Shamanism appears to have emerged with the very dawn of human consciousness, but archeologists can probably speak with confidence about only the past 30,000 to 70,000 years. Archeological discoveries in Eurasia alone indicate that the practice of shamanism reaches back at least to 35,000 BCE, easily making shamanism the oldest spiritual practice known to mankind. Modern religious faiths such as Buddhism and Christianity are toddlers in comparison, and psychology is a mere newborn.
Although shamanism has bordered upon being a state religion in Mongolia in the past, it is more a collection of practical spiritual methodologies than a religion in the usual sense. It has no holy books, scriptures, nor required belief systems. Shamanism involves direct contact with, and direct revelation from, spiritual realitiesâand practical tools for working with the spiritual aspects of our ordinary realities.
As peoples settle and civilizations rise, those who may not have experienced direct access to spiritual realities tend to develop beliefs about what shamans do, or did long ago. These are often systematized into fixed concepts that may be passed on for centuries. Direct perception of other realities declines into mere belief, and spirituality devolves into religion. Then, often due to political expediency, religious concepts may become enforced belief systems, resulting in the many misunderstandings we suffer today...
The nomadic northern Siberian shamanic traditions tend to retain the highly individualistic aspects of shamanism; by contrast, a most interesting facet of Mongolian and Inner Asian shamanism is the amalgamation of the shamansâ direct experiences of other realities with a religious belief system known as Tengerism (Heaven- or Sky God-ism). Tengerism originated in Sumeria, one of humanityâs earliest civilizations, and probably derived from the early experiences of the shamans, prophets, and mystics of pre-Mesopotamian eras.
The modern Mongolian term Tenger (or Tengri), meaning both âsky realmsâ and âsky spirits,â almost certainly derives from the Sumerian word Dingir, also meaning both âsky realm(s)â and âdeity(-ies).â The concept of divinity in Sumerian was closely associated with the heavens, evident from the shared cuneiform sign for both heaven and sky, and from the fact that its earliest form is a star shape. The name of every deity in Sumerian is prefixed by a star symbol (see illustration).
Mircea Eliade proposed that Tengrism may be the closest thing we have found to a reconstructed proto-Indo-European religion. It is also evident that Tengrismâs three-layered worldview is nearly identical to the tripartite world found in many kinds of shamanism, as well as the Vedic triloka (âthree realmsâ) world structure.
-- Kevin Turner, Sky Shamans of Mongolia
jacobvanloon
stormborns
vaporwave
discoholicmusic
areudirty
pixelskylines
2087
blakekathryn
