ˈSHämən,ˈSHāmən
noun: a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practice divination and healing.
An album title that I always liked was Van Morrison's "No Guru No Method No Teacher".... And if ever there were a true shaman in music, for me it would be Van the Man. Listening to his music certainly gets me closer to the spiritual realm, in touch with my soul essence (and hey, if it gets me in touch with your soul essence too..... then it's a marvelous night for a moondance. Van said so.)
There are a lot of faux shaman out there. A hella lot of them masquerade as people of the cloth..... while people who might be holy gurus lead lives of obscurity because they do not wish to draw attention to themselves or even to their spiritual gifts, knowing they will be misunderstood.
As for me, I believe there's a little shaman in each of us, if we're open to such. I believe each of us has access to a higher spiritual plane, and the price of admission is to love deeply, without question and without reservation. Every religion has a variant of The Golden Rule -- treating others as you would like to be treated. But it goes beyond that. It means to love, to give, to serve, unselfishly. It's not an easy path.... and as humans, we have, can, and will often flunk the tests set before us. I flunk them every day, still. I just hope I'm flunking the lesser important questions instead of the biggies. I hope I'm looking at the redwood growing out of my own eye instead of the toothpick in my fellow human's eye. I hope I aim for the higher truth as I keep going.
I have a faith tradition that I adhere to, and it is important to me, but I learned a good while back not to worship an institution. I love people but I learned years ago not to put them on pedestals. My feet of clay have been all too visible over the years. And especially in the last 18 months of my life, the biggest lesson I've had is to choose love over being right. I know it's supposed to be to choose kindness over rightness... but I can love much easier sometimes than being kind. Love really is a verb, a decision that who the person is underneath is greater than the atrocity committed by them.
And if that's not a little shaman talk then tell me what is.
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