In my native tradition there are varying levels of skills or abilities for each Shaman. But every shaman has tarni which are like mantras or special words or chants that contain healing power or are words which call in the power of helper spirits. A helper spirit may be a tree or a stone or a bird or something that is not manifested physically here but is in allegiance already with that Shaman from a long ongoing relationship. A Shaman apprentice is often given a special stick or staff to carry early in his or her education and it becomes the Shaman's horse or reindeer in the non manifested reality. It is taken care of and a special relationship is formed with that staff. The staff can then help the Shaman in healing work in later years. The Shaman has just one staff all her life and is usually buried with this staff. To gain possession of a dead Shaman's staff is believed to cause the death of the possessor.
Ab is the word used to explain the power of the Shaman as a healer.
Huch refers to the Shaman's spiritual strength.
Tsog describes the shaman's psychic abiltiies or chi force.
Because the Shaman's tsog is sometimes seen as fire or lightning or sparks from that Shaman's eyes, it is considered disrespectful and even dangerous to look a Shaman in the eyes, directly. The eyes are considered a window to ones soul. The Shaman can often diagnose soul loss by looking into a person's eyes. And evil can be seen there and attach itself to someone from there, too. It is believed by my people, possible for an evil person to take your soul from you by looking into your eyes. Some people steal the energy of other people by looking into their eyes. So I was taught to be very careful about whose eyes I made contact with, to be sure it was someone good and trustworthy. We also see this same belief in Native American traditions. You might want to be careful about who you make eye contact with for these very good reasons. You just learned why people bow their heads when in the presence of power!
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