Russian Shamanism and Mysticism - Essay Example

Russian Shamanism and Mysticism Introduction Shamanism is often used today as a general term that refers to a variety of spiritual activities that take place around the world. Many communities around the world that practices spiritualism in different ways and the concept of a spiritual knowledge can move to other places due to itinerary and movement of the people, as such the concept of shamanism was first introduced in Turks and Mongols after which it was shared with the neighboring Samoyedic and Tungusic communities. The term Shamanism is coined from Envek language found in the Northern Asia and its introduction to the west is due to the invasion of the Khanate of Kazan around 1552 (Drury 29). After the introduction of Shamanism in the west, most of the western scholars learned more about the magico-religious activities in many parts of the world and termed them Shamanism, as the historians maintained that shamanism played a very important part in the development of the pre-Christian religious activities in Europe. In the Soviet of central Asia, there widespread persecution of those who practiced and believed in shamanism as fraudulent individual who are spreading outdated practices. This persecution of the shaman believers is responsible for the sharp decline in shamanism in Russia. History of Shamanism It will be realized that the concept of Shamanism is connected to nature in a strong way as well as many of the teachings of the world. Shamanism remains one of the oldest forms of communication and connection with the creator, it also remains the oldest form of advancing treatment for healing purposes in the history of mankind that dates back to the period of stone age era. Surprisingly, there are different form of Shamanism that have been encountered in the later much organized religious groups in their forms of mystic and symbolic practices. For instance, the aspects of Shamanism highly influenced Greek paganism and the roman religion (Adcocik 54). It is thus arguable that most of the contemporary religions are scions of the shamanism in one way or the other. There are also very strong influences of shamanism in Buddhism in the central Asia, in the beginning of the eighth century, Buddhism and Shamanism became compatible and a lot were borrowed from Shamanism that informed Buddhism as a religion. One of the reasons for the sharp decline in Shamanism was the emergence of Christianity, Christianity wiped most of the Shamanism out of existence, for instance, in Europe, starting in the period of 400 CE, the emergence of the Christian church significantly affected the Greek and the roman religions, and this led to their collapse (Drury 32). All the temples that were associated with the religions together with the regulation and laws were expunged with the strong emergence of Christianity. The period extending from the middle age era and the period of renaissance European shamanism were increasingly becoming extinct through campaigns against witches. Shamanism was classified as a witch and in this regard suffered a hitch. Catholic in particularly orchestrated the banishment of Shamanism as a way of religious connectivity (Adcocik 71). It should be realized though that shamanism elements were still found in Christianity but with very slight differences based on the ritual performances and accompaniment of some paraphernalia associated with Shamanism. Shamanism further faced several difficulties following the influence of the colonization of the Spanish by the Christians, in the central South America and in the Caribbean; the catholic priests conformed to the conquistadors, which is largely attributed to be responsible for the local traditions destruction practiced by the Shamanism. They are denounced the practitioners as devil worshipers and recommended persecution for those found engaging with the Shamanism. In the Northern part of America, the English puritans were responsible for the spirited fight that was staged on those perceived to be witches or associated with Shamanism (Drury 51). In Africa, it is said that the fight against Shamanism was largely fought and by the Christian missionaries who were not friendly to the practice. These fights against Shamanism is responsible for its fall and decline all over the world despite the fact that it is the first form of religion in which man tried to connect with the creator as well as making effort to heal those with several health problem in the society. There has been a loose connection of the today’s use of psychedelic substances and Shamanism. It is alleged that they are the offshoots of the practice that was vehemently opposed to be Shamanism that was fought with the onset of Christianity (Kharitidi 13). Today, what was once a universal practice in the world has been reduced to only exist in some parts of the world like Tundra, jungles, deserts, and other extreme rural areas of the world. It is established that Shamanism originated in Africa and parts of South America, there has also been efforts to link Shamanism with the western knowledge and scientific beliefs. Jeremy Narby, an anthropologist has confirmed that the Shamanism takes its consciousness in the molecular level and that through study; it can be proven that there is association between the Shamanism and the Knowledge in the western culture (Kharitidi 18). Shamanism was thus a popular way through which people were healed in the past and connected to the creator but suffered a systematic reduction due to the emergence of the modern Christianity and well as being opposed by some authorities that opted for the persecution of the practitioners as well as the believers. Shamanism Rituals One can easily argue that the range of rituals that were performed by Shamans is as broad as imagination itself; there were a plethora of imaginations that were performed by the practitioners during the performance of shamanism. In the perspective of the individual or religious groups, there are different forms that the shamanism rituals could take; they could be commemorative, regenerative, intensifying, restorative, consolidating, strengthening, and regulating of the social fiber and rules. Rituals are usually formal, are predetermined to include a set of actions that symbolic in nature, and are only performed in certain specific environments that are set aside for the purpose; they are performed in recurring and regular intervals (Place and Rosemary 91). In Russia during Shamanism, there were a plethora of ritualistic activities that were performed in conformity with the practitioners wish on how best the problem could be redeemed. As explained above there were many sets of rituals that were practiced in shamanism, they comprised of several activities that were not restricted to such activities like repetitive dance, singing, recital, possession of the group, and management of the sacred objects. Shaman practitioners in Russia use to recite several statements that were incomprehensible during the performance of the rituals; these were punctuated with songs from time to time. There were also the manipulations of ritual objects that they used to perform their activities, although the rituals remained the same but were different from one ritual person to the next. In some cases, the clients were also involved in the ritual performance, for example, if one was possessed by demons and a practitioner was the person deposed by the demons, they would involve the person in dance and singing so that the demons could be taken away from the person. In the extreme circumstances, there was the involvement of the family or part of it during the ritual performance; the composition of the group taking part in the rituals was largely dictated by the Shaman practitioner (Place and Rosemary 101). It was believed it is through the rituals that the Shamanism would work best for the clients and the practitioner as well. It will be realized that most of the Shamanism that were performed were geared towards healing those with a myriad health challenges like sterility, heart pain, dystrophy cough stomach pains, skin ailments, paining limbs, and madness. The performance of Shamanism was based on the principle that the practitioner would be acting on behalf of the deities and some supreme entities that were more powerful than human beings were. In this regard, through the performance of the ritual, shaman was obliged to banish the source of the disease out of the sick person’s body and consequently return the sole that was stolen by the evil spirits that has resulted into the sickness. Before the ritual could be started, the helper spirits were to be summoned through drum beating into the sacred place where the ritual and healing process was to take place (Vitebsky 88). Shamanism was also started by the preparation of the ritual place, the ritual place was believed to be sacred and dances were performed coupled with drum beating that evoked the spirits needed for the healing to take place. The process of preparing the ritual place in some cases took almost a day before the actual process of Shamanism could start. This was then followed by the usual rituals to remove the possession with bad spirits that led to the cause of disease or madness as was the case with the clients. The People who Practiced Shamanism Not very many people knows that the term Shaman or Shamanism originated from Russia formerly known as Siberia, it has remained a covert that is only known by the Russian themselves and they are contented with the fact that the origin of Shaman is in Russia. Just before much is said about the people who embraced Shamanism in Russia and the extent with which it was spread, it is important that the term be defined so that we understand its etymological origin. The term Shamanism according to the area, where it originated means ‘the ability to see in the dark’. This definition will make lots of sense particularly if you are cognizant of fact that Russia where the spiritual belief was started has along period of very cold and dark winters (Vitebsky 93). The condition of the environment creates the need for the exploration of the shadow to which the basis to which the spiritual and the work of Shamanism is hinged, this makes the Russians to have much deeper understanding of the Shamanism as a theory. With reference to the origin of Shamanism as explained in the above paragraph, it is now easier to connect the people who are greatly engulfed by Shamanism, Northern Asia and in particular, Siberia remains to be the locus classicus of Shamanism (Vitebsky 97). The people of Northern Asia have a variety of people who practice Shamanism even in the modern world and it is in Siberian that most of the people are regarded to have joined and practiced Shamanism. Some of the ethnic groups that have practiced Shamanism in Russia are; Uralic The Uralic people have practiced Shamanism from the onset with utmost beliefs in the effectiveness of the process to give cure and other remedies. Even the Uralic people who do not stay in Russia like the Hungarians and the Finns have practiced Shamanism for along period still 18th century. The Saami people who are also considered Uralic people have also practiced Shamanism but have since dispersed to various places and tracing their present location is not possible but it is still believed that they are practicing Shamanism at least in the remnant forms (Znamenski 28). Most of them left for Europe where they practiced the spiritual process until a time when the ritual was being abolished and it faded with time. Samoyedic Shamanism was cherished and believed to be a living tradition among the Samoyedic people. Shamanism was practiced in caste within this community and they classified it in terms of the upper world, the underneath, and that which occasioned birth of a child. Some of the sub communities found within this group of people that practiced Shamanism includes, Enets, Nganasan, Selkups (Znamenski 31). It is believed that probably it is this group of people that practice Shamanism the longest, up to1960, there were still traces of Shamanism in the area. Despite the fact that most of the communities had realized a sizable drop in the number of those clinging on Shamanism, Samoyedic were hesitant to shed off the tag even with the form of persecution that was leveled against the group. Nenesets and Nganasan These group of people also considered Shamanism in caste; that of the upper world, that of the underneath world and that of the dead. Nganasan community believed in Shamanism as a living phenomenon and practiced it until the 20th century when it started to decline. According to this community, Shaman partook on several occasions especially the polar night and during sacrifices, it was used to clean the tent rite. Some of the communities that also practiced Shamnism in Russia include, Ket, Turkik, Tungusic, Koryak, and Chukchi (Znamenski 34). Shaman Tools Just like any other activity, Shamanism activity involved the use of tools as said clearly articulated the initial paragraphs that the exercise involved rituals. Fort the rituals to be performed in a clear manner, for instance dancing there are tools that were required for Shamanism, which included Drums, feathers, and rattle (Znamenski 39). It is important to note that most of the practitioners preferred making their own tools, as they believed that the tools are part of the process and that during the removal of the evil spirit, the tool played a very significant factor. In this regard, most of the practitioners were most concerned about making of the tool and involved so much in the process to ascertain that the tool was good for the exercise. Drums formed part of the ritual exercise since they believed in the power of the drum to be deeply anchored in the Shamanic practice, as they related the rhythmic power of the drum to that of the earth’s heartbeat. The actual significance of the drum is that it provided a conduit through which the practitioner journeyed to return with the power to drive the evil spirits a way. They considered the drum to be dual in nature, it was regarded as the tool of trade on one side and as an ally with self-power and soul (Znamenski 49). The rattles on the other side were considered to be filled with the power and to act as antennae of power; they were used together with the drum to achieve the cleansing exercise for those possessed with the evils or for those who are sick. Conclusion All over the world, there are different groups of people with different forms of cleansing procedures that were used to give remedies to some of the happenings that could not be understood by ordinary people. It is not only unique in the case of Russia; in fact, most of these exercises that dealt with spiritual issues have only a separation of a whisker to witches. Whereas it is believed by, some people that the spiritual work of rituals such as Shamanism are real and working, some of the people have remained skeptical about it. It is very difficult to validate the theory since there is no coherent way of comprehending how the exercise was and is useful in giving the several remedies they claim to have power over. Even though most of the spiritual remedies have suffered decline, there are still, some communities that still practice it and they are spread all over the world. References Adcocik, Will. Shamanism. China: Annes Pub., 2000. Print. Drury, Nevill. Shamanism. Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element, 1996. Print. Kharitidi, Olga. Entering the circle: ancient secrets of Siberian wisdom discovered by a Russian psychiatrist. London: Thorsons, 1997. Print. Place, Robert Michael, and Rosemary Guiley. Shamanism. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2008. Print. Vitebsky, Piers. Shamanism. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. Print. Znamenski, Andrei A. Shamanism. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. Print. Read More