Religious Practices Of The Real Shamanism Culture

In Native American religions a dance called the Sun Dance is used as the rite of passage for young men. You men would stick a rod though their peck and dance around a pole of three days as a way to become connected with the Spirit World. The pole is used to show strength and the boys would quickly have to get the rod out by dancing. Another rite of passage in Native Americans religions is the Vision Quest. Young boys and girls partake in this to find their spirit animals. They go into the woods mostly naked and sometimes covered in body paint and fast in the woods for days. Eventually a spirit comes to them, most of the time as an animal but it can be in human form, and is said to be their guardian

To truly understand the meaning of shamanism one must uncover the original definition. The word shaman comes from the language of the Evenk, a small Tungus-speaking group of hunters and reindeer herders from Siberia. It was first used only to designate a religious specialist from this region. By the beginning of the 20th century it was already being applied to a variety of North America and South American practices from the present and the past. Today people have gone as far as defining the word shaman as any human that acknowledges that he/she has had contact with spiritual entities. Well at least the term still refers to human beings.

The theme of spirituality takes place in many novels that we have read this semester. Natives has used spiritual guidance as a means of connecting with their past and honoring their ancestors. To Natives, spirits have always played an important role in their culture and everyday lives. When Natives were forced to convert to Christianity and over time have their beliefs sucked out of them, the spiritual connection was broken as generations passed. One novel that particularly spoke to me on this subject was Monkey Beach, by Eden Robinson. The main character, Lisa, is struggling to fins herself after being blessed with the gift of being a shaman. In this novel, the author exploits how the European or western “white” culture has destroyed the

Rites: separated into diff. communities v. Respect/authority: shamans, religious leaders,

Culture is one of the most important parts of the life as spirituality. Native American, people practice many different ceremonies as a ritual, which represent their culture, such as, Sun Dance, healing ceremony, and Gallup ceremony, etc. The first ceremony that Native American celebrates the Sun Dance, which is also known as thanksgiving ceremony. This ceremony is like a vision dance. It is a ritual in which people stare at the sun, until everything blackout or spirit break in (Lecture notes). The other ceremony is Gallup ceremony, which is one of the major celebrations that Indian-Tribe celebrates. According to the text, “The Gallup Ceremonial had been an annual event for a long time. It was good for the tourist, they liked to see Indians and Indian dances; they wanted a chance to buy Indian Jewelry and Navajo rugs. Every year it was organized by the white men there” (111). It demonstrates that, how the Native people celebrate their ceremonies every year, with all the respect to their culture. The last ceremony is healing ceremony. Healing ceremony is the ritual that a female Pomo Shaman conducts a ritual healing ceremony over the man’s body. She is performing the ancient doctoring to heal the man spiritually, in which she was dancing with a two sticks, chanting and rubbing her hand on the body (Lecture notes). As we compare, ancient and recent Native American cultures were almost the same because in the past, people celebrate the cultures with a very good sight to enjoy their rituals. Even though, now society has developed a lot, but values of traditions are not changed

Limb & Hodge (2008) state that there is not a single definition or common understanding of Native American spirituality. It will vary from tribe to tribe, and person to person. Each tribal member could have a different take on spirituality. This applies to the rest of society as well, as each religion has a different perspective on religion and spirituality.

My grandparents and parents were Hindu priests, having been raised with the family ancestral traditions and belief, I have often been exposed to rituals based on spirituality.

Shamanism is a mix of magic, folklore, medicine and spirituality that evolved in tribal and gathering communities thousands of years ago. Shamanic faith presumes that everyone and everything has a spirit which is a part of a greater whole, and that spirits affect all events, including illness and disease. In the tradition of Shamanism it is believed that certain people named shamans exhibit particular magical specialties at birth; the most common specialization is that of a healer. A Shaman is believed to have the ability to communicate with the ethereal

Everyone believes something, whether it be a fact or a law or a religion. The Shamanic believes that everything is alive and carries within it the power and wisdom of your animal. They believe that everyone has a spirit animal, and you need to honor your spirit animal. I feel that my spirit animal is a lion. Lions in the Shamanic belief have certain customs: family, strength, energy, courage, guardian, and protector. All of these qualities in shamanic beliefs will be given to you.

Shaman is a word that described the mystic healers of Siberia. They are also one of the names that French trappers named the Native American "doctors", along with medicine men and priests (Flaherty 15). Shamans are usually males, but sometimes they are postmenopausal females. The Native

Dating back to prehistoric times, Shamanism was one of the oldest form of religions with many others including, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and 300 new religious sectors. Koreans are known to not be as expressive with their beliefs in religion. Shamanism is performed by shamans with a high population of women practitioners. The ritual of Kut, is performed to bring good fortune, pushing away evil spirits and curing illness (“Religion and Expressive Culture,” 2016).

I believe the shaman style of development best describes my mentoring of others. I find that I am more efficient when I use personal and real life experiences to help other people grow. When you can show people that you can relate to them, they feel more comfortable trusting you and following your lead. I always try to provide my employees with knowledge that enforces their values, so they become eager to support my ideas (Manning & Curtis, 2015). Model leaders motivate their employees, and in return, the workers strive to emulate that leader's actions. I encourage people to grow by showing them how learning new skills will increase their knowledge and expertise over time. I have always been the type of leader that put my employee's needs above

Korea is a country that dabbles in various religions and traversed deep into their traditions one of which is Shamanism. “In these rituals, the focus is on both the shaman's (mudang) individual experience as well as on the shaman's hereditary abilities to contact the spirit world, inhabited by various shamanistic gods. With its history of some five thousand years, shamanism is the oldest belief system in Korea” (Miettinen 2010). A tradition that nearly everyone in South Korea participated in until the arrival of religions varying from Confucianism to Protestant Christianity. Christianity arrived in Korea a little under 200 years. By integrating parts of shamanistic practices, various religions have benefited and greatly passed the limits of western religion.

Due to people of various backgrounds immigrating in search of religious freedom, American religious and spiritual culture is very diverse in nature. Pagan religions and spirituality is not new to America. We see it represented in American holidays whether people realize it or not. Paganism has a rich multicultural background based on ancient people that has developed into the new traditions of today. (Harvey,1995) Many Pagans keep their religious preferences in secret due to fear of discrimination. Many have not come “out of the broom closet” because some people assume stereotypes of witchcraft, like devil worship, without further researching or understanding the religion. A subset of Paganism is Wicca. There are many denominations of Wicca, but we will be exploring in general terms, the core of beliefs of the birth/death/life/ afterlife cycle and how Wiccans worship the divine.

Shamanism, a religion indigenous to the Korean people, was formed thereby influencing early Korean art, and is to remain influential throughout Korean history up to present history.