Day 65 The Four Enemies of the Shaman Part 3 Power

When one is overtaken by the enemy of clarity one can become a petty tyrant, telling people what is good for them, what to do , what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. The power here is that of the petty tyrant who thinks he or she has clarity and now knows what is best and demands that everyone else heed that knowledge. This power stuffs up our pride and makes us puffed up with self importance and shuts off our ears and stops up our eyes so that we do not go any farther to gain any more new perceptions, to seek out new arenas or to learn anything at all new. This power makes us sit on our thrones and feel like we can command the world. But it also prevents us from ever being able to change or grow again. Why? Its because those very people that we take command over now expect us to live up to this role as commander. We are stuck now holding the bag and we will have to work very, very hard to keep up the façade of the “one who knows all.” Life becomes very hard indeed for the one who succumbs to power.

Having the ability to laugh at our mistakes and learn to grow from them is the discipline of humor. Did you use it in lesson two as a material you have to build your boat? Do you also find the intent to honor as a useful material with which to build your boat? I find that the intent to honor myself and everyone around me provides buoyancy for my boat even when the seas are rough and people are angry and shouting and afraid of capsizing. I built my boat using the intent of honor as waterproofing. With the intent to honor ourselves and others we empower everyone.

We can overcome power with an intention to honor ourselves and others as well as the discipline of humor.

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Day 62 Giving Back

Giving back has to be part of the Shaman path. My Shaman Grandmother was the biggest giver in the whole world! She gave to everyone in her house, everyone in her family, everyone in her community and every charity that ever asked her for a dollar. We can take a lesson from her generosity and realize that being the giver of that overflow of Creator’s love and light that just fills your bubble of protection to overflowing is just one opportunity  you have to give to others. What about the fact that in 1908 in the middle of a country  wide political genocide, my grandmother’s parents sold their last cows and chickens, their last piece of food to get the money to buy their daughter a ticket on the immigrant ship to America to save her life in the only way that they could? Is that the heart of giving? They gave their lives so she could live and so that we could learn these ancient teachings today. We have a responsibility to give in equal return to those who give to us. When you give me $200 I have a responsibility to give you back $200 even if I can only do that through my teaching or my counseling or my healing work or my prayers. But the shaman pays back what she is given. There is always an equal value exchange with a true shaman and it includes generosity and blessings.

If anyone looks at my life they would see that I give everything I have away to people that I hope do benefit from it. I give my time, my effort, my education, my expertise, my clothes, my food, my bedroom, my blankets and pillows, my toilet to all who can benefit from it. There is no way to separate giving from the path of Traditional Shamanism. So this practice of giving needs to be plainly taught in the 101 course.  

Just the spiritual side of this issue, its not about the money, its about the people. Its always about the people. 

What do you think of this idea? Let me know at shaman@shamanelder.com

To learn more about traditional shamanism visit www.shamanelder.com

To purchase my new paperback called The Shaman Speaks visit  www.shamanspeaks.com

Day 37 The Raven from My Shaman Grandmother’s Perspective.

The Raven from My Shaman Grandmother’s Perspective.

In my Shaman Grandmother’s tradition the Raven was not a welcome being. The raven was a carrier of death and bad news, a feeder on carrion and feces and so weak that even a mouse coud defeat it. My ancestors felt it was brought here by Creator to be a disrupter, a bringer of chaos, to keep us on our toes and to teach us awareness and make us take our guard. In Siberia there is a place where it is said that the Great Raven, his wife Miti and his family lived and you can see black rocks on the cliffs called the house and pots and pans.

If you think about the raven in the forests of Siberia, my people would take the reindeer into the forests in the winter time to stay out of the cold winds and to hide the reindeer from predators like wolves and hunters. But those pesky ravens might come and alert the wolves to the presence of the reindeer and the  people in the forest. It is not a far leap to then understand why the ancient peoples felt the raven was not a friendly thing. In my grandmothers traditions everything is sentient, living, thinking, feeling and not necessarily only what it looks like on the outside. So every time a raven appeared by the herd of reindeer, so too did the wolf show up and the hunters showed up and all hell broke loose. There was a saying that if a raven flew into your yurt, you might as well just slaughter your whole herd! 

My point is that when we look at ancient legends or superstitions or beliefs we have to try to place our feet into their circumstances, into their way of life and see why they might have believed that to be true. I think if you had grown up as a reindeer herder and spent the winter huddled in a Siberian forest with reindeer as your only means of warmth or food or clothing you might not like the raven so much either! 

The Shaman would sometimes go far away from the tribe and leave prayers and offerings of grain after building a wooden kind of scarecrow man hoping to relegate the raven to that area away from the tribe. So actions were taken by the Shaman to keep the raven from visiting the tribe. I wonder if that is where we got the idea of a scarecrow for keeping the birds away from our fields!

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie

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Day 14 My Shaman Grandmother

I come from a long lineage in this lifetime as my grandmother immigrated to America from her Ukrainian clan to evade persecution as a young girl. Imagine her mother and father trying to scrape up the money needed to buy her a ticket on an ocean liner ( in the lowest part of the boat) so they could send her away to a place they had never been and never see her again. That is how much they loved their daughter. That is how badly my people were being persecuted. Imagine this young girl spending 4 weeks huddled with sick strangers going somewhere she knew nothing about. She clung to her knowledge and heritage of traditional Shamanism. It became hugely important to her life and to her well being. Even there on the ship she used her skills to bring healing to the other passengers who spoke many foreign languages and came from many other countries.

I watched my Grandmother practice traditional shamanism all my life. I heard the knock on the door from those who needed her help and the freshly prepared meal that would come with it. My grandmother always gave her healing away. She never charged anyone and would only graciously accept whatever offerings grateful patients would donate. She was not rich but she was never left in need.

She always was laughing. Everything was such a joy to her and her grandchildren were her precious jewels. She would spend hours twirling my long hair into beautiful curls. As she twined her hands through my locks she would tell me the stories, the metaphors that were the key to understanding the ways of the Shaman. She taught me traditional Shamanism as I practice it and teach it today.

Later she would let me observe her work with her clients and help her in preparation. I watched her keen sense of observation as she would look at a person not just with physical eyes but with her "other" eyes that could see beyond the words being spoken into the heart of the truth. I remember listening to the plights of her patients and watching my grandmother take a totally different kind of healing path that seemed unrelated to what the patient said. My grandmother explained to me that what we think we want on the outside may be a long way from what our spirit needs.

Later as I studied with my friends who are Native Americans I learned that the totem animals of the medicine wheel also show a hidden spiritual quest behind the conscious wish. In my studies I found many things that my grandmother taught me were actually identical to the Shamanic practices of other cultures throughout time. The Celtic Shaman, The Native American Medicine, the Gypsy Shaman, the Inuit Shaman, the Japanese Shaman, the Incan Shaman all have the same core truths! I find that amazing considering the separation of time and distance.

My grandmother put my feet firmly on the path of Traditional Shamanism and I have spent the last 50 plus years studying and teaching this path. I have travelled around the world and sat at the feet of some of the most important Shamanic healers of our day. I have learned that nothing is ours without knowledge, intent and emotional control. This is what I teach. This is what my Shaman Grandmother taught me. She was a wise and incredibly loving woman. And I think the most precious thing she taught me was where love fits into Shamanism. Love is the key to Shamanic healing in any culture.

You are welcome to take the online course that I offer.

 Just go to www.shamanelder.com  to read about it and to start today.

Aho

Shaman Elder Maggie