With respect to protection/defense. I think your misunderstanding here is reflective of the problem of sorcery and shamanism. Harners earliest reported initiatory work was with the Shuar/Jivaro, a culture rife with harmful sorcery practices and defenses. Harner has reported that this culture does not journey to the upper or lower worlds - where one might empower oneself as a form of protection. I believe he sees that as the most important work for many of his students. He does see certain kinds of protection work to be advanced, and has taught this to a much lesser degree. Perhaps its valid to critique that balance, but it does not come from ignorance or lack of knowledge on his or other faculties part. Concern with sorcery, and involvement with defense can often be a reflection of disempowerment, rather than advanced skill.Tim makes a good point regarding disempowering concerns with sorcery and black magic. We've all run into people who see the devil in every misfortune and fancy themselves the victims of all sorts of spiritual malfeasance. Sometimes these fears are rooted in mental illness: at other times they stem from a deep existential ennui. (There's nothing quite so interesting or ego-gratifying as being preyed upon by Eternal Cosmic Evil). This sort of behavior needs to be discouraged, and its underlying causes addressed and treated.
But I am still left wondering if the FSS has not gone too far in the opposite direction. The Shuar/Jivaro are hardly the only culture "rife with harmful sorcery practices and defenses." In fact, I've yet to encounter any indigenous culture which did not have well-developed traditions of spiritual defense. If we are going to talk about universal beliefs in shamanism, I'd be hard pressed to find one more widespread than "the spirit world can be a dangerous place."
This is not surprising, given that the material world which hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers inhabit is a dangerous place. Famine and disease are never far away: their everyday life puts them in constant contact with risky situations. (And things generally don't get better for the poor and dispossessed when they move/are moved to more urban environments: those who doubt me need only look to Port-au-Prince, Havana, Lagos or similar cities). Their mundane lives require vigilance, discretion and caution, and so they take similar care in their spiritual work.
By contrast, much modern American spirituality speaks of a Law of Abundance, a Prosperity Gospel, a heavenly cornucopia where divine game show hosts dispense blessings, wisdom and new cars to anybody who wishes to play. Death is kept safely hidden away in hospices, funeral homes and slaughterhouses. (When did you last see a dead body in the road, or watch your lunch being killed?) Because we have little direct contact with danger, we envision the spirit world to be as safe as our mundane existence.
Alas, our worlds - mundane and spiritual - are not safe places. Good intentions are useless against predators and parasites in either realm. Malaria-carrying mosquitos need to be met with bug spray, not unconditional love. Illusions about a nurturing, benevolent universe are harmless enough if you're properly sheltered: they are far less benign once you leave that warm cocoon. And there really is no way to encounter the Divine without that exit: indeed, I'd say it's the first step on that journey. Thus, I would much prefer that spiritual self-defense and shielding be taught not as an advanced technique but as a prerequisite to any further study.
.jpg)
6 comments:
Concern with sorcery and involvement with defense is a sign that you are taking what you learn in the highest of heavens and applying it to the world around you.
Also, teaching people about self-defence early on would imply that something could possibly go wrong. The way they package 'shamanism' its a kind of safe, ethnic flavoured self-help tool. A nice way to do visualisations along with those charming world-beat sounds playing in the background. Here the 'upper' and 'under' worlds are nice, safe metaphorical imaginative places, really. Introducing the idea that in fact you could enter into a possibly hostile dimension filled with a great many spiritually carnivorous things would not appeal to many WASP punters. Another glaringly absent feature from these neo-'shamanic' presentations is the necessity of initiation - I am aware of no more of a global shamanic concept than initiation. This is the key to that portal. If you are going to go harping on about universal concepts from these traditions then why skip over this one? I'll tell you why - initiations are usually hard. They necessitate a lasting commitment and often an unpleasant ordeal of some sort. They mean you have to swallow the whole fish - sorcery and all. Not conducive to a weekend workshop format methinks.
I'm spirit-taught for the most part. I remember my first "field trips" were carefully directed and guided, and some of the first things that were done involved establishing/staking out a safe base of operations followed by defense, followed by a certain amount of throwing me at things that I couldn't handle on purpose, just so I had that experience and could learn to work through it. I'm thinking if this was that important to Mine, I really don't think it's optional or something to be held off for later, and I'd think that'd be even more important if you're someone who doesn't have someone bigger than you watching your back. At the very least, I wouldn't send my kids out by themselves without teaching them how to conduct themselves, how to cross the street, and not take rides/accept things from strangers, etc, nor would I go visiting a foreign country or even an unfamiliar city without a thought to safety and defense concerns on some level. To me, that other world is just as real and can be just as dangerous as this one. While I've met people like you've described in the first part of your post, I wouldn't let that stop me from taking care of myself, and teaching others to do likewise. Seems to me that having the universe showering you with awesome things is kinda pointless if you don't know how to lock your backdoor.
I think protection is one of the key magical and spiritual techniques that people should learn. It often seems that people don't do enough protection work, both for spiritual and physical protection, and most of the time when I meet people who engage in spiritual practice, that is often the most neglected thing until suddenly it becomes a big issue in thier lives, and then once it is handled, continue to neglect it again. Yet, if you do it regularly (once a month, once a week whatevs..) it is the simplest most basic thing, and can really divert alot of problems that could possible arise, from small petty things, to even reducing the impact of major crisises.
In my spiritual training (not shamanic), I first sought to cultivate a greater sensitivity to spiritual forces/beings. Protection and cleansing work were necessary as increased exposure and increased sensitivity require effective tools at managing the effects that such exposure and openness require.
Not all protection are necessarily due to attack, perceived or real. If I wear sun block to the beach, it's not because I think the sun is attacking me.
To bring this back to the discussion above, protection work is very necessary and important to begin with. Not really knowing much about FFS, I am very surprised that it is not taught as part of their foundational work.
This is sort of a foreign concept to me. Even in the worst of the fluffy-bunny type books I picked up in my youth, some sort of regular cleansing, shielding, or other protection magic was generally emphasized as necessary. Believing some cosmic evil has it out for your specifically is asinine enough, but in a pinch I'd have to think it better than blundering around your spirituality without any preparation whatsoever.
I think Balthazar hit the nail on the head, though - this is probably a side-effect of the commercialization of spirituality.
Post a Comment