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HEALTH BENEFITS OF DRUMMING CIRCLES

Recent research studies have indicated that health benefits are experienced as a result of participation in drumming circles, such as an enhanced immune system; reduction in anxiety and

increase in self-esteem; and ability to more effectively retrain the brain following a stroke. Read the article from examiner.com. Submitted by Shana Robinson, Maryland. Find a core shamanic drumming circle on the FSS website. See also Sandra Harner's work on "Shamanism and Immune

Mohan Rai, Nepalese shaman and founder of the Shamanistic Centre, performs a ritual in Kathmandu.

Response," on CD and in Shamanism, Fall-Winter 2003, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 9-14.

 

SHAMANS ENJOYING A RENAISSANCE IN NEPAL
After decades of modernization when shamans were almost wiped out, "urban shamans" are returning to practice among Nepal's metropolitan middle class and among Westerners looking to be healed. Read the article from france24.com. Submitted by Timothy Flynn, California.

STORIES OF THE EASTERN SHOSHONE
Told by John Trehero to Ake Hultkrantz, transcribed by Geraldine Hultkrantz. Mortimore Publishing, Lander, Wyoming. 2009.

 

This collection of folk tales was made by the late Swedish ethnologist, Ake Hultkrantz (1920 -2006), during visits to the Eastern Shoshone of the Wind River Valley in Wyoming between 1948 and the 1970's. The stories, transcribed by his widow, Geraldine, were told primarily by medicine man John Trehero (1887-1985). The volume is illustrated with photographs of local petroglyphs and drawings by Shoshone children who, according to the book, were the main intended audience of the tales, traditionally told to them in the evening.

 

The stories sometimes show resemblances to certain fairy tales of European folklore and the influence of Christianity. This is not surprising, considering the early influences of French Canadian and American fur trappers, and missionaries, in the region. Nonetheless, there is also much of a clearly indigenous origin, including creation myths and information on spiritual power, beliefs, and practices. Geraldine Hultkrantz is to be commended for producing this interesting volume, honoring both her husband's legacy and the traditions of the Eastern Shoshone, and for helping to save disappearing knowledge. (Read 2003 versions of some stories online on the Wyoming Lands and Ways website.) 

 

SHAMANIC MYTHS OF TUVA   

Shamanic Myths of Tuva

After two years of hard work, in the summer of 2011 the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in Europe finished the German translation of FSS Living Treasure Professor Mongush Borakhovitch Kenin-Lopsan's book Shamanic Myths of Tuva. FSS European Director Paul Uccusic served as the publisher, with Isolde Schmitt as the main translator (Russian-German), supported by Aldynai Seden-Chuurak (Tuvan-English), who is a teacher at the Tuvan State Lyceum in Kysyl. Artist Alexandra Uccusic provided the illustrations. Paul and Roswitha Uccusic and Isolde Schmitt traveled to Tuva in December 2011 to meet with Professor Kenin-Lopsan and introduce his book to Tuvan shamans and at the University of Tuva. In January 2012, a special presentation was held for the Austrian public at the Ethnographic Museum in Vienna. Read the full report from Paul Uccusic. Articles from The New Research of Tuva online magazine: Tuvan shamans speaking in German and Austrian publishers of works about shamanism visited Tuva.

   

NOTE: Each issue we plan to post on the website or provide a link to an article or other media with useful information about shamanism or shamanic healing. Check the Articles section for several varied perspectives on shamanism and shamanic healing, many from past issues of Shamanism and the Shamanism Annual, the Foundation's scholarly journal - one of the exclusive benefits of the Circle of the Foundation.

MY RATATOUILLE
by Timothy Flynn

You were born to journey, like some of us were born to cook. One of my favorite Pixar movies, Ratatouille, covers this topic well. While not everyone will cook, anyone (even a rat) has the chance to. We may not all wake up with a new recipe for pumpkin gnocchi stuck in our heads (man, did that turn out good), but we can all follow a recipe - maybe even tweak it a bit, or at least slap together a sandwich.

We can also change our consciousness and learn to work with spirits in a multitude of ways. It just comes with the pulse, eating, and everything else that makes us human. Though we may not know it, an awareness of the spirit world and our ability to immerse ourselves there, like happy rat chefs in a kitchen, is an essential ingredient in what makes us human. When you practice shamanic techniques, or like me, teach workshops on them, you wind up facing a lot of the same issues the rat Remy struggled with.

• "How can you be doing this work, what are you - the reincarnation of Pocahontas?" (You're delusional because you secretly think you're human - you're not!)
• "You can't learn this stuff, you're too white to be doing this." (You're a rat, not a person, you'll never learn to cook! Also known as: "Only the French can cook.")
• "Thief! If you can do this it's only because you've robbed oppressed people of something that was never yours to begin with!" (Maybe you can cook because you stole ideas for your cuisine from other cultures, but you don't deserve to cook because you're a thieving rat.)
• "OK so you CAN work with the spirits, but you only know enough to get yourself and other people into trouble." (Maybe you can cook, but I bet you'll poison someone because you're a rat.)

Mental patient, fraud, thief, or spiritual pariah, pick at least two and go back to being just a rat. It shouldn't be surprising that these issues surround this kind of spiritual work. After all, we've robbed ourselves and every other culture we've come across of their ability to journey for centuries. It's hard to control people (especially your own) if individual spiritual revelation is readily at hand. Where would fast food chains be if everyone cooked their own food?

Drum made for Tim by Wild Horse Charley Conatser.

We know how to cook, we've just been taught so well how NOT to cook we can't even imagine boiling water. From the outside, a shamanic journey must look as alien as a spice rack looks to a generation raised on fast food. Spirit world? Nah - just pass me the Xbox and a bigger helping of Cheez Whiz.

Spirit-wise peoples would probably consider many of the shamanic practices I teach for the Foundation basic spiritual self-care. It's the stuff your ancestors would have grown up around and taken for granted, like having a Mom who knew how to turn those leftovers into an incredible stew. While it represents a profound shift in perspective for us, for many others it's what they had for lunch.

In the end Remy broke into the culinary world based solely on the excellence of his rendition of a peasant stew - ratatouille. The word "pagan" derives from "peasant," denoting the spiritual practices of country folk that included shamanic techniques we practice today. Like a peasant stew, shamanic work is deeply nourishing to many of us, awakening an Earth-bound love that can transform our world. The extraordinary is really the ordinary, the ordinary is extraordinary.

My goal, and that of others like me, is to reintroduce a visionary practice into our modern culture that can save lives, ease suffering, and guide us in many of the ecological challenges we face. So if you're ready to step out of the fast food line and back into the kitchen, check out the classes on the Foundation for Shamanic Studies website. The stove is hot, we're ready to teach practices that feed your soul.

Timothy Flynn is a shamanic practitioner and an FSS faculty member in Monterey County, California. He can be reached at Alchemist's Journal. For more about the core shamanic practices pioneered by Michael Harner and taught through the Foundation, visit shamanism.org.

Internationally renowned anthropologist Michael Harner pioneered the return of shamanism and the shamanic journey to contemporary life. In 1979, Michael and Sandra Harner established the Center for Shamanic Studies, the precursor to the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, which took over the function of the Center in the mid-eighties. FSS is dedicated to the preservation, study, and teaching of shamanic knowledge for the benefit of the Planet and its inhabitants. Join the thousands of people each year who take the Foundation's rigorous training in Core Shamanism, the universal, near universal, and common, principles and practices of shamanism not bound to any specific cultural group or perspective. The training program has been carefully developed by Dr. Harner and thoroughly tested to provide an authentic shamanic experience and practical results.