Shamanism refers to a
range of traditional beliefs and practices similar to
Animism that claim the ability to diagnose and cure
human suffering and, in some societies, the ability to
cause suffering. This is believed to be accomplished by
traversing the axis mundi and forming a special
relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits.
Shamans have been credited with the ability to control
the weather,
divination, the interpretation of dreams,
astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower
worlds.
Shamanistic traditions have existed throughout
the world since prehistoric times.
Some anthropologists and
religion scholars define a shaman as an intermediary
between the natural and spiritual world, who travels
between worlds in a trance state.
Once in the spirit
world, the shaman would commune with the spirits for
assistance in healing, hunting or weather management. Ripinsky-Naxon describes shamans as, “People who have a
strong interest in their surrounding environment and the
society of which they are a part.”
don Pasqual, a Quero
shaman, makes a kintu offering to the apu
(mountain) Ausangate. Photo by John Weiskopf.
Other anthropologists critique
the term "shamanism", arguing that it is a culturally
specific word and institution and that by expanding it
to fit any healer from any traditional society it
produces a false unity between these cultures and
creates a false idea of an initial human religion
predating all others. However, others say that these
anthropologists simply fail to recognize the
commonalities between otherwise diverse traditional
societies.
Shamanism is based on the
premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible
forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living.
In
contrast to
animism and
animatism, which any and usually all members of a
society practice, shamanism requires specialized
knowledge or abilities. It could be said that shamans
are the experts employed by animists or animist
communities. Shamans are not, however, often organized
into full-time ritual or spiritual associations, as are
priests.
It was a clear bright
morning. The sun shone through the trapezoidal window of the Yamqui
home. Sunlight fell gently across the folds in the blanket covering
Sebastian, who lay in bed. Much of his hair was gone. What was left was
singed. The ends were melted together in small charred knots. Blisters
were painted over with an herbal medicinal paste that covered his face
and hands, and a bandage wrapped around his left arm from his shoulder
to his wrist. Under the bandage, his skin was badly burned and
disfigured. Sebastian’s eyes were open, but he was clearly dazed, as he
lay motionless. His mother gave him soup, which he sipped slowly.
Next to Sebastian’s bed,
there was a table upon which lay a colorful woolen cloth of repetitive
design, triangles with interwoven stripes of red, green, brown and
yellow. Upon the opened cloth were thirteen stones called khuyas.
Each stone came from a mountain in the Andes and carried with it the
power of that mountain’s spirit, apu. The stones varied in color,
size and texture. One was granite shaped like a mountain; one was green
with brown speckles; one was deep blue like the sky just before night;
one was flat, like a stone one would skip across a pond, its color was a
green and slate gray with slight ridges like the skin of the land. And
there were others, each with its own color, shape and power. Each khuya
held the power of the apu.
Quero elder and shaman
don Humberto lays out his mesa and kuyas along with
Florida water to prepare a Despacho, a gift to the
Pachamama (Mother Earth).
Photo by John Weiskopf.
Yamqui arranged the khuyas in
two circles upon the cloth, called the mesa. One inner circle of
stones with three khuyas, the ten khuyas of the outer circle surrounded
the inner ones. Then from a simple woolen brown and white bag that hung
from his side, Yamqui took a shiny reddish-clay earthy stone with black
inclusions, a simple beautiful khuya shaped in a triangle like a small
mountain, smooth to the touch and comfortable to the palm. He placed the
red khuya in the center of the circle upon the mesa, where it was
surrounded by the three inner khuyas. Yamqui closed his eyes and held
his hands over the mesa and the khuyas. He blessed the khuya, and with
utmost purity and intent, he invoked the power of the apu. From his bed,
Sebastian watched. After several moments passed, Yamqui removed the
smooth glossy-red khuya, walked over, and stood next to his son. Holding
up the red earthy khuya for Sebastian to see, Yamqui spoke.
“This is the power of apu
Machu Picchu. It is from the very spot where you were struck by
lightning, my son. For days, I prayed that you would live, but I would
have accepted whatever was written for you. Destiny has carved your path
out of the sky. You have been chosen to be a great shaman. I have much
to teach you. But first, you need to close your eyes and dream.”
Yamqui placed the glossy-red
earthy khuya into his son’s open palm. Sebastian looked at his father
with tears in his eyes, closed his fingers firmly around the khuya, and
then closed his eyes. As he slept, hundreds of dreams filled him up.
Twelve months
passed as Sebastian healed. Every night dozens of dreams sustained his
spirit and made him wiser. After a year, marks of that eventful night on
the terraces remained imprinted on his body, marks from an instant that
changed his life forever, an instant that he could not even remember. A
discolored burn that twisted and stretched his skin extended from his
left shoulder down to his wrist. Red and brown blotches covered the back
of his left hand into the webbing of his fingers, and gave them a
rubbery look. Pits and indentations covered the helical folds of his
ear, similar to a boxer’s cauliflower ear.
His skin was stained with a reddish
mark that looked like a river winding its way from just above his left
ear lobe down to just below his jaw.
It was night.
Shaman Yamqui knew this night’s importance. It was when the influence of
the light and dark were in perfect balance, it was center to Inca
balance. Though they did not have a modern semantic for the time, it was
September 21, 1504 C.E., the Vernal Equinox. By the moonlight, Yamqui,
his wife, and their nineteen year-old son Sebastian left their home and
walked across the ancient stones toward Intihuatana. At dawn, Sebastian
would be ordained an Inca shaman.
The sky turned from deep
bluish-black to pink. During the final minutes before the sunrise, the
Nuchu Verano disappeared just above the horizon. It was the helical
rise. Yamqui alone ascended Intihuatana, while Sebastian walked around
to the opposite side, where there were seven stone steps, each step
corresponding to one of the seven charkas within his body. Sebastian
knew that these seven steps were the paths of the shaman, each step
symbolizing a state of spiritual holiness and healing power necessary to
protect and guide the people of Machu Picchu.
The time had come. When the
sun peeked over the Andes, its warm rays falling over the village,
Yamqui signaled Sebastian, who began his ascent up the seven steps of
Intihuatana. Sebastian took each step slowly allowing his spirit to be
filled with the colors of the rainbow and the spiritual grace that would
open his being.
When Sebastian reached
Intihuatana, he closed his eyes. He could feel the sun shining brightly
on his eyelids. He saw red. He felt surging passion and connection. The
sacred moment was consummated. The sun had christened Sebastian Juan de
Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui shaman, healer and sage of his people.
Shaman originally
referred to the traditional healers of
Turkic-Mongol
areas such as Northern Asia (Siberia) and Mongolia, a
"shaman" being the
Turkic-Tungus
word for such a practitioner and literally meaning "he
(or she) who knows." In
Turkic shamans were called mostly Kam and
sometimes Baksı.
The Tungusic word šamán
is from
Chinese sha men "Buddhist monk," borrowed
from Pali śamana, ultimately from
Sanskrit śramana "ascetic," from śramati
"he fatigues" (see
shramana). The word passed through Russian and
German before it was adopted into English.
Another explanation analyzes
this
Tungusic word as containing root “sa-”, this
means “to know”. “Shaman” is “he/she who knows” a person
who is an expert in keeping together the multiple
codes through which this complex belief system
appears, and has a comprehensive view on it in his/her
mind with certainty of
knowledge.
The shaman uses (and the
audience understands) multiple
codes: he/she expresses
meanings in many ways (in musical, verbal,
choreographic forms, and
meanings are manifested also in objects, e.g.
amulets). The shaman knows the
culture of the community (he/she lives in) well, and
acts accordingly. Thus his/her audience knows the used
symbols and
meanings — that's why shamanism can be efficient:
people (in the community) trust it. Such belief system
can appear to its members with certainty of
knowledge — this explains the above described
etymology for the word “shaman”. Hoppál mentions such
semiotic approaches to shamanism also in (online
available), and at the bottom of the same writing, he
refers to Juh Pentikäinen's “grammar of mind” approach
(also inmentions
it shortly: “Juha Pentikäinen, in his introduction to
Shamanism and Northern Ecology, explains how the Sámi
drum embodies Sámi worldviews. He considers shamanism to
be a ‘grammar of mind’, because shamans need to be
experts in the folklore of their cultures.
Accordingly, the only proper
plural form of the word is shamans and not
shamen, as it is unrelated to the English word
"man".
In its common usage, it has
replaced the older
English language term
witch doctor, a term which unites the two
stereotypical functions of the shaman: knowledge of
magical and other lore, and the ability to cure a person
and mend a situation. However, this term is generally
considered to be pejorative and anthropologically
inaccurate. Objections to the use of shaman as a
generic term have been raised as well, by both academics
and traditional healers themselves, given that the word
comes from a specific place, people, and set of
practices.
Shamanistic
practices are sometimes claimed to
predate all organized religions, and
certainly date back to the
Neolithic period. Aspects of
shamanism are encountered in later,
organized religions, generally in their
mystic and symbolic practices. Greek
paganism was influenced by shamanism, as
reflected in the stories of
Tantalus,
Prometheus,
Medea, and
Calypso among others, as well as in
the
Eleusinian Mysteries, and other
mysteries. Some of the shamanic
practices of the Greek religion later
merged into the Roman religion.
The shamanic
practices of many cultures were
marginalized with the spread of
monotheism in Europe and the Middle
East. In Europe, starting around 400,
the Catholic Church was instrumental in
the collapse of the Greek and Roman
religions. Temples were systematically
destroyed and key ceremonies were
outlawed or appropriated. The Early
Modern
witch trials may have further
eliminated lingering remnants of
European shamanism (if in fact
"shamanism" can even be used to
accurately describe the beliefs and
practices of those cultures).
The repression
of shamanism continued as Catholic
influence spread with Spanish
colonization. In the Caribbean, and
Central and South America, Catholic
priests followed in the footsteps of the
Conquistadors and were instrumental in
the destruction of the local traditions,
denouncing practitioners as "devil
worshippers" and having them executed.
In North
America, the English Puritans conducted
periodic campaigns against individuals
perceived as witches. More recently,
attacks on shamanic practitioners have
been carried out at the hands of
Christian missionaries to third world
countries. As recently as the nineteen
seventies, historic petroglyphs were
being defaced by missionaries in the
Amazon. A similarly destructive story
can be told of the encounter between
Buddhists and shamans, e.g., in Mongolia
(See Caroline Humphrey with Urgunge Onon,
1996).
Today,
shamanism survives primarily among
indigenous peoples. Shamanic practice
continues today in the tundras, jungles,
deserts, and other rural areas, and also
in cities, towns, suburbs, and
shantytowns all over the world. This is
especially widespread in Africa as well
as South America, where "mestizo
shamanism" is widespread.
Generally, the shaman
traverses the axis mundi
and enters the spirit
world by effecting a
change of consciousness
in himself, entering
into an ecstatic trance,
either
autohypnotically or
through the use of
entheogens. The
methods used are
diverse, and are often
used together. Some of
the methods for
effecting such altered
states of consciousness
are:
Drumming
Singing
Fasting
Listening to music
Sweat lodge
Vision quests
Dancing
Use of "power" or
"master" plants to
induce altered
states or aromatics
used as incense such
as
Ayahuasca -
Quechua for
Vine of the Dead;
also called
yage
Cannabis
Cedar
Datura
Deadly nightshade
Fly agaric
Iboga
Morning glory
Peyote
Psychedelic
mushrooms
Sweetgrass
Sage
Salvia divinorum -
sometimes called
Diviners' sage
San Pedro cactus
- named after (St.
Peter), guardian
and holding the keys
to the gates of
heaven, by the
Andean peoples
Tobacco
Shamans will often
observe dietary or
customary restrictions
particular to their
tradition. Sometimes
these restrictions are
more than just cultural.
For example, the diet
followed by shamans and
apprentices prior to
participating in an
Ayahuasca ceremony
includes foods rich in
tryptophan (a
biosynthetic precursor
to serotonin) as well as
avoiding foods rich in
tyramine, which
could induce
hypertensive crisis
if ingested with
MAOIs such as are
found in Ayahuasca
brews.
