Therioshamanism: A Modern-Day Ordeal →
If you’ve been reading this blog over the years, you’ll notice that one of the themes I keep coming back to is Therioshamanism as a (neo)shamanic creation based on my own social and cultural background. The dominant non-indigenous culture in the US doesn’t have a clear shamanic figure, though I feel there are professions and roles here that can be analogous. On the one hand, American (neo)shamans may face accusations and feelings of illegitimacy, as though our lack of roots makes anything we do insufficient. And yet at the same time, there’s a great opportunity for creativity and flow in making something that is new and suited for the setting we found ourselves born into. I feel it is a fine balance between acknowledging how other cultures have formed their own shamanisms and related practices over hundreds or thousands of years, and making something that is uniquely ours instead of just wholesale copying. There’s a lot of trial and error, to be sure, and at times I really respect my fellow practitioners who are similarly trying to create something with no single existing cultural framework.
One of the themes that comes up as a topic of discussion is that of the ordeal. I have met people who claim that you must have an ordeal in a traditional manner–either a life-threatening physical illness, or a severe mental illness/breakdown–and that it absolutely can’t be a positive or constructive experience whatsoever. Nor, they say, is it something that you can openly seek out; it has to crash down on your head and ruin everything. Supposedly all these things separate the wannabes from the hard-core practitioners. I have a gentler approach. Not every ordeal a person goes through is a shamanic one; as attributed to John Watson/Ian MacLaren, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle“. What I think distinguishes a shamanic ordeal, at least in part, is whether it directly contributes to one’s work as a (neo)shaman. It may still be a great challenge with a significant risk of failure, but it can be something you willingly choose to enter into as a furthering of your path and development. In this, it doesn’t always have to be the initiatory ordeal; ordeals can also be ongoing challenges.
My Schedule for PantheaCon
So I *think* I have my schedule all plotted out for PantheaCon I have one more book signing to schedule once I get there (PCon’s official signing table) but here’s the rest as it stands:
Friday 3:30pm - 5pm - Bioregional Totemism (on working with the totems of your local area)
Saturday noon-1pm - book signing at Llewellyn’s table
Saturday 1:30pm - 3pm - Immanion publishing panel (“A Publisher’s Embodiment of Co-operation, Tolerance, and Love”)
Sunday 9am - 10:30am - Llewellyn publishing panel (“Publishing Panel hosted by Llewellyn Worldwide”)
Sunday 3:30pm - 4:30pm - Book release party for “New Paths to Animal Totems” at the Pagan Alliance Hospitality! Look for posters around the convention :)
Monday 11:00am - 12:30pm - White Girl Shamanism (a bit about my own efforts in creating a (neo)shamanism from my very not-indigenous background, and how those of us from non-indigenous background can create traditions for our own cultural milieus)
If you want to find out more about what’s happening at PCon, here’s the Program Guide: https://pantheacon.com/wordpress/at-pantheacon/whats-happening/program-guide/
Free Skin Spirits Video Workshop by Lupa - Working With Animal Parts in Spirituality and Art
Alright, since I had such a good turnout for my first set of free video workshops this past weekend, I’ve got another pair queued up! This time I’ll be talking about skin spirits and working with animal parts in spirituality and art. As before, there’ll be two time slots to choose from:
Friday, January 18, 2013, 7:00pm Pacific Standard Time
Saturday, January 19, 2013, 11:00am Pacific Standard Time
Here’s a time converter you can use to determine what 7pm/11am PST would be at your time zone. You don’t need to sign up anywhere, just make sure you have a Livestream account and show up! And, again, I’ll upload versions to my YouTube channel. Also, I’ll be doing some practice runs to make sure that I get all the technical bugs worked out, to include making damned sure I can find the chat this time :P
Here’s some of what I’ll cover:
In the last few years there has been an increase in interest working with hides, bones, and other animal parts in both art and spirituality. My work with skin spirits and their sacred remains has become one of my most asked-about topics as a result, and now you can have the opportunity to find out more directly from me in this free online workshop! Plus you’ll have the chance to ask me questions via chat related to both the art and spirit of my work for the past 15 years.
Here are just a few of the topics we’ll cover:
—What are skin spirits, and how do I work with them, and why are the hides and bones known as “sacred remains”?
—How can I respectfully work with animal parts in art or spirituality, and what rituals can I use?
—Where can I find animal parts to work with, and how do I decide what to do with them?
—What are other considerations, such as legalities, ethical guidelines, and safety?
—How can I physically and spiritually take care of the animal parts that I have, and what artistic options are available to me beyond traditional taxidermy?
Newcomers and more experienced folk are all welcome. Because of the sensitivity of this topic, the chat and questions will be moderated. And, again, I’m offering this workshop free of charge! If you’d like to support my work financially, feel free to check out my books at http://www.thegreenwolf.com/books.html or my ritual tools and other artwork at http://thegreenwolf.etsy.com
Thank you!
Therioshamanism: Masks in Ritual Work →
I’ve had a few people ask me specifically about this topic as of late, so for the curious, here you go–a late Solstice present!
Some of you dear readers are already acquainted with the purpose of ritual garments and the like. For those who are not, the short version is that rituals are special occasions. It can be powerful to have a set of clothing that is reserved solely for spiritual practices. Just putting them on signals to your subconscious mind that it’s time to do special things you don’t normally get to. To an extent, it appeals to that part of us that likes to play dress-up with costumes and fancy clothes and the like–it touches on Homo ludens, the part of us that learns and develops through play. (Of course, as grownups we often feel we have to come up with some “serious” reason to dress up in funny clothes any time besides Halloween–though there are those of us who will come up with any reason to don a costume of some sort, hence steampunks and cosplayers and SCAdians and…)
At any rate, most religious traditions have some form of ritual garments that are worn by the officiant(s), and sometimes for the laypeople as well. Even churches are full of congregants in their Sunday best. These clothes and other wearables are also often a form of identifying people of a similar tradition–if you see someone with a kippah you can pretty well bet they’re Jewish, while someone wearing a cross is likely to be Christian of some denomination or another. In paganism, there’s no single set of garb that will denote “that person is pagan!”, though flowing robes, historical clothing, and a variety of symbolic jewelry (far from limited to the pentacle) will be in abundance at many pagan events. (There will also be a cranky minority grumbling about how we all need to dress like normal civilized people, not Harry Potter or our long-lost Viking ancestors.)
Wolf mask by Lupa, 2012.
Masks are a particularly specialized form of ritual wear. We most commonly focus on a person’s face when identifying them and communicating with them. (I’ve yet to meet someone who could tell who was approaching by carefully examining their elbows.) A mask covers up the face, and thereby the person’s identity. A person putting on a mask also temporarily puts on a different persona. Even someone trying on a rubber werewolf mask will briefly “get into it” by making claws out of their fingers and going “RAWR!”
Therioshamanism: Portable Skin Spirits →
I’ve been really busy in my studio making my hide and bone art, and it’s given me some time to reflect on where my various pieces have ended up. Over the years I’ve really enjoyed getting to see the extent to which people have incorporated these creations into their spiritual practices—and their everyday lives. It really has ranged from those who only bring them out during certain rituals, to those who carry them throughout their day. Of course, some of that depends on what they have. A small pouch or a piece of jewelry incorporating a bit of hide or bone from one’s totem is a lot easier to carry around than a full hide headdress.
For myself, I live a very active lifestyle, and so I tend to prefer to be very streamlined about my personal talismans—if it won’t fit in my pockets or closely around my neck or wrists, I leave it at home. And I live in a place where it rains a fair bit, especially in the winter, so I don’t wear fur where it can easily get wet, which can damage it. I also don’t feel the need to “advertise” my spirituality to the masses that I did when I was a shiny-eyed newbie; I don’t need to carry a miniature ritual kit with me everywhere, and I don’t need to wear a wolf hide to the grocery store. (Yes, I used to do the former, along with wearing the neoshamanic equivalent of the dinner plate pentacle. I was never quite so brash as to wear a wolf into the store—my headdresses have always been strictly for sacred rites, not showing off.) Still, I sometimes keep a few small things about my person as needed; the rest have their honored places at home.
But each person’s preferences vary. You may be happy wearing a fox tail everywhere you go, or your tail may never leave your ritual space. Either one is okay. If you do wish to have some small reminder of your totem with you when you’re out and about, here are a few suggestions:
Join Woodwose Radio on December 15th, for an evening-in with author Lupa. We’ll be talking about her books, and I invite you to call in to the show with questions and comments.
Follow her on Tumblr, too: thegreenwolf
This is one of my favorite self-portraits :) It was taken on the trail from Barlow Pass to Upper Twin Lake.
Just a reminder that this is where my art, and all art made from animal remains, comes from. Samhain is the time to remember the honored dead; let’s not forget that the skins and plushes and other remains that you give cute names to were once living beings that died like this one.
Death is natural, but let us never take it for granted.
Hey, all—I took the thoughts on dead critters and my shamanic/pagan practicesm that this prompted last night, and wrote a more detailed and thorough post over on Therioshamanism. You can click the link to read the entire thing, but here’s a relevant quote:
No animal enjoys dying, and this reality must be remembered. Even the gentlest death is still a living being suddenly being permanently deprived of its ability to interact with this world. The afterlife is not a fact, only a speculation, and it is small comfort to say “perhaps its spirit still roams”, when the only life we know for sure exists has come to a close. Even as I work with the skin spirits in my art and practice, I know that there’s a good chance that these, and all other spirits, are simply emanations of the human imagination, and that this life is all we get. Even if there is an afterlife of some sort, the fact remains that a living being has lost its vehicle for interacting with this wild, amazing world we live in. This is a loss of which we can be absolutely sure, and it is no small thing.
Hipster Owl: Can we stop using the term "spirit animal" please? →
Like, I get it. I know you think it’s cute. I know you think it means that the person is basically you. But there are other ways to say that and not fall into the deep dark pit of cultural appropriation.
See, spirit animals are part of many Native American cultures. They are…
Okay. I am quite aware of issues of cultural appropriation *ahem*. I personally choose to use the term “totem” because of familiarity. I know, I know—it’s problematic because it was originally an Ojibwe word that got appropriated by anthropologists to try to define perceived commonalities across cultures, in much the way the Evenk word “shaman” was.
What I’ve found is that trying to introduce a new term is an uphill battle. Like it or not, “totem” and “shaman” and the like have taken on expanded meanings from their original cultural contexts. So trying to introduce someone to the idea of an “animal archetype”, for example, usually gets me with someone saying “Oh, like a totem, right?”
The other thing I’ve found is that if I can attract people to a workshop/article/etc. with the term “totem”, it then allows me to introduce the idea of cultural appropriation, which many neopagans and New Agers and the like are completely unaware of. In the new book I’ve coming out, I dedicate a significant portion of one chapter not only to the concept of cultural appropriation, but also to being aware of your social location and how that informs your approach to not just totemism but spirituality in general. In fact, the entire book (and, hell, my writings in general) are meant to be “Okay, I’m a white chick from the Midwest trying to put together this animistic praxis from next to nothing because I was raised by a long line of Catholics and have been a solitary pagan for the past 15 years. I’m not Native, and I’m not going to try to insert myself into someone else’s culture when I’m so firmly embedded in a culture that could use more wonder and animism. Here’s what I figured out, and you’re welcome to work with it, too”.
So while I agree these terms are problematic, they can be openers for more constructive conversations AND helping non-Native people to be more aware of how our backgrounds affect our approaches to nature-based spirituality.
ETA: Also, be aware that no matter HOW careful you are, if you’re a non-native person working with anything even remotely animistic, someone will likely call you out on being an appropriator. It seems the only way NOT to have that happen is to just not practice these things at all. IF you choose to do so, then you’ve got to decide where to draw your boundaries and figure out where you’re going to balance being culturally sensitive, and actually *practicing* your path.
Wonderful answer. I’m worn out on fighting the whole ‘everything is cultural appropriation’ thing, because I think people label aspects of spirituality as appropriative are pathetically backwards and missing the big point entirely. If a religion or spiritual belief outwardly characterized by a set of physical attributes worn on the follower and originating in one part of the world is adopted by other people, then good. The POINT of these belief systems is, according to them, to outline the ‘right’ way to live and be a better person. I don’t know why people are up in arms about keeping that to themselves, and certainly won’t begin to consider that anyone has any right to tell me what I can or cannot believe in, and what gods I can or cannot follow.
It’s not so much keeping animism in general away from everyone else. It’s that a lot of indigenous (and not just American) cultural and spiritual elements have been yanked out of their original contexts AND misrepresented as “genuine”, so that stereotypes about “noble nature-loving savages” and “Native American spirituality” as a monolithic thing keep getting bandied about by people who really don’t know better. Meanwhile, actual indigenous people are suffering great injustices perpetuated by the dominant cultures of their areas, and at the same time often have their own cultures misunderstood, even the very best and most beautiful parts thereof.
This is why I don’t call what I do “Native American” or even “Native American-inspired”. My work with the animal and other totems, and in fact my spirituality in general, is self-created and spirit-led. I am approaching these things as a white, middle-class, college-educated woman with her own unique relationship to the world around her, and that’s how I’ve always presented my work. Unfortunately, there are other non-Native authors and practitioners who try to claim they’re more Native than they actually are, and that further muddies the waters. (Here’s a clue: if you have Native ancestors but were raised in the same kind of white-dominated suburb I was, you don’t have any more knowledge and claim to the culture of your ancestral tribe than I do, because you haven’t had any contact with the living people. Genes are not culture.)
So it’s not so much what you do or don’t believe or worship as it is what you *claim* about it, and where you get your information. This is why I encourage my readers to make their own relationships with the totems and such rather than trying to do it someone else’s way, because we can’t just shoehorn ourselves into someone else’s culture. It’s like barging in on someone’s house for Sunday supper and expecting to be welcomed at the table. Occasionally, yeah, you may luck upon that family who always has an extra place set, but really, you’re better off just cooking your own supper (and invite your neighbors over sometime if you get to know them well enough).
Hey! I have some book-related news: preorders for my newest title, and a giveaway of free books! Read on:
First, I just turned in the final tweaks and edits for my next book, New Paths to Animal Totems! It’ll be out from Llewellyn Publications this December (just in time for the world to end) and it’s my first try at writing for a more general audience—without watering down the material. You can read more about it at the link above, though one of the things that struck me as I was re-reading it is how unlike other introductory books on totemism this one is. It’s not just a collection of “here’s what this totem means” definitions and a mess of quick exercises. I really got into the environment and context of animal totems, instead of just treating them as “animal spirits floating above your head”. By the end of the book you won’t just know what animal totems are and how to work with them, but you’ll also have a wealth of information that can be applied to both totemism and other spiritual explorations as well. A great standalone text, or a nice complement to my other books, too!
So—with that said, I am officially opening preorders for New Paths to Animal Totems! You can preorder here on my website and there’s also a preorder listing on my Etsy shop. The website link also includes links to where you can preorder it on Amazon, Powells, and from Llewellyn itself. However, ordering directly from me pays me the most for my work (and you get your copy signed!)
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The OTHER book thing is that I am doing another giveaway! See those three books in the second picture? They’re three of the brand-new Llewellyn periodicals that I have writings published in (I’ve been writing for the periodicals for years). I wrote twenty-five of the spells and activities in the Witches’ Spell-a-Day Almanac this year, and the Magical Almanac includes my article “Everyday Totemism”, specifically about working with tertiary totems. You can find two of my articles in the Witches’ Companion; “Pagans and Cultural Appropriation” looks at the issues surrounding cultural borrowing (or theft) in neopaganism, while “Pagans & Mental Health” explores the relationship that the pagan community has to mental illness, and how to be more sensitive and responsive in including pagans with mental illnesses.
All of these are exclusive writings, found nowhere else! But you could get to do some reading for free. Just reblog this post—no need to follow me, though I won’t complain if you do. Reblog it by the midnight that starts Tuesday, August 21, 2012 and you’ll be entered in a random drawing to win one of the three periodicals in the picture (no, you don’t get to choose which one—it’s random!). You only get ONE chance no matter how many times you reblog, though.
….aaaaaaaand GO! (And thank you :) )
GAH! In the craziness that was the last few weeks of the faire season, I completely spaced on this! *headdesk*Many thanks to stainedsteel for the reminder, and congrats to taintedfleshpollutedsoul for being the randomly selected winner!
And thanks again to everyone for participating :) I feel like an utter space case for forgetting this, but there WILL be more giveaways in the future (without so much of a delay in announcing the winner!)
Scratch that—the first winner bowed out, so there’s a new winner! Congrats to phoenixflightlessons!
Hey! I have some book-related news: preorders for my newest title, and a giveaway of free books! Read on:
First, I just turned in the final tweaks and edits for my next book, New Paths to Animal Totems! It’ll be out from Llewellyn Publications this December (just in time for the world to end) and it’s my first try at writing for a more general audience—without watering down the material. You can read more about it at the link above, though one of the things that struck me as I was re-reading it is how unlike other introductory books on totemism this one is. It’s not just a collection of “here’s what this totem means” definitions and a mess of quick exercises. I really got into the environment and context of animal totems, instead of just treating them as “animal spirits floating above your head”. By the end of the book you won’t just know what animal totems are and how to work with them, but you’ll also have a wealth of information that can be applied to both totemism and other spiritual explorations as well. A great standalone text, or a nice complement to my other books, too!
So—with that said, I am officially opening preorders for New Paths to Animal Totems! You can preorder here on my website and there’s also a preorder listing on my Etsy shop. The website link also includes links to where you can preorder it on Amazon, Powells, and from Llewellyn itself. However, ordering directly from me pays me the most for my work (and you get your copy signed!)
**************
The OTHER book thing is that I am doing another giveaway! See those three books in the second picture? They’re three of the brand-new Llewellyn periodicals that I have writings published in (I’ve been writing for the periodicals for years). I wrote twenty-five of the spells and activities in the Witches’ Spell-a-Day Almanac this year, and the Magical Almanac includes my article “Everyday Totemism”, specifically about working with tertiary totems. You can find two of my articles in the Witches’ Companion; “Pagans and Cultural Appropriation” looks at the issues surrounding cultural borrowing (or theft) in neopaganism, while “Pagans & Mental Health” explores the relationship that the pagan community has to mental illness, and how to be more sensitive and responsive in including pagans with mental illnesses.
All of these are exclusive writings, found nowhere else! But you could get to do some reading for free. Just reblog this post—no need to follow me, though I won’t complain if you do. Reblog it by the midnight that starts Tuesday, August 21, 2012 and you’ll be entered in a random drawing to win one of the three periodicals in the picture (no, you don’t get to choose which one—it’s random!). You only get ONE chance no matter how many times you reblog, though.
….aaaaaaaand GO! (And thank you :) )
GAH! In the craziness that was the last few weeks of the faire season, I completely spaced on this! *headdesk*Many thanks to stainedsteel for the reminder, and congrats to taintedfleshpollutedsoul for being the randomly selected winner!
And thanks again to everyone for participating :) I feel like an utter space case for forgetting this, but there WILL be more giveaways in the future (without so much of a delay in announcing the winner!)
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