Lisa asks: Why Did the Egyptians only have animal-headed deities? Were they unimaginative? Take Anubis for example. "Let's give him a jackal's head cause that'll be really scary and awesome." What were they thinking?
Animal Deities answers:
First of all, ancient Egyptians did not only have animal-headed deities, as the picture on the right shows. Osiris was not an animal-headed deity, because he was/represented the crops that died (were harvested) and lived
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Why Do Some Goddesses and Gods Have Animal Heads?
Why do some goddesses and gods have animal heads? The deities you have probably most often seen depicted with animal heads on human bodies were the Egyptians gods and goddesses. The reason for this has been debated since the time of ancient Greece, and there is a lot of outdated theory floating around.
Modern Theory
Until recently the most widely accepted theory has been that the animal heads (falcon, dog, ram, etc) were representative of animals sacred to that goddess or god, and not
Modern Theory
Until recently the most widely accepted theory has been that the animal heads (falcon, dog, ram, etc) were representative of animals sacred to that goddess or god, and not
Why Do Some Goddesses and Gods Have Animal Heads?
Why do some goddesses and gods have animal heads? The deities you have probably most often seen depicted with animal heads on human bodies were the Egyptians gods and goddesses. The reason for this has been debated since the time of ancient Greece, and there is a lot of outdated theory floating around.
Modern Theory
Until recently the most widely accepted theory has been that the animal heads (falcon, dog, ram, etc) were representative of animals sacred to that goddess or god, and not
Modern Theory
Until recently the most widely accepted theory has been that the animal heads (falcon, dog, ram, etc) were representative of animals sacred to that goddess or god, and not
Friday, July 22, 2011
Animism: How Spiritual Beliefs Evolve
Evolution of Beliefs
Scientists say that animal deities eventually led to goddesses and then to gods. You can see some of that progression in the Egyptian goddesses and gods, who are often shown with the heads of animals---the animal that each one derived from.
As peoples lives changed, as gathering wild plants and hunting gradually changed to gardening and herding animals, and then eventually to farming, the beliefs of the peoples evolved as well. The belief in animal deities
Scientists say that animal deities eventually led to goddesses and then to gods. You can see some of that progression in the Egyptian goddesses and gods, who are often shown with the heads of animals---the animal that each one derived from.
As peoples lives changed, as gathering wild plants and hunting gradually changed to gardening and herding animals, and then eventually to farming, the beliefs of the peoples evolved as well. The belief in animal deities
What Are Animal Deities?
What Do We Mean by "Animal Deities"?
The oldest spiritual belief system on Earth is animism. That is the belief that all things have spirit, including trees, animals, rocks, rivers, mountains---even man-made things. For more information on animism, visit Shamanista, a site dedicated to explaining animism and shamanism.
Animists honor all kinds of spirits. They consider stones, trees, and animals to be our older brothers and sisters. Some spirits are more powerful than others, but
The oldest spiritual belief system on Earth is animism. That is the belief that all things have spirit, including trees, animals, rocks, rivers, mountains---even man-made things. For more information on animism, visit Shamanista, a site dedicated to explaining animism and shamanism.
Animists honor all kinds of spirits. They consider stones, trees, and animals to be our older brothers and sisters. Some spirits are more powerful than others, but
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Shamanic Journeying Trance Depth:
Shamanic journeying: How deep do you go in trance?
For years, certain organizations that raise funds by selling courses in basic shamanic techniques have been saying you just relax into a light trance and see where it takes you.
Yet indigenous shamans do not just relax and let their minds roll. They actively journey into the spirit world to do real work there. They journey only
For years, certain organizations that raise funds by selling courses in basic shamanic techniques have been saying you just relax into a light trance and see where it takes you.
Yet indigenous shamans do not just relax and let their minds roll. They actively journey into the spirit world to do real work there. They journey only
Shamanic Journeying Trance Depth:
Shamanic journeying: How deep do you go in trance?
For years, certain organizations that raise funds by selling courses in basic shamanic techniques have been saying you just relax into a light trance and see where it takes you.
Yet indigenous shamans do not just relax and let their minds roll. They actively journey into the spirit world to do real work there. They journey only
For years, certain organizations that raise funds by selling courses in basic shamanic techniques have been saying you just relax into a light trance and see where it takes you.
Yet indigenous shamans do not just relax and let their minds roll. They actively journey into the spirit world to do real work there. They journey only
Animism: Respecting the Living World
How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What
Shamanism As a Spiritual Practice for Daily Life
This inspirational book blends elements of shamanism with inherited traditions and contemporary religious commitments. Drawing on shamanic practices from the world over, SHAMANISM AS A
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Shamanista.com Has Been Redesigned and Rearranged
Although it still looks a lot like the old site, I have moved the shamanism-animism site, Shamanista, and rebuilt it as a WordPress site. I kept the colors and logo the same so you would recognize it, and all the content is still there, but I am adding content and rearranging the pages.
So if you have any bookmarks, be aware that some of the page addresses will be changing over the next few days or weeks. The main address, though, stays the same.
If you have a bookmark or link to the home page, http://www.shamanista.com, it will continue to work, but if you bookmarked or linked to an internal page, you may get an error message.
If you relink or rebookmark right now, the link may break again soon. If you just bookmark the main site for the time being and give me about a month, I should have the pages reorganized.
I just needed to get the site moved to a new hosting service and rebuild it as a WordPress site. Then I could take time to rearrange the pages.
Instead of the clunky menu down the whole left side of each page, there is now a sleek, smaller (fewer main items) line of drop-down menus across the top, with cascading menus from each one. Go see!
I will try to get the site into a final organization as soon as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience in the meantime.
I just wanted everyone to know that we are still there, in case some of your bookmarks or links break because of the move—and to tell you it is a bit soon to make new bookmarks to internal pages.
From now on it will be much easier to revise content, add pictures and, best of all, add new pages. Plus, there is now a built-in blog.
I will still post here, though, so don't go away....Stay tuned.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
How to Find Your Spiritual Mission for 2011
Have you journeyed yet to find your spiritual missions for 2011? The spirit world has important tasks for each of us, but we are not always listening. Often these are things we would never think of on our own.
These missions are not for ourselves. They are for the highest good of all (including us).
Some are individual missions. Many are group missions for which we need to work with others.
All are important in one way or another. As with all high magic, we may never consciously know how they turn out, but we are still responsible for carrying achieving them.
I just wrote a new Houston Shamanism Examiner column on the topic and on what the Houston Shamanism Meetup group is planning to do about it. I hope you'll take a look:
I'll post again after the Meetup to let you know what we discover.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Should We Do Shamanic Work on the Gulf Oil Spill? Or Not?
We often want to jump in and do healing automatically. But that is not always a good idea.
And it is not the shamanic way. Shamans do healing work at the behest of the spirits, not because a situation makes them feel uncomfortable and they want to fix it.
Just as there are individual humans who are in a crisis because the spirits are trying to get them to change something in their lives, there can be crises intended to shake us up collectively.
Just as there are individual humans who are in a crisis because the spirits are trying to get them to change something in their lives, there can be crises intended to shake us up collectively.
Just as there are individuals who are already going through a healing crisis, in the process of releasing toxic thoughts, patterns and substances stored in their bodies, and interfering can set them back, so it is with all of humanity.
There are local, global and regional events and situations that exist to call the attention of humanity to the need to change our ways---and our thinking and beliefs.
We may need to change our laws and even our governments to remedy the deep causes of such situations. Superficial healing can just delay the inevitable or require more extreme measures by spirit to get the attention of enough humans to change things.
Jumping in on impulse to "fix things" may even make the underlying situation worse.
How do we know when to help and when not to? We ask for spiritual guidance.
We do not do healing on people who have not asked us to, so that we do not interfere with their free will. In an emergency you can send healing to the higher self of an unconscious person or a child, but send only "whatever is for their highest good."
The same is true for situations such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. There are so many ramifications from that spill, and the seriousness of it indicates how large the effects may be on the future of our planet.
There are local, global and regional events and situations that exist to call the attention of humanity to the need to change our ways---and our thinking and beliefs.
We may need to change our laws and even our governments to remedy the deep causes of such situations. Superficial healing can just delay the inevitable or require more extreme measures by spirit to get the attention of enough humans to change things.
Jumping in on impulse to "fix things" may even make the underlying situation worse.
How do we know when to help and when not to? We ask for spiritual guidance.
We do not do healing on people who have not asked us to, so that we do not interfere with their free will. In an emergency you can send healing to the higher self of an unconscious person or a child, but send only "whatever is for their highest good."
The same is true for situations such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. There are so many ramifications from that spill, and the seriousness of it indicates how large the effects may be on the future of our planet.
We should not just jump in and assume that we know best what needs to be done. We should ask the spirits.
I have written a column on whether or not to do shamanic healing on the oil spill situation on Houston Shamanism Examiner. I hope you will go there and read it and then leave comments with your experiences and ideas on the situation.
I have written a column on whether or not to do shamanic healing on the oil spill situation on Houston Shamanism Examiner. I hope you will go there and read it and then leave comments with your experiences and ideas on the situation.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Where Did the Word "Shaman" Come From? And Why?
"Where did we get the word shaman?" That is actually a more interesting question than it sounds like at first, I think.
Most people who are interested in shamanism know the word shaman came from Siberia. But that's about it. That's true, but that's not the interesting part.
For that matter, most people think Siberia is part of Russia---or of the old Soviet Union. And that's not true.
In fact, Siberia is a vast region of the continent of Eurasia. Siberia encompasses at least two races and many countries, ethnicities, cultures and languages.
Many of the languages are from completely different, unrelated language groups. Chinese, for example. And Turkish. Plus a whole bunch of languages you probably never heard of, too.
I wrote a new post on my Houston Shamanism Examiner column about the interesting things we know about the origins of the word shaman. Reading it may change a lot of your ideas about what shamanism is and how it started, about who can be a shaman, and why.
Or not. Take a look.
- Clayoquot shaman in full shamanic regalia
Most people who are interested in shamanism know the word shaman came from Siberia. But that's about it. That's true, but that's not the interesting part.
For that matter, most people think Siberia is part of Russia---or of the old Soviet Union. And that's not true.
In fact, Siberia is a vast region of the continent of Eurasia. Siberia encompasses at least two races and many countries, ethnicities, cultures and languages.
Many of the languages are from completely different, unrelated language groups. Chinese, for example. And Turkish. Plus a whole bunch of languages you probably never heard of, too.
Most people do not remember that shaman and shamanism were words that only anthropologists used till 1980, when anthropologist Michael Harner's book, The Way of the Shaman, became a best seller.
I wrote a new post on my Houston Shamanism Examiner column about the interesting things we know about the origins of the word shaman. Reading it may change a lot of your ideas about what shamanism is and how it started, about who can be a shaman, and why.
Or not. Take a look.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Shamanically Retrieving the Spirit of Universal Love
Our modern world has lost sight of the importance of harmony with the natural world, of going with the flow, or walking in beauty. The result is ugliness, war, disease, overpopulation and destruction of the environment.
What can we do? As shamanic practitioners we are charged with the task of restoring the balance, the harmony, the universal love. Read more in this Examiner column:
http://www.examiner.com/x-16972-Houston-Shamanism-Examiner~y2010m2d7-Shamanism-and-universal-love#
Wherever you happen to be next Saturday night, February 13, or whenever you read this, I hope you will join us in journeying to the spirit world to experience universal love and restore it to is natural place in the ordinary world.
It is never too soon or too late to help.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Plant Spirit Shamanism
For shamans, being able to work with the spirits of plants is as important as being able to work with the spirits of humans and other animals and with the spirits of stones, weather and other phenomena.
Plant Spirit Shamanism is a book by therapist and workshop leader Ross Heaven and shamanism instructor Howard Charing that teaches how to honor and work with the spirits of plants. I have just reviewed it on Houston Shamanism Examiner.
You can find the review here: http://bit.ly/aOOJDE
I really like the book, and I think you will, too. It is not another book on adventures while drinking ayahuasca (though the authors write a bit about that, too).
Plant Spirit Shamanism really talks about how to get in touch with plant spirits in many ways, and it offers exercises for doing that.
If you have read Plant Spirit Shamanism and/or worked with the exercises in the book, please leave a comment, and tell us what you liked about it (or disliked). I would love to hear about your experiences.
You can find the review here: http://bit.ly/aOOJDE
I really like the book, and I think you will, too. It is not another book on adventures while drinking ayahuasca (though the authors write a bit about that, too).
Plant Spirit Shamanism really talks about how to get in touch with plant spirits in many ways, and it offers exercises for doing that.
If you have read Plant Spirit Shamanism and/or worked with the exercises in the book, please leave a comment, and tell us what you liked about it (or disliked). I would love to hear about your experiences.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The Shamanic Meanings of Animals
There is a new Houston Shamanism Examiner post on that topic: http://www.examiner.com/x-16972-Houston-Shamanism-Examiner~y2009m11d4-Shamanic-meanings-of-animals
Monday, November 2, 2009
Know the Native Plants and Wild Animals Where You Live
To tap into that land you need to know those energies. Yet most modern people are largely unaware of the native plants and wild animals around us in our own neighborhoods.
Here is a Houston Shamanism Examiner quiz to see how well you know the indigenous plants and animals where you live and help you get started observing and learning about them:
http://www.examiner.com/x-16972-Houston-Shamanism-Examiner~y2009m11d2-How-well-do-you-know-the-plants-and-animals-where-you-live
Take it for fun if you want to. Your answers may surprise you.
Friday, October 30, 2009
New Houston Shamanism Examiner column: "Shamanism: It's not about you!"
I have jut published another column on Houston Shamanism Examiner. This one was inspired by a post on Meetup.com, touting shamanism as a daily practice for everyday life. Some people will write anything for money.
No matter what the popularizers say, shamanism is not a path of personal growth. It is a path of service---to the spirit world and to this world.
Sure, you will grow spiritually, but....well, please just read the column and let me know what you think.
http://www.examiner.com/x-16972-Houston-Shamanism-Examiner~y2009m10d30-Shamanism-its-not-about-you-or-meArcheologists-estimate-that-among-gatheringhunting-cultures-sh
or if that link is too long for your browser, try this one:
http://bit.ly/4srhFj
Thanks.
White Cranes
P.S. No, it is still not about you.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Animist-Shamanist Terms for Animal Spirits, Totems, Power Animals, Animal Guides
It is impossible if you literally do not have the words for it.
Taking the time to learn and understand the few spiritual terms that we do have for the fields that you are interested in seems pretty basic to me. So it bothers me that people seldom seem to bother to do that.
In shamanic studies, the constant misuse of the word totem is particularly annoying. And the misunderstanding of the meaning of the term power animal is not far behind.
As I read or listen to (or try to participate in) conversations about shamanism, I often find that people are using the same terms to mean different things. That results in confusion for all concerned.
If people notice the problem, they can agree on terms to use, but generally they do not even seem to notice. The result can be either arguments or superficial conversations that go nowhere.
That is not totally their fault, since there are plenty of books on the market that misuse the terms and confuse readers as to what they actually mean. That's bad, because it is difficult enough to discuss spiritual experiences in English anyway.
I have just posted a new Houston Shamanism Examiner column on totems, power animals, spirit animals, and animal guides.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-16972-Houston-Shamanism-Examiner
I won't recap the whole article here, but please stop by and read it. (It is pretty short.) And then, if you will, please leave a comment.
Let me know what you think.
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