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  #21  
Old 15-01-2017, 04:12 AM
Chrysalis Chrysalis is offline
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Hello

I consider myself to be a Druid and after reading this thread it seems that shamanism is also a fit. Perhaps Druidism is another name or label for shamanism.

Whatever the case may be, I can say with certainty that I was initiated with attacks from malevolent spirits. I also received much help from spirit beings of the Light. I quickly learned to discern between the two groups. This happened about 10 years ago and I now have very friendly Spirit Guides.

I seem to have one foot in the Spirit Realm and the other in our physical world. I have a mixed bag of abilities and they do point towards shamanism.

A wonderful thread for sharing our perspectives and experiences of shamanism.
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"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:

Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee."
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  #22  
Old 10-03-2017, 08:55 PM
SaturninePluto SaturninePluto is offline
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Apologies for reviving an older thread.

I felt I may like to respond to this thread in particular as I have not found many areas for discussing Shamanism and Animal totems, and some other Shamanic beliefs.

I am not a native but have resonated and been able to relate to the Shamanic practice and philosophy moreso than others, but not to the exclusion of other beliefs.

As for my calling or curse (agreement a bit with the indiviual who described it this way), it began when very young. I would spontaneously be able to leave my body- astral projection as most call it.

I also constantly at a young age asked my father about spirits because I could see and hear them.

Also while young but while growing older I noticed a problem with my mind. I had this inner chatter. Opposing views on life and everything. These two thought/ beliefs (no better term) were constantly at odds. I asked my father about it and he told me that it was a battle of different personality aspects of myself- spirit and ego. He told me my brain was dying- and of course though I understand it somewhat more now, as a child it scared me.

I finally realized I was called to my path when I was a teenager about 14 or 15. We had moved into a new house that had a very hate filled evil demonic spirit/presence (it went so far as to levitate my brother when he provoked and scoffed at it). I was beggining to have very negative feelins and begged and asked the spirit- or God to answer a question. It was to give me a sign. I got a vision of a certain feather. The next day I knew if I looked in my medicine bag it would be there- I told no one of this (Emphasis) I looked and it was there. It wasn't over. I felt that the feather would be taken away I felt such peace that God gave me this gift. I kept dwelling on the feather being taken away. I had put it back in my bag. The next day I looked and it was gone. I spoke in my mind/ through thoughts to God. I felt begrudged. I kept provoking and speaking and thinking and kept on and on demanding an answer. Finally I heard an audible voice. Clear as day state "what is it you are telling yourself? This is important! Pay attention!". I then realized the last thought I had (although it took me a moment after the shock of hearing a voice so audible) the last thought I had was Ah well. If I never see the feather again that it was the experience and the peace and gratitude and honor I felt at the time of recieving it that mattered. And, then after I realized it was telling me to pay attention to my own thoughts and myself, the peace and gratitude and honor returned. I no longer questioned that I was walking a spiritual path or that I was called to it.

I do not write lies. This is no joke. It happened to me in my life while awake and I remember clearly the whole damned thing.
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  #23  
Old 11-03-2017, 02:31 AM
SerpentSun SerpentSun is offline
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Another thing....

If I recall corectly from my studies, although I may be wrong, there are certain life events that multiple cultures around the world consider the mark of a shaman, witch doctor, medicine man/woman, etc.

These events include severe burns, lightning strikes, and venomous snakebites. But I'm not sure if near-misses or vivid dreams really count. If so, I've experienced all three in some sense.

All my life, I've felt an affinity for fire. Like a blend of love and fear. As a small child, I would stare into the flames and feel their life and beauty. I also developed an early interest in astronomy and geology, focusing on the subject of stars and volcanoes.

Yet at the same time, I've always bern plagued by horrible nightmares of house fires, volcanic eruptions, and the occasional nuclear explosion. Oftentimes I'm struggling to save my family or some innocent animal. Perhaps my dad working as a firefighter has something to do with it, but he never really told me about any fires until I got older.

Furthermore, there have been way too many near-misses with house fires in my life. Usually the result of the adults in my home drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. If someone dropped hot embers and was oblivious to a fire they caused, I would always be the one to notice.

When I was about 11-14 years old, my mom and I were watching movies one night. She had been drinking a bit, but not enough to be unbearable. We baked a frozen pizza in the oven for dinner. At some point, we both smelled smoke and searched the house for any fire, but sat back down when we couldn't find anything. On a random hunch, I decided to list up all the blankets I had been sitting on. A fire had been lit under my butt.

Twice in my life, exactly 5 years apart to the day, a fire in my apartment building got bad enough to call the fire department. The first time, when I was 10, was an arson in the apartment two floors below. Their place was wrecked, but we only had smoke damage. The second fire was a week right after my brother committed suicide, and it was a fire caused by an accumulation of dryer lint. It was the floor right beneath us and we were once again spared. Even so, we got the hell out of there permanently.

Right before the first fire, I had a very strong urge to leave the apartment. I didn't smell any smoke or feel any heat, but I just wanted to get out of there, and I knew I should take my new Pomeranian puppy. I thought I was hungry, so I asked my mom if we could go to the drive-through for some food. When we got out to the car with the dog, my mom happened to notice the window blinds in the bottom apartment melting. Black smoke poured out when she opened the door.

Even now, the sight of melting plastic still disturbs me.

When the second fire started, I was home alone. Smelled smoke, like I'm always the first one to do, but couldn't find anything on our floor. I told myself the downstairs neighbors just burnt some food, but I started packing my bags and putting leashes on the dogs just in case. The smoke in the house just kept getting thicker.

I didn't want to call the firefighters, because my mom would give me hell if it was a false alarm. So I called her on the phone and told her my suspicions, she instisted that the neighbors burnt some food, and I decided to wait until she got back. Sitting calmly on the house with my dogs and my belongings as the house filled
with smoke.

My mom started panicking as soon as she walked in.

Nothing else eventful happened until I was 17. Sometime in mid-September, about a week before I met my boyfriend, I had to walk home from school in particularly powerful thunderstorm. Wallowing in self-pity over stupid teenage things, I noticed that songs about storms kept playing on my mp3 player. Which got waterlogged and broke before I was halfway home. Angry and angsty, I sincerely begged God to just strike me down.

So he almost did. A lightning bolt struck within....oh I don't know between 15 and 50 feet. I have really bad depth-perception haha. But it was definitely close enough to smell an acrid odor, and to feel an awful tingling sensation. Then my dad took me the mall that afternoon, and one of those fortune-teller robots predicted I'd meet a partner with the same sun sign as my boyfriend.

The snakebite dream still freaks me out. Sometime last year, I had the most vivid nightmare that blessed me with a renewed passion for ethnobotany and biochemistry. Two snakes were in my bedroom, a timber rattlesnake and a golden cobra, and it was as if I had to choose between them. The timber rattlesnake then bit me on the right forearm.

As you can imagine, I was pretty freaked out. But just like when my mom accidentally stabbed me in the forehead, I was like "Well dang. This is actually happening. Time to get to work." Refusing to go to the hospital, I began to treat my injury to the best of my ability, and fought through the illness as I researched my condition.
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  #24  
Old 11-03-2017, 02:47 AM
SerpentSun SerpentSun is offline
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Don't get me wrong, I felt like I was dying. This dream was EXTREMELY vivid. Things are bad when even I consider going to the hospital, but then again, I've treated my own infections, stab wounds, and broken bones. I could handle it. Although I did text my boyfriend and tell him what was happening, just in case.

I experienced symptoms from the snakebite that I didn't even know were normal, at least not until I researched it in that dream. I later confirmed the information when I woke up. Like I said, this renewed my passion for my biology studies. I don't want to die from poison.
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  #25  
Old 11-03-2017, 08:36 AM
muffin muffin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rozie
I was trained fully by my guardians. That's why it was so hard. They were very thorough and they trained me very well. No human could have done that.
I did have someone to work with early on, or to practice with and be my guinea pig so to speak. He was sent for that purpose and he was very complicated inside and I had to try to fix that over and over and over until I got it right and then some other problem would spring up. That took 1 year. I thought I was supposed to fix him in one way, but that wasn't the plan. I did fix him in a way that he was more comfortable and able to function better. I did what I was supposed to do but I wasn't aware of the goal from the beginning. I learned through experience and from my guardians who will make me to a task over and over and over until I get it right.

It was confusing at first. I didn't know what was going on and I was very scared but they gave me enough evidence to show me that this was a real experience and not a hallucination. They would tell me what was about to happen, which I couldn't make up. I did remember my imaginary friends from when I was little and they were them. They showed me that they were always there, but their communication was subtle. I had dreams and I was very intuitive, and I knew things but I never made any connection to 'guidance'. or 'higher self' I kind of pretend believed in my 'friend's but not in any official way. I knew I wasn't crazy, but I was very frightened of having that be the outcome. It is tricky.

I had more then one initiation, and I had a physical deathly experience also.

I wouldn't recommend it. Yes it is a calling but you can leave the phone off the hook.

Just kidding, I don't think you can. I think there is a plan and if you don't go along with the plan then there is not an alternative. As I am told "You could do it the easy way, or you can do it the hard way, but you will do it"..so I do it the easy way because I tried it the hard way and that never works.

I know that initiation and training from within is a different experience then being trained by a human. It's the hard road. Of course ideally one would combine both methods. I have met other people who were fully trained from within and I can see some similarities but we are quirkier because we conform to our ways, not necessarily what is traditionally expected.

Good afternoon Rozie

" As I am told "You could do it the easy way, or you can do it the hard way."

At less you got a warning, some don't even get that just get dumped in the deep end, sink or swim, you soon learn to fly by the seat of your pants, with the help of others close by.

Agree with most of what you said, most likely all of it, just different views in the way we see things. But maybe in one thing, in what your willing to give, it's how far they will take you, it's happens at the start you won't see till you look back.

By the way on the quitting, I'll give you what I think I would get if I ever asked that
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  #26  
Old 11-03-2017, 04:34 PM
Crystal Ambassador Crystal Ambassador is offline
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SaturninePluto and SerpentSun, thank you both for sharing your stories. They sound much more intense than my "initiation" :P
It's interesting to hear how different the calling can be for people; some can by an emotional tempering, some things like fires and lightning, others just a clear feeling. It's nice to hear the different experiences.

And yes, SaturninePluto, I've also noticed a lack of shamanism-focused threads. I'd like to make more of them since there seem to be a decent number of practitioners wandering around.
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  #27  
Old 12-03-2017, 04:35 AM
Rozie Rozie is offline
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I don't think there is a particular sign that will definitively show your path.

You can be a Shaman or a magic man without ever consciously assuming the title. So many gifted people walk among us and do their work, but don't hang out a shingle.

Some might be talented but bad at it. I have met quite a few who didn't make the transition successfully. That means that they didn't pass the test,

That is a very real danger. When I was being initiated, I was terrified and I worked extremely hard to be safe and sane. It was something I had to redo over and over until I got it right. I did have good guidance and that was how I was initiated and trained. My ways are a little different because I was completely taught from within and not from another person.

There are others who do that also, and they are a little different in their own way. This culture is very diverse and there isn't a tradition that is tried and true but there are similarities that are easy to spot.

It does run in my family. A person doesn't need to be aware to be effective. They can act in very subtle ways. I wasn't aware for years but I did the work even though I wasn't aware. I can see the past from the perspective of the present. That is very useful to understand both ways.

My daughter is very talented and she does her work in her own way. She isn't interested in mystical affairs. She is always right on target and knows just what to do. She has her rituals and skills and she is aware that she is very intuitive but that is as far as she wishes to take it. She isn't interested in the kind of work I do, but she does the kind of work she does.

She was bitten by a rattlesnake. It was not nice. That marked her, but she will never be a practitioner of a mystical art in a formal way.

We have a hereditary birthmark that shows up in the same spot from generation to generation. I don't know if that means anything but it might.
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  #28  
Old 12-03-2017, 01:51 PM
SerpentSun SerpentSun is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rozie
I don't think there is a particular sign that will definitively show your path.

You can be a Shaman or a magic man without ever consciously assuming the title. So many gifted people walk among us and do their work, but don't hang out a shingle.

Some might be talented but bad at it. I have met quite a few who didn't make the transition successfully. That means that they didn't pass the test,

That is a very real danger. When I was being initiated, I was terrified and I worked extremely hard to be safe and sane. It was something I had to redo over and over until I got it right. I did have good guidance and that was how I was initiated and trained. My ways are a little different because I was completely taught from within and not from another person.

There are others who do that also, and they are a little different in their own way. This culture is very diverse and there isn't a tradition that is tried and true but there are similarities that are easy to spot.

It does run in my family. A person doesn't need to be aware to be effective. They can act in very subtle ways. I wasn't aware for years but I did the work even though I wasn't aware. I can see the past from the perspective of the present. That is very useful to understand both ways.

My daughter is very talented and she does her work in her own way. She isn't interested in mystical affairs. She is always right on target and knows just what to do. She has her rituals and skills and she is aware that she is very intuitive but that is as far as she wishes to take it. She isn't interested in the kind of work I do, but she does the kind of work she does.

She was bitten by a rattlesnake. It was not nice. That marked her, but she will never be a practitioner of a mystical art in a formal way.

We have a hereditary birthmark that shows up in the same spot from generation to generation. I don't know if that means anything but it might.

In a way, your daughter seems lucky to me.

On one hand, she doesn't feel the urge to "label" herself like I do, thus I'm assuming she has less struggles with her identity and purpose. I've always been more of an "obvious oddball", so I'm always searching for a sense of belonging.

And on the other hand, she was bitten by a rattlesnake in "waking life". Which I'm sure was indeed awful, but at least she has that "mark" to identify her if she ever chose to label herself. That rattlesnake nightmare made me so paranoid I've considered mithradatism....

It's always strange, looking back and realizing that every hobby, interest, book, and cartoon has prepared me for this moment. Whatever this moment is. Even certain video games influence my beliefs, such as Kingdom Hearts and Dark Cloud.

I've certainly noticed a hereditary component in spiritual development. Both my grandma and uncle sense spirits and fortell the future, as do I, and I've heard stories of things my ancestors could do. Sure your birthmark means something. Nothing is meaningless.
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  #29  
Old 13-03-2017, 12:47 AM
Fremen Fremen is offline
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I was raised with a lot of permission to explore spiritual avenues. My experiences have involved many different types of symbols from many different cosmologies. My takeaway is that whatever I'm resonating with in the present will determine what form my experiences will take.
I have until recently only ever practiced in solitude. It was a conscious decision, because I was determined to have the utmost authenticity while discovering/creating my path, although it became clear that I feared having a teacher programming my reality for me. I got over it, but don't regret insisting that my teachers be Spirit-ed and serendipitous for the majority of my life.
I resonate with places quite a lot. An awareness of energy was something my family almost took for granted, in that they would acknowledge vibrational patterns even when their senses weren’t necessarily doing so. This subtle sense of energy would permeate my life and influence what color shirt I would wear, which book I would pick up at the library, or who I would talk to.
I always gravitated toward pain. The desire for healing was strong in me. My infantile attempts were to actually be the salve that would ease the grievous injuries of those around me; I tore myself asunder in the vain attempt to be a healer. It started during infancy and it almost killed me. My own self-inflicted wound. It was in my hands.
I've slipped into altered states of consciousness easily and fearlessly ever since I can remember. I draw maps of sensation in my body while on these excursions which enables me to reconnect to the state without trouble - usually. It is because of this that I suspect that I resonate with shamanism most readily.
I find shamanism to be the most rewarding of paths for me, because it is so fundamentally human by my reckoning. That isn’t to suggest that it is somehow limited in scope, no, rather it is a most effective interface with the vastness to which we are intimately related. And it’s really fun. Don’t get me wrong, I exalt amusement as a sensation of the highest order.
This is all to say that I chose shamanism as much as it chose me. Perhaps it is better to say that it suggested itself to me through so many channels I would have to be severely dissociated to ignore its voices. Even so, I have resisted the call multiple times and it's been excruciating.
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Old 16-03-2017, 01:51 AM
Rozie Rozie is offline
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@Fremen...regarding the authenticity, that is a factor. I cannot have a teacher who is a real person. Sure, I can compare and contrast and learn bits and pieces from someone. I certainly don't dismiss them, but I am not permitted to follow any path besides my own.

When I learned Astrology, of course I had to study and I did take classes for a bit, but then I was done. Because, I can't have another teacher, just a short course on technique.

I used to read all the time and anything that was interesting but some things were hidden from me. I simply didn't run across obvious things that I should have known about. That was for a reason. I wasn't meant to be influenced by whatever it was.

That is an issue, being influenced by an idea or belief before one is ready to be taught.

Regarding what SerpentSun said about cartoons and video games and fiction and stories, they all have meaning and in my case are integral to my work. This culture is my culture. A shaman works with their culture.

My culture is not about trees and leaves and stones and crystals. It is about TV and video games and toys and generational fads. Someone might think that is 'weird' or 'wrong' but it isn't. It makes sense. The system I use is very sophisticated but what I do might seem absurd to someone else. It is not.

For most of my life I was normal until I got the knock on the door. Prior to that I did stuff. I didn't know why, but I would do what seemed right. I noticed some strange things, but I would shrug it off as 'who knows, and who cares'.....

Everybody has their ways, and no way is better or more correct then another. What matters is results. I get excellent results but I had to work hard to be able to master that. What I do isn't for everybody. My way works with certain people and they might be sent in my direction, but other people need a different kind of help. I don't care either way what someone does but I don't like to be insulted. That happens a bit too often. I don't expect respect but disrespect is not acceptable.

I respect everybody. I think everybody has a special talent. I may not be interested, but I respect them.
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