| Golden Deer Stories for Transformation, Healing and Blessing Holistic Healing and Shamanic Mentoring Joan Marie Mickelson Holistic and Shamanic Practitioner |
What is Shamanism?
The word saman originally described the Siberian
(Tungus) men and women who served their community
on a spiritual level. When the shaman drummed, it was
said the shaman’s soul left his or her body with the
help of the animal powers, in search of game,
information and healing for members of their
community.
Today the word shamanism describes a
philosophical and psychological orientation toward
spirituality. The shamanic worldview recognizes that
everything is alive and has spirit and that all is
connected, through what the shamans refer to as the
Web of Life.
Because all is connected, the stars, the ocean,
forests and trees, the animals, birds and fish, by this
hidden web, the shaman can, by entering another state
of mind, see and travel in the non-ordinary reality
(NOR) or imaginal realm. With our ordinary or daily
way of seeing, we see a tree, its trunk, branches, and
leaves. When the shamanic practitioner enters the
NOR he or she can sense the tree’s own
consciousness and life force.
Everything has consciousness; however, the
consciousness may be very different and alien to our
human consciousness. A simple organism like a mold
has a very different life force and consciousness than
a human has. Some creatures have a consciousness
more similar to ours and frequently those creatures,
such as a bear, a deer, or an eagle, will become the
guide, the animal power, that the shaman identifies
with (called merging) to enter the portal to non-ordinary
reality.
Historically the shaman identified levels of NOR as
upper, middle and lower worlds. These levels became
maps that described the parallel universe. In the upper
and lower worlds, time and space do not exist, so the
shaman can travel forward and backward in time. In
this way, the shaman perceived and communicated
with the ancestors and retrieved useful knowledge and
wisdom that helped members of the present
community.
Shamanic practitioners have also been healers, and
were able to search for the spiritual causes of illness
and disease. They brought back lost soul fragments or
extracted energetic influences that may have been
causing illness.
Today many people learn shamanic practices for the
benefit of self-healing, to enhance their spiritual
insights, and to benefit their friends and family
members. With the organ of perception that the Sufi
scholar Henry Corbin called the Imagination, the
shamanic practitioner travels in the mythic, folkloric, or
archetypal imaginal realms to add richness and
meaning to their daily lives.
The holistic healing methods presented in this
website should not be considered an exclusive
method of confronting psychological and/or medical
problems. It should be viewed as an adjunct to
orthodox medical or psychological treatments.
The Golden Deer in the Silver Chalice On that long night, deep within the cup where the moon's shadow is darkest, as if seeds of golden light were coming alive, a herd of golden deer press and jostle as they crowd together... |