Previous topic update

    My fellow proud magicians!
    Greetings to you, I hope you are all doing well. If I may,  I would like to make an addition to my previous post before I get to other exciting topics.
    First, a simple question: are video/computer games bad for us? Yes and no. It depends what kind of a game it is and how it influences you, which is something you need to observe. If you feel addicted, it is not a good sign. If you lose your game save and you get frustrated or sad because of it, not good... But if you feel it is a way for you to relax without being too attached, that is fine. Likewise, if you feel it actually triggers your fantasy, it gives you inspiration or even motivates you to be more spiritual, it is a very good thing! Everything we have can be used for or against us, but it is our choices that decide which one of them it will be. That being said, if you are aware that games are not your entire life but you enjoy playing from time to time, and if you like the game Morrowind (or at least you would like to check it out), then this project might be just for you.
    Lately I have been doing some modding for the game Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind as I thought of an interesting idea. Since I am not able to build a physical village and a school or a guild, I decided to build it directly in the game. I still wish you could actually go there but I hope this way I will be able to provide you with at least some of the fruits it would bring. It may also serve as something like an architect plan, organization plan and it will be a way for me to design many things that could be used in the village/guild project if it ever comes to the point that it should be built on this planet.
    So, what is the plan so far? The plan is to design a village and a place for the Mortrag Castle Guild, so that you can get some idea how it would look like and have at least a slight feeling of actually being there. Basically, you could go there astrally as well but not everyone can do it... yet. I will do my best to make it so beautiful that it will bring magick into your life! I will design my own items in 3D studio Max in order to get the best for you! The second (and the most important) part of the plan is to organize the guild and add virtual teachers who will teach only things that you can use in the realm that we live in (not things from the game). It will not have much to do with the actual game and you will be taught how magick works here, so that you can truly benefit from it. Basically, it is going to be like some of the websites that teach you magick but it will also have graphics and you will be able to move around. I am also planning to add herbs from our world so you can easily learn about their real usage.
    A little about what I have done so far. The mod adds a small island called Iskaldur next to the cold island of Solstheim. It is located to the left of the Mortrag Glacier (yes, this game was my inspiration all along! lol) In case you are not familiar with the game, you can find the map of Solstheim at the bottom of this post. Mortrag Glacier is the huge blue thing on the left top on the island. Currently I am building the village, exterior, interiors and adding villagers who are all members of the Mortrag Castle Guild and they all have their own personalities and stories. Depending on who you ask, you will get different answers for most of your questions. Next step will be building the Mortrag Castle and adding guild teachers.
    I will provide you with art for this project, screenshots, updates and ideas. If only just few of you could benefit from this, then it would be worth all the time and energy I spent on it! The mod is going to be for free, I do not think I should charge anything for this... it is enough that you will have to get the game itself and the expansion called Bloodmoon (yes, it is required for my mod to work) if you do not have it already. I only want the credit for creating the mod and the rest is for you to enjoy.
    I hope you like this idea and if you ever use it I hope that you will enjoy it! See you around, folks!

If you were a millionaire

    Greetings, folks!  
    My apologies for this post might be a little... off topic lol. But this is a really favourite question. What would you do if you were a millionaire?  I can not imagine anyone who never thought about this, I think each one of us must have come to this idea at least once at some point. And I would love to hear about it. Go on and post a few comments because I am curious! As for me, I have thought about it many times and I can tell you about my ideas right here. :)
    Some people say that money is the root of evil but in fact it merely amplifies who you already are. When I was younger, I thought money was a way to have all the luxuries one could dream about but now my desire for luxuries is gone. What I want is peace, life full of magick, connection to nature and happy people around me.
    I have two ideas. Those of you who know me from eBay might already suspect that the first idea is to build a real school of magick, preferably located in a castle (which could be called Mortrag Castle! That would be so awesome! lol) but if I could not afford that I would at least like to make a guild of some sort, located in a hidden, inconspicuous house in a town.
    One thing really puzzles me. Howcome people consider psychology an important subject that you can actually study at school and at the same time they consider psychics, magick and related things nonsense? And all this just becuase you can not prove it with science... Well, you can not prove a lot of things in psychology either for that matter. And how can anyone say that knowledge of herbs is nonsense? That healing with energy does not exist? That balancing your body, mind and spirit is useless? I feel sorry for anyone who believes that they can only be cured with pills and that there is nothing beyond the material world. Do you really think that life is all about sleeping, eating, working, and then doing it all over again until you die? We are here to experience the material world, not to be its slaves! But even that is just a mere illusion, for the material world does not need us. We can not be its slaves. This is all just in our heads...
    So why not open our eyes? Why not do what we came here to do? The few of us who are awakened should help others who are awakening, in any way we can! Even if it is just small things. I know that very few of us could actually build and establish a psychics and magick school or at least a guild, but one day there will be enough of us to start this project! I do not know if we could make it so you get an actual university degree as the governments do not want awakened and powerful people, therefore it would probably not be acredited as a "real" school. But who knows... perhaps we just need to fight for it!
    Another idea I have (and again, this would require a lot of money) is building a village or a small town in the renaissance or nordic style (and in addition there could also be a guild or a magick school in the town/village) for people who wish to escape from the modern world, or at least those who wish to take a holiday from it from time to time. Of course, we could use the knowledge we have but we would use it wisely. For instance, if it was a small medieval town, it does not mean it would be dirty and without a sewer system. It could be a medieval town, but much more advanced than the ones we know from history books.
    That was just my little rant about what I would do if I were rich, lol. I do not have a detailed, perfected plan for this, but if some of you were interested I can keep posting ideas about it and we can create it together. And who knows, perhaps one day there is enough of us to get the project going, or somebody rich will "adopt" it. And perhaps others would get inspired and they might build more of them! This is not just my idea, I know many of us would really like this.
    Well, let me know if you are one of those people and please share your ideas what would you do if you were a millionaire, I am looking forward to it! Thanks for reading, folks!

Who is a shaman?

    Since this blog is called Shaman's hut, I decided to give you some quick information about who a shaman is. When hearing the word shaman, most of you probably imagine a native person dressed in furs, bones and feathers, dancing around fire, calling upon spirits in trance. But although it might seem kind of cool, wearing the feathers does not make them shamans. In fact, nobody expects you to wear a kind of clothing that would make you look like a madman in modern civilised places. Being a shaman does not require you to wear any kind of traditional or tribal clothing! You can be a shaman and dress just like the rest of us, or, if you like, you can have a "ritual clothing" for occasions when you are actually performing your shaman works. So, being a shaman is not about what you wear at all, to begin with.
    But what is it about, then? The general meaning of a shaman is someone who has almost passed away but came back to life. With this strange experience, their psychic abilities usually strengthen profoundly and/or they may also bring back abilitites they did not have before. The most known of these abilities is talking to spirits, the deceased and otherworldly entities. However, not everyone who can talk to spirits has had a near death experience and not everyone who had a near death experience is a shaman, but they can be. You can be, if you choose so!
    You see, I like to think of everything as of a matter of choice. Yes, you do have a choice, always. If you want to be a writer, you can do it. If you want to be a singer, you can do that also. If you want to be a witch,  a seer, a wizard, a warlock or a shaman, the path will open up for you. You can be what you want to be and never let anyone tell you otherwise! Although it is always very helpful to have a teacher, not all of us have the opportunity to find one. But just like you can self-study languages, you can also study shamanism on your own. If you are a self-student (like me), you need to be extremely cautious and not jump into things that you are not ready for because you might not be able to deal with them. Nobody but you will be responsible for your mental or physical injuries, so be careful. In order to become a student of shamanism, you simply need to send that signal from from your mind to your Higher Self and the door will be open. However, it is up to you whether you do cross the doorstep or you stay away from it. And even if you cross the doorstep, it is still up to you whether you will follow the pathway you had chosen for yourself. You will walk astray, and not only once, because there are many things here to distract you nowadays. But will you come back and continue the journey where you had stopped? Again, the decision is yours and yours only.
    But like any other decision, this one also carries its portion of responsibilities. The biggest and most frightening one is facing your fears and dealing with them. While you will be forced to face some of your fears in any "profession" that deals with magick and spirits, "students of shamanism" especially need to set themselves free of their fears. Why is that? Because traditionally, it is believed that a shaman has to heal themself first and only then they can heal others. That is the way.
    But please do not think that is the only thing they do! In the mean time, they also need to study, experiment and learn. Give it also the contemporary duties to keep themselves functioning in the society and it is a great deal of a difficult job. In the past and also in the native tribes nowadays, shamans usually live aside from the village to ensure peace and quiet for their work (which definitely requires it), but at these times you do not always have the opportunity to live in quiet, so your studies might be difficult to maintain. And most importantly, you MUST build a relationship with nature! It is highly recommended that you regularly make a retreat to the nature, but it is also very helpful to surround yourself with items that originate from plants, trees or animals as you can always connect yourself with nature that way. So, here is where the feathers might come in handy! If you prefer not to have items made from animals (and always be careful with these for depending on the situation, the spirit of the animal can become angry with you) you may also wear items made of seeds or other plant parts, stones, empty shells and precious or semi-precious gemstones (they are best in their natural, raw state, but you can also use polished, faceted or carved ones). Or you can simply pick up feathers in the forest, no bird had to suffer to release them that way! Always thank for the items you find and take away from the nature.
    Another thing I would like to mention is that shamans existed and exist in many cultures. Most of us know the African and Native American shamans, but there are also shamans from Peru, Amazon, Russia, Alaska, Australia, Hawaii, Tibet, China, Mongolia and many other places. It does not even matter whether they are from the past or the present as time as such does not exist, but I will get to that later. For instance, I associate myself with the nordic cultures, vikings and old germanic and slavic tribes. Not only as a shaman, but also as a sorceress and even as a simple person. :)
    To sum it all up, a shaman is a healer. One that uses traditional remedies and methods to help others retrieve or maintain health, one who has knowledge about the usage of herbs (and sometimes crystals as well), one who is aware that everything has a spirit and they can talk and listen to these spirits, one who is able to also connect to your spirit and/or aura and tell you what is wrong and how you can fix it or they fix it for you. Synonyms for the term shaman would be medicine person, healer, magician, or witch doctor. Shamans are not good or evil, they do not necessarily deal with only black or white magick. Shamans are neutral, but no matter what kind of magick or spirits they work with it is for the sake of help and healing. It is up for their own consideration whether they will take the risk of using darker energies and powers or not. And if there is such a person as "an evil shaman", I think a more accurate term for them would be "a black magician".
    I hope I did not scare you away with all this information, that would be the last thing I wanted! I simply wanted to be honest and share what I know. Truth be told, this world needs healers. This world needs shamans. But there is one thing you need to have in order to become one: pure intentions. If there is someone who just wants to show off or be something better than others, they will never get there. They will not have the patience to even actually do what they need to do in order to become a shaman (or any other type of magician for that matter) and that requires time, patience and practice. One who desires to have special knowledge and abilities only to be looked up to will simply give up at the very beginning. If, however, you have pure intentions, the universe will offer you everything you need in order to succeed. You are most welcome to subscribe to my blog as I would love to share with you everything I know! And if at any time should you decide that you would like to become a healer or magician of any sort, I will always do my best to help you! It is not only studies, duties and responsibilities but also excitement and great adventures that are waiting just for you. :)     
 

About me

    Greetings and merry meet.
    I shall present myself under two names: Skadi (my shaman name, short from Skjalddís which means shield maiden) and Deorwynn (my artist's and writer's name). My legal name is different at the present time, but I do not give it much significance for that is not the name chosen by me, myself. After all, names as such are not really important in the spirit world. For entities and spirits, names are simply an invention of the humankind and they do not need to use them. We do not need to use them either, but it makes things somehow easier in the material realm. In fact, entities present themselves to us by the names they chose themselves. If they are spirits of deceased beings who lived on Earth, they usually pick the names from their best lives/incarnations. But the truth is, we can simply recognise entities, spirits, and even people and animals, by reading their energy signature.
    By now you can surely tell that I am going to be posting about spirituality, psychic and paranormal phenomena, astral traveling and lucid dreaming; ghosts, aliens, spirits and other entities; magick, energy works, meditation, crystals and alchemy; yoga, tai-chi, food, nutrition, healthy lifestyle, herbs and traditional medicine. If you are interested in these topics then you surely do not want to miss out what I will be posting about! Please subscribe and feel free to comment and ask questions, you are most welcome in my cosy imaginary hut! Just make yourself at home ;)
    A little something about me. For a period of time I used to work on eBay as a seller of spells and spirit bound items. At around the time of banning the metaphysics category from eBay, I ran into some trouble and I had an overall life crisis for about half a year. I have dealt with it for the most part and I am back. I have decided to focus mainly on shamanism now, but I will be posting about various magickal teachings. I can not wait to share with you, guys! My eBay shop was called Mortrag Castle which was very suitable since there were several of us with different specializations, but since it is only me who will be posting here now, I will simply call this page a Shaman's hut. Plus, it is not a shop but merely a blog. I might open a shop again elsewhere later and I will definitely let you know if I do that. :)
    I have always been a creative person. I love art, especially drawing, painting, writing, playing my flute and singing. Actually, I shall be posting some art pieces of mine here as well, if related to the topic. I might also make some special art for this blog. There are also other things that I am interested in, such as traveling, cooking, learning foreign languages, history, listening to all sorts of music, watching movies and playing some computer games (mainly Daggerfall, Morrowind, Dungeon Master 2, Lands of Lore 1, Skeldal, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Might and Magic series, Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3, Icewind Dale 1 and 2, Drakan).
    I have been aware of the paranormal since I was a little child. It all started at around age four, before I even went to the elementary school. One night I was sleeping in my bed when something touched my ear. We had no animals at home at the time. I had no idea what it was so naturally I got scared and covered my head with the bed sheet. Since then, things of this nature had been happening to me on a nightly basis. To sum it up, I was able to see, hear and feel beings from other worlds and dimensions that were, for some reason, drawn to me. Yes, I was one of those children with "wild imagination". I still remember how these beings looked like so I can draw them for you to see. I cannot tell you "it was a unicorn", or a dragon, a gnome, a fairy, etc. I have never seen anything else like them in my life. But I do know that they were NOT ghosts. Oh, and did I mention they could move things around, too?
    Sounds like I made it up (or that I am crazy), I know. But I did not. Everything I shall write in this blog is true unless I say I am unsure or that the resources may not be 100% accurate. We all deserve the truth! Anyways, these beings liked to show up when I was alone in my room in the evening, or at night when my sister was sleeping (we shared the room). If the door was not closed, it would start closing either by itself or by a small hairy creature. The lights would go dim, flicker or stop working at all. I would hear the beings calling and I would feel them somehow drawing me away from the door. I would lose voice and my body would go rigid so I could hardly move. They would also come in the middle of the night when both me and my sister were sleeping and they would wake me up, sometimes by touching my face or other parts of my body. One night I woke up and even though it was utterly dark in the room, I simply knew there was something in front of me. As soon as I got that feeling, my face got touched - sort of like lightly punched with a soft object. Other times I woke up to see these beings raking in our drawers, or throwing around papers from the table and so on. Overall, I did not try to talk to them as I was too scared to interact with them in any way. And if you are scared, you attract a good deal of other scary things to you! Back then, I did not know this. I would run away to my parent's bedroom to wake up my mother, who got terrified as well for I was absolutely convinced what I had seen was real.
    One day she told me I could wish for anything and that she would get it for me. I am sure that she knew what I was going to wish for and that is why she asked. I wished for these strange things to stop from happening. She told me I should simply close my eyes when I go to sleep and not look around the room. Something from that moment must have built a block in me as when I went to sleep, I did exactly as she told me and I never had any strange encounters, nightmares or otherworldly beings touching me for long, long years. For years I lived without anything remarkably strange happening to me. I lost my belief and just like (almost) all adults, I thought it was nothing more than my imagination and I doubted the existence of anything non-material. But even though I had my doubts, I never lost interest in these things. Maybe I was chosen not to walk away from this path. There are people who are never to leave it and the fact that you are reading my blog probably means you are one of them. :)
    Several years ago I got myself involved again, this time purposely. My life has changed again, but this time I am ready.

P.S.: I was just thinking of going to get a grapefruit from the kitchen when my father appeared in my room's doorstep, asking: "Would you like a piece of grapefruit?" Ahh, sweet intuition... :)

P.S. 2: I am new to blogging and to this site, therefore I will probably be doing some changes in the template, layout and some other things so please bear with me and please feel free to subscribe!