To Be or NOT To Be a "Shaman"

This was recently discussed in one of the groups I am in.....  

One of our members is in to "Shamanism", while the rest of the group is not.....  The group is 98.9% women of Native American Heritage. With that being said:

"Now, I remember what it was a few days back I wanted to write about..... LOL!

It is very interesting this obsession people have with "Shamanism" & "Shamans".. This thing, preoccupation w/ Magick.

The funny thing (and this is from both my Grandpas), neither considered themselves to be "Shamans", not in the least. Nor did they like the word, especially in reference to themselves.

The word they used was: Medicine Man/Wicasa Pejuta or Holy Man/Wicasa Wakan. The reason being is; what they did was Not Magick (Hodgie Podgie), it was Creator's & Spirits' work.

As I came to understand from them, the difference is: Shamans conjure and manipulate the Spirits, many times to their will in order to accomplish a goal or result. Whereas, Wicasa Wakan, on the other hand, work with the Spirits. Calling on them to aid, requesting their help with healing or making whole.... even helping to make transitions.

The intent & manner in which one works w/ the Spirits is different. Commanding & expecting as opposed to Calling w/ an offering & accepting what comes.

So, as I was explained... It is like that."

In response:  "'Since the 1970s, the world 'shamanism' has become one of the most heavily worked among scholars of anthropology ad religious studies, as well as having a major presence in counter -cultural groups in the wester world, I t has flourished especially among the American academics, but is by now almost as commonly used by those of other nation. Virtually all who use it are aware that it derives originally from Siberia, even while it has long been applied to phenomena in many other parts of th globe. The word 'shaman' was apparently first printed the the memoirs of the exiled Russian Churchman Avvakum, in 1672, and seems to have reaches Western And Central European scholarship twenty years later in the work of Nicholas Wistsen. ' --Dr R Hutton"

In answer to the response:  "The Native Americans that I have spent & do spend time with do not use an "Altered Conscious" state to contact the Spirits, we do it fully awake and aware.

That is why we make the offerings we make and use the Cannunpa, herbs & songs that we do. Those are the Pejuta Wakan, Talking, Calling, & Honoring songs I spoke of earlier. Those songs & Pejuta Wakan are alerting, inviting, and petitioning those benevolent helper Spirits to come & be with us.

So this makes "Shamanism", for the most part not of Northern Native American culture.

Now there is a line to be drawn, in a NAC ceremony where the Chief/Grandmother Pejuta comes in.

In the Northern American culture that I have experienced, we do not go into a "trance" or "Altered State", we sit up and pray, sing and use that Pejuta Wakan as the Medidince she is. It is a healing ceremony, and the main part of the ceremony are the two smokes offered up at the beginning of the ceremony and at midnight when the Road Man goes out of the tipi & also blows his Eagle Whistle.

Yes, there are others here in the U.S. who do use the Unci Pejuta for trance & vision inducing purposes. There are people I know who use it in that manner. We call those people "Eaters" and we know that here it is a form of disrespect.

Also, there are Central American tribes that do use that Unci Pejuta for visioning & trancing within ceremonies which are sacred & for healing.... That is what my family considers "Shamanism" they are not fully conscious, they are conscious in the Spirit World on the other side.

So in the way I was taught & continue to teach, on this Canka Luta Waste, "Shamanism" isn't the term we use or the manner in which we go about working w/ the Spirits."