Types of shamans. Basic shamanism. Major differences between traditional and basic shamanism

Shaman's cosmos

In the olden days, when shamans, along with other members of the tribe, relied on hunting skills to obtain food for themselves and their loved ones, the art of tracking and catching prey was called the "pathfinder". The hunter had to know the habitat of the prey, its habits and peculiarities of movement. Thanks to his skill, he was able to sneak up on the beast close enough to deliver the killing blow.

We don't need to hunt for food today. The meat is sold in beautiful packages, completely devoid of the slightest association with death. If a person has cash, a bank account, or a credit card, all they have to do is grab a product from a supermarket shelf, put it in a cart, pay for a purchase, and then take it home by car. But the path of the pathfinder is still necessary for us, if our "prey" becomes the acquisition of shamanic skills - a task much more difficult than hunting the most cunning animals.

Until the waves of civilization swept over the Native Americans, they hunted down their prey for several hours, sometimes even days, before finding the best position and successfully completing the hunt. The Indian carefully chose the arrow in his quiver that was best suited for a particular game. Each arrow was crafted with great care and purpose, each designed to hit targets quickly and quietly.

The Indian's bow was made of wood, mature and seasoned like the Indian's mind. Therefore, the bow, to some extent, symbolized the human mind. The string, woven of sinew, was taut like emotion. The hand of the Indian personified the spirit, directing the arrow right on target. The quiver also prepared with love and skill; being a receptacle and protective shell for the arrows of the hunter, he personified his body. The arrow symbolized the path of life, as a result of free choice and decisions - acts of will and reason.

Such were the spiritual ideas of the Indian shaman-hunter about the bow, arrows and quiver. We need to keep this equipment in mind as we seek and pursue "prey" designed to enrich and cherish our personal lives, fulfill our dreams and aspirations, and unleash our inner potential.

In order to hunt for personal power - the ability to do shamanic work - we need to know the most favorable places where it can be found. We must learn to recognize it and approach it in such a way that it does not slip away. We should

understand how to hold on to power when "caught", and of course, the hunter shaman must know how to prepare his prey for food - in other words, how to make shamanic abilities a part of our daily life and use the power for the benefit of himself and for other people ...

If the hunter wants to see his prey, he must remain silent and immobile. These attributes are vital in the quest for shamanic power. In what environment are you most likely to find signs of this power? It is clear that it can hardly be found in the midst of human activity. If you take a radio or cassette recorder into the forest and turn it on at full power, then it is difficult to expect that wild animals will come running towards you from all directions. Therefore, to search for strength, you need to choose a quiet place where you will not be distracted or disturbed at least for some time. In a house or apartment, this can be a room isolated from the daily activities of other family members, where your attention is not scattered on unexpected requests or small matters. If that means you have to turn off your phone for half an hour, so be it. A quiet place outside the house is not a public park where you can meet many vacationers on a fine day, but a corner of nature, located far from the well-groomed paths. Such places eventually become our places of power.

A place of power is a site that exudes energy that has a beneficial effect on the person or people in this area. The main places of power have long been considered sacred because of the powerful influence on those who used them. A personal place of power is an energy "pocket" in the Earth's field, which vibrates with the vibrations of your energy field and amplifies them. Therefore, a personal place of power takes your awareness to a higher level and clarifies the mind, allowing the person to feel a surge of energy and inspiration.

Exercise 6

To perform any shamanic work, you will need a place where you can feel calm and comfortable, without being distracted by extraneous thoughts and activities. Remember that some shamanic activities transcend time and space, so you need to find a place where you can be completely liberated. The furnishings and area of ​​the room do not matter. It is not the physical site that is important, but the space of the spirit, so if you have a free room, attic, basement or even a workshop, this will be quite enough for shamanic pursuits, provided that you are not disturbed. If not, even a corner of the bedroom or some other place temporarily unused by family members will do. You turn it into a personal place of power simply by switching to shamanic work at the beginning of the session and returning to your usual activities after it is over. I will explain shortly how this is done.

So, find a suitable site. Equip it with a seat and a comfortable writing plane. Also, there should be enough space on the floor for you to lie on the blanket while doing some activities.

Go to the garden, park, forest and find a suitable place where you can relax without being distracted by extraneous matters. A small clearing in the forest is ideal for this, but appearance is not critical. You should feel at ease and at one with your surroundings.

If you live outside the city, then the choice is easy: visit any of the places you like and stay where you feel best. However, if you live in a large city, your choices may be limited to parks or other preserved areas of the natural environment. Avoid crowded places. Most cities have spacious parks where you can sit alone among the trees, establishing a close connection with nature.

Do not hesitate and start looking for your two places of power right now.

Now back to our hunter. He should take into account the time of day when prey is most likely to appear - say, at dawn or dusk - as well as the hunting seasons for a particular game during the year. The same applies to the quest for the personal power of the shaman.

Your senses quickly adjust to subtle energies during those periods of the daily cycle when external activity is at a low level. I prefer the early morning hours just before sunrise and shortly after sunrise for creative and meditative work. Most of all I write from five to eight in the morning. Likewise, the evening hours, when twilight marks the end of external activity in nature and your day of work ends, is also potentially a good time for shamanic pursuits. Here again, personal choice is important: the best time for you comes when you experience the least pressure from the outside world.

In the annual cycle, potentially favorable periods for communication with invisible forces fall on the eight seasonal holidays of the ancient peoples of the Northern Hemisphere. These seasonal peaks are detailed in the book Earth Medicine, but I will briefly discuss them here.

The vernal equinox- March 21, when the length of day and night coincided, was the ancient Feast of Awakening. At this time, the sprouts of new life begin to break through from the once "dead" earth.

Beltane(early May) was a Holiday of Waiting, when natural energies rose and flourished. This is the time of divided feelings, unification and harmonization.

Summer solstice- June 21st, the longest day of the year when solar energy peaks, was the ancient Festival of Attainment. This is the time of the culmination of vitality.

Lammas(early August) was an ancient Feast of Reminder, when nature shares with people the first fruits of its harvest.

Autumn equinox- September 22, when the length of day and night was again equalized, was the ancient Feast of Thanksgiving. Its main meaning is fair distribution of the harvest, awareness of the need to give and receive something in return.

Shemhain(early November) was an ancient Feast of Remembrance, when the visible and invisible world, dreams and reality mixed with each other. It served as a reminder that visible and invisible, light and darkness are equal partners in the Wheel of Life.

Winter solstice- December 22, when the night is the longest in the year, was the ancient Festival of Revival. He marked the rebirth of light and reminded that light is always accompanied by shadow, so they should be considered as aspects of the same phenomenon.

Finally, Imbolch(early February) was a holiday of renewal, sometimes physical and spiritual cleansing, preparation for the upcoming changes in nature.

Totems, emblems, symbols, shamanic tools and paraphernalia, as well as guiding maps such as the Shamanic Wheel, are all magical pathways that can lead us to our coveted prey: manifestations of shamanic power. Having determined its location, we begin to track down the force with the aim of capturing and using it. Let's look at the principle of stalking in relation to shamanic power.

Sneaking up to his prey, the hunter tries to be invisible so as not to frighten her. How does he become "invisible"? Through conventional disguise: it becomes part of environment... If you want to take possession of shamanic power, you must learn to exist in the environment of power, to be a participant in events, and not an outside observer. Let me remind you again: shamanism is the path to knowledge through personal experience. To find out, you need to do. This is much more than an intellectual exercise.

To blend in with his environment, the hunter must adapt to the changes occurring around him, and when tracking down prey, he takes into account its habits and characteristics, as well as the speed of its movement. Therefore, we also have to adapt our habits and characteristics, synchronizing the frequency of our energetic vibrations with the manifestations of power. For this, the shaman beats a tambourine or a drum. The rhythmic sound temporarily changes the vibration frequency of the energy body, allowing our awareness to merge with the flow of spiritual energy and open up the possibilities of perception at all levels of our being. Drumming takes awareness out of Time, moving it from the tonal (the sphere of material existence, measured by the passage of time) into the timeless realm of the nagual (the stream of universal awareness in the Life Force). But in the same way, he brings awareness out of timelessness into the stream of Time.

The word "tonal" in the language of the Aztecs of Central America means physical being and material reality. Everything is conditioned by time - that is, everything manifests itself in a certain form only for a certain period, for a particle of time. In tonal, the spirit animates, or gives life, various forms. As long as the form can maintain its existence, it lives, but when the flow of energy is interrupted, then the ordered expression of the Life Force in this form, in a given place and time, ceases to exist. The individuality of the being, conceived and embodied in this form of life through the animation of the Life Force, returns to where it came from - to the nagual. The spirit cannot die, otherwise God will die. The Life Force and the Law are transmitted to us directly from the Great Spirit; our individuality is part of the Great Spirit and uses the Law and Life Force for its material expression. This is the Law of our being.

The word "nagual" also comes from the Aztec language and means "hidden" or "deceiving". It denotes the reality hidden behind the mask of substance - in other words, non-material reality. In the nagual, the individual essence knows eternity, since time does not exist there.

So, tracking the target has led us to a new realization: it is not the usual process of hunting and catching prey, as if it were something completely independent of ourselves. Accumulating strength, we ourselves change under its influence. Let me repeat in a nutshell: in order to "catch" shamanic power, you need to be in the right place, at the right time, to become part of the environment where the power dwells, and then move with it.

In ancient times, the tree was a symbol of the connection between the temporal and the physical, on the one hand, and the eternal and spiritual, on the other. The Roman conquerors in ancient Britain sometimes referred to the Celtic Druids as "Shepherds of the Trees," as the Druids often spoke to the trees and prayed to their gods in the sacred groves. The shamans of the northern cultures of Britain, Europe and Scandinavia compared the Cosmos - the integrity of being - with a living tree, a developing organism with its own mind and awareness. Therefore, in our quest for shamanic power, we need to consider the symbolism of the Cosmic Tree. The Scandinavian shamans called it the Yggdrasil Tree. Yggdrasil is an Old Norse name meaning "Ygg's horse", and Ygg is one of the names of Odin, the Scandinavian god, called in mythology "the universal father" or "the father of all things." Odin's horse was a mythological creature capable of traveling to other realms of being. Therefore, the Yggdrasil Tree symbolized access to other worlds - other levels of reality.

The Cosmic Tree included several levels of being and awareness, which were often called "worlds". These are limited zones, or levels of reality. They can be compared with various aspects of the mind: normal waking consciousness, subconsciousness, unconsciousness, and a higher state of consciousness that can be called "superconsciousness."

While it may be necessary to subdivide the mind in this way when trying to understand its functions, it is important to remember that the mind itself is a single whole. Therefore, when working with the conscious, subconscious, unconscious and superconscious, we are really dealing with aspects of the same mind. The Cosmic Tree illustrates this global principle.

The material world of phenomena and waking consciousness was in the middle and was represented by the trunk of the Cosmic Tree. Above him was the highest state of awareness, symbolized by the crown of the tree. Below it was the lower realm of the subconscious and the unconscious, represented by the roots of the tree and the soil around them. The water that feeds the soil of the unconscious rose from the Well of Wyrd, or the Well of Destiny, where past deeds pass through the furnace of Time, affecting the present and the future.

The Cosmic Tree had not only a vertical, but also a horizontal plan.The multidimensional structure of the Cosmos rested on a snowflake-shaped base represented in a simplified form by the symbol of a diagonal cross with a vertical line crossing its center.

The snowflake symbol complemented and accentuated another ancient symbol of the cross inscribed in a circle. This two-dimensional image indicated the existence of a central axis, or spindle, adding the concepts of "up" and down "to the four directions - left, right, forward and backward. Therefore, in the physical world it meant:" The sky is above, the earth is below, west, east, North and South".

The concepts of light and darkness in the ancient northern tradition also acquired a very deep meaning. The light above was represented by the Cosmic Fire, and the darkness below was Space Ice, which was considered a "condensation" of dark energy. The union of the opposite forces of fire and ice, light and darkness, yang and yin, male and female divine principles gave birth to the world of phenomena "in the middle of all that exists."

The shaman viewed all polar forces in the universe as opposite parts of one whole. Therefore, when meeting with one of these forces, he did not forget about its dual nature. Day and night, for example, were not viewed as separate phenomena, but as different expressions of the same phenomenon. The substance was a "dense" manifestation of an invisible spirit. Death was viewed not as the termination of life, but as one of its aspects: the release from one form of being and the transition to another.

The manifestation of physical reality in the world also occurs in two main aspects - material and energy - which are equivalent and interchangeable. Energy was contained in the fabric of the universe, from which matter was formed, and matter ultimately returned to the primary energy from which it originated. Thus, the Universe in ancient times was considered a conscious, living, organic and evolving Entity, which, like everything else, obeyed the laws of its own existence. Humanity and other forms of life were seen as part of this great whole.

Unlike some of the creation myths, the Shaman's Cosmos did not appear out of nothing. He was a manifestation of an ordered universe that arose from a primordial substance in a state of chaos. In northern mythology, the murder of the giant Ymir and the subsequent creation of the Cosmos from his body was an allegory, communicating the knowledge that an orderly and evolving Universe was formed from living substance. It was based on the shape of a snowflake, and the structure resembled a tree with a multi-tiered crown. The trunk, or central axis, connected the Middle World of physical reality with other worlds. The "Above" (Upper World) was inhabited by the forces of knowledge, enlightenment and creativity. It was the abode of the gods, or more highly developed beings. "Below" (the Lower World) was the kingdom of formation and birth, where the less developed elemental spirits lived.

The vertical trunk, closely associated with the awareness of living beings, determined the dualism of light and darkness in conscious, subconscious and unconscious activities. The horizontal plane was associated with energy and showed a separation between the expansive, electrical energy of the Cosmic Fire and the compressive, magnetic energy of the Cosmic Ice.

These worlds were separated not so much by time and distance as by the frequency of their energetic vibrations. They overlapped with the material world and surrounded it, occupying the same space, but in different dimensions. Thus, the Cosmic Tree embodied the essence of the multidimensional Universe and served as a symbol of the inner unity of all forms of life at all levels of being.

On the horizontal plane there were other aspects of being and perception, which also constituted part of the secret knowledge of shamans.

The rune shamans of the ancient peoples of Northern Europe acquired most of their secret knowledge using angular symbols (runes), which could be easily carved into wood or carved in stone. In contrast to modern beliefs based on the findings of some anthropologists, the runes were not just a secret cipher, the symbols of which were used as replacements for the letters of the regular alphabet. It is very likely that most of the rune shamans did not know how to read and write in their own language or in Latin, which became the language of learned people under the influence of Roman culture. In fact, the runes symbolized various schemes of phenomena and laws that govern the movement of energy flows. Runes were and remain symbols of a cosmic language that is effective at all levels of being.

Twenty-four runes of the Elder Futhark
and their phonetic meaning

The oldest rune alphabet, known as the Elder Futhark by the combination of its first six characters "f-u-th-a-r-k", had twenty-four runes. They correspond to the twenty-four possible paths between the nine kingdoms of being on the Yggdrasil Tree. Therefore, the runes can serve as a rune shaman as a "pass" for exploring the inner Space and traveling to other kingdoms of being within the Great Network.

The shamans of Britain and Northern Europe understood well that the Cosmos exists on several levels of being, in a broad sense corresponding to various aspects of the mind. This concept has spread among the indigenous peoples. Its reflection can be seen in certain tribal artifacts, such as the totem poles of the North American and New Zealand Maori Indians, or the carved crystal rods used by some Indian shamans. Artifacts often depicted the three main spirits, located one above the other and supported by a figurine of an animal at the base. On the totem pole, the top figure usually had wings, implying the ability to travel far. The figures symbolized aspects of the human personality, or basic levels of perception.

Although the division of the human mind into conscious, unconscious and unconscious aspects was not recognized in modern psychology until the end of the 19th century, shamans for many centuries personified them as patron spirits. The kahuna shamans in Hawaii (once part of the great prehistoric continent My, which disappeared into the waters of the Pacific Ocean after an ecological disaster, when the Earth moved to a new orbit somewhat more distant from the Sun) likened the subconscious to the hidden spirit of a person who could experience emotions and silently serve consciousness of its carrier.

The intuitive creative mind, acting at a higher level of awareness, was considered the area of ​​the higher "I" - the immortal and prompting the person to spiritual aspirations and noble deeds.

Shamans-kahuna viewed individual aspects of the human personality as a single team. Their unity manifested itself in different ways, but as members of a sports team, each of whom contributes to the game and performs specific functions, they strived to achieve the same goal.

The American psychologist and historian of religion, who has devoted most of his life to the study of Hawaiian magician-priests and has written several books about his discoveries, called the person involved in conscious everyday life, or reasoning mind, the middle self of a person. On another level was the lower "I" associated with memory, partly with the activity of the subconscious mind and with the unconscious. Above the reasoning mind was the higher "I", acting at the level of the highest aspirations of the mind. Kahuna shamans considered these "I" to be the personal spirits of a person, whose functions partially overlapped.

However, among the shamans of the northern tradition, there was an oral teaching that recognized the role of the fourth "I" - instinctive awareness that controls and maintains the physical body, responsible for its protection and survival. It acted on a deep, unconscious level and was compared to animal spirits because of its instinctive nature. Since it usually disappeared with the death of a person, it was considered separately from other spirits.

High Shaman Silver Bear explained to me that these four realizations are separated by intent. Each has its own special function and its own kind of mental strength, but represents only one aspect of the whole personality.

The Cosmic Tree and the Shamanic Wheel are ancient cards for the wanderings of the spirit. Shamans of different cultures used them to understand themselves and achieve different levels of perception. Each technique worked effectively in its own cultural environment, but stemmed from an earlier, universal prehistoric system. Pointing to the existing parallels and combining the main principles into a coherent and harmonious system in the spirit of itinerant shamans, I hope not only to get closer to the original system, but also to open before modern man a clear path leading to the shaman's Cosmos, providing a solid foundation for further research.

Itinerant shamans who transcended tribal customs recognized that there was no one group that owned Truth. They traveled from place to place and from tribe to tribe in search of knowledge, explored new possibilities, weaved what they had learned into the fabric of the already familiar, and shared their wisdom.

Now let's look at the concept of intelligence, which, since intelligence is intangible, is rather vague. In dictionaries, the mind is defined as the throne of consciousness, thoughts and emotions. Scientists, philosophers and theologians do not quite agree on what the human mind is, but they know that the mind is not the same as the brain. The brain is the physical organ and the center of sensation in the cranial membrane; it can be thought of as a biocomputer used by the mind. The physical activity of the brain can be defined and measured, in contrast to the mind, which is intangible and infinite. So, we still do not fully understand what the mind is, but we know about its existence.

To make it easier to understand the mind, we can subdivide its activities into four functional levels. Of course, the mind is not really divided into separate areas for the simple reason that it has no form. But to comprehend an abstract concept, our reason needs to grab onto something. This is the meaning of the classification.

The most familiar aspect of the whole mind is called the conscious mind, since we constantly use it in our daily life. The conscious mind is the throne of the intellect, the reasoning part of our personality, drawing conclusions and determining further actions. We use it to interpret and reflect on our impressions of the outside world. This is our egocentric self, or middle self, which uses words and verbal speech.

The subconscious mind acts in accordance with the instructions laid down in it by the conscious mind. These are firm beliefs, attitudes and habits formed at an early age under the influence of society and the environment. All this is stored in the subconscious mind along with the memories of conscious events, so it can be called a service mind. I prefer to call this aspect of the mind the hidden self, since its activities are mostly hidden from us; he communicates with us through images, feelings and symbols.

The unconscious mind acts automatically and continuously. From the moment of conception, it promotes the development, functioning and restoration of the physical body, first according to the instructions encoded in the genetic code, and then according to the instructions of the subconscious mind. This aspect I call the bodily self because it operates at the most basic level of the human body. Its language is chemical processes and electrical impulses.

The superconscious mind is the highest aspect of the whole mind. He has absolute mental strength. It is the source of any knowledge you may need or can imagine. The superconscious mind communicates knowledge through sudden flashes of insight. It is a source of inspiration and creativity, the mind of the higher self. Telepathy serves as its language.

The four aspects of the whole mind correspond to the aspects of the whole person and exist simultaneously.

The human self is an aspect of personality that is associated with choices and decision making in everyday life. It uses reason and analysis, compares and classifies, makes judgments and forms opinions.

The kingdom of the hidden "I" is in the subconscious, therefore its activity takes place "under the surface", "under cover". It is made up of views and beliefs, in fact, being a servant of the human "I", reacting to authoritative judgments from above. In childhood, our behavior was shaped mainly by the influence of parents and mentors; in early youth - under the influence of cult figures and heroes who served as objects of veneration; in adulthood, they are replaced by deities, to whom the human "I" decides to devote its time and energy. Our subconscious "I" has almost no reasoning ability, but it has an extensive memory. It learns physical skills through repetition and listens to the voice of "authority", as it has a gullible nature and an innate willingness to obey. It senses emotions because their source is subconscious.

The bodily "I" is the biological mind of the body, our guardian and protector. It is animal in nature and therefore acts in accordance with impulses and instincts. It reacts to fears - or hormones produced by the emotions of the hidden self - and is primarily related to physical survival.

The higher self is qualified as the most highly developed aspect of the human person. It is based on eternal values. It is sometimes called “soul” or “spirit,” although the soul is best viewed as the light of the individual being, and the spirit as the source of life. The higher self has the ability to view human life, as it can see the past and near future along with the present. Thought schemes formed in the present on the basis of past actions are considered in the process of transition to a manifest form. The prayer heard is an example of the response of the higher self, making changes in accordance with thoughts and desires.

Kahun shamans used a code language, with the help of which ancient knowledge was transmitted to others and kept intact. The words of the Hawaiian language (one of the dialects of the Polynesian group, possibly the closest to the language of the prehistoric continent My) were broken up into separate roots and combinations of vowels and consonants, hiding the deep meaning. Myths, legends, folklore stories and scriptures of various cultures also contained superficial meaning for general use and an inner, hidden meaning, conveying the revelation of deep knowledge to those who were able to accept it. It should be understood that knowledge thus hidden did not necessarily imply a closely guarded secret for a select few (although it was justifiable to withhold certain knowledge from those who might abuse it). The difficulty lay in the fact that understanding certain things required an appropriate level of spiritual development from a person.

Kahuna shamans called the human "I" a-uhane or uhane, where au meant "spirit" or "I", and hane meant "speech" or "conversation." Therefore, a-uhane can be translated as "a spirit that can speak." The hidden, subconscious self was known as a-unihipili, where nihi meant young, hidden or silent, pili meant to cling, to cling. Thus, a-unihipili was a hidden and silent, ingenuous self, clinging to a-uhane. The higher self was called aumakua, where makua meant elder or parent. Aumakua was the "older" - that is, the more mature aspect of the human person who took care of the rest. Other shamans called him hokkshidah.

The higher self has existed for a very long time. It has both masculine and feminine attributes. His connection with the human self is similar to that between a child and a loving parent. Growth and development of awareness is inherent in all human beings. Mastering the wealth of experience and perception, attunement of the human "I" to the goals of the higher "I" ensures this development and enhances the light of consciousness.

When the neophyte of ancient wisdom was asked to "know oneself," it implied much more than understanding the human self. This meant the need to comprehend all aspects of humanity and harmonize individual "I" into a cohesive, workable unity in order to fulfill the true purpose of our life and justify incarnation in a given place and at a given time. This is the basis of shamanism today.

The human self uses words to communicate. Words express the energy of our thoughts and ideas, making it available to other people. The hidden self does not use words, but communicates through feelings and images. The higher self also uses figurative and intuitive impulses through flashes of inspiration. The language of the bodily "I" is electrochemical impulses. Images, intuitive senses, inspirational ideas, and electrochemical impulses are all forms of energy used by individual aspects of the whole mind. Everything that exists is also a form of energy, organized in ever-changing combinations. Therefore, the language of images and impulses makes it possible to communicate with the energy systems of other forms of life - with other intelligences, or spirits that inhabit other levels of being. We are all naturally endowed with the necessary equipment to accomplish this task. However, due to the fact that we do not know how to use it, or do not even suspect of its existence, it remains unclaimed. Shamanic power gives us the ability to use this equipment.

Through awareness of the aspects of mind and the realms of perception, the wandering shaman can not only explore the Cosmos and move from one level of reality to another, but also has significantly more power over his personal life in the middle world of physical existence.

If we really want to change the world for the better, we must first change from within. How to do it? Indian shamans advise not to take life too seriously and smile more often to cause inner change... According to Taoist teachings, the secret to finding spiritual harmony lies in an inner smile. Therefore, learn to smile! You will feel good, but not only. After all, a smile has tremendous power. She radiates a beneficial energy called the energy of love.

The energy of love is the force thanks to which everything began to be and from which everything that exists comes from. The elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth originate in it. All of creation was literally brought to life by the power of love. This power should not be confused with sexual energy, although the latter can be a positive expression of it. In the shamanic understanding, love is an unconditional division of life experience, it contributes to the harmonious growth and development of everything it is aimed at. In a person, the energy of love awakens a feeling of joy and happiness for both the giver and the receiver, nourishing not only the physical body, but also the entire energy system. Therefore, when you smile at someone, he smiles back: this is an unconscious reaction to warm feelings and a wish for well-being. In an instant, the energy of love is transmitted from person to person, and the atmosphere changes subtly.

Introduction ... ... ........... ... .............. ... .................. ........... ... ...................... ... ...... ... ..3

Chapter 1. The main types of shamanism in the history of religious beliefs of the peoples of Russia ............ ... ......................... ....… ...................... …………… ...… ..6

1.1 Altai shamanism ............ ... ............................. ... ... ... ... ............ ... ... .... 7

1.2. Buryat shamanism ............ ... ............................. ... ..... ..…................…..eleven

1.3. Yakut shamanism ............ ... ............................. ... ..... ..….................…..15

Chapter 2. The main attributes of shamans ............ ... .......... ... .. ... ........ ... ... ... ... ..20

2.1. Shaman tambourine ............ ... ............................. ... ..... ..........…......…...…..twenty

2.2. Shamanic crossbows ............ ... .......................... ... ........ … ..............… .21

2.3. Shaman's graves ............ ... ............................. ... ..... .................… ...… ..23

Conclusion............….............................…...... ................… ... …… ......... …… ..26

List of sources used............…......…................….......... .......... 27

Introduction

The relevance of the chosen topic lies in the fact that nowadays, both scientists and simply interested people are paying more and more attention to shamanism. Shamanism is becoming the subject of attention of ethnographers, an object of research; exhibitions of shamanic objects in museums are also popular.

Shamanism is one of the oldest religious systems. It was widespread throughout various territories of the North and South and has survived to this day among many peoples of the world: in North and East Asia, Africa, on the territory of Russia - among the northern peoples of the Mansi, on the territory of the former union republics - Kyrgyzstan, Kalmykia. However, the methods of shamans are similar, even among peoples with completely different cultures living in different parts of the world. Those. it can be assumed that in the process of perfecting their methods, shamans came to the same results.

The name “shamanism” comes from the Evenk language from the word “shaman”, “saman”, which means an excited, frenzied person.

In science, there are many definitions of the term "shamanism", however, this term has not yet received a generally accepted definition, acceptable and convincing for most experts.

V.N. Basilov proposed the following summary description of this phenomenon: “Shamantvo is a form of religion or cult, the central idea of ​​which is the belief in the need for special mediators between the human collective and spirits (deities); these intermediaries (shamans) are chosen, made into people of a special kind, and taught by the spirits themselves. The duty of shamans is to serve the spirits and with their help protect their fellow tribesmen from troubles. Shamans communicate with spirits in a state of ecstasy ... ". Further, characterizing the shaman, the author noted among the specific qualities "special inclinations and abilities: faith in one's chosenness, developed imagination, good memory and much more, up to the poetic gift and the ability to use hypnosis." In addition to such general indications, the maximum on the presence of the ability to hypnosis and temporary stay in a state of ecstasy or trance, usually in the characteristics of shamans and shamanism, nothing is mentioned from the sphere that forms the basis of a special vision of the world and the possibilities of influencing it. The problem of influence is interpreted through psychotherapy. Those researchers who saw the distinctive qualities of shamanism (shamanism) in the use of the techniques of ecstasy and trance came close to understanding the foundations of shamanic practice in their characteristics of the phenomenon.

In the concept of M. Eliade, this theory received its most vivid understanding. The scientist was convinced that shamanism is, first of all, a "technique of ecstasy". At the same time, from his point of view: "Shamanism in the strict sense is, first of all, a Siberian and Central Asian religious phenomenon." If you delve into the essence of the technology used in these regions, compare it with others, less popular here and very widespread in other places (the use of hallucinogenic drugs, for example), then it will not be so difficult to realize what is behind this.

The famous Soviet ethnographer and religious scholar S.A. Tokarev in his work "Early Forms of Religion" defines shamanism as "a special form of religion, consisting in the selection in society of certain persons - shamans, who are credited with the ability, by artificially bringing themselves into an ecstatic state, to enter into direct communication with spirits."

The purpose of the essay is to study the features of shamanism in the history of religious beliefs of the peoples of Russia.

The objectives of this essay are to convey information about the main types of shamanism in the history of religious beliefs of the peoples of Russia and the study of the main attributes of shamans.

A total of 13 sources were used.

The total volume of work is 28 pages.

Chapter 1. The main types of shamanism in the history of religious beliefs of the peoples of Russia

The exact origins of shamanism cannot be traced. Or perhaps, but not by known scientific methods. There were no documents, and even today they do not exist. Shamans do not need such documents - the tradition is strictly chained - from mouth to mouth, the wisdom of millennia passes from hand to hand. And the very environment of the shaman: a tribe, community or clan - the world is closed to outsiders ... We can only assume that shamanism was born together with humanity. And the very primitive communal system that we all heard from school, cannot be imagined without shamanic rituals. And even then the shamans of the tribes chanted to the rhythmic beats of the tambourine, communicating with the spirits.

More precisely, we can trace the history of shamanism since the time when it began to be studied by people of other traditions. Gradually, step by step, grains of knowledge about the most ancient earthly magic were collected.

Despite the fact that some currents that emerged from shamanism are developing, the main traditions of shamanism seem to have frozen in time. This is primarily due to the invariability of the culture of peoples. For example, among northern peoples such as the Nenets, Dolgans, Chukchi, the way of life has practically not changed over many millennia.

Therefore, studying shamanism today, we touch on very ancient, almost unchanged secrets and practices.

In this essay, I reveal the main types of shamanism in the history of religious beliefs of the peoples of Russia, such as Altai, Buryat and Yakut shamanism.

Altai shamanism

Altai shamanism - Territory of distribution - Altai. Like the Khakass, Yakuts and other peoples of Siberia, among the Altai, shamanism experienced a significant influence of Tengrianism (Tengri is the deified sky).

Shamanism is not just a belief in spirits. Shamanism is a magical teaching about the methods of conscious and purposeful interaction with spirits. Spirits do not often reveal their presence to a person; a person must turn to the spirits himself. But only their chosen ones - shamans - can achieve constant and pronounced contact with spirits. A shaman can communicate with spirits only during a ritual. After the ritual, when the spirits leave the shaman, he turns into an ordinary person.

The word "shaman" is taken from the Tungus-Manchu languages, where it denotes a person who, in a state of excitement, communicates with spirits. Among the Siberian peoples, the term "shaman" in the meaning of a cult minister, with the exception of several groups of Tungus, was not used, and shamans were called differently among them. The Türkic tribes of Altai called such a person "kam".

In Altai shamanism, there is no professional hierarchy based on certain rituals and tests, through which shamans must go through in their formation. Having passed their formation under the auspices of spirits, having received their tambourine from them, the kam becomes recognized as the chosen ones of the deities.

A tambourine received from deities and spirits plays a special role for the shaman. The tambourine testifies to the qualifications of the shaman. The dress does not play such a role. But the tambourine kam must be masterly. During the ritual, he demonstrates with gestures, facial expressions and other means the meaning of the tambourine, then as a mount, then as a weapon (bow and arrow). It is necessary to combine the frequency of striking the tambourine with chanting - the appeal of the kama to the deities and spirits. Kams are able to imitate the voices of animals and birds, in the form of which his spirits-helpers appear, the neigh of a sacrificial horse, or a riding horse of a deity.

Kam should know deities and spirits, their appearance, habits. In this respect, the qualifications of the shaman are manifested in the appeals and hymns to the deities. Certain shamanic ritual vocabulary is used in the hymns. Kam speaks to the spirits in their language. These hymns and calls are called alkysh. The shaman, kamlaya to this or that spirit, addresses him with praises in the form of an alcoholic. At the same time, every time he improvises his hymns, appeals and prayer requests.

In Altai shamanism, the concept of a double has developed into a dominant concept that explains the ritual mechanism of the main cult practice - kamlaniya. The life of every person begins in the celestial zone of the Universe, where it does not yet have an anthropomorphic form. From here it is sent by the deity to earth in material form. For example, in the form of a shooting star or a sunbeam. Or through the shaman blowing off the "embryos" of children, hanging like leaves on a sacred birch, to the ground. These embryos fall through the smoke hole of the yurt into the hearth and then fall on the woman. This is how the uterine period of a person's earthly life begins and a connection with the female heavenly deity Umai arises. Bones, body, blood are formed. With the birth, the first sign of which is "breathing", the period of a person's stay on the lunisolar earth begins. When "the breath is cut off" - death occurs. Before the child begins to speak freely, he is under the supervision of "Mother-Umai". But, as soon as a child begins to communicate with other people, enters the earthly social world, his connections with Umai are interrupted. But a double grows and matures, which replaces a person's nanny, guardian and guide Mother-Umai.

The double has the ability to separate during sleep from the body in the form of a small fire, travel to different places and return when awakening. It uses the nasal openings to exit and enter. It is believed that if a sleeping person is not put on the tip of the nose with a coal, then he will not wake up until the coal falls off, since the double is afraid to enter the body.

A person should be especially careful in the mountains. One must be wary of the escape of the double during sleep. If a person is guilty of something, then the owner of the mountain or taiga can catch and leave the double with him. Cases of non-return of the double occur quite often. Only a shaman can return a double. Shamans, during rituals, find returning doubles, recognizing them by the signs and traits of the sick person. Doubles are caught in a tambourine and driven in strong blow a tambourine in the right ear.

An ordinary person can see doubles only in a dream. Shamans and clairvoyants (kospokchi) see them with their own eyes. Kam sees them especially well, with the assistance of his own double, whom the shamans separate from themselves during the ritual. The shaman's double can leave the body at any time of the day or night at the will of the shaman, but only during the ritual. The separation of the double from the body of Kama occurs with the help of spirits - helpers and patrons of the Kama, whom he ties with blows to a tambourine or a fan from a belt, shirt, birch branch, etc. his perfume. Such properties of the shaman's double blur the line between the visible real and the invisible mythical world for those present at the ritual.

After the death of the shaman, his counterpart continues to possess special properties. In ordinary people, the double returns to the deity who sent his embryo, or migrates to the country of the dead. Kama's doppelganger remains on the ground. He lives in the mountains or taiga and is not associated with the burial place of the shaman. After a while, the double will determine the fate of the new Kama - any of his descendants. He will serve as one of his hereditary patrons.

The concept of a double explains how the shaman travels to one or another sphere of the Universe during the ritual. Any shamanist knows that it is not the kam himself who goes to the spirits and deities, but his double and the spirits-helpers. They lead to the deity not of the sacrificial horse itself, but of his double. The Altai shamans call the horse intended for sacrifice and the twin of this horse with the word Bura. I eat the victim's meat, the bones are laid on the storage shed, the skin is hung on poles at the place of sacrifice, and the borax is sent to the deity. Bura becomes a riding horse of spirits and deities. The latter send them to shamans as assistants. Some shamans use them to ascend to heaven, treating them like their riding horses. For example, they let go to rest on the pasture of this or that layer of heaven.

The second important position of Altai shamanism is the belief in the shaman's spirits, which constitute his sacred magical power. All religious practice, the entire cult of shamanism rests on this position. Shamanists know that no human being can be a kam without intermediary spirits. Without the support of the spirits, no one will dare to go on such a distant and dangerous journey, which is the ritual.

All the cult actions that the shaman will perform, and all the results of which he achieves, are carried out with the help of the spirits called by the shaman to him at the beginning of each ritual. Some of them tell Kam the reasons for the human illness and where to find the lost double; others help to orientate and move during rituals in the heavenly sphere, on earth (along mountains, ridges, taiga) or in the underworld; still others protect from evil spirits and hostile shamans. The kamas call their personal guard kurcha (hoop), as the spirits twine a ring around their head, torso, arms, and legs. Some of the spirits help deliver the sacrifice to the deity: they carry vessels with sacrificial drinks, lead the Borah of the sacrifice. They help to get to the deity, to conduct a dialogue with him.

Each shaman has his own spirits, moreover, heterogeneous in composition. Spirits are common to all shamans: patrons and helpers. Patrons are spirits of high rank: Ulgen and his sons, the deity of fire, the masters of the sacred mountains. The helper spirits form two groups. In one group, the ancestors of the shaman, who were kams during their lifetime. The second group includes the service spirits, which are summoned before the ritual by striking a tambourine. These spirits fill the tambourine and accompany the shaman during his journey to one or another sphere of the Universe. The service spirits of the tambourine (chalular) constitute the real power of the shaman. The shaman values ​​and seeks to multiply these spirits, including in their number of ancestors - shamans. The personal spirits attracted by the shaman determine his cult and magical possibilities. It is not possible to give them a detailed description because of their abundance. For each kama, they, especially small service spirits in the form of animals, birds, etc., are purely individual.

Buryat shamanism

Ancient legends say that a person cannot become a shaman at will, one must have special signs from birth, which, according to the will of ancestors, a person is endowed with even before his birth. The spirits themselves appeared to the elect. This gift is called uthe or shamanic root, which gives its owner the ability to heal and magically influence the world, clairvoyance, etc. The strength of all shamanic lineages lies in the continuity of the inheritance of uthe. In most cases, the future shaman is among newborn children, through the male line, but sometimes the gift is passed on through several generations, so it’s impossible to say for sure whether a new shaman will be born immediately after the death of an existing one or not. “Chosenness” was determined by some special sign - tengerin temdeg (divine mark): unusual spots on the skin, extra fingers, behavior out of this world. It is believed that a true shaman has an extra bone and souls who studied shamanic science in another world can be excellent shamans. For some peoples of Siberia, the shaman possessed "extra" cavities in the body and could, at will, painlessly stick sharp objects, knives, etc. into them.

In Buryatia, for several centuries, mainly male shamanism, despite the fact that at the beginning of the first thousand years of our era, there was the opposite situation. In the Buryat language, the shaman is called "bo", the shaman is called "udagan".

In unique cases, the chosen one to become a shaman can be born in the guise of a devil: what a person looks like, and his father is some kind of spirit. The mother of such a child slept under a lonely tree or stone-rock. According to Buryat beliefs, traveling the world, spirits, as a rule, stop at such places.

Before accepting the gift of a shaman, usually a person suffers from a shamanic disease (Ongon daralga), he experiences a state close to death. They come to him souls of the dead shamans and torture him for some time, cut the body into pieces, pull out the bones from the body, count them and insert them back, pour out the blood and again pour into the vessels. As a result of painful trials, the spirits of the ancestors pass on to the successor a secret language that is used to communicate with spirits and deities. The disease, which lasts from several months to several years, prevents a person from eating or drinking practically anything. Healing comes at the moment of accepting the need to become a shaman. If a shaman opposes the will of the spirits and ancestors, their dissatisfaction turns to his relatives and friends: they are seriously ill or die unexpectedly. If a person stubbornly resists the destiny, the ongons will kill him.

When Ongon Daralga ends, the new shaman needs to find a servant spirit for himself, he will help him in rituals. The personality and disposition of the shaman determines what kind of spirit he can receive and educate. That is why shamans are divided into "white" and / or "black" bones. The first do good. According to legends, they can wear white silk clothes and ride white horses. "Black" bone is characterized by malice and aggressive disposition. According to legend, if the "black" shaman lacks strength, he is engaged in the selection of energy from other people.

The first spirit to help the shaman is weak and small. He is a newborn, so he is fed with milk. Do not take this phrase literally. Usually, the meaning of this rite is that milk is poured into a cup and sprinkled on the ground and into the air. The action is accompanied by an appeal to the ancestors. The more diligently and more regularly you feed the spirit, the faster its size and, accordingly, strength grow. The relationship between the spirit and the shaman is based on mutual benefit: the spirit helps to fulfill human requests, receiving food and education as payment.

In the "black" bone tradition, when the spirit grows, it is not enough for him to eat milk alone. A chicken is sacrificed. As he grows and gains more power, the servant needs even more food, and a ram is slaughtered for him. A spirit that eats more than one ram is called anda and can take control of the shaman. The spirit further up the hierarchy of power is the roun. He completely dominates the shaman and requires a greater sacrifice - a horse. Rones are very powerful, they can kill a person and subjugate the whole Buryat clan. Rone's bloodlust is growing rapidly: in legends there are cases when spirits demanded the blood of a small child.

In the tradition of the "white" bone - it is also necessary to enlist the help of the spirit, he will also help the shaman for food. Raising spirits, "white" shamans do not make them bloody sacrifices: sweets, milk, alcohol, smoke are used for food. Sacrificial animals are dedicated to spirits and deities and are not slaughtered: after a special ritual, colorful pieces of fabric are woven into their wool, and they are inviolable until the end of their lives.

During his life, the shaman undergoes initiations (from 9 to 12). Shamans who have received the 9-12 level of initiation are found only in Mongolia; in Buryatia, the highest level is still considered to be 8.

The Buryats believe that the power of a powerful shaman appears after death, it (death) is accompanied by various signs: landslides, floods, earthquakes, thunderstorms, hurricanes and strong winds, gigantic all-consuming fires. After death, the Buryats buried the shaman in the ground or tied to a tree. The end of life in this world does not mean disappearance from the middle world for the shaman. The soul can become one of the local Burkhans or incarnate into a bird (eagle or raven). The eagle cult among the Buryats has very ancient roots. In the legends of the Buryats, the bald eagle (Burkhan shubuun) was the first to receive a shamanic gift from his father Ute babai, the owner of Fr. Olkhon. Legends say that the person who killed, wounded the eagle must die in the near future.

It is interesting that in some regions of Buryatia it is believed that the spirits of shamans guard their graves. So, at one of the burials in the Kuytun steppe, a large number of eagles and other birds of prey live, which is not observed in any other place in the Barguzin valley. This is most likely due to the presence of small rodents. Local residents try to bypass shamanic cemeteries, and if they find themselves nearby, they perform a rite of veneration of the ongons. Today they say that no one knows which bone, "black", "white", is buried in that place. That is why, just in case, you need to enlist the help of your ancestors and appease the spirits.

Prayers, rituals and other magical actions in shamanism among the Buryats are varied and have a certain order. There are group (generic) and personal rituals, which are both obligatory and optional, regular and irregular.

The Buryats have sacred places, different for each clan, where rituals are held. They can be distinguished by pillars - serge or barisa, tied with multi-colored ribbons, trees also tied with ribbons, sacred stones-o. There are benches and a shed near significant places. Buryats, and not only Buryats, driving or passing by a sacred place as a sign of respect, stop at such a place, drip alcohol, tie ribbons - zalaa, throw cigarettes, cereals, matches, sweets, trifles. In addition to such places, shamanists can conduct rituals in the open air or at home, in the courtyard of the house, on the street.

Yakut shamanism

In the mythology, ideology, ritual culture of Yakut shamanism, to one degree or another, the worldview and worldview of forest hunters, the first cattle breeders, farmers of the Altai-Sayan highlands, Mongolia, the Baikal region, Transbaikalia are reflected.

In Yakut shamanism, there is: a developed system of mythologies, the presence of a professional clergyman, a set of attributes, a special school of initiation, as well as an established and established terminology.

The Yakuts (Sakha) believed that Nature is alive, all objects and phenomena of nature have their own spirits.

Thunder and lightning were spiritualized from the phenomena of the natural element. The thunder god had several names Supg Khaan, Syuge Toyon, Aan Jasin, Buurai Dokhsun; It was believed that the god of thunder pursued evil spirits - the abaasy with their thunderous arrows, the tree shattered by lightning possessed healing power, they went to this tree and looked for a black stone there, which was called the instrument of the deity of Thunder.

Separately lying stones of glacial origin of an unusual shape became an object of veneration. If they changed their position (lying on their side), then this foreshadowed the death of someone from the nearby area. According to the views of the Vilyui Yakuts, every time after the calving of the cows, such an unusual stone was given a gift in the form of a variegated rope with rags and white horse hair (the rope was hung on a tree under which the stone lay). People could touch such stones only by donating something (coins, scraps of matter, etc.).

The Yakuts believed in the existence of the magic stone sat, with which it was possible to change the weather. It was believed that if a woman looks at Sata, he will lose his strength. The magic stone was found in the stomach or liver of animals and some birds (horse, cow, elk, deer, wood grouse). Sata was wrapped in pure birch bark, then wrapped in horse hair and not shown to the sky (there is information that it was kept in the skin of a fox or squirrel). Summoning rain, snow and wind with the help of a magic stone was done through a special spell.

The wind had the host spirits, so there were four main winds, north, south, east and west. They were ruled by four good spirits who were supposed to guard the peace of the four sides of the earth, and the intermediate winds came from evil spirits who were in constant quarrel with each other and brought trouble to people.

In spring and autumn, the Yakuts brought gifts to the owner of the water. There was a strict prohibition on dropping sharp objects into the water - you would hurt the eyes of the owner of the water, the Yakuts called the spirit-owner of the lake “grandmother” and asked her to provide a rich catch of fish.

Fire was personified in the form of a gray-haired old man, the owner of the fire was the most revered. All sacrifices were brought through fire: by the crackle of fire, they guessed what awaited them in the future. If the spirit of fire was disrespected, the owner of the fire punished, covering it with ulcers; if they raked the coals with sharp objects, then the eyes of the owners of the fire were supposedly pierced. Moving from one dwelling to another, they never extinguished the fire, but carried it with them in a pot. The spirit - the master of the hearth was considered the patron spirit of the family.

One of the main host spirits was the owner of the forest, Baai Baiyanai, and luck in the fishing industry depended on him. Before going on a hunt, he was asked to give prey, while they cast a spell and threw pieces of fat into the fire. Northern Yakuts made images of the eseken - an amulet that promotes a successful hunt. In ancient times, each Yakut clan considered some animal as its sacred ancestor and patron, which the members of this clan could not kill, eat and call by name. Such animals included the swan, goose, raven, eagle, white-lipped stallion, falcon, hawk, ermine, squirrel, and chipmunk. Such birds as a swan, an eagle, a raven, a hawk, according to Yakut myths, brought people fire when they were on the verge of death. The eagle was considered the son of the heavenly deity Khomporun Hoti, the head of all birds. Basically, the Yakut totems were birds; among the animals, the bear, lynx, chipmunk, squirrel, and ermine are found among the totems.

As for domestic animals, they were created by the good deities of the aiyy. There was a myth that the supreme creator Yuryung Aiyy Toyon (the deity of Heaven) created a horse and a man at the same time, and according to another version, he first created a horse, a half-horse-half-man came from him, and only then a man. The cult of the white horse was associated with the sky, in connection with than bloodless sacrifices to the upper world were brought only by horse cattle or white milk food (kumis). The skulls of their favorite horses were hung on trees.

Birch was considered the sacred tree of heavenly deities; it was used as a ritual attribute in the rituals of the life cycle. The Yakuts believed that trees can give a soul to a child, so barren women asked a tree (birch, larch) with a crown growing together at the top - the soul of a child. The Yakuts had a ritual of "making a nest for the soul of a child", where a nest for the future soul of a child was built on a special eight-trunk tree. The "tree-bird" formula can be clearly seen in the mythological-ritual culture of the Yakuts. The soul was represented in the form of a bird, and the motive of creation from an egg was most clearly expressed in shamanic mythology. Judging by the myths, the eagle incubated shamans on a sacred birch (larch).

A shaman could be a person marked by the will of the gods or spirits, who has a hereditary gift in the family, or who came into contact with a deceased shaman. Such a person from birth had some special signs and passed the test of illness caused by the fact that his kut was carried away by spirits for education, which can be messengers of any of the three worlds. The most powerful shaman was brought up in the Upper World in one of the nine nests of the sacred shaman tree. The higher the nest, the more powerful the shaman is born.

The most difficult test is the stage of initiation into shamans - ettenii, that is, dissection of the body. The initiate takes refuge in a deep forest, where an urasu, a conical summer dwelling covered with birch bark, has already been built for him. During sleep or a deep fainting state, in which the future shaman stays from three to nine days, the spirits of all three worlds, the spirits of all diseases, flock to him, cut the body into pieces and are treated to its meat and blood, after which iye-kut - mother - the soul collects bones, and the body is reborn to life, but in a new, supernatural quality. From now on, the shaman can communicate with spirits, can take on any guise.

If dissection is a physical test, then the next stage of initiation into shamans can be called a spiritual lesson for him. This is a rite of joint ritual of a young shaman with an experienced teacher in front of the audience, when he must skillfully combine improvisation with the canonized scheme of "travel in the Universe". The old shaman shows the young shaman the paths of the spirits, being in a clear meadow or climbing a mountain. Both shamans wore ritual costumes and took tambourines in their hands. A sacrificial animal was slaughtered, with which the shamanic spirits were fed, and some were eaten by those gathered, for whom this day was a holiday. Having passed the rite of passage, the young shaman acquired special bodily and mental properties, and was able to penetrate into all worlds.

Kamlania was performed according to generally accepted canons. All preparations for this sacrament were made by the assistants of the kuturuksuts. Depending on the purpose of the ritual, the shaman addressed rituals to the spirits of the Upper or Lower worlds. At the same time, he made a long journey, making stops along the way at the so-called olokhs, available on every tier of the heavenly sphere or the underworld. On each olokh, he communicated with the spirits, asking them for permission to travel onward.

Thus, the shaman's rutting was a vivid action, usually performed at night in the weak light of the fire, which increased its mystery and frightened people.

Similar information.

While many view claims of extraordinary phenomena with a healthy dose of skepticism, in some cultures contact with supernatural forces is accepted unconditionally. Since ancient times, the tribal system revered people who were believed to have the ability to communicate with deities and spirits.

They were called by different names: seers, healers or healers, but the most famous of such people are shamans, and they turned to them when necessary to heal from a physical or emotional ailment, provide themselves with food in times of famine, help find objects left or lost somewhere. predict the future, control the weather, bring back the departed souls of the sick, and guide the souls of the dead.

Shamans usually try to communicate with the spirit world while in a trance. To enter this altered state of consciousness, they use methods similar to those used in modern experiments in parapsychology.

They either meditate in silence or focus on the rhythmic sounds of drumming, singing or dancing; they may abstain from food or take hallucinatory substances. Once the soul and body have entered a trance, the shaman has the opportunity - often on the so-called shamanic flight - to visit the spirit world. There the shaman receives a message that may come to him in the form of a magic song, prayer, or sung; this is often expressed in the form of a luminous vision that reveals the nature of life.

On rare occasions, shamans have attempted to describe in words and pictures some of their often ineffable revelations they received on extraordinary travels into the spirit world. An example is the religious cultures of the Indians of North America.

Spirits of Anarkuac.

When Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen came to Arctic North America in 1921 to study the culture of the Igloolik Eskimos, he met a culture there that revolved almost entirely around a multitude of invisible creatures - the spirits that lived in every person, animal and object, and the spirits that answered Seemingly unexplained phenomena such as illness and bad weather.

From an Eskimo shaman named Anrkuak, who reproduced his visions of creatures from memory and depicted them in detail on paper. Rasmussen learned that some spirits were kind and helped the Eskimos, others were aggressive and unfriendly, and some were just evil. Although the Eskimos collectively tried to keep bad spirits away from them, following the prescribed rituals and taboos, only shamans were successful in expelling them completely.

Anarkuak in his shamanism was assisted by the so-called helper spirits. According to him, they penetrated his body or simply called his name, and when he answered, their strength became his strength. Many good spirits at first came, resembling monsters or ferocious animals that needed to be tamed or pacified. But, as soon as the spirits-helpers began to obey, they already firmly stood on his side, were loyal and readily helped the shaman.

Anarkuak claimed that the spirit of Igtuk was the source of the muffled sounds coming from the arctic mountains. According to the shaman, he had only one huge eye, which was on the body, at the same level with his arms. The mouth opened wide, and a huge dark chasm gaped inside. And the chin was covered with a thick layer of stubble.

Soon after Anarkuak's parents died, he said a spirit of sadness called Issitok, or the Giant Eye, came to him. “Don't be afraid of me,” the spirit said, “for I too am struggling with sad thoughts. Therefore, I will walk by your side and will be your helper spirit ”. Subsequently, he helped Anarkuak find people who violated the tribe's taboos.

One spring, Anarkuak saw a female spirit named Kvinjaruvlik, who tried to steal the child, hiding it under his clothes. However, before she could do this, two heavily armed helper spirits came to the rescue and killed the kidnapper.

Another time, while hunting a Canadian deer, Anarkuak met a fat spirit named Nartok. Nartok pounced on Anarkuak, as if attacking him, but when the shaman prepared to defend himself, the spirit disappeared. Later Nartok appeared again and explained to Anarkuak that when he learned to control his temper, Nartok would become his helper spirit.

Another, one of the many spirits that Anarkuak met while hunting, was a beastlike creature the size of a bear. His name was Kigutilik. Growling viciously, Kigutilik emerged from a hole in the ice when the shaman was hunting seals. Anarkuak was so scared that he fled home without even summoning a helper spirit.

Great vision of the Black Elk.

Have Black Elk, the leader and healer of the Oglala Siu Indian tribe, had several occasions when the ability to see came to him, which helped him to lead his people out of a streak of failures. However, the first time Black Elk entered the spirit world when he was still a very young boy.

In 1931, the already elderly Black Elk shared his impressions with the poet John G. Nyhardt, who later described them in verse. As Black Elk said, for several years the spirits called him and sang, and when he was nine years old, the voices said: "Now is the time." After that, Black Elk suddenly felt ill and was dying for twelve days; at this time a great vision came to him.

According to him, two spirits descended from the sky to take him out of the house, and together with them the Black Elk got into "the world beyond the clouds, on a large white plain with snow-capped hills and mountains." There the Black Elk met six elders, the most powerful spirits in the world. “They looked as old as possible, as old as hills, as stars,” he said.

The elders told the Black Elk about the spiritual values ​​of life and showed him the symbols of their life: a cup of water and a bow with which you can create or destroy life; healing herb and cleansing sacred wind; the pipe of peace and the herb of understanding; the hoop of the world, symbolizing; flowering branch, symbol of the tree of life. Then the Black Elk was led to the center of the earth, where he was shown "the goodness, beauty and singularity of the blooming earth, the spiritual forms of things as they should be."

When they told him everything, the most ancient old man let the Black Elk go back, telling him: "Send with force back to where you came from." Black Elk returned to his village; and his illness was gone. But he himself had already changed forever. Childish carelessness turned in him into the maturity of a man, in whose words the wisdom of the ages was traced.

The powers of peyote.

For the shaman Ulu Temeya, like other shamans of the Mexican Indian tribes of Huichol, dreamless sleep is much worse than no sleep at all, because shamans in dreams and visions receive messages from the gods. In dreams, the shaman receives predictions of the future, reminders of obligations that he must fulfill or rituals that must be performed, reports of cases of insulting spirits, and he is offered means of punishment.

But while dreams talk about what needs to be done, the real possibilities of the shaman are shown to him in visions - kaleidoscopic images that appear after the shaman eats intoxicating buds or peyote cactus tops. The shaman leaves reality, and in visions he penetrates into the inner world, where the spirits share with him the secrets of their omnipotence and teach the shaman how to use their special powers and expand them.

While eating peyote buds, the shaman can hold in his hands a brightly colored disk, which he made like the disk seen in one of his dreams. Such discs from dreams remind the shaman of the promises he made to the gods in one of his past visions. To fulfill the obligation, the shaman offers the disk to the gods.

Colored discs are also considered a reward from the gods for loyalty to an oath or agreement, and it is believed that they contain the essence, and, therefore, the power of the gods. In addition to colored discs, bird feathers attached to an arrow are an attribute of the shaman's power. Birds are believed to be messengers of the deities, and with the help of feather sticks and discs, channels of communication with the gods are created. These items are kept in wicker baskets and are used in almost all shamanic rituals. They appear both in visions after consuming peyote and in visions of a ceremony to call the rain.

Someone may not like this part of the article. Surely she will not like the developers and the administration of the Russian community of the game (unless of course they read it). But we believe that it is necessary to talk about it - it is extremely important. Plarium (game developers) was based in sunny San Francisco, USA. And now the offices of the company are located in the USA, Israel, Ukraine and Russia. It can be seen that the company is good, big, has made several very good projects, one of these projects is Vikings: War of Clans. Many good specialists work in it in different fields and the primary goal of the company is to make money. That would be an opportunity to pay for the work of developers, to pay for the rent of servers, to develop future updates and projects. Each of us, those who play Vikings, are well aware of what F2P is, what it is eaten with and what an aftertaste remains.

As the developers say, online games have exceeded 1,000,000 players. Of course, we do not know the exact numbers and we do not know how many "live" players are present in the game. But there are three extremely important points, despite the entire online game, despite the rather dubious updates, in the game now

1. Pretty boring.
2. Without investing $ 30- $ 50 once every two or three months, it is practically impossible to compete.
3. You enter the game without the thirst for battles, but only reset resources and perform some daily actions in the castle.

This is all the result of several updates for 2017. Shamans and runes were supposed to bring some variety to the game - and they did. The developers decided to move away from the concept of F2P and move to P2W (pay and win). Once again, the main goal of the game for developers is profit. Everything is clear, there are no questions. But limiting the actions of players and literally forcing them to buy donate packs is a rather dubious choice. So it turns out that now people do not crawl out from under the shields. And if they come out, they will be instantly cut out by the "fat players" at the root. All this is a sure way to weaken interest in the game. We'd be glad to be wrong, but for now, even without having access to the numbers online, the game is pretty boring. You can get and pump shamans only for donate packs. With this approach, the choice of our clan remained the same, if the game switches to the P2W model, there is nothing more to do in it (the site will live and be updated anyway, since several players update it).

Or maybe, well, their ... These shamans?

As we wrote just above, shamans are quite a powerful tool for your development in the game. No matter what style of play you prefer - military or farmer, shamans will significantly increase your characteristics. But in the case of farming, your city will not suffer much if you do not actively pump shamans, which cannot be said about the military style of the game. Without a shaman for the type of troops you have chosen (Remember why exactly one type of troops? If you forgot, then read our two articles "" and ""), it makes little sense to go into battle. The advantages of a player with a pumped-up profile shaman over someone who has no profile shaman or does not have one at all will be extremely high. So, the choice of course in any case will be yours, but keep in mind that in this game, the forces may not be equal initially.

See you in the next articles about shamans!

Shaman's attributes, power items

The main attribute of a shaman is his costume. The costumes of shamans are different for different nations.

As an example, let's give a description of the Siberian shaman's costume:

"The shaman's dress was a caftan made of leather, so short in front that it does not cover the knees, but in the back it is long, right up to the ground; along the edges and over the entire surface of this caftan, but only at the back, something like a fringe is sewn from bundles of thinly cut rovduga; on these straps are attached rattles and glands of various shapes, which have special names, places and partly symbolic meanings.

The caftan is smooth in front and is tied at the chest with belt ties, and under the neck it is fastened with a buckle. On it in front are sewn figures of animals, birds, fish, animals, all sorts of plaques, emblems of heavenly bodies, as well as glands depicting parts of the human skeleton and entrails. In the north, in the absence of the costume described above, they put on a fur coat made of calfskin, with the wool outward, on which some more important pieces of iron are sometimes hung from the back, such as: both "suns", a fish, sometimes where a woman has breasts, they are hung two round cans to represent them. A woman's travel cap with headphones is worn on the head in the north. According to the general belief, a piece of iron and a trinket of a shaman's dress has the property of not rusting and has a soul "(Kandyba D. Russian hypnosis. - M .: KSP, 1995).

Another important attribute is a tambourine (or drum). Like the costume, the tambourine was made for the young shaman by his teacher.

Siberian shamans, for example, always have an egg-shaped tambourine; its rim is made from an old deciduous tree dried up on a stump, from the best part of such a tree, called the "keel"; on the outside, the rim of the tambourine is decorated with seven, nine and eleven angular bulges covered with the same skin that covers the entire tambourine (moreover, the skin must be from a three-year-old bull); inside the tambourine there are belts tied crosswise in the middle to an iron circle with crossbars or to a cross; for this iron the shaman, having passed his fingers through the corresponding holes, holds a tambourine. Inside the tambourine, along the rim, especially where the "straps" are tied, there are many bells, bells, iron and bone rattles, obedient to the slightest movement of the shaman-musician. To play the tambourine, the shaman takes a small, slightly curved wooden mallet, trimmed with leather from mare's or deer's legs.

Tambourines of Sami shamans are large and round in shape, have a wide rim, a wooden longitudinal handle in the form of a wide plate, one or several transverse (in relation to the handle) iron or wooden rods, as well as a complex pattern on the outer side of the tambourine covering. These drawings are quite diverse, but most of them reflect the idea of ​​three worlds - Lower, Middle and Upper. The surface of the tambourine covering is divided by stripes or otherwise into three parts, each of which is filled with figures of people, animals, images of mythological creatures belonging to the respective worlds. In some cases, in the center of the tambourine covering, the sun was depicted, from which rays emanate, as if dividing the spheres of activity of various creatures.

Interesting ways to use tambourines. Among most peoples, the shaman held the tambourine by the handle with his left hand, and with his right hand held the mallet, with which he struck the tambourine from the side covered with leather. As a rule, the tambourine at this time was in an upright position. Since the tambourine was used for different purposes (when treating a patient, predicting the future, fortune telling, etc.), it is possible that the position of the tambourine was different.

Until he finds analogies for the position of the tambourine during cult actions among the Sami:

"A ring made of metal or alder was placed on it; several small rings were usually tied to this ring. When the ring was placed in the middle of the tambourine, they began to strike the tambourine with a hammer, accompanying the blows with a song. The beater was usually wooden or made of deer antlers. the direction in which the ring moved from the blows, they recognized what was required. When it was required to find out about the outcome of the planned undertaking, the noyd (Sami shaman - A.P.) put a large ring with small rings attached to it on the tambourine so that it fell on the image of the sun. moving salty, it was considered a good omen ... "(Khomich L. Shamansky drum of the Sami (to the problem of ethnic contacts). / In the book. Pr. problems of ethnic history and interethnic contacts of the Baltic-Finnish peoples. - SPb., 1994).

Over time, the tambourine fell out of use among different peoples. Among the Kola Sami, the shamans replaced it with a belt - "very much". This belt was made of a strip of leather, the outer side was trimmed in length with cloth strips of three colors - yellow, red and black. In the center of the belt, one above the other, three metal rings were attached, to the right and left of them there were three rhombuses embroidered with beads. During the rituals, the shaman put on this belt on himself and in it he prophesied or healed the sick. Still later, the belt was replaced by a scarf.

Among other attributes of the shaman, one should pay attention to the staff - the prototype of the priestly wand. In shamanic understanding, the staff denotes the axis between the solstices - the power of the Sun and the power of the Earth.

North American shamans made a staff from a branch cut from a living hazel or other walnut tree. Its length is approximately equal to the distance between the shoulder and the fingertips of an outstretched hand. Before undertaking a "surgical operation", the shaman not only asks permission from the tree, but also waits for instructions on where to make an incision. The cut branch is carefully prepared for further processing; before carving the staff, the shaman removes most of the bark. Some of the staffs are carved with a serpent. A rock crystal was sometimes inserted into the mouth of a carved snake. Some staves are adorned with feathers, pendants, and even bells. Symbols that are important to the shaman are carved or painted on the staff and the butt of the staff.

Another attribute, the shamanic mask, serves as a vehicle for expressing inner potential, usually in ceremonial or shamanic dance. The mask can represent any animal or patron spirit. It is worn to strengthen internal contact with these forces. Masks are made from various materials... The simplest mask is painted on the face.

In some cultures, shamans used a pendulum. The pendulum consists of a small weight - for example, a crystal of crystal, a pebble or a wooden cone, suspended from a thread or thin cord. The cord is held between the index and thumb, 7-8 centimeters from the load. The circular movement of the load (clockwise or counterclockwise), as well as its oscillation in a horizontal or vertical plane, gives a positive, negative or neutral answer to a question formulated in advance in a mental form. The shaman uses the pendulum as a means of communication between the conscious and subconscious and for talking with the hidden self. It is a method of gaining knowledge about things that are beyond the mind.

Bird feathers were of great symbolic importance and were highly prized by the American Indians, who endowed them with rich nuances of meaning. The shaman uses a feather fan to fumigate himself and others, and to cleanse and consecrate certain objects. American shamans often used the feathers of eagles and other sacred birds, but feathers of any wild bird will do for our purposes. They are attached to a wooden handle upholstered in soft leather or fabric and decorated with a bead pattern with symbols and emblems.

A rattle serves as a kind of addition to a tambourine in some cultures. This ancient sound device was used to create an atmosphere of anticipation in the process of moving from one level of reality to another. Usually, the rattle is made from dried pumpkin or rawhide and contains seeds, beans, pebbles or small crystals that emit a characteristic sound when the instrument is shaken. The pumpkin is attached to a wooden or bone handle. The sound of a rattle gently calms the mind, removing the barrier between the perception of the material world and the reality of the spirit. In other words, like a tambourine, it serves as a "bridge between the worlds"; that's why rattles are so good for crying babies.

The whistle is a signaling instrument for calling to higher energies and communication with the allies and mentors of the shaman in the spirit world. Native Americans made whistles from the bones of a bird's wing, usually an eagle's. The whistle (whistle) is also a shamanic attribute of the tribes of the Slavic group. In Europe, it gradually turned into a flute and flute. This makes us suspect that the legend of the Pied Piper, who took the rats, and then the children, out of the city of Hamelin, is related to some kind of shamanic rite.

Shamans store their collections of crystals, stones, herbs, and other power items in easily accessible and easy-to-carry pouches. Sometimes these bags are placed in a large shoulder bag. The material for the manufacture of bags and pouches is usually leather or thick fabric. They are decorated with fringes and beads, embroidered or painted with patterns and symbols related to the wearer. To prevent the contents from spilling out, the bags are usually pulled together with thick threads or leather laces.

Shaman bags and pouches themselves are objects of power, since they serve as storage for things containing power.

While power objects can be innumerable, one of them stands out - it is a quartz crystal. Shamans attach particular importance to these hexagonal pointed stones, which can range in color from sheer to milky white.

The quartz crystal is considered the most powerful item of power, since its material and spiritual nature are one. Many peoples call it "living stone".

Crystals are often pressed into the skin, rubbing them on the bodies of training shamans, and even pouring "liquefied" quartz onto their bodies. Shamans put a quartz crystal in water and drink it, after which they acquire the ability to see ghosts.

Shamans have long used quartz crystals for vision and divination. crystal ball that people of our culture are familiar with is simply a polished descendant of an old shamanic crystal.

In Australia, the finest shamans looked into the crystal to evoke visions of the past, present and future. The Indians would often send a quartz crystal or its spirit to capture the image of someone else's face. This technique was also used for long distance healing. The shaman sent a crystal at night to bring the image of the sick person. When the image arrived, the shaman danced around the crystal, shaking the rattle. Then the shaman asked the crystal to remove the harmful power from the image. A sick person, who was far away, thus recovered.

As a rule, the shaman wears his crystal hidden from people and from the rays of the sun. The shaman of the Siberian Sakhov people keeps it in his shoulder bag. The Australian shaman also stores his quartz crystals in a bag along with other power items, but can also store them in the stomach. A Tsimpani shaman wears a crystal in a pouch around his neck. The Papayan shaman is so dependent on a quartz crystal that it looks more like a guardian spirit than a helper spirit.

The shaman of South America has quartz crystals inside a rattle. It is believed that after death the soul of the shaman merges with them and rises into the sky in the form of light. Conversely, the shaman's soul can return to Earth from its heavenly dwelling in the form of a quartz crystal.

The quartz crystal is also associated with the sky and can be found by the shaman at the foot of the rainbow. Australian shaman Kaby "with many crystals in his body could travel down to the deepest wells where the spirit of the rainbow lived, and acquire even more crystals." Such a shaman rises "full of life" and "becomes a physician of the highest degree."

Some California shamans possessed very strong crystals - "ancestors", which were considered especially powerful. According to some beliefs, you need to work with them very carefully, especially with large ones: if the crystal is damaged, then the "end of the world" can come.

Psychodysleptic drugs (hallucinogens) play an essential role in the rituals of shamans.

Throughout Siberia and the Arctic since ancient times, the main psychoactive agent was the red fly agaric. Among the Khanty, for example, shamanic travels were preceded by a one-day fast, at the end of which the shaman ate from three to seven fly agarics and went to bed. A few hours later, he suddenly woke up, shaken by trembling, and announced that the spirits had told him. Among the Koryaks, shamans ate fly agaric, if it was necessary to come into contact with evil spirits or the souls of the dead.

Amanita muscaria is known to cause poisoning. After their use, there is redness of the face, neck and chest, increased heart rate, hallucinations in the form of bright colored spots, a violation of orientation in time and space. Already after a few minutes, these phenomena are smoothed out. The feeling of calmness lasts longer, turning into a state of bliss, which lasts for several hours.

By the way, European fly agarics are somewhat more poisonous than Siberian ones, and require more caution when consumed. Mild forms of poisoning are accompanied by a certain revitalization and spontaneity of movements, as from alcohol. With deeper poisoning, the surrounding objects begin to seem now very small, now very large, revival and depression alternate.

The shaman who has eaten the fly agaric sits calmly and, swaying from side to side, talks with family members. Suddenly his eyes roll up, he begins to convulsively gesticulate, talk to someone else, sing, dance. Then there comes a break, and in order to return from another world to ours, he must still eat one or two fly agaric.

The action of the fly agaric would be stronger if the alkaloid was not excreted from the body in the urine. Therefore, the Koryaks, for example, consider the fly agaric beetle's urine a valuable drink. He usually drinks it himself or offers it to others as a treat.

It should be noted here that the use of fly agarics was widespread not only among shamans, but also in the most diverse cults of India. Their images are found everywhere on the walls of temples. The Germans made a drink from them for the berserkers.

The name of the fly agaric among the Ural and Siberian peoples is "punk" or "bang" - a synonym Iranian name hemp. Hemp, on the other hand, was widely used by the Scythians as an ecstatic remedy. From the descriptions of Herodotus, we know of felt-covered shrines with hot stones in the center of the hut. The priests threw hemp seeds on them and, being in the clouds of intoxicating smoke, came into contact with the spirits and souls of the dead.

In shamanic practice on the American continent, "talkative" mushrooms are still widely used: peyote, strafaria and others, as well as extracts from lianas, for example ayahuasca, a decoction, the main component of which is water liana. This drink is the most widespread among the hallucinogens found in the equatorial part of the New World used by shamans.

Here is what the ayahuasca Terek McKenna reported on a research expedition in the Colombian Amazon in the early 1970s:

"Jivaro shamans in Ecuador take ayahuasca, after which they - and anyone else who takes it - gains the ability to see a certain substance, which is said to be purple or dark blue and bubble like liquid. vomiting occurs, you throw out this particular liquid; in addition, it appears on the skin like sweat. This curious thing the jivaro is used in most of their witchcraft rituals. All this is kept in the strictest secrecy. Eyewitnesses say that shamans pour liquid on the ground in front of them. and, looking into it, they see other edges and times.According to them, the nature of this fluid completely goes beyond the limits of ordinary experience; it consists of space, time or thought, or it is a pure hallucination that takes on an objective expression, but always limited by the limits liquid ".

Strong tobacco used in the form of smoke or chewing gum is also used as a hallucinogen on the American continent.