yep, my picture...all rights reserved
See, my day really is going well today, what with the research and the muddling through my own daily toil thing going on.
I found another incredible post…as I am so wont to do of late…mostly because, it seems, I have nothing better to do w my time too often…
Kelley Harrell…she sees dead people. She wrote a very intelligent post here. I know. In this day and age, people who ‘come out of the closet’ are always suspect, whether it’s the family skeleton in the closet, the guy w the boyfriend in the closet, or the broom closet or the whatever closet… I always find it strange how ‘normal’ people shun anyone who is ‘different’—but if you start looking closer at those ‘normal’ people, you will quickly see how normal they are not, for the most part.
I love people, like Kelley, who are honest, and intelligent, and who don’t look as if they’ve escaped from the funny farm (there are too many local ‘Pagans’ I know that fit that bill) or the circus…or the alien mothership. I also have a terrific appreciation for anyone Pagan who does not stress the ‘sexual freedom’ of being Pagan. (It’s another local issue ‘round here.)
I also enjoy reading her bit about how if the sky turns one color you ‘know’ it shouldn’t and then turns back to its ‘normal’ color, it doesn’t mean you’re crazy, and you should appreciate the what you saw, without judgment—of either yourself or the sky.
I like knowing I am not the only one out there who speaks w the Dead, who deals and works w the Energetic fields, who converses w Spirit, who connects w Nature on a much deeper and more vocal level, who can talk to animals, and trees and too many other things. It makes me feel…safer. In a strange way.
Long ago, people like us would have been prized, valued. Now, people edge away in fear of what they do not want to know or understand. Their loss.
I am interested in one term though. NeoShaman. I am surrounded by Neo’s. Neo, according to dictionary.com, means: “1. a combining form meaning “new,” “recent,” “revived,” “modified,” used in the formation of compound words: neo-Darwinism; Neolithic; neoorthodoxy; neophyte.” Although, I am also amused that NEO stands for ‘Near Earth Object’, but I won’t go there right now.
I live with a self-proclaimed Neo-Pagan Christian. I have Neo-Pagan friends and associates. But NeoShaman is not a term with which I am familiar. I do understand the implications of ‘New Shamanism’, but just never heard it.
Interesting. I am considered a ‘Walking Shaman’, for a variety of reasons I will not get into here. I was gifted with this title by one Mentor because I have a long hard Journey in front of me, no matter where I go or what I do. I am always on that Journey, always walking. I am always Walking my Path, and all that entails. Always going on to the next place, the next space, the next Teacher, looking to learn more. My work and my life are all very fluid. I earned my title of Journeyman. I am not interested in becoming a ‘Master’ in anything I do. I want to keep learning. I want to maintain my beginner’s mind. Yes, I cross a lot of borders and mix many things that other people would never consider mixing. That is why I am considered an Eclectic Pagan, although I wear the Pagan title loosely. I do not consider myself Pagan, for all intents and purposes. I accept the title only because I do not care much for the alternatives. I am far beyond Agnostic. I can lean towards Zen, but there is more Hindu than not. Not to mention my extreme issues concerning Mahayana Buddhism due to the ex. This doesn’t take into account all the other Traditions that I have studied and taken bits and pieces to incorporate into my own thing. And we come right back to all my issues w any and all organized religions.
I like the whole Neo-Shamanism angle here. I have a great deal more to learn about this movement. I have a great deal more to learn about everything, so I like that I get to investigate something new, even as it is something I have studied for over twenty years as well. Making the old new. Maybe my desire to trace things back to their very beginning beginnings is keeping me from seeing the interesting places that things are going and heading to right now. Maybe I should learn to combine the two more, more than I do already. I’ve never considered myself ‘neo’…
Then again, maybe I read too much science fiction and my world view is skewed, more than I will admit to … both the current world and the future world…we’ll have to see where this new Walk leads…
Thank you, Kelley, for writing, and for being in a space where I could find you and learn from you.
