Todays Shaman
“Shaman” is a word commonly associated with the Americas , but actually originates in several tribal cultures of Russia , Mongolia and India . The expression to describe a medicine person – or one who dances between the worlds of life and death, between the worlds of the tangible and intangible – was exported to the Americas by voyagers who witnessed a similar important person in the tribal people they encountered.
In the days where people associated in tribes, as opposed to communities as we call them today, each person played a vital role, having a function to fulfil that supported the tribe. Hunter, voyager, basket weaver, gardener, forager, rearing children, looking after the elderly, building homes . . . . shaman or medicine person.
Shamans dedicated their lives to interpreting signs that others did not have time to study because they had other skills. Indeed, many rites of passage to be a shaman were harrowing, often through painful, near death experiences such as being stung by a nest of bees or being struck by lightning. And of course in order to be a shaman, you'd have to survive the experience.
The shamans, therefore, were supported by the community. They were the ones who had witnessed that “greater beyond” the flesh, and it was their stories that gave meaning to life. They were considered the “wise” people of the tribe, also being the storytellers who held the ancient stories of the tribe, of people as a whole.
They were the guides through life . . . understanding children, teenagers, marriage, birth, death and everything in between. All this in addition to learning and knowing and developing the body of knowledge and wisdom that dealt with healing – what ceremonies to perform at what time and what “medicines” to use for what ill.
Somewhere along the way, in most “civilisations” the wealth of wisdom contained by tribal shamans was devalued and ultimately lost. Oral traditions became confined by the written word, put into stone, and held as absolute truths, rather than collective understanding and valuing of the individual's relationship to the divine.
And, of course, what goes around comes around. Today's Urban Shaman may look like an IT Consultant, a Coach, an Engineer, a Teacher . . . like you, or like me. We still dance between the worlds of the seen and unseen, the tangible and intangible. We talk to each other – not by the smoke from fires or beating drums – but by the internet and cell phone. We still see the bigger picture, and we know your story in it.