One more writing from the same week about Shamanism, this is kind of my spin on the topic :) --- The Common Shaman Tina points out in her article, “inspired poetry, regarded as a vital skill of the pagan Celtic seer, fits in with the shamanistic tenet that one must bring back any information gained from the Otherworld to benefit the people (Pg. 6). This and what it’s pointing to strikes my core. Not only are Ecopsychologists all shamans because of our open communion with nature, so too is everyone a shaman in the most common ways we all naturally relate to the earth when ecological sanity is restored. In the lecture this week, it is suggested that, “The shamanic practitioner will go out, find the parts, and try to talk it into agreeing to return by letting the soul know that it will be safe now, then help it find a way back in. Ecopsychologists likewise seek to reconnect broken the human spirit with its deeper roots: to bring the soul back home to belonging, and thereby help restore its wholeness”. As this proliferation of healing expands within the hearts of many humans, we are again delivered into a bed of fertile soil to till for a challenging future. Life is further imbued with a richness that comes into view when communion with nature isn’t reserved for extraordinary medicine people or those taking up particular spiritual roles. Rather I would say as a common and ordinary appearance of a valid and sustainable identity there is for all beings the opportunity to become a common shaman. A common shaman travels through life in a sea of transpersonal experiences that are always appearing in ordinary life. The potential for this dwells in seeing that we are all so intimately interconnected beings, “Once people truly see that other-than-humans as relatives instead of mere raw materials for our species desired use, they often then take on the responsibility of giving back, of caring for their well-being, and begin to act in a more sustainable manner not because they feel guilty or fearful but because they genuinely want to (Lecture Notes). A common shaman wants to communicate with life to bring back the healing medicine of being a conscious presence in our shared collective. In doing so, the common shaman is being the change. One difference between our some indigenous shamanic ancestors and the modern common shaman is in not engaging with the earth and our environment through a lens of superstations, even perhaps fear of mystical retribution. Common shamans realize that our present environmental crisis isn’t about being punished- it’s not angry gods out to get back at us although it may feel that way. What works against us are not angry gods but our very own beliefs, behaviors and the systems we support and challenge. I am not inclined to assign a malevolent presence behind dealing with the problems of the industrial growth society. Instead, a sobering awareness seems more an effective strategy for which to address the challenges we face. In this way, the common shaman isn’t dealing in punishment or duality models, but rather we are one organism on the ground of being where all of life is working together for it’s own benefit and survival. Here we find an embrace of transpersonal experiences appearing in ordinary life so that we may travel deep into the heart of the earth and into the spirits of all earthy inhabitants to listen, in an exploration for medicine, for healing and in the restoration of our collective wholeness.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 21:07:34 +0000
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