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Ninth in my series of talks for the Unitarians -
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When I started to prepare for this talk, my intent was to focus on the shamanic journey without dragging in any personal experiences, because I'm always concerned that speaking of unusual things will make people uncomfortable. Even though you all are more open minded than most people in the area, you still have to get past the strangeness factor that living in a homogeneous, structured society induces. But really, talking about this topic without any personal connection is not satisfying. The people I've met are too good to leave out. So, I apologize in advance if I make anyone uncomfortable. I became interested in shamans (pronounced SHAH-mahn) because of my own journey exploring the meaning of gender. While trying to understand myself, and others like me, I've traveled around some in the past few years. I've met some mighty unusual people along the way. Fortunately, most of them have been wonderful and refreshing. It is because of some of these people that I started thinking about spirituality again, after having rejected the whole convoluted business of religion many years ago in disgust. As I read and listened, I found myself moving backward, from complex to simple, and thus came to the source, the essence of primitive spirituality. On one of my journeys, at an event called the Texas T Party in 1997, I met a fascinating person named Les Feinberg, who wrote this lovely book, called Transgender Warriors. Les was born with a female body, yet if you passed one another on the street, you would see a man. I still recall our first encounter. M and I were waiting on an elevator there at the hotel in Dallas, and when the doors slid apart, there stood Les, with a couple of friends. Rather than hurrying out the door, avoiding eye contact as elevator travelers are wont to do, Les and I locked eyes and stood there transfixed for several seconds that seemed more like minutes. Even though we had never seen one another before, something powerful flowed between us, without a word being spoken. The friends on either side of our encounter just stood there, wondering what was going on, until in the same instant, Les and I made a subtle head nod to one another, then each moved silently on our way. Our kindred spirits had recognized one another at some deeper level. We would meet again. Les gave the keynote speech to the group later, speaking eloquently on the role of gender-variant people through history in all sorts of cultures, and taking note of the disproportionate representation of these people in spiritual healer traditions, in a word, as shamans. I spoke with Les later, as I was buying a copy of this book, and I was struck by the aura of calm wisdom that comes from too much experience packed into one lifetime. Les doesn't care for sexually charged labels, pronouns, or any other linguistic tools used to put people into boxes, since those boxes have been so often a source of pain, and they don't fit anyway. Les has become a modern day shaman, a one of a kind, a healer of spirits, not by design, but simply by living authentically. Les was born to it. A couple of years later, in 1999, I had an opportunity to experience primitive spiritual traditions in a modern setting when I was in Atlanta for the annual Southern Comfort Conference. A group there calling themselves Kindred Spirits had organized a traditional drum circle, much like primitive cultures all over the world have practiced for many thousands of years, and they invited serious participants to join in. Before entering the spacious atrium through a specially constructed portal, costumed attendants kissed each person on the cheek, then led them one by one to join hands with a growing circle of people gyrating slowly around the space and swaying to the rhythms of the drummers on a platform at the side. At some point, a signal was given to be seated. Someone spoke these words, from the writings of Starhawk:
After a period of silence, the drumming began anew as two masked dancers entered the circle, one a feminine, fairyish creature, and the other a masculine, devilish looking creature. At first, the two were fearful of one another, but through the course of the dance, they overcame their fear, tentatively touching one another at first, then amid a crescendo of drumming, at last coming together in a triumphant embrace, followed by a final collapse to the ground. It was abstract - and marvelous. When we all caught our breath, we were bade to rise and begin the dance again, moving around in a circle, hand in hand, everyone filled with the joy of motion. Finally, the drumming changed, and we were led once again, one by one, to the portal, where the two dancers escorted each person to stand before a full length mirror, indicating that we should behold our own image, whispering in both our ears "You are beautiful." If healing was their mission, they certainly helped to heal this traveler's weary soul. I found the sponsors of the circle later, Holly and Zantui, a gender-variant couple who live a simple rural existence in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. They still host gatherings throughout the year there for people who are interested in these sorts of personal spiritual journeys. They are modern day shamans - not because they say so - they simply are. This loosely formed group they have assembled, Kindred Spirits, evolved from a 1992 invitation and challenge by Rena Swifthawk, a Lakota Sioux two-spirit, for gender variant people to claim a two-spirit role within Western culture. The two-spirit in most Native cultures has traditionally lived between the sexes, claiming both male and female, and is a healer, teacher and spiritual leader, a special and honored person in the tribe. It remains to be seen whether any such place of honor can be held in our modern culture. People like these aren't terribly common, but they live among us, here and there. You aren't likely to find them because they aren't interested in drawing attention to themselves, unlike the purveyors of mainstream religion. Their journey is an inward one, with each individual the master of their own existence, assisted by the healing magic of a few gifted ones. It is the Way of the Shaman. The shaman appears again and again, across time, in technologically simple, hunter gatherer cultures all over the world. The similarity of purpose and methods is so great as to be almost eerie. Just for a moment, one wonders if ancient astronauts scooped these people up and trained them all at the same time. But no, it is more likely that human minds universally seeking an explanation for their world produce the void that the shaman fills. A student of shamanic cultures has this interesting perspective:
In contemporary, historical or traditional shamanic practice the shaman may at times fill the role of priest, magician, metaphysician or healer. Personal experience is the prime determinant of the status of a shaman. Knowledge of other realms of being and consciousness and the cosmology of those regions is the basis of the shamanic perspective and power. With this knowledge, the shaman is able to serve as a bridge between the mundane and the higher and lower states. The shaman lives at the edge of reality as most people would recognize it and most commonly at the edge of society itself. Few indeed have the stamina to adventure into these realms and endure the outer hardships and personal crises that have been reported by or observed of many shamans. In some cultures, shamans may occupy an elevated social and economic position, especially if they are successful healers. Attempts to explain the shamans and their cures in modern terms have been numerous. Some scholars have drawn parallels between shamanistic healing and psychoanalytic cures and have concluded that in both instances efficacious and therapeutic symbols are created, leading to psychological release and physiological curing (a form of Faith Healing). Several anthropologists, rejecting a theory that shamans are basically neurotics or psychotics, have suggested that shamans possess certain cognitive abilities that are distinguishably superior to those of the rest of the community. Other scholars simply explain shamanism as the precursor of a more organized religious system or as a technique for achieving ecstasy. Shamans are sometimes known to use naturally occurring psychotropic drugs of various sorts to enhance their experience of otherworldliness and stimulate visions. These chemical substances, which come from plants, fungi, and even certain animals, have been extracted, purified, and catalogued by curious researchers. The effects are often described as similar to LSD, the turn-on drug of the hippie generation. Shamans were the original flower children, and in places like Ecuador, they are still practicing their ancient art. Now I'm not much interested in psychotropic drugs - my reality is different enough from everyone else's already, thank you. I don't need any more help. But I am interested in the pattern of the shaman's life, since it is a universal experience that unusual people find themselves repeating regardless of whether they want to or not. The shamanic journey typically begins in youth, with feelings of alienation, of being different from one's tribe members. Conversely, someone who feels very comfortable in their culture simply won't experience this shamanic awakening. They will have no understanding of the angst that drives the chosen one on the journey. The awakening youth struggles with the meaning of the angst, sometimes willing it to lie dormant for many years. When at last the call cannot be denied, the next phase begins. In cultures where this awakening is better understood, an experienced elder may guide the awakening spirit through the next step. In modern cultures, unfortunately, there may be no such guide. The angst grows until it consumes the individual, forcing them to retreat from other people, to escape their culture, to journey in the wilderness alone. This journey into the wilderness is not a pleasure hike through a meadow; it is a time of losing oneself, then finding a way back, a new and different way. When the rebirth is complete, the shaman may be so profoundly changed; that former friends and family members may no longer recognize the person they knew. The shell is the same, but the spirit is new. Another of those interesting people I've come to know is named Raven Kaldera. Raven has a rare genetic difference that results in an endocrine system which has never produced some of the hormones and enzymes that control the development of the body in ordinary people, resulting in an intersex physiology. It's difficult to say whether Raven is man or woman, so there isn't much point in using pronouns. Raven, who lives a simple agrarian existence now, writes powerfully about the experience of being completely different from everyone else, and had this to say recently:
The journey is difficult, yet all the prophets among mankind have made it and come back, inspiring what now are the major religions of the world. According to accounts of the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the future Buddha, after enjoying the easy life, he felt compelled to spend six years in the forest in an ascetic, detached existence in his search for enlightenment. He ate just enough to barely stay alive, a practice almost guaranteed to lead to visions. This stage of his journey, long and difficult, prepared him to rejoin his society, ultimately fulfilling his destiny as the spiritual guide to his people. Jesus likewise spent a number of years in an ordinary existence working as a carpenter before his awakening. The Bible recounts the journey of Jesus into the wilderness after being baptized:
According to Luke, Jesus "ate nothing" for 40 days prior to the temptations (Luke 4:2). Moses and Elijah had endured similar fasts before receiving divine revelations from God (Exodus 34:28, 1st Kings 19:8). The wilderness journey culminates in the temptations, where Jesus is asked by Satan to perform acts which would show him to have lost his faith.
Jesus rejects worldly needs in this exchange, and in another account of temptation as well. He has returned from his shamanic journey whole, and ready to guide those who will listen. Like Siddhartha, and Jesus, Mohammed's life at first looked ordinary to outsiders, even though he was regarded as an unusually honest, compassionate, and fair man. He journeyed into the mountains at times for meditation and solace, but it wasn't until he was 40 years old that he had his first vision, which he identified as the angel Gabriel, an experience which terrified him. This was the beginning of his shamanic journey, punctuated by a series of revelations that continued for 23 years, up until his death. Other prophets in other eras provide more examples, but I'm sure you see the pattern. Whatever era they appear in, the shaman transcends the shackles of their culture, to reach a higher level of existence. They endure terrible hardship and withdraw into themselves, their former self dying so that the new one can be reborn. If they survive their ordeal, their simple mission becomes clear: That mission is to heal their brothers and sisters who are in pain. Is there a shamanic journey in your future?
I always like to close with verse, so here is something simply called, The Invitation
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
3/03/02 |
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Last Update 4/5/02 |