How to Be A Shaman
What is shamanism? Experiencing shamanic ecstasy or beginning the journey towards becoming a shaman doesn’t necessarily inform you on how to be a shaman. A shaman is someone who has mastered the shamanic abilities: ecstasy, journeying, and healing and serves his or her own brotherhood, family, village, or nation. To be a shaman is to be a window between the worlds.
According to most shamanic traditions, there are three pathways on how to be a shaman: first is by hereditary right – being born into a Shamanic family, second is by calling – becoming physically or mentally ill during this time of calling and being cured of their illness once they accept this calling and begin training, and third – arbitrarily choosing to follow the path of how to be a Shaman and deciding to undergo this intense personal quest. What’s essential is that you survive the call. Once you do, you become equipped with the experience you need to begin healing others, both the living and the dead.
Shamanism is not a religion, but a way of life. It involves intense physical and mental discipline, spending days seated in sweat lodges to seek visions, deeply studying about myths, the different deities, their heritage, and their secret language. Shamanism is a very devoted and tough path to follow. Do you think you are being called in life to learn how to be a shaman? Read on.
Five Phases of How to Be A Shaman
First of all, you have to face and embrace your past. This can entail reliving traumas, facing fears, remembering feelings of hurt, hate, anger, betrayal, abandonment, and being reminded of the sting of both old and new wounds. If you want to discover how to be a shaman, this uncomfortable first step is necessary for you to be aware of your own issues and control them and not letting them control you.
Second, you have to make friends with death and accept its inevitability in your life and in the lives of others. This includes remembrance of the fact that our bodies are evanescent, and it will return to the earth the same way it came. Our death or the death of someone dear to us is not something to be feared nor be the reason for the loss of our hope, joy, and meaning in life because it is just another season in the journey of one’s existence - something that will come to us all. One other aspect of death the apprentice shaman should actively pursue is the “putting to death” beliefs, attitudes, and values that are wrong.
Third, you must learn how to “stop the world” – which means you have to clear your mind of unworthy thoughts and mental garbage.
Fourth comes the Vision Quest – this is a time of prayer and fasting in a sacred place or sanctuary, like a mountaintop, spending your time there for up to four days and four nights. Meditating in this manner, apprentice shamans must learn how to attain a certain state of consciousness. The would-be shaman will pray to the Creator for a vision, which results in a reconnection between the Creation and the Creator. Out of this Vision Quest comes the insight into what life changes the apprentice shaman should make and receive enlightenment into the kind of life he or she is called for. Also, part of this fourth step in how to be a shaman is discovering and getting acquainted with one’s own guardian spirits.
Fifth comes accountability – this means taking complete responsibility for all of your actions without shame or guilt. As you may have already discovered thus far, learning how to be a shaman it is not so much about the destination as it is about the journey itself.
Journeying through this process on an ongoing basis, those seeking the path of how to be a shaman would find that they are being transformed into the shamans guides; healers and helpers that they are to the people.
Learning how to be a shaman is not an overnight process, but something that happens gradually and experientially. As you learn more principles and methods and grow more with time, you can start extending your power and knowledge by shamanic journeying. One of the measures of being a true healing shaman is being able to successfully help others with the healing ability that you have acquired through all this whole process.
That being said, you will soon discover that learning how to be a shaman is not an easy path, but it is well worth it to the one who so desires to be one. How good you will become as a shaman will depend on the timing of your efforts, your god given destiny, and most of all your commitment to the shamanic practice discipline. I highly recommend you get a copy of Deborah King's Be Your Own Shaman for a more comprehensive understanding of how to be a shaman.More articles coming about shamanism and How to be a Shaman
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How to Be A Shaman
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