Is being a Shaman a safe spiritual path?

Question

Yes, a word of warning to those that walk this cosmic road and this my brothers and sisters will tesify to.
If you do not want to be transformed do not travel this lonesome road or you may find yourself howling at the moon. Lets Dance.

Answer 1

I heard this howeling in my ear so I dropped in...shakes head!

Well that word is problematic as was pointed out already. We make words evolve but it is still important to keep track of their history and make sure if we really want them or not.

Shamanism is mainly expressing a working relationship between human beings and the spirit world. I would expand on that to include alternative ideas of existance and the pantheistic view of all life.

It is associated with sharlitons and deminishment of legitimat forms of spiritual practice. It is also associated with trances and drugs because of steriotyping and undermining by so called authorities.


Lineage, cultural lineage, indigionous or not...human beings have the potential to with awareness interact and form concious relationships with spirit. We all have spirit.

Many have lost that understanding and the guidance needed in our lineage cultures to be 'trained' in these things. That has been torment for many of us for whome it is natural.

So, we seek because it is happening to us regardless of who anyone 'thinks' has the right to become a so called 'shaman'. So in seeking for help with our nature...we can run into some serious problems and a lot of ridicule.

This is a difficult time for people in that regard. It will pass and the cream will rise and be the way they were meant to be. Not better than anyone else...but with the blessing that they can be who they are gifted to be in peace. some believe they are already but I question that.

Everything is dangerous. Everything is about surviving conciously and unconcioulsy. We make unconscious decisions to survive all the time.

I think we have to stop associating these things with oportunistic ideas and just accept that people need to have space to be themselves. More and more I see that respected and more and more I see it satanized.

I also see people getting into trouble who should actually know better!!!! Those that were taught in their own traditions. They let their egos overcome them and are approached by ego stroking trouble making spirits that are looking to rip down what is good while they feed their slaves compliments!!!!!!

I got a real good look at a number of people in the act of doing that this summer. I helped to stop them. Helped humbly. They failed.

So, is it safe enough...if it is about who you are naturally to hell with the damnable word just live who you are gifted to be and learn the best you can. Not everyone is lucky enough to still have any of their cultural knowledge left in this area let alone have a true teacher. That does not mean that we should give up because it looks funny to someone else.

Be who you were made to be...do your best...strive hard.

Peace-hugs all around the circle!!!!


Aahooooooooooo, yip, yip, ahoooooooooo. that felt really gooood. ;-)

Answer 2

I believe that my Cosmic Brother Lover is spot on, it's like the 'Define 'God'' question, it's all about interpretation. We have many 'expert' opinions, one even derides the use of the word, shaman, as being self-negating, simply because it was coined to cover the principle of a 'spiritual medicine person' across all cultures, where no one word existed before.

Nothing is 'safe' if danger is what one perceives, and nothing is dangerous if safety is what one perceives.

So we take the choice, is this puny, fragile, vehicle what we are, this monkey-suit spun out of water and a few minerals, is that it ? Or we something greater, something that transcends the physical plane ?

This, of course, is what great 'spiritual' adepts are doing, and have been doing since the dawn of consciousness.

I choose to walk that path, and I choose to recognise no 'danger'. "Computer, freeze program !" :-)))

Where I am, 'home', is safe, and the 'path' doesn't exist in that 'reality', because we never left.

Many have tried to debunk Hanta Yo, the great Native American 'wisdom' story, but 'genuine' or not, it has one of the greatest lines on this subject ever written, spoken by the Lakota Medicine man :

"Great Spirit ? There is no 'Great Spirit', I am the
'Great Spirit' !"

Couldn't put it better myself, and all the rest ? Mumbo Jumbo.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Cosmic Love}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Edit :

Brother Baggins puts his furry feet right on the nub of the thing, yet again, a 'Werecoyote', no less !

Answer 3

Hello,

(ANS) I trained with several shamanic teachers from the native American tradition of the twisted hairs sweet medicine tradition.

To become a shaman is NOT something you can choose yourself, you would be chosen or called upon by others (i.e. by wise elders, by experienced teachers of the path) Only if they think you are well suited would you made an apprentice.

Real genuine apprenticeships in this tradition are NOT for the faint hearted, and will test you in literally every conceivable aspect of your being. You would be challenged in your strengths (both physically and otherwise), weakness's, things your fearful of, what presses your buttons. You would discover your gifts and talents, and so forth.

An Apprenticeship can & does take many years & much commitment , my close friend has only now become an apprentice after about 5 years. She has received her medicine pipe only recently.

**There are many different shamanic paths, many different shamanic teachers, nobody can guarantee that a shamanic spiritual path is safe. But it also depends upon what you term as safe?

Regards Ivan

Answer 4

That would really depend on what you consider safe. For those of us who walk the fine line between this reality and the other realities, there really is no other path to walk but that of the Shaman. There is no other way to describe what many who walk the path of the Shaman do, how else can you explain that what you see no one else sees and what you know you know because you travelled to the farthest reaches of the universe to find someone’s lost soul part or retrieved their power animals? How do you explain to someone else the talks you have with the Creator or the way your spirit walks away from your body?

It is a path of transformation and growth, ever changing and moving along life. And yes it can be very lonely path because no one else can really experience your life as you do or see how you see, we who do walk this way can offer as much love and support to one another as we can but we are scattered across the globe, are we not?

If you are afraid of change, going outside of yourself and afraid of leaving your body behind then this would not be a path for you.

Answer 5

Shaman? What is that? A plastic medicine man? The word "shaman" was coined by academia to identify and discredit the holy people of indigenous people all over the world. NO tribe or group of indigenous people use the term "shaman."

You can be a "shake and bake" shaman. Read a couple of books on Native American spirituality and open a business that charges $2,000 for a phoney vision quest. You can charge yuppies $4,000 just to feel their chakras.

Our indigenous holy people have spent their entire lives training for the job. What in the world makes you think you are qualified? And to answer you question; no. It is not a safe spiritual path; it is dangerous and most certainly fatal.

Answer 6

Define safe...

As this concept is devoid of any real objective meaning, I get the feeling you will be hard-pressed to come up with an accurate definition that will suit every subjective perspective.

Thus... "Being a Shaman IS a spiritual path" is all that really needs to be said.

Answer 7

You don't just become a Shaman, it's not like that...and Native Americans may agree with me. It's like being chosen and leading a very devout life to the traditions. I don't believe anyone who offers courses in this..

Answer 8

Safe in what way? Being a Shaman is not an easy path, and being a real Shaman is none done in short order. One usually had to be born to it or have a calling to it, had near death experience or near fatal illness, and many many years of apprenticeship.

Answer 9

Ah-ha!... No.

You have to bend, move, change, transform, go forward into the unknown and not look back.

Hanging on for dear life is pretty senseless, when you know that your going to have to let go. To get beyond what you know, where you think safety is. Safety may be objective, but facing fear look all the same on the inside.

A good Shaman, is going to go through all that and more, before he drags his/her students through the fire with them.
Trust me, it's 'drag'...

Edit; Than step in Thunor, maybe it's time to go deeper yet.

Answer 10

I believe lots of Native American Indians, were Shaman's and very spiritual.