Shamanic Spirituality

The first form of spirituality that we will consider together is sometimes thought to be the most primitive.

It is surely the most ancient.

It may also be the most advanced and contemporary.

Shamanism is what I'm talking about
  in its evolutionary, tribal form.

The Shaman is the person whose spiritual gifts and choices
  provide a kind of spiritual leadership to her or his community.

A Shaman practices a kind of religious ecstasy
 which in turn leads the community
    in rituals that remind them of the sacred aspects of every day life
         and which provide opportunities for healing
            of soul, spirit and body.

Perhaps the most important task of a Shaman
 is to be guardian of tribal records.

Long before there were any written records, there were songs.

The songs told the stories of their people.

Singing and dancing were more than relaxation and recreation.

They were a vital part of any community's spiritual life.

The songs of the Aboriginal people of Australia are a great example.

They anchor the Aboriginal culture and link it to its ancient past.

Many anthropologists today believe
 that the Aboriginal culture of Australia
   represents the most ancient civilization in the world.

Their stories and lists of families and heroes reach back into
           what they call the dream time.

Long before any kind of record was kept
 anywhere else among humans,
      the Aboriginal people were composing their songs
         and handing them down the generations.

Careful and respectful analysis shows that their ancient songs
 and so also the history of their civilization
   go back between 55,000 and 75,000 years!

That is older by orders of magnitude
   than any other form of human civilization
     yet to be discerned.

They form a living link to the evolution of humanity,
   and their shamanic spirituality can give us all roots
     that go back into dream time for all of us
        if we will only accept it.

Written scriptures are not necessarily any more valuable
   than oral traditions sung and spoken
      and taught by one generation to another
        across more millenia than we have ever thought.

In the same way,
  Shamanism gives us a foundation
   for every form of human spirituality,
    again, if we will only accept it.

At its foundation,
  Shamanism teaches us about the oneness of all things.

We are as much as part of nature as the land on which we live.

We are not separate from the rest of the universe,
    and we are not separate from each other.

Nothing could be more relevant
  to the well being of our human family today
     and nothing is more important
       than the realization that we are all in this thing together.

To harm anyone or anything, any part of nature itself,
    is to harm ourselves and to cause harm to the whole.

Shamanism teaches us exactly this
   as it sees the life all around us
        in everything, whether it appears living or inanimate to us.

Respect for our surroundings and for each other
    is vital to the well being of all.

More than respect, there is need for reverence.

Most of us - I would daresay all of us -
  have experienced the awe and wonder
     of immersing ourselves in nature
          and nature's beauty and wonders.

Here in the Inland Northwest, it is not hard to find places and times
       to share in natural beauty.

Most of us have favorite places
 right here around us in Coeur D'Alene.

As Beth and I have had the privilege to stay in several of the homes
    of the people of this beloved community,
          we have seen the loving care that you give
               to the places where you live.

There has been deep rest and healing for us
       in sharing in that loving care.

As we have feasted on your kindness,
    so we have been fed in soul and body.

As you have shared of yourselves,
    so you have strengthened us.

It is not just food and shelter that you have shared.

It is your love, good wishes, and prayers
 in whatever form you have found meaningful.

Please keep it up,
   and not only for us.

Needs are deep among us.

Our strength is equal to the task as we move together in it.

This kind of mutual care and strengthening
    is at the heart of any kind of positive spirituality
         from the very beginning of our human family.

Sacred places have been revered far longer than humans
    have spoken and fought over any holy land.

There are holy places of the Native Americans
 who live among us here in the Inland Northwest.

I have known a few also in the Southwest,
    less famous, maybe, than Sedona, AZ,
        but deeply sacred nonetheless.

My personal favorite is a mountain in southern New Mexico,
     called Sierra Blanca by the Spanish.

It's near the towns of Ruidoso and Mescalero,
    and sacred to the Mescalero Apache.

My first enounter with the mountain
  was my first attempt at downhill snow skiing.

The mountain rises above 12,000 feet,
  so even deep in southern NM,
      it is covered with snow much of the year.

I discovered that I can ski just fine, but I don't stop very well.

I wore myself out trying,
    finally giving up after almost skiing right into the ski lodge!

I have visited that sacred mountain a number of times in my life,
         and I have a deep relationship with it,
                 more than just the appreciation of the natural beauty.

I have felt that mountain speak to my soul,
 telling me that I have nothing to fear.

That message is so similar to the word I feel I get
  from the Gospel of Christ
      that it rings true to me no matter the source.

In fact, my feeling that I can relate to that nature spirit
     is one of the very things
       that called me out of Christian parish ministry.

I made the mistake of sharing these feelings
  with the wrong group of people
    early in my time as pastor
      of the last church I served among the Lutherans.

The strongly negative reaction some of them had,
   which I only learned about later,
       is one of the reasons it was the last.

I could more and more clearly see
   that my own spirituality needed a much broader context
     for the opportunity to express itself.

As I have said to you, my friends, many times,
      I have found that broader context
         in the Unitarian Universalist communities
            here in north Idaho -
               both here in Coeur D'Alene -
                    and in Moscow.

The experience of communion with a mountain
  is a kind of spiritual ecstasy,
      and so I am not only a Unitarian Universalist Christian,
         I am also a Shamanic one!

The confirmation of that fact has come to me in many ways.

My favorite is the Roman Catholic parish in Mescalero, NM,
          very near my friend, the Mountain.

You see, they have a large icon of Christ over the main altar
     in their parish church.

It is a portrayal of Christ as an Apache holy man, a Shaman,
     holding sacred symbols of the ancient Apache spirituality.

He is standing on the peak of the mountain
   that is sacred to the Apache,
        and his sacred symbol of the eagle is flying nearby.

To find Christ and my friend, the Mountain, together in an icon
     is for me a sign that I'm not as far off the right track
             as some of my Christian friends may have thought!

Finally, as we think together about Shamanism
  as an important foundation
    of our spirituality in our own time,
        I am brought again directly
           into the most positive and powerful expression
                of our greatest spiritual reality:

So I'll say it again:
    We are all in this thing together.

Even if we don't always see it or think so, it is still true.

No matter how broadly we define all of us
     and now matter how broadly we see this thing we are in,
           we are still in it together.

It is no less true now
    than it was deep in dream time 75,000 years ago!

What we are only beginning to recognize
    is something that the most ancient women and men
          of Shamanic spirituality saw clearly:

We are one with Nature and with each other.

The calving of a giant iceberg off of an ice shelf in Antarctica
      is something happening to us all
            no matter how far away we may think we are.

The universes themselves
   are singing a song more ancient than life as we know it,
      and we are ourselves a part of that song.

There is consciousness all around us, everywhere we look,
    and we all belong to it as does our own awareness.

Evolution does not only apply
  to the creatures we know and recognize.

Our planet itself is evolving,
      and our understanding of that evolution
            may enable us to survive upon it.

However we may choose to define or understand
  the Great Spirit, the divine being
     in which we all live and love and have our being,
         that great spiritual reality is also evolving,
             learning and growing along with us.

Process theology,
 a magnificent understanding of divine life everywhere evolving,
    may seem to be a very contemporary phenomenon.

It would not be so far removed
   from a holy man or woman among the Coeur D'Alene people
     with whom we live.

It would not seem so very strange
  to an Australian Aboriginal Shaman
     who lived many tens of thousands of years ago.

What has gone around has come around,
   right back to the beginning,
      and that circle of spiritual understanding
            can be for all of us children of the stars
                  an assurance that there is more to us and our lives
                      than what meets the eye at the surface.

Amen.

Ameen.

Omeyn.

So mote it be.

Blessed be!