Shamanism for Beginners E-Book

Harry Eilenstein

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 77

Beschreibung

Shamanism is the oldest form of religion. It is closely connected with the Mother Goddess, sweat lodges, astral travel, the awakening of the kundalini, as well as with firewalking and magic in general. Therefore, the knowledge of the basic features of shamanism is extremely beneficial for anyone interested in magic, mythology and religion. In this book, the history of shamanism and its transformations from the Paleolithic through the Neolithic, the epoch of kingship and the age of materialism to today's globalized worldview is also considered. From this contemplation then finally also results what a shaman or a shamaness could be in nowadays.

Leseprobe

Shaman, Siberia, 1692

for Jörg Wichmann †,

my best friend for decades

Table of Contents

What is a Shaman?

Shamans and Shamanesses

Astral Projection and Kundalini

The Ancestors

Paleolithic Age

Neolithic Age

Kingship

Materialism

Globalization

The Mother Goddess

The mother

The sweat lodge

The "umbilical cord"

The Animal Symbolism

The soul bird

The large predator

The herd animal

The snake

The power animal

The blood

The Otherworld

Otherworld and souls

The House of consciousness

The Otherworld-imagery of the Shamans

Magic and Rituals

The otherworld journey

The firewalk

The sweat lodge

The summer procreation feast

Hunting spells

Fertility spell

Healing

Aids

The Development of the Shamans

Paleolithic age

Neolithic age

Age of kingship

Age of materialism

Age of globalization

Shamans Today

The reasonable use of the term "shaman"

Shamanism and globalization

Shaman syncretism

How can one become a shaman today?

Book List

I What is a Shaman?

The shaman is the religio-spiritual-magical specialist of the Old Stone Age and consequently also of today's primitive peoples, who still live largely like our ancestors in the Old Stone Age.

The shamans have a central task-area: the establishment of the contact to the ancestors in the beyond.

A shaman become a shaman by experiencing a near-death, e.g. almost being eaten by a hungry bear. During such an experience the soul ("astral body") leaves the physical body and floats above it, i.e. one sees oneself lying underneath. Thus one experiences very clearly that one is more than only one's own physical body. Such an experience one can have quite consciously or also without consciousness – in the second case it is a simple fainting. But even in the case of fainting, one often still has a diffuse memory of having watched oneself faint like an outsider.

If a person who has experienced such a near-death has been curious enough to explore how one can consciously and willingly leave one's own physical body, he had acquired the ability to go into the "soul-state". Since the ancestors also no longer have a body and are only a soul, these people, who were able to leave their bodies willingly, had the possibility to consciously and intentionally make contact with other souls as well – and consequently to establish contact between the living and their ancestors.

Such a person had then become a shaman. He was from then on responsible for the care of other people who had experienced a near-death, for the otherworld journey to the ancestors and for leading the sweat lodge, in which the ancestors were also summoned.

Since at that time one received all advice and help from one's parents (there were no schools and no social security at that time), one turned to one's parents for advice and help even after the death of them. Thus, the idea arose that all help comes from the other world – including magical help. Therefore, the shaman as the one "who speaks with the ancestors" was also responsible for every form of magic.

II Shamans and Shamanesses

It is difficult to assess whether there were originally only male shamans, only female shamans, or both. First of all, both man and woman can experience a near-death and consequently can become a shaman or a shamaness.

On the pictures of the Paleolithic, however, only male animal dancers are to be seen and also from the Neolithic there are only male representations which can be understood as shamans. Likewise, in the epoch of kingship only priests with shaman function are found, but no priestesses with shaman function. The exception to this are the priestesses on Crete, who hold two snakes in their hands – they could possibly be shaman priestesses.

In the nature religions the shamanesses are mostly responsible for healing with the help of herbs and for births. Only in some areas of northeast Africa and in some cults such as Voodoo and Candomblé, which also originated in Africa, are there predominantly female shamans and less frequently male shamans.

In some cultures the female shamans interrupt their activity for some years after the birth of a child as well as during menstruation – which leads to the fact that the most important female shamans are mainly older women.

Possibly, this finding can be explained by the fact that in the hunter culture of the Paleolithic, it was mainly the men who had near-death experiences while hunting and could therefore become shamans. Possibly there have always been isolated female shamans, but so rarely that they do not appear in the tradition. However, it is not even completely sure that some women were not at least sometimes part of the hunting groups too …

However, one must also consider that there are only very few pictures of shamans from the Paleolithic as well as from the Neolithic, what makes sure conclusions very difficult. Possibly there were also female shamans in the Paleolithic, but only animal dancers and no female animal dancers – perhaps because animals were also associated with hunting.

In any case, it can be stated that today both men and women can have a near-death experience and have the ability to repeat this experience at will and to develop it in such a way that they can become shamans or shamanesses.

III Astral Projection and Kundalini

One becomes a shaman primarily by experiencing a near-death ("astral projection") and then learning to repeat this experience willingly.

There are three different methods to leave one's own body consciously, willingly, and temporarily – like a shaman.

1. Meditation: Meditation is probably the oldest of the three methods. It quite simply is an imitation of the state of death or fainting. The way to the otherworld and the way to one's own soul is the same way – that is why e.g. the Tibetan Book of the Dead is at the same time a description of what happens after death and a meditation instruction.

By this imitation of death one comes into the inner silence and finds the contact to the own soul. During near-death the soul leaves the body ("astral projection") and the body becomes motionless – during meditation the body becomes motionless and the soul may leave the body. By the representation of the characteristics of the near-death the state of near-death is evoked … One can understand some meditations therefore also as a willfully brought about swoon.

The forms of meditation that can lead to the experience of astral travel are the various relaxation exercises, self-hypnosis, autogenic training and the like. These forms of meditation lead to a gradual shift of consciousness from the physical body to the life force body ("astral body"): Through relaxation, the perception of the physical body fades away to an increasing degree – at the same time, the life force body moves into perception in the form of heaviness, warmth and an inner vibration of 6Hz, until it finally detaches from the physical body and can then move freely in space independently of it.

As a side effect, these exercises can also evoke the inner silence, which in turn can lead to a direct perception of one's own soul. This "filled silence" is the state of soul-consciousness and also the state of deep sleep.

2. Ecstasy: Ecstasy is a method to achieve one-pointedness. When one is unreservedly, unrestrainedly one-pointed, what one is so resolutely one-pointed toward happens – including the otherworld journey.

To achieve this state, shamans use mostly the beating of a steady beat on a drum. The steady sound helps to align one's consciousness. All of today's trance dances also have a loud, steady rhythm as a basic element – the movements of the body and the alignment of the consciousness resonate to this beat.

The drum used is a frame drum (tambourine) – this is the simplest drum, which was created by stretching a skin on a circularly bent branch in order to tan and work it.

Otherworldly scenes are often painted on this drum – especially the world tree as the path between this world and the otherworld.

3. Drugs: The third and probably most recent method is to use drugs that induce a death-like state. If one errs with the dosage of the poisonous plants used for this purpose, there is a danger of actually dying. This very dangerous method is therefore a near-death brought about by poison.

Closely related to astral projection is a second phenomenon: Kundalini. This phenomenon consists essentially of the experience of intense heat rising in one's own body. If the shamans have practiced astral projection, they will almost inevitably have discovered Kundalini as well.

The reason that these two phenomena are closely connected is that in order to attain both experiences, one spends most of the time becoming conscious of one's life force body (astral body, soul). This awareness begins with relaxing, then feeling heavy, then feeling warm, and finally feeling one's body begin to vibrate at about 6Hz. These are also the same phenomena that are used to induce hypnosis: "You are relaxed, you feel your body become heavy, you feel your body become warm …" (The image of vibration is not used in hypnosis.)