Our ancestral, agricultural, societies had their ‘shamans and medicine men’ who had ‘access to the other side’ and visionary relationships with spirit beings and the ancestors in other realms. From there they were able to bring wisdom through to our earthly form, the body we live in. The earliest Chinese ideograms for treatment show ‘a man working to take out evil spirits with his arrows’ — for arrows, read acupuncture needles.
If you got sick in the early self-sufficient communities in 6BC, during the days of barefoot doctors, Taoism and Confucius, the local shaman was your first port of call. Illness was caused by a malevolent invasion according to early Chinese texts; today we'd say we’ve caught a cold, not that we need to cast out a virus or negative energy. Chinese physiognomy was also practiced during Taoist and Confucian times by the shamans and doctors: an integrated art and science, and a respected practice employed by physicians.
What’s interesting to me is the indigenous healer working in a small community with ritual, dance and rattles was respected but didn’t become a ‘celebrity’ as we know it today. The shaman/healer was there to support the tribe.
In the millennial post-truth era, one purpose of seeking knowledge is to empower the individual. An initiation. The earthly connection to the body - what the Chinese call the yin aspect of our binary nature - is the same, just the times have changed, and the now the shaman plays many roles. In today's seeking for self-empowerment, mediating information from the spirit world has become one of the keys for change, with our personal shamans on speed dial who might also be our personal trainer, psychic, or therapist.
In the millennial post-truth era, one purpose of seeking knowledge is to empower the individual. An initiation. The earthly connection to the body - what the Chinese call the yin aspect of our binary nature - is the same, just the times have changed, and the now the shaman plays many roles. In today's seeking for self-empowerment, mediating information from the spirit world has become one of the keys for change, with our personal shamans on speed dial who might also be our personal trainer, psychic, or therapist.
Now shamanism is mainstream in the West: fast forward to social media, algorithms and a self-help upgrade to the mystical path: ayahuasca retreats, trance workshops, a shaman in stilettos on TV, soul retrieval therapy. And yet, the methods remain the same: a transpersonal connection to the unseen world of spirit, quantum physics not philosophy, finding the divinity within, ‘tuning in’, a drum or two, maybe Tarot cards. (1)
Today we live in what Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), the 60s media theorist, called ‘the global village’: an interactive online community created by the billions of digital transactions creating new structures in society. I think of this as a new collective which transcends the neighbourhood and the old tribal structures, not in a Marxist sense, but in the app-for-everything wireless world which is spinning faster and faster. McLuhan called this high-tech medium ‘an extension of consciousness’', the internet as a collective nervous system. (2)
Does shamanism have a currency in this new community network? And who are the dreamers and magicians who can bring inspiration to the collective? This flanneuse has been looking at a few thinkers and creatives who bring a truth in times when we’re frightened of the spirit or who give form to ideas that have not been thought before. How to recognize them?
The eyes are the place to look for the bridge between inner and outer worlds. The eyes reflect our evolution, soul and ancestry as well as emotions and awareness in the Here and Now.
"The face is an index of the character and the photograph, if you like to put it that way, is the x-ray of the soul" Olive Edis, photographer.
This photo shows so clearly that Theoretical Physicist Albert Einstein (l879-1955) had ‘that look’ : faraway and present at the same time; looking through you out between matter and quantum physics. He brought a knowledge to the collective almost direct from 'out there'.
"The face is an index of the character and the photograph, if you like to put it that way, is the x-ray of the soul" Olive Edis, photographer.
This photo shows so clearly that Theoretical Physicist Albert Einstein (l879-1955) had ‘that look’ : faraway and present at the same time; looking through you out between matter and quantum physics. He brought a knowledge to the collective almost direct from 'out there'.
Emma Kunz (1892-1963) a Swiss artist created large format geometric drawings which signified the answer to her questions about life and spirituality. She regarded her pictures as holograms, multi-layered energy fields of numbers, geometric symbols and rhythms you could ponder in a search for enlightenment. They both looked as though they were watching a large flat screen TV somewhere out in the cosmos. (3)
Back on earth, one person who consults the old traditions and divinations from the past and brings them to modern sensibilities is Mark Rylance, recent Oscar winner, Shakespearean actor and campaigner for Survival International. He loves to tell stories because stories let us know we’re not alone. His stories, acting and who he is can change our awareness. His eyes show a great depth and compassion, a warm glitter of an open heart spirit. He tells us his stories in film and the collective of the theatre - for instance Nice Fish, a play about the absurdity and beauty of life - as well as teaching students, podcasts, and acceptance speeches at his Oscar and BAFTA award ceremonies. (4)
They’re his own truth, his individual message, not from the cosmos, but part of the earth like the old storytellers of the dreamtime. “There’s something mythic in him that goes down to the soul of the earth” David Hyde Pierce (Niles in US TV sitcom Frasier).
They’re his own truth, his individual message, not from the cosmos, but part of the earth like the old storytellers of the dreamtime. “There’s something mythic in him that goes down to the soul of the earth” David Hyde Pierce (Niles in US TV sitcom Frasier).
Finally, the messenger of our times, Ra Uru Hu (1948-2011), mystic and mechanic, fierce shaman-clarion, who brought the Human Design System into the world through a shocking encounter with ‘The Voice’ (no, not the TV show) back in l987 as Supernova l987A exploded, flooding the planet with neutrino information. A take-no-prisoners shaman with the powerful eyes of the heretic, he manifested a radical new knowledge into this end-of-times which is a synthesis of ancient esoteric systems with modern concepts about genetics and provides a profound exposition of human behaviour and coming evolutionary shifts. The Tao for the twenty first century. (5)
Footnotes:
(1) The Shaman in Stilettos by Anna Hunt publ. 2012 by Penguin Books
(2) 'Understanding Media' publ. 1964 and 'the Medium is the Message' publ. 1977 by Marshall McLuhan
(3) For more information about Emma Kunz https://www.emma-kunz.com/en/emma-kunz/
(4) Nice Fish a play co-authored by Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins http://www.nicefishtheplay.co.uk
(5) For more information about Human Design www.jovianarchive.com
(1) The Shaman in Stilettos by Anna Hunt publ. 2012 by Penguin Books
(2) 'Understanding Media' publ. 1964 and 'the Medium is the Message' publ. 1977 by Marshall McLuhan
(3) For more information about Emma Kunz https://www.emma-kunz.com/en/emma-kunz/
(4) Nice Fish a play co-authored by Mark Rylance and Louis Jenkins http://www.nicefishtheplay.co.uk
(5) For more information about Human Design www.jovianarchive.com