Neolithic Shamanism

Author: Raven Kaldera
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594775044
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
A step-by-step guide to working with the spirits of ancient northern Europe • Explains how to build relationships with Earth, Sun, Moon, Plants, Animals, Water, Fire, Craft, Air, and the Ancestors through 83 practical exercises • Explores the role of altered states in spirit work • Outlines the ancient cultural rules and taboos to avoid spiritual debt or offense We are all surrounded by spirits. Many people feel called to work with them, but few know where to begin. Enjoined by the gods and spirits to fulfill this need, Raven Kaldera and Galina Krasskova have reconstructed the indigenous spiritual traditions of northern Europe and Scandinavia extinguished more than one thousand years ago by the spread of Christianity. Arising from basic survival needs, these practical traditions are fundamentally tied to the elements found in the harsh world of the ancient North. Beginning with the skills tied to the Earth element, necessary for grounding prior to the more demanding aspects of the practice--working with Sun, Moon, Plants, Animals, Water, Fire, Craft, and Air--the authors explain, step by step, how to build relationships with each elemental spirit and the Ancestors. Offering 83 practical exercises, from cleansing with the Moon or borrowing the legs of Reindeer to making sacred space with Mugwort or creating an ancestor altar, they also explore building spirit relationships through altered states. Emphasizing the proper management of your spirit relationships to avoid spiritual debt or offense, the authors outline the ancient cultural rules and taboos that circumscribe these practices, essential knowledge for successful and fruitful spirit alliances. Detailing the beginning set of skills needed to work with the spirits of this ancient world, this comprehensive workbook offers a unique ancestral spiritual outlet for those of northern European descent as well as an accessible guide for anyone trying to fulfill their shamanic callings.

The Nature of Shamanism

Author: Michael Ripinsky-Naxon
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791413852
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
Ripinsky-Naxon explores the core and essence of shamanism by looking at its ritual, mythology, symbolism, and the dynamics of its cultural process. In dealing with the basic elements of shamanism, the author discusses the shamanistic experience and enlightenment, the inner personal crisis, and the many aspects entailed in the role of the shaman.

Archaeological Approaches to Shamanism

Author: Dragoş Gheorghiu
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527509559
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
This long awaited book discusses both ancient and modern shamanism, demonstrating its longevity and spatial distribution. The book is divided into eleven thought-provoking chapters that are organised into three sections: mind-body, nature, and culture. It discusses the clear associations with this sometimes little-understood ritualised practice, and asks what shamanism is and if tangible evidence can be extracted from a largely fragmentary archaeological record. The book offers a novel portrayal of the material culture of shamanism by collating carefully selected studies by specialists from three different continents, promoting a series of new perspectives on this idiosyncratic and sometimes intangible phenomenon.

Shamanism and the Origin of States

Author: Sarah Milledge Nelson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315420279
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
Sarah Milledge Nelson’s bold thesis is that the development of states in East Asia—China, Japan, Korea—was an outgrowth of the leadership in smaller communities guided by shamans. Using a mixture of historical documents, mythology, archaeological data, and ethnographic studies of contemporary shamans, she builds a case for shamans being the driving force behind the blossoming of complex societies. More interesting, shamans in East Asia are generally women, who used their access to the spirit world to take leadership roles. This work challenges traditional interpretations growth of Asian states, which is overlaid with later Confucian notions of gender roles. Written at a level accessible for undergraduates, this concise work will be fascinating reading for those interested in East Asian archaeology, politics, and society; in gender roles, and in shamanism.

Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods

Author: David Lewis-Williams
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 050077045X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

Book Description
An exploration of how brain structure and cultural content interacted in the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago to produce unique life patterns and belief systems. What do the headless figures found in the famous paintings at Catalhoyuk in Turkey have in common with the monumental tombs at Newgrange and Knowth in Ireland? How can the concepts of "birth," "death," and "wild" cast light on the archaeological enigma of the domestication of cattle? What generated the revolutionary social change that ended the Upper Palaeolithic? David Lewis-Williams's previous book, The Mind in the Cave, dealt with the remarkable Upper Palaeolithic paintings, carvings, and engravings of western Europe. Here Dr. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce examine the intricate web of belief, myth, and society in the succeeding Neolithic period, arguably the most significant turning point in all human history, when agriculture became a way of life and the fractious society that we know today was born. The authors focus on two contrasting times and places: the beginnings in the Near East, with its mud-brick and stone houses each piled on top of the ruins of another, and western Europe, with its massive stone monuments more ancient than the Egyptian pyramids. They argue that neurological patterns hardwired into the brain help explain the art and society that Neolithic people produced. Drawing on the latest research, the authors skillfully link material on human consciousness, imagery, and religious concepts to propose provocative new theories about the causes of an ancient revolution in cosmology and the origins of social complexity. In doing so they create a fascinating neurological bridge to the mysterious thought-lives of the past and reveal the essence of a momentous period in human history. 100 illustrations, 20 in color.

The Archaeology of Shamanism

Author: Neil S. Price
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415252546
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
No Australian Aboriginal content.

The Archaeology of Shamanism

Author: Neil Price
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134527705
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
In this timely collection, Neil Price provides a general introduction to the archaeology of shamanism by bringing together recent archaeological thought on the subject. Blending theoretical discussion with detailed case studies, the issues addressed include shamanic material culture, responses to dying and the dead, shamanic soundscapes, the use of ritual architecture and shamanism in the context of other belief systems such as totemism. Following an intial orientation reviewing shamanism as an anthropological construct, the volume focuses on the Northern hemisphere with case studies from Greenland to Nepal, Siberia to Kazakhstan. The papers span a chronological range from Upper Palaeolithic to the present and explore such cross-cutting themes as gender and the body, identity, landscape, architecture, as well as shamanic interpretations of rock art and shamanism in the heritage and cultural identity of indigenous peoples. The volume also addresses the interpretation of shamanic beliefs in terms of cognitive neuroscience and the modern public perception of prehistoric shamanism.

Wyrdwalkers: Techniques of Northern-Tradition Shamanism

Author: Raven Kaldera
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780615139449
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Book Description
From dealing with Gods and spirits, to mastering the elements to reading the Threads of Wyrd, this book is a primer for the basic skills of a northern-tradition shaman or shamanic practitioner. The third book in the Northern-Tradition Shamanism series, this book includes spirit-taught lessons from many different spirit-workers and the Gods that they serve and revere.

The Norse Tradition

Author: Pete Jennings
Publisher: Trafalgar Square
ISBN: 9780340720820
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 82

Book Description
A comprehensive guide to the pagan religious ideas of the Norse and Saxon peoples, and their associated magic. There are practical exercises to help the reader learn about runes, Troth, folklore and rituals, as well as the history of this dynamic, spiritual path.

The Jotunbok: Working with the Giants of the Northern Tradition

Author: Raven Kaldera
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781847287298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 556

Book Description
The Gods of the Northern Tradition--the religion of the ancient Norse/Germanic/Anglo-Saxon peoples--have been rediscovered in growing numbers in the past years, as have the elves and dwarves that inhabit the Nine Worlds of the Cosmic Tree along with them. However, few have written about the Giants of those worlds and the Gods who number among them--Loki, Hela, Fenris, the World Serpent, and others--until now. The Jotunbok--the first book in the Northern-Tradition Shamanism series--is a collection of the wisdom, ways and tales of the Giants and their Gods, told by those who revere and work with them.