparative religion and anthropologist Mirca Eliade gave us the most simple shaman definition as “specialists in ecstasy,” with an impressive list of abilities including thought-reading, clairvoyance, firewalking, and spirit interaction, just to name a few.
It’s these moments of ecstasy, of ego loss, that provide an experience of reality that is larger, deeper, and infinitely more exquisitely beautiful. Shamans worldwide know that in order to understand society and live more fully attuned to reality, they need to go wild, travel out of their normal minds, and visit the invisible world of Spirit, which is the undercurrent of the visible world.
By accessing the invisible realm, Shamans can tap into a powerful way of guiding their lives and the lives of others.
TRAINING AS WOUNDED HEALERS
By the time we become adults, most of us are so alienated from ourselves and the earth, indoctrinated by media, and deluded by “false needs” created by the consumer culture, that there’s little hope for us connecting with the other worlds surrounding us.
In tribal cultures, shamans or healers often experienced an illness that gave them the insight they needed to heal themselves and then bring wisdom to their people. This experience echoes Socrates notion that “Our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness.”
Recommended: The 3 Causes Of Our Diseases According To Shamans
It’s often through great struggle that Shamans break free from their illnesses and awaken to the truth. By learning how to cure themselves, they also learn how to cure others.
It’s because of this initiation process that Shamans are often called “Wounded Healers.”
Nice blog here! Also your website loads up very fast! What host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
I have fun with, lead to I found exactly what I used to be having a look for. You’ve ended my 4 day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye
You made some good points there. I looked on the internet for the topic and found most persons will approve with your blog.
You can certainly see your enthusiasm in the work you write. The world hopes for more passionate writers like you who are not afraid to say how they believe. Always follow your heart.
Keep working ,remarkable job!
Excellent goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you’re just extremely excellent. I really like what you have acquired here, certainly like what you are saying and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still care for to keep it smart. I can’t wait to read far more from you. This is actually a terrific website.
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a doubt donate to this outstanding blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for book-marking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group. Talk soon!
I’m still learning from you, as I’m improving myself. I absolutely liked reading everything that is posted on your blog.Keep the aarticles coming. I enjoyed it!
Howdy! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!
Some genuinely nice and useful info on this internet site, likewise I believe the pattern has good features.
Good day! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!
Hi, i think that i saw you visited my blog thus i came to “return the favor”.I am trying to find things to improve my website!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!
Some truly interesting info , well written and loosely user friendly.
Hello there! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading through your posts. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics? Thanks a ton!
Hi there very cool web site!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your website and take the feeds also…I am satisfied to seek out numerous helpful info here in the post, we’d like develop extra techniques on this regard, thank you for sharing. . . . . .
Hi there! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this article to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!
WONDERFUL Post.thanks for share..more wait .. …
I want reading through and I think this website got some really utilitarian stuff on it! .
You really make it seem really easy along with your presentation however I to find this topic to be really one thing that I feel I might never understand. It seems too complex and extremely wide for me. I am taking a look ahead to your next publish, I will attempt to get the dangle of it!
Great write-up, I am normal visitor of one’s web site, maintain up the excellent operate, and It is going to be a regular visitor for a long time.
Thanks for sharing superb informations. Your web site is very cool. I am impressed by the details that you¦ve on this site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this web page, will come back for extra articles. You, my friend, ROCK! I found simply the info I already searched all over the place and simply couldn’t come across. What a great web-site.
I have recently started a website, the info you provide on this web site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
I’ve been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It is pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the net will be a lot more useful than ever before.
It’s perfect time to make a few plans for the long run and it is time to be happy. I have learn this post and if I may just I desire to counsel you some fascinating issues or advice. Perhaps you could write subsequent articles regarding this article. I desire to learn even more issues approximately it!
Hello! I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.
You are my intake, I possess few blogs and infrequently run out from to brand : (.
I am very happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the random misinformation that is at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.
I have been browsing online more than three hours these days, but I by no means discovered any interesting article like yours. It¦s pretty value sufficient for me. In my view, if all web owners and bloggers made just right content material as you probably did, the web will be a lot more helpful than ever before.
I like assembling utile information , this post has got me even more info! .
You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!