EMBRACING WORLDS
To a large extent, the word shaman, which comes from the oral traditions of other cultures, is still a fascinating mystery. Thanks to the work of anthropologists, ethnologists, and explorers, it has found its way into books and general knowledge. The word derives from samān, a word used by Tungusian tribes in Siberia, which in turn most likely derived from a Chinese word, itself the transcription of a technical term for the designation of a Buddhist monk or ascetic word in the Indian language Pāli, used today in Theravāda Buddhist liturgies. In the narrow sense of the word, a shaman was the mediator between different worlds, contacting them in an ecstatic trance achieved through specific techniques and teachings, in order to restore balance in their community and heal diseases. While etymologically speaking, shamans should only live in the Arctic-Siberian region, today—thanks to the research of religious historian Mircea Eliade and anthropologist Michael Harner—the word shaman is used to indicate various similar experiences in different parts of the world, as well as in different eras. In Europe, there is evidence of shamanism in Scandinavian traditions, in ancient Greece, and in Celtic myths and stories. In a broader sense, shamans belong to animistic cultures, where the concept of animism is not linked to the idea of
ORPHEUS
keyword: LIMITS
I am parched with thirst and perishing!/Then come drink of me, the Ever-Flowing Spring/On the right—a bright cypress is there. Who are you? Where are you from?/I am the son of Earth and Starry Heaven. But my race is heavenly. This is the inscription on a thin, gold orphic tablet from the fourth century BC, found inside a cinerary urn in Thessaly. These tablets were named after Orpheus, the ancient bard who could speak to animals and dared to pass through the gates of hell while he was still alive. Poetry is a form of shamanism that takes place in language: each word acquires value in the verses and has the power to re-enchant the world, literally singing the world within us and the world singing us within it. Orpheus, son of the muse Calliope, the beautiful voice that inspired epic poetry, lost his wife Eurydice after she was bitten by a poisonous snake. He went to recover her from hell, where he used his harp and voice to appeal to Hades, the god of the Underworld. Hades allowed Eurydice to return to the world with Orpheus on one condition: that Orpheus not turn around to look at Eurydice on their way back. But Orpheus looked back, anxious to see if his wife was following him, and Eurydice disappeared back into the Underworld forever. Although a shaman can travel to other realms, they cannot defeat death; this is our necessary limit, making us who we are and driving us to continue on our path.
When we encounter Orpheus, we know our limits. They are the driving force behind living, even when they stand out clearly in our pain.
AUA
keyword: COMMUNITY
During their friendship, Inuit shaman Aua explained what fear was to Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen. “We fear the sickness that we meet with daily all around us; not death, but the suffering. […] We fear what we see about us, and we fear all the invisible things that are likewise about us, all that we have heard of in our forefathers’ stories and myths. Therefore we have our customs, which are not the same as those of the white men, the white men who live in another land and have need of other ways.” Fear of the souls of dead human beings and the animals they killed, because every living being has a soul, dignity, and a population to which it belongs and wants to return. In a particularly hostile land like the Arctic, fear was tangible, as were the problems of existence. Aua told the explorer many things: how the mothers of the earth and sea either aided or hindered their hunting; how the shaman had to ingratiate the various spirits to protect his people, respecting all the rules, from the relationships between men and other species. Above all, his words portray a sense of community and mutual respect, which is far more important than that of individual value. In the Arctic, you must survive together. In a place where the land and climate are harsh every day, conflicts must be reduced to a minimum. But they also reveal their beauty, which in summer arouses songs of joy.
The shaman Aua reminds us that the adventure of existence is collective and that our meaning shines in the other beings with whom we grow up and share the earth, whether they are humans or animals.
DAVI KOPENAWA
keyword: RESPONSIBILITY
“The shamans do not only repel the dangerous things to protect the inhabitants of the forest. They also work to protect the white people who live under the same sky. This is why if all those who know how to call the xapiri die, the white people will remain alone and helpless on their ravaged land, assailed by a multitude of evil beings they don’t know.” This is what Davi Kopenawa, shaman, leader, and spokesperson for the Yanomami, an Amazon tribe, says in a beautiful book interview with anthropologist Bruce Albert. His words warn us that it's not possible to continue to exploit lives and substances as if we were in a huge store of our own making. Shamans work around the invisible essence of everything that exists, defending their dignity and right to be. They make the spirits dance, reminding us that things which are alive cannot be controlled but rather must be welcomed with wonder; that the worst of diseases are broken balances, the terrible oblivion that comes from a mad sense of possessing the world. Davi Kopenawa is one of today's exceptional people. He doesn’t need books, or “image skins” as he calls them, to understand the spiritual and political sense of stories. Perhaps today salvation comes precisely from the oppressed peoples of the West, minorities according to most, but in reality, peoples deeply connected to the earth.
Encountering this shaman in the oracle means recognizing the sense of mutual responsibility that connects us and frees us from one another.
REINDEER
keyword: JOY
Nomadic peoples are inextricably linked to the animals they hunt and raise. Material survival depends on them, and through them the imagination creates myths, cosmic stories, and prophecies. The Sami in Northern Europe and on the Kola Peninsula believe that a large white reindeer, which sometimes has anthropomorphic aspects, is the progenitor of the universe: the rivers came from its veins, the forest from its fur, the mountains from its horns, and the ocean from its internal organs. We return to the reindeer goddess after death, freeing the spirit; everything happens inside her body. Everyday coexistence with the reindeer—including killing it and using its body parts to produce food, clothing, amulets, drumskins, and tents—entails sincere respect for the animal, which must be honored and thanked. Therefore, in the relationship with the animal, justice doesn’t depend on letting it live but on recognizing it as a fundamental part of the ecosystem that defines and supports us, thereby recognizing ourselves and the balance between violence and love in this inevitably living world. Animal feelings become universal through recognition. Like the reindeer, we fear predators and try to flee; like the reindeer, we welcome children to the feast of the awakening; like the reindeer, we live in a society with our individual solitude.
If the reindeer manifests itself in the oracle, then it comes as a messenger of joy, because joy is daily courage, a truce between beings, where everything shines and affective kinships emerge. Let’s embrace it.
HORSE
keyword: LOVE
Horses are in the waves of the ocean as they build up and grow, and in the waves of the wind that disrupt the earth in swirls of sand, leaves, snow, and dust. Like water and air, the horse carries the substance of life and leads elsewhere, to beauty. This large, mild, and strong herbivore, whose gallop evokes images of joy and freedom, has— despite itself—become humans’ companion in wars, labor, and urban traffic. It’s worth remembering the gesture of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In Turin at the end of the nineteenth century, his reaction to the sight of a coachman fiercely whipping his horse was to run and embrace the animal. That moment is considered the beginning of the great philosopher’s mental breakdown, but from another point of view, it represents an awakening to solidarity between species, to compassion toward a creature that is so beautiful and yet so submissive. In Mongolian tradition, the soul is believed to be a horse carried by the wind. A free horse, capable of establishing an extraordinary relationship with humans based on understanding. It stands out for its domestication and pride; are these not also the characteristics of love? They get close to each other, while the wild nature of the horse is being discovered and respected. Riding this animal means abandoning yourself to trust, to the elements, to be able to feel at one with a creature so different in form and language.
In this oracle, the horse asks us to allow ourselves to be domesticated, to trust in ourselves, and to love with dedication and a sense of wonder. Through the horse, we welcome our soul. We protect it and let it take its steps, gain confidence, and gallop independently to other realms.
DRUM
keyword: TRADITION
The drum beats to the rhythm of a heart. Whose is it? It’s the heart of one person, of someone who wants to heal, someone who loves, someone who’s afraid, someone who seeks other worlds and the meaning of this one; it’s the heart of the animal that runs alongside us; it’s the heart of the plant sap that regenerates the earth; it’s the heart of the community in which an individual establishes their identity; it’s the heart of deep time, of the origin of existence, finally reunited with our present. It’s a clap of thunder, a cry, interrupted silence, a constant rhythm. In many Arctic traditions, the frame drum is the fundamental tool of a shaman; they use it to visit the spirits. The skin, wood, and metal from which it’s made are the conductors of other lives within our own. Some drums, such as the oval one used by the Sami, are painted ochre and depict the symbols of the various worlds the shaman crosses; spirits, animals, places, and natural persons can all be found on its surface. Therefore, the drum tells, and will continue to tell, many stories. They are stories of awakening, loss, ecstasy, and knowledge of something else existing alongside us, of the universal secret.
In this oracle, the drum embodies tradition, which is represented in the broadest sense of the word: the land from which we come, that which shapes us, the traditions we encounter on our spiritual journey and incorporate into our vision. Beating the drum means resonating with what vibrates before and after us. Learn a shared ancestral alphabet to create your own.
FEATHER
keyword: MESSAGE
When you pick up a feather from the ground, you are holding an animal fragment that can rise into the air when joined to the rest of the bird’s body. In many traditional stories, a feathered coat can be removed and worn as a mantle, so as to move on Earth, in the sky, and among different people. Feathers are part of shamans' and healers’ costumes or headgear; each feather is connected to the bird it belongs to, guarding and representing its abilities, but also representing something that has nothing to do with the creature. A feather can be light, colorful, robust, or very fragile, and is a pledge and emblem of a close yet still unreachable world, whether it’s the sky above us or the future that is about to happen. When a feather comes to us, it is a sign, the word of a spirit or of one of our dead, the advice of a guide bird, a tool for communicating with the heavens. For some peoples, a feather is a means of sending prayers, an offering in spiritual healing rituals that allows the soul to rid itself of its worries and suffering. Poles decorated with feathers—in the Māori culture, for example—can be excellent tools for transporting the spirits of the dead to the afterlife. A feather headdress can free the mind of conditioning and allow it to access a higher state of consciousness.
In this oracle, the feather—either a gift, or returning from or to another reality—is a message, usually auspicious, that can change our daily destiny.
ESSENCE
Every journey is essence’s desire to return to itself. But essence is the final truth, and we are not allowed to meet it as long as we are alive. Residing in it would mean not acting, not feeling restless anymore, not remembering the courage of joy, not moving. Essence resembles a seed whose flower is the unraveling of our existence, our thoughts, our growth, and our aging. It’s the center of the circle and what brings it to fruition in the final moment. Do not believe that it’s invisible—it’s as exposed as it is hidden. It’s the microcosm of a person, scattered and reflected in the macrocosm of the world-system, and vice versa; it’s the world that comes to awaken every physical and spiritual part of a human. Sometimes essence is best seen when distant from love, leaving another human or nonhuman animal, or a plant, a place, an element of the earth, to deliver it in a chest we won’t investigate too much. If we wanted to interpret its contents, it would move elsewhere. It’s the multitude into which we fragment, and it’s the multitude to which we can give voice. In this oracle, the card reading can be inspired by and tend toward essence, as well as to the value of the story we are being told. But beware: essence doesn’t coincide with morality. In this story, essence might surprise us, taking on the appearance of a person, or opening a new scenario where we thought we had already achieved our goal.
While the threshold is departure and arrival, essence is openness. To touch it, you have to be ready to lose it.