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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago

There’s a lot of stickiness around The Shaman and shamanism and shamans, and people are weird about it, and I’m gonna talk about it for a minute.

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

Here's the thing: The Shaman is an archetypal pattern, it goes beyond time, culture, person, etc. Just like The Mother or The King or The Trickster.

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

You could find a few definitions for the core of The Shaman archetype, but I would go with “One who tends to the wholeness of a folk."

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

(Wholeness here can include healing, interceding with the spirit realm, being the keeper of stories, the keeper of rituals and histories, taking others problems onto yourself to dispel them, spiritual advising, etc etc)

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

Every archetype is filtered through the medium of whatever culture, person, and time are expressing it, and those expressions often get sticky with residue from previous people, cultures, times. The Shaman seems extra sticky these days

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

Ironically, it often seems extra sticky explicitly due to attempts at "authenticity"

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

The way to authentically be a shaman is simple: 1. you must first belong to The Shaman archetype (not many people do, and it's not something you can train or change about yourself). 2. You must embody the archetype authentically to your time, place, and culture.

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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

...That's it. That's the whole thing. So where does the stickiness come in?

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

Well fist, "shamanism" sounds and looks dope. It's a whole vibe, and everyone wants in on it. So very quickly, every Spiritual But Not Religious seeker with an acid trip and a meditation cushion wants to use the name.

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

The next domino falls, people get mad at that first guy for sullying a sacred role AND a family of long-standing cultural traditions to which he has no relation.

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

The next natural thing is for people to really emphasize those traditions from various cultures, how arduous the path was, how rich and dense the ritual and symbolism is, etc.

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

Which doesn't stop people from wanting in on it, it just raises the barrier to entry; so now you get a bunch of german dudes paying a few thousand dollars to study with a shaman in Peru,

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1/31/2022
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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

then moving to Thailand & doing drum circles where they explain the rituals & require the attendees to essentially larp as ancient south american villagers in the name of authenticity (Sorry to pick on germans specifically, but I met 3 of this exact type in Southeast Asia so 🤷🏼‍♂️)

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Rudra Dakini@the_wilderlessover 3 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

So already, there's a few layers of potential stickiness there: -not belonging to the archetype -getting hung up on cool mystic vibes -fear of being called out or shunned for embodying the archetype The Wrong Way or without institutional approval

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⧨ falling forever@alex_with_easeover 2 years ago
Replying to @the_wilderless

@the_wilderless How to differentiate this from The King and The Sage? Taking a stab at it I would say The King is more about (the concrete details of) leadership while The Shaman is more about wisdom? Not sure about The Sage, is he focused on one aspect while The Shaman tends to the whole?

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4/18/2023