I have always been interested in Shamanism since the first time I read The Teachings of Don Juan. I believe that we as a whole have lost touch with nature. With the daily hustle bustle of the rat race we are a part of, careers, bills, credit, cars, mortgages etc… I believe we take for granted Mother Earth. We also are guilty of pillaging our natural resources with no thought of the results or consequences for our future generations.

The world has changed so much in the past two hundred years and change is accelerating at unbelievable speeds. Since the Industrial Revolution, we have gone from being a largely rural society in which many of us rarely leave an urban environment. We experience the shifting seasons mostly by glimpsing the weather when we stop outside our workplace or visit the supermarket, and by variations in the products we find on the shelves. I was watching a special the other day on the Discovery channel about the Chinese that are building this Super Skyscraper that would contain everything a person would ever need, there by never having a reason to leave the structure for their entire life.

I have been reading some information on the Ainu culture, which was one of the first inhabitants of Hokkaido in Northern Japan. Many people believe Shamanism has roots in Siberia, which seems to be the origination of the Ainu people. The Ainu people lived off the land and had great respect for nature. They were an Animism society and believed that all things had spirits that were to be respected. (similar to the science of everything having it’s own vibration). The Ainu would never take anything without thanks or a gift in return given.

Shamanism is a Gnostic spiritual tradition. Which means it is not imposed from outside through creed or dogma; It is a spirituality that is developed from a person’s own knowledge of the world and his or her own experience of spirit. Shamans have a knowledge of the spiritual structure of life. They see that humans have a relationship – both spiritual and corporal – with all the other beings in the world, and cannot live in Isolation from them. Shamans were the first people to enter a sacred dialogue with creation.

I get irritated when I hear people call others environmental wackos, when in all truth the ones calling the names are so far separated from reality and are in denial of our connection with nature, that the only thing they know is to lash out. It’s funny that when people are made to feel guilty of their lack of caring or improvement in their life they tend to criticize. Similar to the person that is going to start his own business.. How many times is that person told “that is crazy it’s not going to work, your going to lose your behind”. In reality the person trying to improve their life is making others feel guilty in their lack of action or laziness, and in return to make themselves feel better they criticize.

Life is a personal journey, no one is going to live it for you. You have to walk your own path. You must learn your own strengths and weaknesses, your own language of sacredness, your own way of asking the spirits to help and work with you.

Wherever we walk, we can still walk in a sacred manner on this sacred earth