What is “Urban Shamanism”?
Hello, my dear reader! I wish you light and warmth. I’ll tell you about Urban Shamanism and give some pieces of advice how to find the sources of Force inside you and outside. If you want, you will find. It will prove useful to you in your life.
I live in the city and am not going to move to the countryside. I communicate with the Spirits of city nature. I feel that the whole world surrounding us is alive and pulsing. But the consciousness of natural Spirits differs greatly from that of the city ones. So, Marsh Spirit and Municipal Sewerage Spirit have similar nature which is deadly for people; but like marsh was necessary for our ancestors as they picked cranberries and some other things needed and important for their country life, the municipal sewerage system is inevitable in the City life as well.
From the shaman’s viewpoint, the person who was called by the Spirits of Ancestors to serve the people of the tribe and to save the surrounding nature, there were three main worlds. In the middle world, there were people and the spirits of the surrounding nature (trees, rocks, animals, natural and space phenomena, people’s jobs and relations), harmful spirits of the places and phenomena deadly for people. In the lower world, there were several areas which were both really hostile to people and friendly to them – with their ancestors’ souls patronizing their descendants and with creatures being ready to share with their wisdom and force. In the higher world, there could be up to nine levels (skies) or more. There not only the heavenly beings existed, who patronized people, but also demonic people who harmed people. The Universe Tree united all the three worlds with their inner areas. Shaman falling into a trance could see and feel it as in reality, and while traveling along the Tree could find himself in the world wanted for his tasks. He cured some hopeless diseases (both physical and mental), attracted successful concurrence of circumstances, thanked Gods for the benefits they sent to people, or asked for better hunting animals. He held the funeral ceremonies allowing the soul of the dead to reach happy existence after death and punished enemies. He was the carrier of people’s wisdom in the form of tales and legends which explained the organization of the Universe and defined the norms of people’s behavior for harmonic interaction with the world of Nature.
The urban shaman who follows his predecessors’ path faces similar problems. But the reality of City – absence of tribe fellows and hardhearted indifference towards the hardships and suffering of the most, which are characteristic of city dwellers, — define the tasks of electing the Urban Shaman by the City Spirits in a different way. They say: be Strong and Dodgy, use your Superiority to improve your level of life, save your nearest and dearest. If you want, treat the people suffering from physical and mental illnesses; if not, act in a different way. You can become an actor or a teacher, a psychologist or a boss, or a ‘representative’ of alternative power structures. All in all, you can play any roles, communicate with the representatives of the Other World, respect them and use their help to solve the life problems. I want you to take some things into consideration: if you don’t feel your abilities, play it as a funny and interesting game. And the World will be open for you – as alive and curious as a child tasting a new delicacy – that is you. Throw away your apprehensions. The World is eating you all the same while checking your endurance, and now it will appreciate you and play with you.
Here are the main peculiarities of Urban Shamanism:
The whole world surrounding us is alive and has consciousness. Both a Tree and a Stone have their soul-consciousness. But Traffic lights and concrete fence also have their souls-consciousness which can help you at a difficult moment as well as rejoice at your happy moments together with you.
In the surrounding world, there are forces having consciousness and capable both to help and be harmful to people. Shaman calls them Spirits. The strongest Spirits in the City are those of Electricity, Means of Communication, Transport, Building, Hospitals and Children sites, Night clubs and Game clubs, Cemeteries, Enlistment offices and Prisons. There are spirits of such phenomena as Electric Current, Electronic means of Communication, etc. They can appear before the Urban Shaman in the forms of human-like creatures or an amazing mixture of technology and animal world. For example, a cockroach with the head in the form of a mobile phone; a tree rustling with money notes; a bear with eyes-head lights and wheels instead of paws; or in the forms of inspired architectural constructions such as a speaking escalator or a singing fountain.
The Universe Tree can appear in the form of a tower like a TV one with worlds-screens, or a flame column, or a huge wire net, or a bunch of monitors, or a mushroom spawn of Internet-portals.
The realities of the worlds have city realities or the mixture of city and natural landscapes.
The Animal of Force, as well as the Patronizing Ancestor, can appear in the form of a robot or an electronic pattern. The Ancestor can wear quite modern clothes, not necessarily as an antique museum exhibit.
It is possible to use not only one’s own, but the methods and invocations of different cultures.
The Teacher existing in the world of people and initiating his Pupil into the secrets of shaman’s knowledge is not obligatory. There are direct revelations, or the information comes from many sources and is successfully being built into the practitioner’s personal world-outlook.
It is desirable to make the implements for Urban Shamanism practice out of the combination of natural and anthropogenic components. It is recommended to leave the city at least once a year and living in a tent to contact the ‘wild nature’ as its possible now. It is good to contact the traditional shamans. The initiations from the representatives of Siberian cultures are not obligatory. Sometimes it only confuses and strengthens non-justified self-satisfaction. Creative fantasy and creating one’s own rituals of contacts with the Spirits of City Reality are encouraged. The idea is taken on trust that they exist, can be fed by bringing human food or sometimes by an electric battery or a lighter left in a place chosen intuitionally. Like children, the Spirits are glad to get something bright, like a coin or a Chinese thing. You can hang it on a fence or a tree addressing the Spirit mentally and informing what you are giving. Your respond is obligatory, and your circumstances will be quite good.
You should understand: Ancestors love you and take care of you. When a kind and light man dies, he wishes his descendants “to be happy, to live out their days in joy he didn’t live out”. And this pulse received by you is capable to give you the power of communion with your family roots which a city dweller, who avoids the cemetery with his relatives’ graves, is deprived of. Come to your relatives’ graves; live alcohol drinks and food there – no matter that all these will be eaten by the homeless. The very gesture is important: you remember your dead relatives. You are connected through them with the power of Ancestors.
And at the end of our conversation, I offer an exercise which allows to tune you to seeing the images of Spiritual beings and helping to switch off seeing them when necessary. But first: how to narrow your perception and return to the ordinary mode. You can lie, sit or stand – as it’s more comfortable for you. Close your eyes and imagine: you have gone out of a badly lighted room to the bright sun light. You closed your eyes tightly to get used to the sharp and direct sun rays. You come up to the crossroad with no traffic lights. Cars are rushing like a living stream without lowering their speed. You try to catch the pause between the cars passing by and cross the street with short runs. Now you are on the other side of the street. Having imagined it, breathe air in through your nose and breathe it out sharply through your mouth. Hold your breath and count up to 60. If it is hard for you, count quicker as if swallowing the numbers; if it is easy, count with small pauses. Having reached the number of 60, sharply open the eyes and breathe in deeply through the mouth. At this moment, imagine a powerful white flash: you went out of the state of a Spirit-watcher. Continue doing your everyday things.
And now I’ll tell you about forming the state of a Spirit-watcher. Imagine that you are going along a street and see something glittering under your feet. It is a coin. You bend forward to pick it, but suddenly the coin flows up towards you on the expanded asphalt. A knob as big as a football: the coin’s eye; its mouth with teeth out of metallic bottle-plugs. Under the white glittering metal of the coin there are three more bottle-green eyes. Like an inflatable rubber toy, the knob is rising gradually above the asphalt: it’s as big as a groom now, with the body of “telepuzik” (the character of a children TV cartoon) and with ears-sockets. It is speaking with a rustling and squeaking sounds like a tuning radio. Its hands are fingerless and grey as if made of plasticine. It has no feet like a mushroom risen from the asphalt. And it is moving as if it is joined to a huge worm under the asphalt. Its name is Mox, but it also answaers to the name of Maximka. Ask him to direct you to the Automatic machine, give him Choopa-Choops, throw a handful of cash to his side. He will stick to them and start blinking with his small eyes on his puffy body, smile joyfully with his slobbery idiot-like smile and slide towards a rectangular metallic box which looks like a slot-machine for mobile-phone payment. Come up to it; look at the display – it will flicker more. Press your hand to the surface pulsing with cool light. Your hand will get transparent and flickering. Close your eyes; while counting up to 11, approach your hand to your eyes and watch a small net appearing on the mental screen; write mentally on the display or let a phrase “I see” appear. As soon as the phrase appears, start bringing your hand through your face while counting the next 11. Having led it through your brain, pull it out of the back of your head with a slight clap. Open your eyes and watch amazing and sometimes frightening creatures appear in the city reality. Put your left palm on Maximka’s warm hindhead. These creatures are ready to help you. Remember how the images of the creatures resembling the characters of cartoons or fantastic commixes appear in the usual city circumstances. And return to the current moment of reading this text.
What you should do in reality in order to fix the result:
Having concentrated your attention, cross a street with hard traffic. On the other side of the street imagine a bright flash.
Find a coin; without picking it throw a handful of cash and say in your mind: “It’s to you, Maximka!”
Come up to the slot payment machine and pay a minimum sum for a stranger’s mobile phone. Put your hand on the screen, hold it; having remembered your feeling close your eyes and mentally direct your hand through the brain, pull it out of your hindhead with a slight clap.
Glide air with your left hand and imagine that you are gliding Maximka’s asphalt crown of the head and he is purring with delight.
During 15 up to 30 minutes slowly wander along the streets while watching attentively the game of light and shadow of the surrounding reality and the images of the creatures born in your imagination. You should know that they are autonomic from your consciousness. You are communicating with the City Beings. Feel the asphalt under your feet and Maximka’s presence. It is the guaranty of your safety.
Cross the street again being maximally concentrated and waiting for the pause between cars. Having crossed the street, imagine a bright flash. Mentally say: ”I am switching off”. This is the sign of your switching off your perception of City Spiritual Beings for the period of time needed for you and return to the everyday reality.
Before going to bed, by all means recall everything you have done. Then a lot of interesting details will open to you which you cannot percept when you are awake. Write your experience in short before going to bed. If you there is something unusual in your dreams, white it down in your Diary of Dreams after waking up or during a daytime.
Good luck to you, my dear. I hope you won’t get crazy because of my recommendations. You should know that you can communicate with the Spirits, but you shouldn’t tell everyone about your experience. You’ll be laughed at or taken as a madman. Have a diary; communicate with a related person who accepts you with all your oddities.
God help you!