Cultural differences …
Native American culture seems to be so centered around songs, dances, theatrical performances, masks, clothing, paraphernalia, ceremonies …
Since I have not experienced that – the closest I can think of is Bali.
In Bali I experienced theatrical performances with masks that really draw one’s attention in, you almost start to breath in unison with the performer and feel their every move ….
So many weathervanes and windchimes about, that at the end of the Bali holiday one has gained an intuitive - sixth sense of wind direction and strength before it hits …
Absolutely loved Balinese culture as it targets the twilight zone between the inner and outer, the seen and unseen worlds …
When the spiritual connection is still there - these theatrics, material expressions become
truly magical , which I trust Amerind expressions are.
Mongolian Shamanism seems to be somewhat similar to Amerind culture with all their costumes, paraphernalia, theatrics. Theatrics like the horse staff journeying thing, which I assume is meant to give one a sense, a feeling of the real function of the horse.
Our culture was/is more centred in shared storytelling, like how the odd behaviour of a raven alerted their attention to xyz and as such was an omen of such and such thing that happened or how the raven in physical form or other-dimensionally appeared as a psychopomp or as a messenger from the departed or how the raven gave shamans the ability to distance view, find lost items - what have you.
I suppose that is why we have the old poems which give insights into the shamanic world.
Cultural Appropriation. Nobody can steal anybody’s “spirituality” – we are all spiritual. But the forms through which our spirituality is expressed can be copied by others.
And I hate this.
Here is a Finnish artist’s depiction of our horse, which couldn’t be more wrong imo:
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets...jpg?1646043341
Yes, it carries one to ‘other worlds’ and beyond the ‘realm of death’ – but it is like an Entity, a Deity, like an Archangel – it comes from the Sacred Reality and not from some Goyan type of nightmare:
https://fitz-cms-images.s3.eu-west-2...1_1986_lrg.jpg
Why oh why do people with no sense of the Sacred, who just read stuff from books think their minds now know it.