Shamans and mystics are important because they are interpreters of microclimates within our communities. Shamans cultivate their own personal relationships with the divine, with the fundamental principles of life. Their ability to find meaning within the mysteries of the universe, rather than through sanctioned books and renowned figures, necessarily destabilizes authoritarian power structures.
Here’s to all the artists of the world who are able to create so much to love, somehow, while they’re blazing through all the turbulence in the atmosphere of human history.
“The real skill of the practitioner [of magic] lies not in skilled concealment but in the skilled revelation of skilled concealment. Magic is efficacious not despite the trick but on account of its exposure.” — Michael Taussig, from the essay Viscerality, Faith, and Skepticism: Another Theory of Magic River Rites exposes three realms of existence, […]
When we practice looking closely (and then looking closely again, and then again) at a text, or a painting, or person, we can begin to see beyond the categories we normally ascribe to that object. We start to see its suchness, its uniqueness in all the world. We begin think about its history and context. By looking closely, whole new worlds, both interior and exterior, begin to open up, and we can start to make connections between all things, which is the essence of the psychical project.
“‘Modern Spiritualism’ had, after all, started in the United States when the Fox sisters discovered in March 1848 that the spirit of a murdered man communicated with them through raps and taps (Wallace [1874] 1896:152-53). The movement spread quickly and reached England in the early 1850s in the shape of two female American mediums and […]
“The performer sees herself as a medium the spirit passes through.” – Joan Jonas, 1982
Spirit is in everything. The totem is a reminder, a token for the guide. The layered meanings called in through the ambiguous totem lead us through the porthole of the imagination and into the spirit world.
The word magic in English comes from the Greek mageia, where it was used to refer to foreigners from the east, spell casting priests from Babylon. From the very beginning of its contemporary roots, magic was used to refer to the weird and unsettling practices of outsiders.
A word or two about oracles…
A good reading should leave you feeling empowered, clear about a course of action, and more in touch with the strength and love that makes up your true nature.