Shamanism
Shamanism is a culture that is found among many indigenous communities all over the world from the first nation of the Americas to Alaska down to Chile, shamans are the spiritual authority of the tribes. Throughout Indigenous Siberia, Russia and Ireland shamanism has maintained the rural villages for many generations. In a world such as this one where we find ourselves more and more desperate in our pursuit of an alternative to the societal moral models and religious systems, shamanism is a tradition that many people are turning to.
But what exactly is shamanism? We must admit any spiritual tradition that is so widespread should certainly be of interest on our "Search for the Divine." If so many cultures around the world have found the same culture useful in their pursuit for enlightenment and spiritual growth than that should demand our attention. Especially when they didn't come to that culture through force or genocide. With each of the cultures that have adopted shamanism there are, of course small variations in the definitions of shamanism. To give shamanism the respect it deserves we will break up our examination of shamanism into a series, where we can go in depth into the differences of shamanism around the globe. In a general sense we can define shamanism as a technique of ecstasy. In the ecstatic trance state of a shaman the soul of the shaman is believed to leave the body and ascend to the sky (heavens) or descend into the earth (underworld). The shaman makes use of spirit helpers, with whom he or she communicates, all the while retaining control over his or her own consciousness. A shaman may exhibit a particular magical specialty (such as control over fire, wind or magical flight). He or she may at times fill the role of priest, magician, metaphysician or healer. Knowledge of other realms of being and consciousness and the cosmology of those regions is the basis of the shamanic perspective and rower. With this knowledge, the shaman is able to serve as a bridge between the mundane and the higher and lower states.
Unfortunately for the honest seeker in our world, colonization by the modern systems has done an excellent Job in confusing our path to indigenous wisdom and the pursuit of true spiritual empowerment. In the world of politics power is the most important asset. The political systems of the world are in pursuit of more power and the battlefield or forum they are conducting their pursuit in is humanity. Therefore it becomes extremely important to misdirect the individuals who are seeking out spiritual enlightenment or empowerment back towards feeding the system. This system attempts to make colonial culture more desirable than indigenous culture, especially indigenous spirituality. The Christian political movement has adopted this mission for the last 2000 years. Among many tactics used to achieve this aim the Christian bible has presented Ham, the only cursed son of Israel as the forefather/ancestor to people of color. "Black" people became the children of Ham and inherited the legacy of being cursed. This not only helped to turn humanity away from Indigenous spiritual systems but it also legitimized the worldwide genocide that Christianity led on people of color. It is with the same motivation, says Master Naba, a Kemetic High Priest, that we examine the word Shaman, a word that is used in describing men and women who practice traditional culture, and see the word Ham or Sham (a variation of Ham). Though some indigenous societies have even attempted to make the word shaman their own by reinventing its origins we can clearly see this tactic to discredit and demonize traditional spirituality.
It seems that the modern system is interested in confusing the true nature of what they are calling shamanism. Being that it is such a widespread and traditional practice we are lead to finding it's similarities and connections with the original indigenous spiritual system of humanity, the Kemetic Spiritual System. We know that according to the Kemetic Temples the path to become a priest, or a spiritual authority is a long arduous one. It involves learning the knowledge of the universe, the human species' place within the hierarchy of the universe, and the practical application of that knowledge in improving the situation of the human being in the existence, (as well as many more things that the writer as an initiate can neither understand nor fathom). For instance in the Kemetic Spiritual System before an initiate reaches the level of a priest they mustspend years as a healer solving the practical, physical ailments of the human body before even attempting to deal with any spiritual issues.
When we match this with the definition of a shaman within a traditional, indigenous context, we see that what is being called a shaman is really a traditional priest under a derogatory name. In today's microwave society a lack of patience has created self-invented priests and shamans. "New-Age shamans" have achieved this status through their own amateur shamanic ecstasy or a weekend or month long retreat. We will not waste any time discussing the pseudo-shaman. Spirituality can never be simplified into a path where the seeker holds all the resources to initiate his/her own becoming.
Perhaps this is one of the most devastating consequences of the modern idea of Shamanism. Today a shaman is primarily understood as anyone who is called to have visions and journey through the spiritual world to bring back knowledge to the human world. When we check this in the Kemetic Spiritual System we find that at a certain level of priesthood priests are trained to have visions and assess them. Master Naba ensures however that their validity was purely based on professionalism. Therefore it is clear where this aspect of shamanism originates, however in today's consumer based society the necessity of professional know-how is pushed aside. This seems rather dangerous, considering the limitation of human perception. Humans make many mistakes just in perceiving the material world in which we are born into and spend our entire lives in. Now we are fooling ourselves into thinking we can assess when and if we enter other dimension and what we perceive in them.
Pair this with the idea that has infected the modern world, that spirituality is an easy path that everyone innately knows how to guide themselves through and the world ends up with a growing number of insane individuals wanting credit for their lunacy. For it is said that there is a fine line between spirituality and insanity, maybe that line can be seen as the order that is set by the accumulation of knowledge of the universe that is held within indigenous traditions. We will continue an honest look at the manifestation of shamanism culture amongst the indigenous traditions that practice it. We will look at the differences and similarities amongst these traditions and with the original Kemetic Spiritual System.
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