The three articles by Bevir, Bowie and Abram discussed respectively, raise issues based on the contrast between two opposing worldviews, characterised as Eastern versus Western and in light of differing attitudes toward shamanic wisdom and technique. Also discussed are problems associated with cultural appropriation as highlighted by new-age shamanism and also identifiable in differing definitions of shamanism and approaches to the study of it.
In West Turns East, Bevir depicts the spiritual journey of Madame Blavatsky in her quest to reconcile key differences between Western and Eastern views of ultimate reality through the link between Western Occultism and ancient Hindu wisdom. The post enlightenment era and the consequent crisis of Christianity led many to new-age spiritualism of which Blavatsky recognised as a revival of ancient wisdom originated within the Hindu tradition. According to this wisdom the universe is one and began with a ‘single all-embracing deity who was mind and infused each particle of matter with a divine spark’(Bevir, 758) . The universe evolved by a series of emanations, with the earth represented by the ‘Sacred tree’, (closely resemblant of the shamanic (and Quabalistic) ‘tree of life’ or axis mundis) which is upturned so that the roots extend to the heavens, as the source of all things material and spiritual, thus the Hermetic axiom ‘as on heaven so on earth’(Bevir, 754) . Since all matter was divine, man, through the knowledge of the astral properties of natural things, could use one thing to influence another and practise ecstatic flight or astral projection through the ‘separation of a type of fluidic ‘spiritual’ counterpart of the human body in order to explore other dimensions of existence’ (Drury, 19). The manipulation of astral fluids also formed the basis of occult healing and it was the yogis ‘secret of secrets, that the soul was not knit to the flesh’(Bevir, 762) . This is the same ‘out of body’ phenomenon practised by shamans the world over but it is one ‘that does not easily square with our own logical conceptions’ (Drury, 19) . Blavatsky however, saw occult magic as a science and attempted reconcile ancient eastern wisdom with the ‘enlightened’ West through the common link of western occult mysticism and magic.
In her book Anthropology of Religion, Bowie outlines different definitions of shamanism as well as different approaches to the study of it from a western perspective. Harner refers to shamanism as not a religion, but as a set technique within an animistic belief system, where altered states of consciousness are accessed in order to ‘communicate with and appease the spirits for the purposes of healing, fertility, protection and aggression’(Bowie, 191). Eliade sees shamanism more broadly as a technique of ecstasy, inducing an ‘ascent to the sky or descent into the underworld, incarnating spirits and being possessed’ this ecstatic flight attempted to recover a primordial state before the fall (Bowie, 192) or in Hindu cosmology, before the emanation from the higher spiritual plane to the lower gross material plane (Bevir, 749). Halifax offers another description, referring to shamanism as a ‘specific ideology that has persisted through millennia and is found in many different cultural settings’ (Bowie,193). These are broad definitions and Abram points out that often ‘anthropologists overlook the ecological dimensions of the shamans craft’(Abram, 180). However these definitions do allow for neo-shamanism to be practised in all cultures, including urbanised Western settings where one can go on a soul journey or discover an animal spirit helper by means of a stereo, headphones and drumming tape. According to Harner this practise is not ‘playing Indian, but going to the same revelatory spiritual sources that tribal shamans have travelled to from time immemorial’(Bowie,197). In fact there is an increasing tendency in western societies for people to access ASC for healing and divinatory purposes and the emergence of new-age spiritualism and western shamanic healers (Abram,179) , as is also evident in the popularity of the writings of Castenada (Bowie, 200).
According to Abram however, this is to misunderstand the shaman whose role as a healer is secondary and dependent upon the primary role as a ‘boundary keeper’(Abram, 177). In Ecology of magic, Abram depicts his journey to Indonesia where, being a sleight of hand magician, he hoped to research medical uses of magic though the acquaintance of local shamans or medicine people. Abram developed his own philosophy of magic by learning about the practises of the dukuns (shamans), whose role was to maintain a balance between the human and the non-human community and the health and wellbeing of both (Abram, 179). This is closer to Lewis’ definition of a shaman than others presented by Bowie (Bowie,200) . As with the Magi, the dukun ensures a two-way flow and a harmonious balance between the human and non-human community (however more focused on the earth than toward the heavens as with the magi), by giving back to the ‘spirited natural world through offerings of prayer, propitiations and praise’ (Abram, 178). Abram discovers that the ‘spirit’ world was simply the ‘natural’ world for the indigenous community. He writes of a local ant population being ‘kept at bay’ by daily offerings of bread and thus maintaining a harmonious relationship; the human community synergistically embedded within the rest of nature where even the ‘mountains have thoughts’(Abram,197). This absence of anthropocentric domination had a profound effect on Abram who sat enthralled watching spiders weave their own magic. It is with dismay that Abram tells of his return home to a society whose ‘relation to the biosphere can in no way be said to be a balanced or reciprocal one’ (Abram, 200) so that in new-age shamanism, the primary role cannot be carried out. It is necessarily limited by a lack of connectedness and exposure to ‘wild nature…symptoms are only traded for others’(Abram, 200) so that psychic healing is ultimately ineffective.
Perhaps the true nature of shamanism isn’t captured by the Western conception of it. Certainly western shamanic practitioners may not possess the astral wisdom of a Magi or Yogi, but it also highlights the fact that, regardless of wisdom or techniques, ASC and spiritual phenomena is universal. After all, Yogis and Occultists are not strictly shamans yet are perhaps analogous with the concept in many senses. Castenada’s teacher, Don Juan, taught that it was ‘inner space’ that was crucial (this is consistent with Quabbalah’s ten levels of consciousness and that one could practise sorcery in a modern city, given the right mental and physical conditions; whereas Abram insists on the need to propel one’s self ‘laterally into the depths of the landscape’ rather than inwards toward the personal psyche.
REFERENCE
Abram D, 1997, ‘Ecology of Magic’, Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-human World, New York, Vintage Books, 1997, ch.1.
Bevir M, 1994, ‘West Turns Eastward’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 62, 3, 747-767.
Bowie F, 2000, ‘Shamanism’, The Anthropology of Religion, Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing, ch.7.
Drury N, 1978, Don Juan, Mescalito and Modern Magic: The Mythology of Inner Space, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
David Abram interviewed by Scott London, http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/abram/html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment