SHAMANISM, CAPITALISM and IMAGINARY SPIRIT WORK

Even though this blog is 'Shamanic', I have an ongoing thing about whether I even want to use the word 'Shamanism'. Maybe that is as it should be. Maybe it means I am thoughtful 😂

But seriously, most Shamanism is religion, just like any other path is mostly religion: ie there is a hierarchy, and people take their guidance primarily from that, although that is hard for individuals to admit to. It is the human condition, it is not a complaint, and it is where many of us need to start. I will complain, however, about Shamanism being effectively reduced to a method, which is what 'core' Shamanism does. I don't know why, but it makes me see plastic, masquerading as the real thing.

But this isn't my main point. What I am wanting to bang on about is the indigenous people = good, modern humans = bad attitude, which is just one of the prejudices we may bring to Shamanism. Along with the anti-establishment, anti-capitalist, anti-technology, apocalyptic environmentalist attitude, with ourselves as the good guys. We can in this context claim to be virtuous, not because of anything we do - apart from maybe the odd soul retrieval, imaginary or otherwise - but because of our identification with who we imagine to be the good guys.

Let me digress and say something I have never seen said before: I think a lot of our spirit work is imaginary. There, I have said it. Of course 'clients' (ghastly word) feel good afterwards, that is not hard to achieve. But has anything real shifted? Hard to say. Sometimes. Often not. Your pedestal often gives the illusion of it. There is real power in this work if we have the gifts for it, and the training too. It is a long, slow path, and we need to keep the faith in it, and it is our own Spirits that fundamentally keep the whole thing rolling along. Indigenous people understand the slow and deep nature of this path, our culture does not.

So the idea that indigenous = good, modern = bad. Not so. Humanity is on a hell of a technological roller-coaster ride, which I find myself marvelling at, in the context of vast collectives, and early peoples simply did not have any of this. Their example can help us remember that we belong to the natural world, and to continually give thanks for what we have. Modern westerners would do well to remember what our system gives us, instead of damning it, which is the tendency of the counter-culture. Dostoevsky identified lack of gratitude as the root of evil. I think he was right. Our counter-culture, which Shamanism tends to nest itself in, easily damns and feels superior to this culture, this system, that has given us so much.

There is no point fighting against where humanity is going. It is high tech, it is vast collectives, it is fossil fuels for now. Fossil fuels, that continue to help raise so many millions of people out of poverty. Why are these things often not seen as part of the natural world? What are they, if not that? Is not an iphone or an electric car also part of the natural world, something we can wonder at and feel grateful for and treat as having its own spirit, which I am sure they do?

So yes, Shamanism reminds us of certain basic attitudes that we need, and that we can easily forget. That humans have always easily forgotten. Hence ceremonies in which people give thanks and make prayers: because we forget to do so in the busyness of everyday life. That alienation is nothing new. And the cure is, in a way, simple.

So this, I think, is what our Shamanism, which is an ongoing re-invention, needs to be: an embracing of where humanity is going, working with our collectives rather than in opposition to them (and traditional shamans would have worked with, not against, their political leaders), while remembering our belonging to an inspirited natural world.

And one last thing: capitalism is just what humans do. We have always traded and attempted to build prosperity. It is stupid, it is anti-human nature to oppose it, and to use 'capitalist' as a term to damn people. Capitalism needs managing, definitely, for it tends towards amorality. But we are Shamanic, are we not, we are attempting to align ourselves with what is natural to humans, that which makes humans flourish and prosper? Should we not, therefore, align ourselves with the spirit of prosperity which is at the root of capitalism? Should we not align ourselves with the establishment, with our political leaders, whoever they might be, and bring our values to that table, instead of placing ourselves apart and above, which I do not think is an honest or effective place to be? I think that oppositional, superior attitude, which is so common, which becomes an accepted reality in many shamanic groups, is a kind of spiritual bypass.

 

The image is of the Shaman as Magician, who re-creates the world not through opposition, but by bringing the elements of Fire, Water, Earth and Air together. Just as the Medicine Wheel also does.