A Real Shaman

I found a great blog post about shamanism at a pretty cool website called Blue Plant Shaman. The whole thing is worth reading - I just pulled the juicy part out for posting here. It's a list for the basic requirement for a person to be a good Shaman. And hey, I think I qualify! And I've gotta say, I like this guy!

1. You need to come from a dysfunctional family.
2. You need to understand abuse, alcohol, drug, sexual, physical, mental, verbal, the more the better.
3. You need to have a fast mind. This is usually shown through a quick humor and/or problem solving skills.
4. You may have a thought that nothing is sacred nor should it be.
5. You will probably have a very strong sex drive.
6. You may think some things are funny while other people severely disagree.
7. You have the ability to teach without formal training.
8. Even the most introverted people will instantly open up to you.
9. You can make friends with the most vicious junk yard dog because you can relate.
10. You had the “visits” from the other side at an early age.

Sometimes we can seem like a twisted bunch, but everyone wants to come to our parties.

They can be all the things that you would never expect a Shaman to be in places that seem so unholy or spiritual. Normally you won’t find them in some air conditioned classroom teaching someone else’s bullshit because the have an “I passed a Shamanic course” paper on the wall.

Shamanism is getting into life and everything that goes with it. Shamanism is about experimentation and testing your theories before you try to teach something. A real Shaman will let you know you are a fucked up individual and not try to dress it up with some white lighter justification. A real Shaman will help you develop who you really are, not who everyone thinks you should be. A real Shaman understands that some things just can’t be fixed and may take a temporary job as a sniper in a third world shit hole.

So Shamanism has evolved a long way from telling the story of when the Great Raven flapped its wings seven times and created the universe, or how some chic that was fucking around on her husband said God knocked her up. Shamanism became the reality show that HBO won’t even air.

“The people you see on this show are real. Their names and identities have not been changed, no one is protected. The situations are real and there are no co incidences between what you see in Shamanism and real life you dumbass, new age flake.”

Personally, I really don’t want to hang with anyone in Shamanism that doesn’t have some kind of bad reputation or rumors. People make mistakes. Or do they? Maybe it’s divine guidance for our higher learning. Yeah, that’s it. I channeled that.

Shamanism is about being yourself, being honest about it, and being ok with that.

Shamanism is living a life that will make a great true story that will be told as a teaching implement. Live it. Don’t leave any blank pages. One day the book will close.

If I was to say there was only one sin, it would be not living true to your nature. A Shaman will live according to their true nature and that’s the main reason they usually don’t fit in. So goes Shamanism through the ages. It will always be one of those places that the out of ordinary people go to fit in with the other black sheep of humanity that people look to for spiritual guidance.