A Shamans book part 1.
In Search of the Spirit
Volume 2
By Thoren
*This book is dedicated to Jaydephoenix and all the
sacrifices she has made for the Shaman path.*
I)Introduction
The shaman are generally a reclusive group who frequently contact the spirits for advise and energy. An adept shaman has mastered death, balance, healing, fire, and lore of the ancients.
Mastering mortality, a shaman's own spirit must ascend and break the plane of death, soaring to the timeless place of the spirits. Once in the realm of the spirits, they can communicate with them, may receive powerful visions, and are empowered by them. On occassion, spirits may speak through their bodily form so others may communicate with them.
The balance between body and spirit is a necessity for a shaman. This is due to the fact that they must be intermediaries between the divine realm, netherworld, and middle earth. Without this balance a shaman would fall into the realm they visit forever. This ablility is obtained only via heredity or spiritual calling.
Knowledgable in herbs and their uses, a shaman is a healer. Since sickness is viewed as a loss of spirit, a shaman may diagnose and restore it. Often, rattles are used to drive away these unwanted spirits. They may also travel to the spiritual realm and lead a lost spirit back to its body.
Shamans have a special relation to fire, heat, and light. In fact, the word shaman is derived from sram, which means to heat oneself. A shaman is not only a supreme master of fire, but also the embodiment of a heat so fierce that its spiritual luminecense is associated both with purity and with knowledge.
Finally, a shaman is guardian to the traditional lore of the ancients and narrator of them. Often, they are told in small rituals, wereby they wear costumes and have dances. Obviously, a shamans lore library increases with age.
A young shaman may not have all these completely mastered, but have definitely aquired these abilities and knowledges.
