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Bit of Shamanism
Jun. 1st, 2011 04:57 pmIn my view, a shaman is a cross between a spiritual adviser and a psychotherapist. We were also healers in primitive societies, practicing not only spirit medicine, but herbal pharmacology as well. But the true gift of the shaman is to root out what is hidden in the mind (or soul). Take the idea of a totem, a natural representation of a person's psyche.
Looking at the great big world around us, a particular person could be drawn to say...the raven. They may even find that they see ravens far more often than an average person might see them. This isn't much different from a person seeing a raven in an ink blot. Maybe 60 percent of the people see a vase in the ink blot, but yes, there is a raven shape as well. Likewise, 60 percent of people driving to work, drove unseeing past the raven on the telephone wires, but the raven totem person, saw the raven and linked the sight of it to his or her own issues.
Today, I saw a cat! This is hardly a reason to make a post in my LJ. I see cats a lot. Not only that, I'm sure most of you saw a cat today, even if it didn't enter your conscious awareness. But this particular marmalade cat crossed my path, at a run, just as I decided to do something rather self-destructive, something I had specifically asked my totem to help me avoid doing. My subconscious pinged me about the cat and linked it to this erroneous choice, but like any "logical and modern" human, I dismissed the ping.
I went on with my trip to the place that sold bacon sandwiches. Yes, my self-destructive choice was to leave the gym after my fibro-friendly workout and go looking for a bacon sandwich. :smirk: And my cat totem said, "Hey! Do you want to be lithe like me, or do you want to eat bacon?" I had asked for help avoiding bacon just yesterday, after a bacon binge left me with swollen ankles. But I went, "Pfft! I'm hungry and deserving and that is just a cat! They are everywhere!" And I went on to the bacon provider with scarcely a thought for my totem cat's hard work on the job. Until, I pulled up to the restaurant that sold delicious bacon sandwiches.
As I turned in to a parking space. I found myself facing a quite disapproving brindle cat. It flicked its tail and glared at me in a pointed fashion from its seat exactly facing my car. It was not staring at my car, but at me. Now, this was a place where I had never seen a cat before...and it wasn't actually a place cats might frequent, despite their love of bacon, as it was the middle of a parking lot and quite exposed. The cat and I stared at one another for several long seconds, me speaking nicely to it, until I said, "Okay, I'm going home for salad." As soon as I said that, the cat got up, stretched, and walked slowly away toward a distant hedge.
Coincidence? Perhaps! But as a shaman, that is more than a ping, that is a direct prod toward doing what I know in my subconscious I should be doing to improve my health. I had asked my totem to keep me away from bacon...and it had stepped up to the task.
Looking at the great big world around us, a particular person could be drawn to say...the raven. They may even find that they see ravens far more often than an average person might see them. This isn't much different from a person seeing a raven in an ink blot. Maybe 60 percent of the people see a vase in the ink blot, but yes, there is a raven shape as well. Likewise, 60 percent of people driving to work, drove unseeing past the raven on the telephone wires, but the raven totem person, saw the raven and linked the sight of it to his or her own issues.
Today, I saw a cat! This is hardly a reason to make a post in my LJ. I see cats a lot. Not only that, I'm sure most of you saw a cat today, even if it didn't enter your conscious awareness. But this particular marmalade cat crossed my path, at a run, just as I decided to do something rather self-destructive, something I had specifically asked my totem to help me avoid doing. My subconscious pinged me about the cat and linked it to this erroneous choice, but like any "logical and modern" human, I dismissed the ping.
I went on with my trip to the place that sold bacon sandwiches. Yes, my self-destructive choice was to leave the gym after my fibro-friendly workout and go looking for a bacon sandwich. :smirk: And my cat totem said, "Hey! Do you want to be lithe like me, or do you want to eat bacon?" I had asked for help avoiding bacon just yesterday, after a bacon binge left me with swollen ankles. But I went, "Pfft! I'm hungry and deserving and that is just a cat! They are everywhere!" And I went on to the bacon provider with scarcely a thought for my totem cat's hard work on the job. Until, I pulled up to the restaurant that sold delicious bacon sandwiches.
As I turned in to a parking space. I found myself facing a quite disapproving brindle cat. It flicked its tail and glared at me in a pointed fashion from its seat exactly facing my car. It was not staring at my car, but at me. Now, this was a place where I had never seen a cat before...and it wasn't actually a place cats might frequent, despite their love of bacon, as it was the middle of a parking lot and quite exposed. The cat and I stared at one another for several long seconds, me speaking nicely to it, until I said, "Okay, I'm going home for salad." As soon as I said that, the cat got up, stretched, and walked slowly away toward a distant hedge.
Coincidence? Perhaps! But as a shaman, that is more than a ping, that is a direct prod toward doing what I know in my subconscious I should be doing to improve my health. I had asked my totem to keep me away from bacon...and it had stepped up to the task.