IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS!
Spiritual Healing, the Spirit Realm, Vision Quest, Greenland, Kalaallit Nunaat, Ilulissat, Ice Sea, Glacier, Knud Rasmussen, Icebergs, Cathedral In Ice, The Sacred Trust, The Great Necessity, Polar Bears, Whales, Cetaceans, Humpback Whales in Arctic Waters, Extinction, Endangered Species, Spirit Boat, First Nations People of Canada, Haida, Bill Reid, Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, Power Full, Retrieval of a Power Animal, Animal Kingdom, Apogrypha, Shamanism, Auchinleck Manuscript, Adam and Eve, Gilgamesh & Enkidu, Oil of Mercy, Rock Art, petroglyphs, Shamans and Shamanic figures, the 'Birth of Death', Cain and Abel, Gilgamesh & Enkidu, Utpanishtim, the Secret of Eternal Life, The Great Flood or Great Deluge, The Fall from Paradise, the polarisation of the world, Siberian Shamanism, Rain Dance, Mesoamerican Shaman, Fjord Spirits, Genius Loci, Genii Loci, The Spirits of Place, The School of Animal Spirit Medicine
INUIT TREE OF LIFE
This painting was inspired by seeing prints made by contemporary Inuit women artists who incorporate images from christianity and the bible in their artwork. I was very much struck by the fact that they were willing to take on Christian concepts, while Christianity has not returned the favour and always rejected shamanism downright. Not only that, great efforts have been made by missionaries to wipe out indigenous teachings and pathways of thinking all over the planet. I rather like the notion of 'Eve and the Serpent and the Animal Spirits'.
I was also struck by the fact that the concept of a 'Tree of Life' seems to exist even in places on earth (such as the arctic) where no trees are found... (See the SACRED TREES SERIES for more about The Tree of Life and other trees) This particular 'tree' consists of polar animals.
SHAMANISM
This webpage consists of three independent sections that can be visited seperately by scrolling down if required:
I SHAMANISM(a personal account & paintings of shamanic journeys)
II APOGRYPHA & SHAMANISM(about the book of Genesis, books left out of the Bible and Shamanism)
III GENII LOCI (Latin for 'Spirits of Place')A gallery of recent photographs
SHAMAN COMMUNICATING WITH SPIRITS
Companion painting of Angakok (Shaman) Mother
Inuit Series (SOLD)
ANGAKOK (SHAMAN) MOTHER
Companion painting of Shaman Communicating With Animal Spirits
Inuit Series (SOLD)
(Prelude) During an Open Studio event in March this year (2008), someone asked: Are you a shaman? I said no, I am not! She said: Ah, you must have spent a lot of time with shamans then? My answer was that I had never met a shaman. She looked puzzled and said: I am looking at paintings made by someone who has great shamanic powers... these paintings are all about shamanic journeys. I can make no sense of your answers, I suggest you have a closer look at your own paintings! I heard myself say: I would love to be a shaman, but I have no idea how to go about such a thing. She said: there are courses you know, you could do shamanic training...
And I now know that you can't call yourself a 'shaman', only a shamanic practitioner. The title 'shaman', is like the title 'hero', it is bestowed on someone by others.
FIRST NATION MASKS OF SPIRIT FIGURES IN THE ROYAL BRITISH COLUMBIA MUSEUM IN VICTORIA ON VANCOUVER ISLAND (CANADA)
What is Shamanism?
Wikipedia says: Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with the spirit world.
Sandra Ingerman, a very well-known practitioner in the field, says Shamanism is a system of spiritual healing. A shamanic practitioner journeys to the spirit realm on the client's behalf to gather information used for healing.
The Sacred Trust here in the UK says that Shamanism is without dispute the most time-tested system for healing - personal, environmental, communal and global - through the purposeful and holistic integration of our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities. In their workshops they also point out that Shamanism is the oldest, most time-tested, method for problem solving that exists in the world.
If all this still seems vague, or primitive, or possibly a bit scary, I would like to 'fast forward' to an experience I had in Greenland only a few days ago (August 2008), as it illustrates the claims made above - or so I think. During shamanic journeys one often gathers information that is deeply private to oneself or others - and therefore not suitable for discussion on a webpage. However, this particular experience was more like a vision quest, dealing with big issues that concern all of us. I promised that I would post this message on my website along with the paintings I was asked to make, so here it is:
Ilulissat, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), Friday 22 August 2008 4am
(We arrived in Greenland yesterday afternoon and I slept like a log until I awoke at 4am. I realise that the spirits of Greenland are calling me, someone wants to talk to me).
You have always wanted to visit Greenland, (image of a beckoning finger in an icy landscape), but the truth is that I was calling you and now is the right time for you to be here.
On the way from the airport to town you saw a flock of seagulls gathered on a melting iceberg in the harbour. You felt tearful as you heard them say: this is a continent at risk, asking for help. You heard correctly.
An image of Knud Rasmussen (the great arctic explorer) setting out with his dogsled appears. Here was a man who truly loved Greenland. Who added nothing to the landscape and only took from it what he needed. A man who took great pride and joy in this continent, whose dogsled took him into the stunning beauty of the unknown. This is how Greenland should be visited (image of total darkness, of Rasmussen on his dogsled, the aurora borealis - northern lights - no 'road signs', only local Inuit knowledge and a great love for the land).
Look out of the window at the icebergs in the bay. (I go stand by the window and do so). Look and you will see entrances or portals to caves in the ice. There are whole worlds in that ancient ice that no one has ever seen.
CAVES IN ICEBERG IN THE ICE SEA JUST OUTSIDE ILULISSAT
I embark on a shamanic journey: I walk across the water (the ice sea) and enter one of the portals. It takes me deep inside the iceberg. There is a cathedral (for lack of a better word) inside that iceberg: a huge sacred space, half under water and half above the water line. I see polar bears, dolphins, seals, whales, all sorts of polar animals. All are white. This is where the spirits of dead animals live. The polar cubs who didn't make it through winter, the animals who died a natural death, or gave up their lives in the hunt. Their spirits live on in this cathedral of ice. A place not visited by humans, not photographed by tourists. A sacred space of eternal beauty.
CATHEDRAL IN ICEBERG
Then I find myself flying over Greenland, from the east coast to the west coast. I see the continent of my dreams, the ice cap. I see islands, rocks, great expanses of territory where humans don't go. And mountains. I had no idea there were so many mountains.
FLYING OVER GREENLAND
(this photograph was taken from an airplane, not during a shamanic journey!)
I am Greenland, in the English language. My name in Greenlandic is Kalaallit Nunaat or The White Land. I am a continent asking for help. The animal spirits of the land are asking for help. Through showing human beings stunning pristine beauty I am hoping that they will come to their senses and change the way they make decisions. Personal decisions and political decisions.
I said: Greenland, thank you for the immense beauty of what you have shown me. What would you like me to paint? The answer is: Everything I have shown you and this: I see an image of Greenland and the ice cap taking the shape of a resting polar bear (face down, nose down pointing at the southernmost point of Greenland) - and suddenly the polar bear turns into a skull. A warning of extreme danger, a warning of death.
(I see the beckoning finger again). I have been calling you for years and now the time has come for you to paint what I have shown you. To make your contribution to showing the world what is about to be lost. Don't let that resting polar bear turn into a dead (extinct) polar bear! The animals of Greenland are asking human beings to reconsider their relationship with the land and with the animal kingdom.
Then I see an image of Evelien and myself: Evelien has been called to be one of the keepers of the forest, to speak for the forest and all that lives in the forest. You have been called to be a spokesperson for the polar world, for the land and the ice, for the people and the animals that live there. Evelien and you will stand together and work together for the future of our world. Now go home and paint what you saw today. (Please note: Evelien Bus has given permission for her full name to be used here).
THE ICE CAP OF GREENLAND
(AS A RESTING POLAR BEAR)
THE ICE CAP OF GREENLAND SHAPESHIFTING
The ice cap of Greenland IS shapeshifting, this is a fact. In this painting there are no icebergs in the arctic waters any longer. The ice cap has shrunk. The sea has turned into a mirror. When we look at this painting, we see our own face, not the immense beauty of the land of snow and ice. I sincerely hope things will not get this far. Fortunately the Ice Fjord in Ilulissat and the area surrounding it were designated a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2004.
What the spirits of Greenland were telling me is that human beings need to regain The Sacred Trust that used to exist between human beings and the animal kingdom, between human beings and the spirits of the land.
THE SACRED TRUST
(THE GREAT NECESSITY)
This painting is about the fact that killing living beings can only ever be part of a covenant between human beings and the animal kingdowm. The hunter has killed a polar bear because he needs to survive. He believes that if he treats the spirit of the bear with respect, it will return to earth as a cub. And so death is part of a greater cycle of life/death and rebirth. (At the top left of this picture is a hungry polar bear who has killed a man. Sometimes the hunt works the other way around too, which seems only fair to me!)
In the blood pooled by the hunter's foot is the footprint of the polar bear.
I saw this footprint during a shamanic journey and it was explained to me how it symbolises the covenant between human being and bear: it is a map to the spirit world, but it is also symbolic of the fact that in observing ancient hunting rites human beings follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. Observing those traditions is a sacred act.
And so the cub holds a hunter and inside that hunter is another polar bear... The great cycle stretches into infinity.
The Inuit word for the concept 'Sacred Trust' is: 'Taimaigiakaman' or The Great Necessity. It relates to the killing of living beings. No traditional Inuit hunter would ever kill disrespectfully (i.e. for fun, or for no good reason, or because the opportunity presented itself). They also had complex rituals to ensure that they did not offend the spirit of the animal they killed. If they killed a polar bear, for instance, they cut off the head and made it face inland to ensure it would find its way home. They dropped fresh water in its mouth for the journey. (Visit the INUIT SERIES to read more or visit the SIBERIAN SERIES to read about the send-off a killed whale used to receive).
HUMPBACK WHALE IN ARCTIC WATERS, August 2008
TWO HUMPBACK WHALES BLOWING! (Greenland, August 2008)
SOME FACTS ABOUT ARCTIC ANIMALS: Two thirds of the world's polar bears could be threatened with extinction by 2050 due to melting sea ice. Bears are forecast to lose 42% of the arctic area they need to hunt and breed during the summer months.
Whales have become endangered because they were hunted to the verge of extinction in the past. There are currently 7 species of cetaceans protected under the Endangered Species Act: the blue whale, the bowhead whale, the fin whale, the humpback whale (see photograph above!), the northern light whale, the sei whale and the sperm whale.
The glaciers in Greenland are melting faster than ever before, they recede more for every season.
THE CLAN OF THE KILLERWHALE
On Vancouver Island in June 2008 I was struck by how the First Nation peoples of the Canadian West Coast had a very different relationship with animals and the spirits of animals, compared to us. People were organised in clans belonging to a specific animal. Such as the Clan of the Killerwhale or the Clan of the Thunderbird. Those animals were always placed at the top of the totempoles they carved. If a totempole was carved to mark the occasion of a marriage, the husband's clan animal would go at the very top and the wife's clan animal just below.
THE SONG OF A HUMPBACK WHALE
This painting was inspired by the voice print of a humpback whale singing a song. The sounds were picked up underwater by a hydrophone (underwater microphone). Prints made this way show surprisingly complex phrases and melodies. Humpback whales often continue singing for a day or more and they repeat the same basic song over and over
Angaangaq is an Eskimo-Kallaalit Elder whose family hails from the Far North of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland). His name means 'the man who looks like his uncle'. Icewisdom works to spread the teachings of the Eskimo-Kalaallit people, bringing about personal transformation and global healing, melting the ice in the heart of man. Here is the link:
Further down this page you will find a section titled 'Apogrypha & Shamanism', which I wrote about 18 months ago. At that point I had just realised that Shamanism is my great subject in painting, but I had not not yet been called to undertake shamanic training. Now I feel it is time to 'come out' and say: I have been a 'shamanic painter' for years (in the sense that journeys to other worlds have been the subject of my paintings for years, I have had shamanic experiences and 'walked between worlds' for as long as I can remember) but now I want to take things one step further, do training and show the world about my discoveries through paintings. My hope is that more people might discover how much our modern industrial society has lost, that more people will embark on a journey to the sacred space at the core of our human existence. There are such riches to be found there, if only more people would learn to 'see with their eyes closed'. I feel passionately about this!
MAP TO THE SPIRIT WORLD
In July this year I did The Way of the Shaman' workshop with Simon Buxton and The Sacred Trust. It was a life enhancing, even life changing experience. It has had an impact on all areas of my life. On the way I talk to my children, on the way I paint, the way I relate to people, the way I am in the world.
MICROCOSMOS = MACROCOSMOS
'I am The World and The World is In Me!'
During this workshop Simon introduces the participants to a healing ceremony called The Spirit Boat. Now I have come across spirits boats before in rock art (particularly the 'upside down boats' in Scandinavia) and spirit boats and in the West Coast Art of the first nation peoples of Canada (on and near Vancouver Island). I am thinking in particular of the Haida (on Haida Guay, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands) for whom totempoles and spirit boats were a big theme in wood carving. The first nation artist Bill Reid is bringing his heritage to the attention of the world by carving and casting huge spirit boats even today.
SPIRIT BOAT
INUIT SPIRIT BOAT
(Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, Canada)
SPIRIT BOAT IN THE MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN VANCOUVER
SPIRIT BOATS IN ROCK ART IN TANUMSHEDE, SWEDEN
'SCANDINAVIAN ANTLERED TREE BOAT'
About a month after The Way Of The Shaman workshop, I did another Sacred Trust workshop with Naomi Lewis (founder of The School Of Animal Spirit Medicine). The name of this workshop is The Way Of The Animal Powers. I wholeheartedly recommend this workshop too. It opened doors to whole new worlds, gave me (all of us I think, but I can only speak for myself!) a passport to the cosmos and to the Animal Kingdom. Once again I came home with a great urge to turn what I saw into paintings, to show others the riches of those 'other worlds'.
NIGHT VISION
(The human heart turns into an owl)
We were invited to 'sink into darkness, deep into our own heart and call non-ordinary reality to us'. The moment I did this, I saw an image of my own heart turning into an owl with golden eyes and night vision. My conscious mind couldn't have dreamt that up so quickly, it was a powerful image. A plethora of equally astonishing images followed on from there. We did some work on the theme of evolution and that brought the image of a lizard with a human embryo in its eye. All these images were just begging to be painted.
LIZARD ANCESTOR
THE AGE OF THE DINOSAURS
This is another painting on the subject of Evolution. Travelling back in time I saw a sky cracked open by thunder and lightning and saw dinosaurs appearing in the cracks.
RIVER OF LIFE - LITANY OF LIFE
THE ANIMAL COUNCIL
The Animal Council is a ceremony where the 'Archetypal Great Grandmother or Grandfather' of an animal species is consulted on burning questions. Masks are made and worn by the council to facilitate this process.
NOAH'S ARK THINKING
This painting was inspired by a shamanic journey where I was shown how human beings get too hooked up on 'couple thinking', or 'Noah's Ark Thinking' where all creatures come in pairs of two. The time has come for us to realise that we are all part of a larger unity, a larger community. We nee to move away from 'couple thinking' to thinking of ourselves a part of a big web in which we all play our vital role.
BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE
We are living in the days of a gear-change, of a 'credit crunch' in the financial world and an awareness that our way of life up to now is not sustainable. This invokes a lot of fear and uncertainty. During a recent shamanic journey I was shown how our fears (or: the things we fear) are like children or friends 'wearing Halloween masks'. Once you get 'beyond the mask' they are friendly. In other words: the things we fear can be blessings that come calling in disguise.
And last but not least:
POWER FULL (SOLD)
(This painting was made after The Way of the Shaman Workshop)
HONEYBEES & COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER
Sadly it seems that there are still people out there who think that 'whatever is happening in Greenland' is not going to affect our daily lives. This is a big mistake! Recently the press has been reporting that honeybees are vanishing mysteriously. Right now beekeepers all over the world are losing their bee populations. It seems that affected by unheard of levels of toxins and pollution, bees are dying in the fields or unable to find their way home. Again some people seem to think that 'losing some stingy insects is no great loss' but again this is a big misconception. Over 90 food crops depend on pollination by insects for their survival. Honeybees are by the far the most efficient pollinators. Bees do not generally abandon their hives and their babies, so this is a WAKE UP CALL! To watch a film about the plight of the vanishing honeybee, please use this link www.vanishingbees.com
While on the subject of bees, I'd like to recommend a book by Simon Buxton. The title is 'The Shamanic Way of the Bee' and it is about the Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters. This book is about bees, about sacred knowledge and about shamanism. It is also an adventure story that invites all of us to embark on our own spiritual adventure. The book can be ordered from The Sacred Trust.
And for people interested in deep healing work, here is the website address of a Shamanic Practitioner I know personally and recommend wholeheartedly: www.jasonbaki.com
Imelda Almqvist, 28 August 2008
(Last updated: 16 June 2009))
A CABALLO
A caballo...//mire y alli estaba mi amig// de piedra era su rostro... //alli vino a parar el desterrad //vive en su patria convertido en piedra
(Out riding my horse...//I looked and there was my friend:// his face was formed in stone...//There the exile came to rest. // Transformed into stone, he lives in his own country)
'El retrato en la roca' from Las Piedras de Chile by Pablo Neruda, translation by Ken Krabbenhoft
APOGRYPHA & SHAMANISM (II)
SHAMAN PETROGLYPHS
This panel was inspired by the many different representations of shamanic figures
in Rock Art in the USA
Apogrypha
(From the Greek apogrupto, hide away) Meaning: 'with-held from general circulation', therefore coming to mean: as of doubtful origin, false or spurious
There exist books of the Bible that are not included in all Bibles (e.g. excluded from the Protestant Bible). These books together make up 'The Apogrypha'
After painting the Tree Of Knowledge and reading the book of Genesis in the Bible, some other fascinating books came my way (a book inventorising Shamanism all over the world, two medieval poems and a great contemporary translation the epic Gilgamesh - to mention but a few).
I have a feeling that some eyes might glaze over when I mention Shamanism. It's something 'primitve' societies practice or possibly something 'new age', not something that relates to the everyday world as we know it. Or is it?
I am going to go out on a limb and claim that Shamanism actually provides a fascinating link between Adam and Eve's fall from Paradise and the world we live in today. It is all about travelling and reaching beyond the everyday constraints of contemporary space and linear reality. It is about seeking guidance and greater truths in an eternal dimension that exists beyond everyday reality. This piece of writing is an attempt to explain and substantiate this claim.
THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE
While working on the Tree of Knowledge I came across two medieval poems, edited from the Auchinleck Manuscript. They tell of Adam and Eve's attempts to regain the Paradise they just lost and their lives after the Fall. These stories used to belong to the best-known works of the Middle Ages. However, they fell victim to the Reformation and disappeared almost completely from view. There was a manuscript titled Vitae Adae (the Life of Adam). It is fragmentary but the missing pieces can be guessed from other manuscripts that have remained intact. The text started with the story of the creation of the world and then the angels. The creation of man followed. The problems start when Lucifer refuses to worship Adam (as Adam was created in the image of God and therefore an extension of God). Not only that, he tries to set himself above God. This results in his being cast out of Heaven. The story then tells how Adam and Eve, hungry and cold after the expulsion, build a hut and look for food. they decide to undertake a penance by fasting while standing in the river for a number of days. A second temptation of Eve follows. The devil appears, disguised as an angel this time, and she breaks off her penance. Lucifer would not worship the image of God in Adam and became Adam's sworn enemy out of envy. At this point Eve is guilt-ridden and pregnant. Adam's prayers lead to divine assistance at the birth of Cain. The story of Cain and Abel is in the Bible. Adam has a vision of the future of man.
THE LABOURS OF EVE
When Adam is dying, he sends his son Seth to Paradise, together with Eve, to obtain the Oil of Mercy. Seth is attacked by the serpent on the way and repels him. Instead of the Oil of Mercy Seth is given the promise of a redemption by Christ thousands of years later. Seth obtains seeds to plant with the dead Adam. Then follows Adam's burial. Death and what to do after death is a novelty in the new world! Death did not exist in the garden of Eden... The question arises of what happens to Adam's soul. Finally Seth records the whole story on tablets for safekeeping and instruction of future generations.
That is enough about Adam and Eve for now. We see that Death has entered the world. From now on human beings are going to have to deal with death. Concern with death seems to be as old as humanity, going on objects found in ancient graves and rock paintings in caves and so forth. Some archeologists claim that the Neanderthals buried their dead and covered them with red ochre. They possibly even placed flowers and herbs on their graves. Homo Sapiens buried their dead too.
Oral traditions and the earliest written records conceive the transition from life to death as a form of journey. A human soul sets out, into the darkness or underground, to face a series of trials and eventually reach the Land of the Dead. (In modern times this seems to be backed up by people who have experienced a so called Near Death Experience. Thanks to ever-improving techniques of resuscitation many people in the 'modern' world have returned from the brink of death. They report experiences that closely mirror those described by ancient ancestors and indeed shamans all over the world).
PSYCHOPOMP
A psychopomp is a figure, often an animal,
who accompanies the newly deceased to the Land of the Dead
And this brings us to 'the oldest religion known to mankind': Shamanism. Shamanism has been practised all over the world for thousands of years. In some parts of the world it is practised even today. It was extremely widespread (the Americas, Northeast and Central Asia, Tibet, Southeast Asia as well as the circumpolar region and Siberia). Shamanism posited the existence of spirit world which could be visited beyond the confines of normal waking life.
GILGAMESH AND ENKIDU
The oldest written story in the world is the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh. It was inscribed on clay tablets in Mesopotamia about 5000 years ago. It tells of the adventures of the legendary King Gilgamesh and his best friend and soul mate Enkidu. After Enkidu's tragic death Gilgamesh determines to travel to the afterworld to discover what had happened to his friend. Not only that, Gilgamesh wishes to find the secret or key to eternal life. And so Gilgamesh sets off to find the hermit Utnapishtim at the edge of the world. Utnapishtim was the only person who survived the Great Flood and the gods gave him the gift of everlasting life. (Gilgamesh fails in his quest. Eventually he accepts his mortality, 'grows up' and devotes himself to being a great king for his people and enjoying the gift of life while he has got it).
In our time Shamanism is commonly thought of as something primitive that has no place in our world of moder technology. Church attendance has dropped to an all time low. Yet, one thing that all human beings share is the fact of our mortality. In our culture death is seen as something we'd rather not face up to. We can fly rockets to outer space and perform brain surgery - but Death remains one of the biggest mysteries of all time. We modern urbanised people have become divorced from death. We buy our meat in hygienically foil-wrapped packages from a supermarket. (Many people I know claim they would become vegetarians overnight if they had to go out and kill the animals they enjoy eating!) In more 'primitive' hunting societies there was much more of an awareness of death as a necessity. Of death as quite literally 'feeding life'. If the hunt was succesful, there was slaughter and food for the whole community. In almost all cultures, our own included, there is a ritual sharing of food and drink at the wake. This is interpreted as a reaffirmation, a return to life.
A big issue in contemporary society is that of young people taking drugs, mind-altering substances. We don't have the 'coming of age rituals' of 'primitive' societies. Young people seem to feel compelled to embark on their own search for 'something'.
The interesting thing is that shamans have always travelled to different dimensions. They spoke of this as a 'journey to another world', but this is not meant literally. The common characteristic of these non-material planes of existence is that they lie outside the constraints of normal linear time and space.
Many aboriginal Siberian tribes saw footwear as a point of contact between the sacred and the profane. For this reason Shamans often wore elaborately decorated footwear, made of reindeer skin. The patterns used were highly symbolic. A Shaman of the Enet tribe would wear a 'Boot of the Sun' on the right side and the 'Boot of the Forest Spirit Monster' on the left side.
I have done a lot of reading recently and so many parallels and pointers just seemed to jump out at me. When Adam and Eve fell from Paradise, Death entered the world and so did Evil. From that point onwards human beings live in a polarised world. The age of innocence is over. They must now perceive things as either good or bad and take responsibility for the choices they make. When Adam dies, they must work out what to do with his corpse. The question arises: where did his soul go? Rather than living innocently in all eternity, Adam and Eve are faced with the world as we know it today.
So, so called 'primitive' hunter societies develop a worldview, a religion, that we now call Shamanism. (The word comes through the Russian from a Siberian word 'saman'. A Shaman specialises in entering a trance state during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the netherworld) . Interestingly many Shamans also mention a fall from paradise, an era of otherworld innocense at the dawn of time. They acknowledge the human desire to 'claw one's way back into paradise', as Adam and Eve tried to do. Many cultures all over the world speak of a great Deluge or Flood. Noah-like characters appear in myths from all over the world. (Think of Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh).
I supppose I am putting all these puzzle pieces together and saying that it seems to me that the Bible and the worldview of Shamans don't necessarily contradict each other. They seem to weave a magical carpet of human experience and human history that stretches into dark corners where collective memory meets myth. One or two books I have read have made the case that Shamanism ought to be awarded the status of a World Religion. All I am trying to say in this piece is: rather than dismissing the world perspective of, so called, primitive people out of hand, why not pay attention and open ourselves to yet another window on the rich landscape of human experience?
Imelda Almqvist 2006
(Updated March 2008)
RAIN DANCE
A Mesoamerican Shaman
GENII LOCI, Latin for 'The Spirits of Place' (III)
A Gallery of Recent Photographs
Embarking on training in Shamanism (and I am only at the beginning of a very exciting journey!) has changed the way I look at everything. This has come out in recent photographs too. Soon after The Way Of The Shaman workshop our family went sailing in Norway. There was one morning in the Naeroeys Fjord (a 'finger' of the famous Sognefjord near Bergen) in particular: the weather was glorious, the water of the fjord was as calm as a mirror, and I saw cloud spirits play with water spirits. That day was a gift I will treasure for life, as the Genii Loci (or Spirits of Place) seemd to show themselves:
KILLER WHALE SPIRIT IN ROCK IN NORWAY FJORD!
FJORD SPIRIT SHAPESHIFTING (NORWAY)
CLOUDS TALKING TO MOUNTAINS (NORWAY)
MOTHER CLOUD SPIRIT (NORWAY)
We were in Greenland last week (see Shamanism I section) and I was struck by how shamanic the landscape is: icebergs crackle and blast and shapeshift before your eyes. It is a stark bare landscape of immense beauty. There are no trees and only few signs of human habitation. There a no train tracks, no roads (apart from a few miles worth in larger settlements like Ilulissat or Kangerlussuaq), no prisons! Clouds and mountains engage in conversation, the quality of the light changes from moment to moment. I have seen the Ice Fjord in Ilulissat as a study in blue tones, an abstract painting in grey tones and silver, as a loud cacaphony of bright pink and orange when the sun sets (to rise almost immediately again).
One could write a whole book about Icebergs! They come in all shapes and sizes. I have seen the history of our planet in those icebergs: floating pyramids and cathedrals, characters from childrens' books, sphinxes and unicorns, vikings and polar bears, madonnas and myths. One could spend a lifetime studying icebergs and listening to the stories they tell...
LIVING ICE (Iceberg just outside Ilulissat, August 2008)
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