Shamanism

==Shamanism ==
the Balance between power and peace is the basic essence of shamanism, where the peace leads to meditation, dancing and singing as a retreat of life which we can apply in our daily life.
:Shaman believe everything 
:has medicine, healing or magik. 
:In other words a living breathing universe. 
:"akita mani yo" 
:(see all things as you walk) 
:Shamanism - General Overview 
:Ideas of Bodhisattva and Karma in Shamanism. 
:Zen, The Buddha & Shaminism 
:Read the story of The Papalagi 
:Visit Earth Sanga 
:::Gamilaraay mob of N.S.W. 2002
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Let us speak of some of our Horizontal Brothers and Sisters
the 4-leggeds and winged-ones and those who swim & crawl
:Ask the animals,:and they will teach you,
:or the birds of the air,
:and they will tell you,
:or speak to the earth,
:and it will teach you,
:or the fish of the sea,
:and they will inform you.
:Job 12:7-8
==Bear==
(from Siski Aki)
Bear is a beautiful example of the Great Spirit`s creative force. 
She is a creature at the top of the "food chain" in North America, 
with tremendous strength and boundless courage, yet her heart is 
tender and loving as she looks after her cubs, protecting them 
from all harm while simultaneously teaching them the independence 
necessary to survive in the ever changing landscape in which they 
live. One with Power Totem Grizzly Bear Medicine is an individual 
whose Role along the Red Road of physical life, is to awaken the 
voice within, and thus, much of her or his Life will be dedicated 
to stirring to consciousness the Voice of the Soul. Yet this is 
only the first step, as the Grizzly Soul is here to teach others 
to listen to the gentle stirring of the Inner Voice, to awaken to 
the Music of the Intuition.One who walks with Bear is an 
individual whose heart is limitless in its capacity to feel and 
give love. These are devoted parents, children, siblings and 
friends who sincerely believe that we are here to Love One 
Another. Because of their ability to love so completely and with 
sincere devotion, these individuals may face many lessons with 
discerning healthy boundaries so that others will not endlessly 
drink from their beautiful waters without then continuing to send 
the love and energy on. This may be a challenge as they feel the 
desire to nurture and protect all they come to know, and yet some 
souls will simply use the energy to sustain their own life, rather 
than make the most of it to gain their footing and continue 
forward along their own path. This is where these Bear people must 
come to recognize the "psychic vampires" for what they are, and 
learn when they are actually impeding the progress of another by 
allowing the "feed" to continue. People who live in bear country, 
study, or just watch bears, generally come to admire them. 
Alberta's Andy Russell grew up in the cattle country of the 
southwest with the Rocky Mountain foothills and its bears in his 
backyard. After a lifetime around grizzlies, he described his 
admiration for them in this way: "The animal that impresses me the 
most, the one I find myself liking more and more is the grizzly. 
No sight encountered in the wilds is quite so stirring as those 
massive, clawed tracks pressed into mud or snow. No sight is quite 
so impressive as that of the great bear stalking across some 
mountain slope with the fur of his silvery robe rippling over his 
mighty muscles. He is a dignity and power matched by no other in 
the North American wilderness. To share a mountain with him for a 
while is a privilege and an adventure like no other.
(from ( -griz- :))
The bear embodies self-observation, because every winter, 
it retires to a cave to reflect on the events of the past 
year. It enters into the great silence, the big empty, 
to find the answers to all questions.
Many people also choose the path of silence and solitude 
to find themselves. This is an opportunity to obtain answers, 
since all answers can be found within ourselves. 
Self-observation is necessary to recognize one's wishes. 
The power of the bear embraces this receiving, female energy. 
The bear withdraws into a dream world every winter on the 
search for answers and is reborn every spring.
The bear teaches how important it is to recognize the right 
time to take a step back from the noisy world around us and 
from our thoughts. For it is in silence that we can hear our
real voice, the voice that knows the answers to all questions 
and holds the solution to all problems.
==Eagle==
(also passed to us by Siski Aki via Kodaska)
One of the most prominent features of Native American life is the use of animals in storytelling, art, etc. Of all the animals, the Eagle is by far one of the most honored creatures. The eagle is a symbol of love, friendship, honor, bravery and mystical power. You can find the symbol of the eagle (or variations) from the North Pole to the most southern part of Argentina. Although each individual tribe has its own stories about this raptor, collectively the stories coincide with many similarities of strength. The eagle is also used for traditional dance. The Cherokee for example, have a dance called the Eagle Dance that represents strength and power. This dance is often performed at the tribes Powwows. You can also find many native headdresses at a summer time Powwow. These magnificent headdresses are made of eagle feathers. Each feather on the headdress represents an honor or incident of bravery. The more feathers a brave has, the more honored he is. Also, the eagle feather can also be compared to the modern tradition of wedding bands. It is tradition for a man to give his bride a feather as a symbol of their life-long union. You see, feathers are like fingerprints; no two feathers are identical except for the â€œtwin feathersâ€�? found on the wings of the eagle. Because of this, it is tradition for the feathers to be exchanged between future couples also. In the past a brave was often seen riding to war or to the hunt with a single feather tied to his horse, and his girl slept with the matching single feather tied to her bed. For some traditional Cherokee natives, the eagle feather is used for ceremonial, healing, and purification purposes to this day. The practice used for these purposes is called Eagle Medicine (the goal is to achieve a certain mind set through diligence, understanding, awareness, and personal visions). The reason the feathers are used is because the eagle represents duality in it own life and ours. The color of the tail feather is divided into two parts, light and dark. The two colors come from the same feather yet they represent darkness and lightness, male and female, substance and shadow, summer and winter, peace and war, and life and death. It is said that the dualism is needed along with the symbol of the eagle to keep balance in the circle of life.
:is the power of the Great Spirit, 
:the connection to the Divine. 
:It is the ability to live in the realm of Spirit, 
:and yet remain connected and balanced 
:within the realm of Earth. 
:Eagle soars, and is quick to observe expansiveness 
:within the overall pattern of life. 
:From the heights of the clouds, 
:Eagle is close to the heavens 
:where the Great Spirit dwells. 
:Jamie Sams - Seneca/Choctaw & David Carson, Choctaw
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== Native American Rock Wisdom ==
:I was asked by an elderly woman who was an immigrant,
:as a child, from Italy, to come spend the day with her
:and "explain" this Native religion. She wanted
:desperatly to understand, and no one could tell her. 
:After hours of talk, she did not understand anymore
:than when I had started. 
:I went outside, and picked up a rock that was laying
:in the road, in the sun. 
:I brought it in to her and placed it into her cupped
:arthritic hands. She held it tight, and said in
:amazement- Its warm! where did you get this? is this a
:holy rock? (she did not know where I got it)- me being
:Native and all, and her not- I think she must have
:thought I got it out of my car or something... 
:As she held the rock tightly inside her hands, she
:soaked in the warmth of the rock, for a time, then
:said it made her feel good. WHAT was this rock????
:I explained that the creator is in everything, living
:and inert. She asked if it was the creator in this
:rock that made her feel good. I replied - sort of. 
:Then I said to her- that the rock was from her
:driveway, and that it had been in the sun. Everything
:absorbs the suns warmth and the sun is in everything. 
:She looked at me as though I had tricked her and made
:her a fool for feeling what she did. 
:I explained that the creator is like the sun- it is in
:everything- and the warmth and comfort she got from
:that rock- was- because she opened her mind- and the
:"medicine" flowed into her body and that is why it
:felt good.
:I told her this was the best way that I could explain
:Native Religion to her,(I could see her beginning to
:understand ... (oh what thankfulness I felt) 
:My words, no matter how I tried, did not make sense to
:her so I had to show her and let her feel it for herself. 
:She began to cry, and said; you mean This religion is
:in the very rocks in my driveway???!! 
:I smiled and said yes. It is everywhere. 
:Then I explained inert things to her- the small rock- 
:I asked her if she could imagine the beginings of this
:rock. 
:She said, "well It probly started out a huge rock, and
:through the ages of change, came to be what it is
:now." I said If the rock had eyes and a mouth, oh what
:things it could tell you , of a thousand years, or more. 
:But ... I told her, the rock does not have to have eyes
:and a mouth to tell you. It is part of the great circle, 
:and it is filled with the creator and his touch. 
:Rock medicine ... the rocks have spirit in them also. 
:Many people look to the rock for medicine, to receive
:help and healing, and to place heavy burdens upon it. 
:It is here for us, because it is strong, and it can
:handle all the pain and hurt in your heart. 
:Even bitterness. 
:And with prayer and offering, the rock will give you
:medicine(strength) ...
:You can put all your burdens into this rock ... 
:it will accept it with gladness ...
:if your heart is true ... 
:and ...
:if you leave those burdens with the rock, and do not
:take them back to your heart.
==More Eagles==
I live across street from "eagle tree". This means that it is a time-honored eagle's nest area;<BR>
honored by the eagles themselves.<BR>
Eagles are actually large scavengers.<BR>
They know humility.<BR>
They did not become "the national bird" in the US of A<BR>
by being stupid and insensitive, by any means.<BR>
They are not so HUGE and ferocious - wow - what keen eyesight!<BR>
What wit!<BR>
:-)
(eagles have tremelo *high-pitched* squeaky songs; kinda like an<BR>
Arnold Schwarznegger on 'No-Doze'... lol)<BR>
more about eagles later...<BR>
LATER:
i keep taking photos of the eagles but<BR>
because dinky digital doh camera they<BR>
look like large white dots at tops of trees!<BR>
still - ALL the birds were gone entirely last summer<BR>
during the prolonged "severe weather warning" here.<BR>
so happy for their company at least.<BR>
who is it that is the most FUN totem?<BR>
that would be RAVEN - of course!<BR>
(also scavengers)<BR>
known as "tricksters" within aboriginal cultures.<BR>
(more on ravens later...)<BR>
mwah! <BR>
next...?<BR>
== Hawks ==
The visionary
discovery of undeveloped talents and abilities
observation
seeing the larger perspective
awareness
focus
kundalini
Channeling
Mercury, the messenger of the gods
Watch and listen. Never underestimate the signals coming to you
Microsoft from a hawks perspective
== Crows, Ravens, Magpies and Jays==
:If men had wings and bore black feathers ...
:few of them would be clever enough to be crows.
:-Rev. Henry Ward Beecher-
_________________________________________________
:Inuit Creation Story:<BR>
Time was, there were no people on earth. The first man still lay inside the pea pod.<BR>
Four days passed, and on the fifth day, he pushed with his feet. He broke through the bottom of the pod and fell to the ground. When he got up, he had become a grown man. He looked at eveything and himself, his arms and legs, his hands; felt his neck. The pod that had held him still hung on the vine with a hole in its bottom.<BR>
The grown man walked a little away from the pod where he had started. The ground under him felt as if it were moving, too. It was not firm, but soft.<BR>
The way it moved under him made him feel sick. He stood still, and slowly a pool of water formed at his feet. He bent down and drank from the pool. It felt good the way the water went from his mouth down inside of him. It made him feel better.<BR>
He stood up again, refreshed. Next, he saw something. It was a dark thing flapping along, and it was coming. Then it was there before him. It stood looking at him.<BR>
It was Raven. Raven lifted one of his wings and pushed his beak up to his forehead. He raised it like a mask. And when he moved his beak up, Raven changed into a man. He walked all around the first man to get a good look at him.<BR>
"Who are you?" Raven asked, at last. "Where did you come from?"<BR>
"I came from the pea pod," said the man, pointing to the vine and the broken pod.<BR>
"I made that vine!" said Raven. "I never thought something like you would come from it. Here, this ground we're standing on is soft. I made it later than the rest. Let's go to the high ground. It's hard and thick."<BR>
Man and Raven went to the high ground, and it was quite hard under them.<BR>
"Did you have anything to eat?" Raven asked.<BR>
Man told him about the wet stuff that had pooled at his feet.<BR>
"Ah, you must have drunk water," Raven said. "Wait here for me."<BR>
He drew the beak-mask down and changed once more into a bird. Raven flew up into the sky and disappeared.<BR>
Four days later, he returned. The whole time, Man had been waiting.<BR>
Raven pushed up his beak and was again a man. He had four berries-- two raspberries and two heathberries.<BR>
"I made these for you," he said. "I want them to grow all over the earth. Here, eat them."<BR>
Man put the berries in his mouth and ate them.<BR>
"I feel better," he said.<BR>
Next, Raven took Man to a small creek. There, the man-bird found two pieces of clay and molded them into tiny mountain sheep. He held them on his palm. When they dried, he let Man take a close look at them.<BR>
"They look nice," Man said.<BR>
"Now shut your eyes," Raven told him. Man did close his eyes.<BR>
Raven pulled down his beak and made his wings wave back and forth, back and forth over the clay figures. They came to life and bounded away as grown mountain sheep. Raven lifted his mask.<BR>
"Look!" he said.<BR>
Man saw the sheep moving very fast. They were full of life, and that pleased him. He thought people would like them. For there were more men growing on the vine.<BR>
But when Raven saw the way Man was looking at the mountain sheep with such delight, he put them up high so that people would not kill too many of them.<BR>
Raven made more animals, moved his wings, and brought them to life. Every animal and bird and fish that Raven made, Man viewed with pleasure. That worried Raven. He thought he'd better create something Man would fear, or else Man might eat or kill everything that moved.<BR>
So Raven went to another creek. He took some clay and created a bear, making it come alive. Quickly, Raven got out of the way of Bear because the animal was so fierce it would tear him apart and maybe eat him.<BR>
"You will get lonely if you stay by yourself," Raven said to Man. "So I will make somebody for you."<BR>
Raven went off a ways, where he could view Man bt where Man couldn't be sure what he was doing. There, off a ways, he made a figure out of clay much like Man's, although different. He fastened watercress onthe back of its head for hair. When the figure had dried in the palm of his hand, he waved his wings several times. It came to life. It was a lovely woman. She got up, grew up, and stood beside Man.<BR>
"That is your helper and your mate," said Raven.<BR>
"She is very pretty," said Man, and he was happy.<BR>
Raven went on doing what he needed to do. And Man and Woman had a child. Soon, there were many, many people and animals. All that was living grew and thrived.<BR>
The world prospered.<BR>
______________________________________
===Shiny New World===
the following from:<BR>
 Birdbrains ~ The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies and Jays.<BR>
~Candace Savage~ 1995 GreyStone Books Toronto/Vancouver
:The Raven and the First People
:As the Raven scanned the beach, a white flash caught his eye, 
:and when he landed he found at this feet, half buried in the 
:sand, a gigantic clamshell. When he looked more closely still, 
:he saw that the shell was full of little creatures cowering 
:in terror of his enormous shadow.
:Well ... here was something to break the monotony of his day. 
:But nothing was going to happen as long as the tiny things 
:stayed in the shell, and they certainly weren't coming out in 
:their present terrified state. So the Raven leaned his great 
:head close to the shell, and with the smooth trickster's 
:tongue that had got him into and out of so many misadventures 
:during his troubled and troublesome existence, he coaxed and 
:cajoled and coerced the little creatures to come out and play 
:in his wonderful, shiny new world.
 
:The Magpie's Long Tail
:Once upon a time (or so we are told by a Finnish folktale) ...
:a too-talkative magpie informed a man that he would die
:withing twenty-four hours. This brazen announcement was 
:annoying to God, who grabbed the bird by its stubby tail 
:and pulled its feathers. To this day, magpies have long, 
:slender tails as a reminder of their effrontery.
:The Raven and the Hunter
:A hunter found an excellent run of seal breathing holes.
:Then he searched around for a good place to camp. 
:Along flew a raven ... pointed to a certain plain beneath a mountain.
:"There," the raven said, "all the hunters who come here camp there."
:The man made his house where the raven indicated. 
:But in the night a big boulder rolled down the mountain 
:and crushed him to death.
:"I don't know why all these hunters believe my silly stories," 
:said the raven, pecking out the man's eyes.
:Story told by a raven to Narriq of Gjoa Haven, 
:Northwest Territories and retold by Lawrence Millman<BR>
:in A Kayak Full of Ghosts. 
:Why the Raven is Black
:In the olden days, the raven and the peacock were 
:close friends who lived on a plantation in Vietnam. 
:One day, the two birds decided to amuse themselves 
:by painting each other's feathers. 
:The raven set wilingly to work and so surpassed 
:itself that the peacock became, as it is today, 
:one of the most beautiful birds on earth. 
:Unwilling to share its glory even with its friend, 
:the mean-spirited peacock painted the raven plain black.
:The Crow and the Pitcher
:A thirsty Crow found a pitcher with some water in it, 
:but so little was there that, try as she might, she 
:could not reach it with her beak, and it seemed as 
:though she would die of thirst within sight of the 
:remedy. At last she hit upon a clever plan. 
:She began dropping pebbles into the pitcher, and with 
:each pebble the water rose a little higher until at 
:last it reached the brim, and the knowing bird was 
:enabled to quench her thirst.
:Necessity is the mother of invention. -Aesop-
___________________________<BR>
RAVEN (YELTH OR HOOYAH)<BR>
One of the more prominent figures of the Haida tribe of western Canada and southern SE Alaska. The Raven is credited with giving the light, fire and water to the Natives. He has power to change at will to animal forms or to that of a human being.<BR>
__________________________<BR>
<BR>
KILLER WHALE (Orca)<BR>
Highly respected for its family strengths. Their ethereal voices allow for great success when hunting salmon, seals, etc. Many 
legends have been passed down about their contact with the local peoples.<BR>
----------------------------------------------------<BR>
==Savage Moon==
by The Incredible String Band<BR>
"To the white man nature was a wilderness infested with wild animals and savage people.<BR>
To us it was tame, earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery".<BR>
Chief Luther Standing Bear<BR>
"We saw the Great Spirit's work in almost everything; sun, moon, trees, wind and mountains.<BR>
Sometimes we approached him through those things. Was that so bad"?<BR>
Walking Buffalo<BR>
"The Sioux knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing things soon led to lack of respect for humans too".<BR>
Chief Luther Standing Bear
From pastures of plenty, sailin' in with the gold<BR>
"Free land for the taking" they said<BR>
And they told of the primitive red man.<BR>
Chorus:<BR>
"Naked in the river he stands<BR>
His arms stretched out to the sky<BR>
He's worshipping the spirits of the land<BR>
And his song to the moon<BR>
Is the savage wolf-cry<BR>
Great moon, hawk moon<BR>
Hoop moon, hawk moon<BR>
Hawk moon -stretch out your wings<BR>
In a hoop - circle of the people<BR>
These people feel kinship with the birds of the air.<BR>
With the trees, with the winds that blow,<BR>
In fact, they see kinship everywhere.<BR>
(Chorus)<BR>
"Sir it pains me to tell you that you hoped too<BR>
Much for this land.<BR>
Wild barbarous country it <BR>
And it's alive with the beasts and the red am".<BR>
(Chorus)<BR>
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some images courtesy of: http://geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/photos.htm
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