Facts about Shamanism

You miss my point entirely earth. I'm saying that, making general statements about shamanism worldwide is not a good idea. You cannot put them all together. They are all very different. I gave an example of how a native american tribe contradicts your statements to demonstrate that shoving all medicine men in one category will end up with erroneous statements.

And I don't research the Cherokee. Both my grandmother and grandfather were Cherokee. Literature on the web and most books are garbage. I only look for websites to try and find good ones for those interested in the culture. I was stating that it is extremely hard to find and most information is misunderstood or Christianized which means a random person wanting to learn about Cherokee medicine and belief cannot. They need to know a Cherokee person who has been taught it. The information I know is from my family and friends who are either also Cherokee or visit the reservations and talk to them there. So you or anyone else will not know about the ways even if you try, and I'm sure the Tsalagi people aren't the only group that let's people believe false information to keep their ways sacred.

Posibly but then anything i learn from my power animal i do not belive will be false.

I can see your point of veiw but if somebody who knew nothing about shamanism looked at this post they may learn something which was the point of the post

people who look deeper (such as yourself who have more depth of knowlege) may be able to find out more but i can only work with what i have and may only be able to show basics of it but some people can learn from it which is my point :)

Never would I say your power animal's wisdom was false. Even though the details of every religion/belief varies, it is still the same spirit world we encounter. Everyone merely has a different perspective on it. Perception is reality after all. And I'm sure your statements fit a few tribes/cultures. I would be interested to know which ones were the main focus.

I do have one question. You mentioned "cloud splitting". What area of the world does this come from and what exactly is it? It sounds interesting.

(I'm trying to continue your topic in a positive way.)

Cloud splitting came from native America from what i could gather where shamans had a final trial where they had to split a cloud to prove they were one with the elements and with nature

oh course this may be false and you would know best but i can just work with what i know :)

Ah, sarcasm. Well I did always like the saying "tact is for people not witty enough to be sacrastic" Touche. I can see you're still holding onto bitter feelings.

Well, I am mostly familiar with Cherokee. I've only spoken to a few Sioux and Apache and cloud splitting wasn't a subject that came up. =)

I'm no expert on all Native American practice, as each one is VERY different. I don't even claim to be an expert on Cherokee belief and practice, as I wasn't born on a reservation. Only those on a reservation are experts of their culture because they live engulfed in it and nothing else. But I do know enough to feel good about it. I may have some differences with those actually on the reservations but that's what occurs with oral tradition. I'm sure they would forgive me.

you misunderstand me, I am talking about a practise that is native to the lands you know and from traditions you know better than i

i can work with knowlege i am given nothing more so what i know may not be the truth was the point since a false teacher creates studants with false knowlege so i am learning from talking to you

so i do beg your pardon if you thought i was sarcastic but that was not my intent *hug*

I understand Raven's point. There are so many types and variations of Shamanism depending on the culture it is from, it's hard to condense all the beliefs into one post.

I do think this was a nice and admirable attempt though, Earthlight. I like the detailed information you provided.

As was with Personified, in my culture (Aztec/Nahua), we also have 'power animals' of sorts, except we call them nahuallis. (Nahualli can also mean a sorcerer depending on the context.

In this use, the word nahualli is the term used for a spiritual twin of a person, almost always an animal form. The gods have nahualli as well, in my belief. For example, Tezcatlipoca's (an Aztec god) nahualli form is Tepeyollotl, a jaguar god, and Huitzilopochtli's are the hummingbird and the eagle.

Every person is said to have a nahualli. The nahualli is an animal that you have a spiritual connection to. In this form, a nahualli is much like the concept of a power animal found in other Native American cultures (as you mentioned mentioned earlier). Usually, the nahualli has traits that reflect those of the person they belong to.

Unlike the concept of a totem animal, the nahualli denotes an actual individual animal believed to exist, either in the spirit world or in the physical world itself (depending on regional beliefs).

In the spiritual realms, a person might take the form of their nahualli at times (please do not confuse this with shapeshifting physically, I don't believe in such). In other cases, a nahualli may appear much like the European concept of a familiar animal, showing itself as an individual animal of a person's nahualli species which the person has a mental and spiritual connection to in this world. While this connection gave strength, it also has the potential to give weakness.

I also really liked the way you said ''shamans were the connectors between the spirits of the earth and the tribe they protected.''

I apologize as well. It seems we are both misunderstanding each other in this thread. Ah! The written language leads to more miscommunication since we lack the ability to see the expression on ones face, body language, and tone of voice.

*hugs*

Aphoristic i am interested in what you have said and would like to learn more

Thank you for contributing this Information. This has shed some light for me about the Shamanistic ways :)