Blessed Night, Loves 😊

I Pray All Is Well With Everyone… And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For All God’s Children… And All God’s Creation. If That Be The Case… Sincerely… And The Love Of The Living God Truly Blazes Within Each And Every One Of Us… For All God’s Children And All God’s Creation… Then The Dark And Negative Energy Of The Outer World Could Have No Dominion On This Earth… And No Effect Whatsoever On The Protective And Transforming Power Of The Loving Light And Energy… Dwelling Within Us! For That Loving Light And Energy Is The Divine Power Of Our “Mighty I AM Presence”; And Is Mankind’s Gift Of Life – Which Is Able To Transmute The Darkness Of This Outer World… Into The Light Of The Living God… That Reigns Forever And Never Fails Us!… Amen…    

Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life…   

And Y’all Be Love…   

“Whether his calling be hereditary or not, a shaman must be a capable, nay, an inspired person. Of course, this is practically the same thing as saying that he is nervous and excitable, often to the verge of insanity. So long as he practices his vocation, however, the shaman never passes this verge. It often happens that before entering the calling, persons have had serious nervous affections. Thus, a Chukchee female shaman, Telpina, according to her own statement, had been violently insane for three years, during which time her household had taken precautions that she should do no harm to the people or to herself.

‘I was told that people about to become shamans have fits of wild paroxysms alternating with a condition of complete exhaustion. They will lie motionless for two or three days without partaking of food or drink. Finally, they retire to the wilderness, where they spend their time enduring hunger and cold in order to prepare themselves for their calling.’

To be called to become a shaman is generally equivalent to being afflicted with hysteria; then the accepting of the call means recovery. ‘There are cases of young persons who, having suffered for years from lingering illness (usually of a nervous character), at last feel a call to take up shamanistic practice and by this means overcome the disease.’

To the believer the acceptance of the call means accepting several spirits, or at least one, as protectors or servants, by which means the shaman enters into communication with the whole spirit world. The shamanistic call sometimes manifests itself through some animal, plant, or other natural object, which the person comes upon at the ‘right time’, i.e. when very young, often in the critical period between childhood and maturity (or else when a person more advanced in age is afflicted with mental or physical troubles).

‘Sometimes it is an inner voice, which bids the person enter into intercourse with the “spirits”. If the person is dilatory in obeying, the calling spirit soon appears in some outward visible shape and communicates the call in a more explicit way.’ Ainanwat after an illness saw several ‘spirits’, but did not pay much attention to them; then one ‘spirit’ came, whom Ainanwat liked and invited to stay. But the ‘spirit’ said he would stay only on the condition that Ainanwat should become a shaman. Ainanwat refused, and the ‘spirit’ vanished.’

Here is an account by a Yakut-Tungus shaman, Tiuspiut (‘fallen-from-the-sky’), of how he became a shaman:

‘When I was twenty years old, I became very ill and began “to see with my eyes, to hear with my ears” that which others did not see or hear; nine years I struggled with myself, and I did not tell anyone what was happening to me, as I was afraid that people would not believe me and would make fun of me. At last, I became so seriously ill that I was on the verge of death; but when I started to shamanize I grew better; and even now when I do not shamanize for a long time I am liable to be ill.’

Sieroszewski tells us that Tiuspiut was sixty years of age; he hid his shamanistic gift nine years and had been shamanizing thirty-one years when Sieroszewski met him. He was a man of medium size, thin, but muscular, with signs of former beauty. In spite of his age, he could shamanize and dance the whole night. He was an experienced man and travelled a great deal both in the south and in the north. During the shamanistic ceremonies his eyes had a strange expression of madness, and a pertinacious stare, which provoked to anger and excitement those on whom his look rested.

‘This is the second shaman with such strange eyes whom I have met in the district of Yakut. Generally, in the features of a shaman there is something peculiar which enabled me after a short experience, to distinguish them from the other folk present.’ A similar statement is made about the Chukchee shamans by Bogoras: ‘

The eyes of a shaman have a look different from that of other people, and they explain it by the assertion that the eyes of the shaman are very bright (nikeraqen), which, by the way, gives them the ability to see “spirits” even in the dark. It is certainly a fact that the expression of a shaman is peculiar – a combination of cunning and shyness; and it is often possible to pick him out from among many others.’

‘The Chukchee are well aware of the extreme nervousness of their shamans, and express it by the word ninirkilqin, “he is bashful”. By this word they mean to convey the idea that the shaman is highly sensitive, even to the slightest change of the psychic atmosphere surrounding him during his exercises.’

‘The Chukchee shaman is diffident in acting before strangers, especially shortly after his initiation. A shaman of great power will refuse to show his skill when among strangers and will yield only after much solicitation: even then, as a rule, he will not show all of his power.’

‘Once when I induced a shaman to practice at my house, his “spirits” (of a ventriloquistic kind) for a long time refused to come. When at last they did come, they were heard walking round the house outside and knocking on its walls, as if still undecided whether to enter. When they entered, they kept near to the comers, carefully avoiding too close proximity to those present.’

The shamanistic call comes sometimes to people more advanced in years:

‘To people of more mature age the shamanistic call may come during some great misfortune, dangerous and protracted illness, sudden loss of family or property. ‘It is generally considered that in such cases a favorable issue is possible only with the aid of the “spirits”, therefore a man who has undergone some extraordinary trial in his life is considered as having within himself, the possibilities of a shaman, and he often feels bound to enter into closer relations with the “spirits”, lest he incur their displeasure at his negligence and lack of gratitude.”

Katek, from the village of Unisak at Indian Point, entered into relations with the ‘spirits’ when he was of mature age, during a terrible adventure he had while hunting seal. He was carried away on the piece of ice on which he was standing, and only after a long time of drifting came upon an iceberg, on to which he climbed. But before he encountered the iceberg, he had tried to kill himself with his belt-knife, when a large walrus-head suddenly appeared out of the water quite close to him and sang: ‘O Katek, do not kill yourself! You shall again see the mountains of Unisak and the little Kuwakak, your elder son.’ When Katek came back home he made a sacrifice to the walrus-head, and from that time on he was a shaman, much respected and very famous among his neighbors.

However, very old people are not supposed to hear the shamanistic call. In a Koryak tale, when Quikinnaqu (who had already a grown-up daughter) unexpectedly makes for himself a drum out of a small louse, and becomes a shaman, his neighbors say skeptically: ‘Has the old Quikinnaqu really become a shaman? From his youth up he had no spirits within his call.’ But young people when they get into trouble also call for the help of ‘spirits’; when the latter come to them, such youths also frequently become shamans. … The Chukchee tales contain accounts of poor and despised orphans, who were protected by ‘spirits’, and turned into shamans.

The vocation of the shaman is attended with considerable danger: ‘The slightest lack of harmony between the acts of the shamans and the mysterious call of their “spirits” brings their life to an end. This is expressed by the Chukchee, when they say that “spirits” are very bad-tempered, and punish with immediate death the slightest disobedience of the shaman, and that this is particularly so when the shaman is slow to carry out those orders which are intended to single him out from other people.’

We have similar statements from the more advanced tribes. ‘The duties undertaken by the shaman are not easy; the struggle which he has to carry on is dangerous. There exist traditions about shamans who were carried away still living from the earth to the sky, about others killed by “spirits”, or struck down at their first meeting with the powers whom they dared to call upon. The wizard who decides to carry on this struggle has not only material gain in view, but also the alleviation of the griefs of his fellow men; the wizard who has the vocation, the faith, and the conviction, who undertakes his duty with ecstasy and negligence of personal danger, inspired by the high ideal of sacrifice, such a wizard always exerts an enormous influence upon his audience.

After having once or twice seen such a real shaman, I understood the distinction that the natives draw between the “Great”, “Middling”, and “Mocking” or deceitful shamans. Although exposed to danger from supernatural powers, the shaman is supposed to be safer from human anger than any other person.

… As to the shamanistic office being hereditary, this is the case wherever a descendant of a shaman shows a disposition for the calling. Among the Ostyak, the father himself chooses his successor, not necessarily according to age, but according to capacity; and to the chosen one he gives his own knowledge. If he has no children, he may pass on the office to a friend, or to an adopted child.

… Among both the Yakut and the Buryat, although the office is not necessarily hereditary, it is usually so in part; for it will generally happen that the shamanistic spirit passes from one to another of the same family.”

Shamanism in Siberia, by M.A. Czaplicka, 1914

Pray – Anno Domini Beats