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. :)
Saturday, 30 March 2013
Friday, 29 March 2013
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!
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!
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