1° Why I do what I do :
En français :
Lucy, by Luc Besson, Lucy meeting Pr Norman.
« – Lucy : … all this knowledge, I don’t know what to do with it !
– Pr Norman : If you’re asking me what to do with it…
If you think about the very nature of life, and I mean from the very beginning, the development of the first cell devided into two cells, the sole purpose of Life has been to pass on what was learned. There is no higher purpose. So if you’re asking me what to do with this knowledge you’re accumulating, I’d say pass it on ! »
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2° To shamanize, shamanizing : using a modified state of consciousness (a transe, a state hard to master, not just some nice sophrology session) to communicate with spirits for the greater good, for the benefit of all life-forms, not just ourself, not just our tribe, not just humans.
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3° Just like in the material world, not all is love, light and plastic glitters in the spirit world. At times, when facing a particularly tough and aggressive spirit, people who shamanize have to be able to show teeth and trick their adversary.
At times, I like to use some autofiction to transmit information : I put up a short-story that is largely autobiographical but with fictional elements hidden here and there, so that it’s all fiction in the end, so nobody can call me liar or fake-news makers. Nope, it’s just fiction, keep your cool.
Here, I’ll give you an exemple of what I mean by showing teeth, trick and autofiction.
I’ll tell you of something hypothetical that happened during a hypothetical ceremony.
Besides, even if what I tell here bellow is not ficitonal, it would still be a piece of spirit world perceptions subject to plenty of shitty interpretations from me, as well as from you.
So… Who knows ?
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4° My last ceremony was interesting, painful but full of useful teachings.
I’ve been learning about shamanism for a bit more than 6 years. Not much, some may say, but from the start I stumbled on the information that, sometimes, shamans play power games with each other. They send curses and spells to their « colleagues », they may send some energetic « arrows » (in the Amazon). They’re so jealous of their power, so eager to be the most powerful, that they try and hinder their colleagues work, try weakening them down, instead of trying to do better work, for the greater good, all together. Me, I don’t give a damn about power games : I wish to be like Leeloo in the movie « The Fifth Element ». I care about serving Life first and foremost, all Life-forms, and I’m willing to do my best to serve it, beyond my own little personal interests.
So shamans won’t team up, nope, especially not with someone like me, who’s got no « master », no lineage and who won’t respect old protocols. To those who may find this disrespectful and get all offended, I answer: « Respect old protocols that led us to a 6th mass extinction ? Seriously ? What for ? Speed it up ?! ».
Teaming up is not the way shamans have been taught, it seems. They’ve been taught to respect the old ways, so they just keep doing it, out of so called respect for their lineage. To me, they look like they respect their old traditions more than Life itself. They’d rather serve themselves or their lineage and their traditions and jealously keep their little secrets to themselves, rather than serve Life itself.
They’d rather watch the world burn to its end, than use discernment and self-criticism (and some humility, maybe?), to put down old toxic ways and try to create new harmonious ones.
They’ve been taught power games, competitive power games (and so most of the shamanic community ends up being obsessed with « power » and how to get more), and therefore they carry that on and on, from master to apprentice, through centuries old lineages, thousands of years old lineages, and they may even inherit their so-called « allies » through their precious lineages, so-called allies that will be sent attacking their colleagues, biting at their back, at their « tail », at their energetic root, their root chakra.
How nice of a « way » that is ?
« So called allies », not true allies, because in my anarchist views, such a tamed spirit that will go blindly even after people who mean to serve Life, who mean to work as little bees, for the truly greater good (not just for their self, for their own tribe, but for all Life-forms in this world), well, in my opinion, such kinds of spirits, very tamed with no discernment of their own are perverted spirits with no free will of their own. They’ve been spellbound, enslaved, and the spell that’s on them is like a poison that drives them mad, makes them madly mean so that they won’t be able to respect the greater good anymore, when their true nature is to serve Life, their creator, like any other spirit.
By the way, in my own little humble opinion, the greater good is always your own greater good, whether you like it or not, whether pretty or not, politically correct or not, confortable or not for your own precious little human butt and beliefs.
I still don’t believe there are purely mean spirits around me.
When I encounter one that looks threatening, one that may even seem to be « attacking » me, then I wonder what upset it in the first place. What is making them angry ? Me ? Doing my best to serve Life ? Would I have committed an offense without being aware of it ?
Sometimes, even the best intentions are not good enough to do real good. Sometimes even some of the greatest benevolent spirits, such as Water, will come kick your butt because you’re offending it, pooping in it on purpose everyday.
So, when my butt get kicked, I’ve got to use judgment, discernment. I ask : what’s going on ? What’s up ?
Sometimes I end up in a conversation with a spirit that is very pleased to get the opportunity to explain why it’s upset at me, and be listened to for a change (instead of being sent brutal banishing curses without negotiations). And I’ll say sorry, I’ll explain my intentions better, I may change my way and mind and understanding of things in the process and say thank you for the teaching. I may end up opening my heart to them and feeling their pain and having to cry a good load for a few minutes in the process.
Sometimes the spirit is not upset at me but at something that was done to it by some other people…
If I’m the cause or the anger, I ask mercy for my offenses, or I intercede for those who committed the offense, I ask to be taught better ways and this is usually part of the process of making peace with an angry spirit, so that it won’t be blindly aggressive anymore.
But when the spirit obviously has got no coherent explanation for its hurtful behavior, then my discernment leads me to think that it’s the spirit that’s got a problem, not me.
During my last ceremony, it seems I got attacked by what I ended up calling a « tail chaser », something like a small dog-like spirit with a jaw full of very pointy teeth, a bit fox-like. Maybe it had even been « biting » at me for a few days. I had been feeling particularly low.
I had never encountered the term « tail chaser » before, it just flew out of my mouth while I got in the process of getting rid of it.
I was upset at it, it was hindering my ability to work, making me waste some precious energy and time for stupid reasons. I pointed my buzzard feather at it, in my back. With quite a sharp voice I said « Get off my back ! ».
It’s the kind of things I’m not supposed to know anything about, it’s the kind of thing you don’t hear about in lectures given by anthropologists (as far as I can remember), it’s the kind of things I had no clue could happen to such a totally unfamous shamanizing person as myself, it’s the kind of things I haven’t been taught about, since no human « master » is telling me of there dirty little secrets… It’s not the kind of things that is supposed to happen to me since I am no « official » shaman and nobody ever came to me to say they recognize my work as a serious kind of practice. I’m not supposed to be a « true » shaman, I don’t even call myself that, what I’m writing of on this blog comes out of no official tradition, I haven’t been « initiated » by any human master, so what « true » shaman would even care to send me bugs ?
And what for ? Play power games ? Challenge me ? Punish me for being offensive towards their traditions ? Mere jealousy ?
I haven’t been taught that this sort of things could happen to me, still it seems I know how to deal with it when I have to. I have no clue how « I » know, but I know, « I » or rather the spirit that works through me, let’s call it a higher-self, or a guide, rather than my little self-« me ».
And, first, I just sent the tail chaser far out to Ground, where it belongs. My buzzard feather won’t take no shit. We work good together. We worked good together from the start, without me having to ask anything. It just does its job. It’s in its spiritual DNA, so to speak. It needs no « empowerment » to work, no fancy decoration. So far, I tend to believe « empowerment » is a charge or spell you put on something that won’t work with you in the first place for some reason, either because it doesn’t have the good properties to be a tool/ally, either because it’s been perverted and hindered by inappropriate decorations (glue, varnish, synthetic stuff, leather…), either because you have the wrong intentions, either because you’re not ready to work with it yet, either because you just don’t perceive what you’re doing properly. Either… I’ll find out later, maybe.
So, I kicked the « tail chaser » out of my space, but then, a bit later, I had a second thought.
I kind of called it back : I laid my staff and feathers down, I sat, seemingly defenseless, I allowed it to come back, gnaw at me for an instant, observing it.
I had the idea to use my ultimate « weapons » : blessing and freedom !
I murmured to it, very much meaning it: « You’re blessed and you’re free, you’re Back in Time ! » !
« Back in Time »: « back here now » – spells tend to trap the spellbound spirit in a time loop, like under a fake sky of light pollutions, so that it won’t see reality clearly anymore. Even protection spells do that. Putting protection spells on « your » loved ones is far from doing them true good on the long term.
And yes I can bless an aggressor, even though I disapprove their doings. All life-forms are blessed, whether we like it or not: they have an existence of their own, meaning Life blesses them, offers them a share of Itself, and Life is blessed, therefore all life-forms are blessed, even the ugly dangerous looking ones (« ugly » to our human’s eyes – do you think you look pretty to their own eyes?!).
Yep, it can be that simple to free a spirit and it’s always glad to be given its freedom back. They’re meant to be wild creatures, and eventually made friend with, or, if they’re not willing to be friend, as long as you’re respectful, they just won’t bother about you. They will mind their own business, just like wolves won’t bother about you as long as they have enough easier tastier game around and as long as you don’t threaten them in anyway.
Now, who will that tail chaser run back to if it’s free ? Who will it choose to go play with next ?
This is one of the things I dedicate my work to : free the spellbound. They are many. I call at them and they come. Just like my very punk anarchist little self : they’re thirsty for freedom, free will, discernment and being taught better ways, because this is what Life likes to do : learn better ways, grow, adapt, get smarter.
And you, will you be truly alive, willing to learn better ways ? Or will you choose fossilization, so respectfully trapped in your old ways ?
The world is burning and the ones supposed to tend the Garden are those who are cursing at it.
So sad, isn’t it ?
May you all be blessed, Free and Back in Time.
Psychédéliques 