Shamanistic cosmology

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The shamanic cosmology describes the (historical) world view in classical shamanism of the historic peoples of Siberia . It was consistently present until Christianization or Russification . Today, after centuries of oppression and persecution - even among shamans who are practicing again today - only a fragmentary knowledge remains. The following statements come from older ethnographic records by European researchers, the authenticity of which is sometimes questionable and can no longer be verified.

The term shamanism is used here as a collective term for the very similar animistic religions of these ethnic groups. In the context of the spiritual shamanism theses by Mircea Eliade , Michael Harner and other authors, shamanistic cosmology is often extended to many other cultural areas on earth. Despite some analogous similarities, such conclusions are now considered obsolete.

Basic assumptions

Siberian cosmology contains five basic assumptions : Your worldview is fundamentally dualistic . A distinction is made between the profane , this world of human beings and the sacred , other world of spirits and ancestors.

  1. The world with its living and dead things is animated. This is the concept of animism .
  2. After death there is a life in another world. This is the concept of ancestor worship and involves the idea of immortality and one or more personal souls .
  3. In order to give these basic assumptions the opportunity to unfold, the visible and assumed invisible world has a certain structure formed and / or controlled by one or more highest beings or spirit powers. This is the concept of the high god surrounded by numerous lesser metaphysical entities ( henotheism ).
  4. In this world there exist bodiless beings on all levels who can penetrate these levels and exercise power. This is the concept of belief in spirits .
  5. Humans live in the field of tension of this cosmic system and have a responsibility towards this overall system, above all towards compliance with the rules and thus harmony. Illnesses and other negative events can be based on a violation of these rules, which must then be "cured" again. This is the concept of a harmonious understanding of the world that also includes the principles of sustainable ecology .

World building

The three-world cosmology is depicted on some shaman's drums. A vertical arrow symbolizes the world tree that stands in the middle of the world. It connects the underworld, earthly world and heaven with one another. This representation can be found on the eardrums of the Turks, Mongols and Tungus in Central Asia and Siberia. The shamanic worldview is structured vertically and divided into three worlds: the upper, middle and lower world, without any connection with the Christian division between heaven, earth and hell, which is based on a good-bad rating. The boundaries between these worlds are not always sharply drawn, blurring again and again and are particularly permeable at certain times (night, between the seasons), so that contact between the residents is possible and they can also move to the other levels. However, the understanding of this world is strongly ethnocentric , that is, the focus of creation is always where one's own people are.

The shamans have their origin in these ideas of the permeability of the worlds . As the Siberian myths report, in the past all people could cross these borders, even if such journeys were very strenuous and long. Because of the inability of people to communicate with the inhabitants of the other worlds, to whom they were invisible, and because the spirits on the other side could not bear contact with people, it finally became customary for only people who were selected and trained by the spirits undertook such journeys: the shamans as trained mediators, their real primary function.

Overview

The following basic ideas can be found:

  • The earth is seen as a round disc, which is surrounded by the ocean, a river or mountains.
  • The sky is either a huge tent roof with several sewn main seams (the Milky Way ) or a semi-dome-shaped fortress, as is the case with nomadic pastoralists . The sky dome rests on the edges of the earth's disk, but rises and falls so that winds and migratory birds can flow in and leave the world again. Stars are holes in the sky through which the light of the bright upper world penetrates. The pole star is a large nail in the middle or the hole for the world axis or the world tree , the roots of which rest on the floor of the underworld and pierce the earth's disk in the earth's navel, thus connecting the lower, middle and upper world with one another (cf. the world ash Yggdrasil of Germanic mythology).
  • Stars and constellations circle around the North Star. They are attached to it, the world axis or the world tree by invisible straps.
  • The world axis and world tree are connecting paths between the worlds for shamans and spirit powers. With some Siberian peoples the idea of ​​a huge reindeer can be found in place of the world tree, which supports the sky with its antlers and from which the sun and moon are suspended.

The three worlds

The upper and lower world are further subdivided into different layers (nine and seven respectively), which are assigned to certain spiritual powers. The middle world is reserved for the living, the lower one for the dead souls who live in the root system of the world tree, as well as a multitude of nature spirits and demons. The world tree has accordingly many branch levels.

  • The upper world: This is where the higher spirits live , who rule the elements such as fire and water, landscapes such as the taiga, the mountains, rivers and lakes and important animals ( master and mistress of animals ), as well as cosmic phenomena such as the sun, moon and stars as well the winds. The creator deities also live here, and they are present in many different myths. The upper spirits are deeply revered by the people and have a human shape among the Siberian peoples. The harmonious coexistence with them is the basis of human existence and is secured by numerous taboos and rituals. The success of the hunt depends on their benevolence.
  • The underworld: It lies within the earth and is the area of ​​the dead and shadows, of various evil spirits, demons and monsters. It is structured socially like the human world, that is, as a continuation of earthly life with clans, hunting, fishing, etc. Some Siberian tribes, however, imagine it as the reversal of the human world: day is night, summer is winter, etc. Others believe the dead only fed on locusts, had ice eyes etc.
  • The Middle World : It is the sphere of living beings, humans, animals and plants. However, people are never alone, but surrounded by ghosts, good and bad. Various magical measures such as amulets are necessary to protect against their influences . The spirits must not be angry and may need to be appeased.

Soul, spirits, concept of the hereafter

Souls

According to the ideas of some ethnic groups, humans could have several of them, with the Yakuts, for example, three: the earth soul responsible for the well-being of the body, the air soul, which regulates the coexistence within the community and the environment, and the mother soul, which is consciousness and Thinking determined. All three souls together form the life force (Kout-Sur) , which determines the well-being of humans as a whole.
Humans can also have a mirror soul, which one sees when looking into the water, and a shadow soul, which is only visible in sunshine. The soul can separate itself from the body under certain circumstances, for example voluntarily, as with the shaman, or forcibly, as with serious illnesses. She also wanders around in dreams and occasionally comes into contact with spirits, which can cause illness or death. At death it detaches itself from the body and, accompanied by the shaman, returns to its origin in the underworld or passes into the body of a future person (see also: transmigration of souls ) .

Ideas of the afterlife

In order to be able to move safely in the sometimes dangerous hereafter, the shaman needed precise knowledge of all levels, highly differentiated “mental maps” of the otherworldly worlds. Spirits had their home areas, which had to be found and which sometimes, since these worlds reflected the human world, were quite dangerous and only accessible via arduous routes or were threatened by monsters and evil spirits. He had to continue to know their customs and speak their spirit language. Although he was guided by his helping spirits, he would be helpless without knowledge of the “topography of the hereafter”, its dangers and the best entry points. The shaman also had to know the exact location of the realm of the dead in order to visit the ancestors or to guide the dead there. He also had to know the location of the “soul germination centers”, where new souls were created, the location of safe hiding places for sick souls, the whereabouts of the spirit powers whom he could ask for protection and help. In the minds of the Siberian people there were real “shaman's territories” in the afterlife , which passed from one shaman to the other, and which the shaman kept secret. They were often guarded by a special guardian spirit. There was often a kind of shelter in which endangered souls could be housed. If a shaman died, his soul would return here and wait until it could pass on to a new shaman. The idea of ​​such shaman territories was widespread. Some shamans owned two such territories, but kept this knowledge top secret.

Spirit Powers

The beyond of shamanic cosmology is populated by a number of differently powerful spiritual powers with different areas of responsibility. They must be exactly known to the shaman so that he can carry out his duties.

  • Evil and sickness spirits : More serious illnesses were mostly caused by highly specialized spirits who are only “responsible” for a single illness. The shaman had to know them all and how to contact them in order to intervene.
  • Lord / mistress of the animals: Both were particularly important for the hunter-gatherer and fisher-people. They belonged to the elemental spirits such as water, mountain, forest, river spirits etc. and mostly lived far away in the depths of the mountains or the forest of this world or in the depths of the sea (e.g. with the Eskimos), in the root system of the world tree, etc. There was one master of all animals who in Siberia was thought to be in the form of a bear (because the bear occasionally walks on two legs and is extremely dangerous). In addition, there were the mothers of individual animal species, provided they were hunted. If the hunt was not successful, they were asked for help. The animals were usually killed according to a certain ritual, and the respective wild spirit made sure that no more was killed than necessary. The bones, especially the skull, were considered the seats of the soul and were therefore deposited as offerings and some peoples sent them back to the lord of the animals so that he could bring them back to life.
  • Ancestral spirits : In certain emergency situations, such as when too many children died or were born, the shaman had to visit the ancestors and ask for advice and help. They were often alsopresentthrough idols .
  • Helping spirits: Like the guardian spirits, they are essential for the shaman's activity - especially during the journey to the hereafter in the so-called ritual ecstasy . Different types perform different activities. Helping spirits were found in nature, that is, spring, tree, mountain spirits, etc. But mostly they were wild spirits that appeared in the form of certain animals or people and could change their appearance at any time. The spirits of dead shamans were also sometimes auxiliary spirits. A shaman usually had several such auxiliary spirits, the more the better, since each spirit only had a single competence, be it as a travel medium for water or air, be it a certain illness. The shaman's auxiliary spirits were considered blood relatives, which required a very close and good mutual bond. Their services were provided on a mutual basis. As idols, they were part of the shaman's equipment, they were fed, clothed, given places of honor, etc. If the spirits were dissatisfied with their treatment, they could leave the shaman, punish him, drive him crazy or even kill him.
  • Guardian Spirits: They were even more important than the auxiliary spirits. In the high cultural shamanism of East Asia, they were and are veritable protective gods. Usually this was just a single spirit power, such as the spirit of a deceased family shaman. In the northern Taiga area it was mostly a female spirit power, which then often appeared in animal form as the "animal mother". This maternal aspect is based on the idea that the future shaman was hatched in an egg by the mother bird in the hereafter or was taken in and born by the animal mothers. When he was born on earth, the shaman brought his guardian spirit with him, who was closely related to him, sometimes even including his identity outside of the séances . He then only saw this spirit three times in his life: during his otherworldly birth, initiation and before death. Accordingly, a shaman called in this way had an animal-human dual nature. Everything that happened to the animal mother he suffered himself. Because of this extremely close bond, the animal mother occasionally blurred with the mistress of the animals, so that the shaman became the brother of the animals. If the guardian spirit acted as a helping spirit, he became their leader and received the same treatment with idols, etc. However, if the shaman neglected his duties towards his guardian spirit, the guardian spirit abandoned him, he lost his abilities, fell ill and died.
  • Deities and nature spirits: They generally do not play a major role in classical shamanism. Occasionally the very distant High God residing in the upper world had to be asked for help when it could not be obtained otherwise. In the shamanism of the hunters and gatherers as well as the shepherds , gods otherwise played no further role, in elemental spirits only earth goddess, weather and sea gods, later fire gods. Weather and earth gods belong to peoples with soil, sea gods to fish. In the syncretistically influenced ethnic groups of South Siberia and Central Asia, however, there are already transitions to polytheism . Thus, among the Mongols and certain Turkic peoples, a good goddess Ülgen with the high god has seven sons and nine daughters, similar to the goddess Tengri among the South Siberian Buryats . In total, the Buryats know 99 gods, 55 good and 44 bad, who are also characterized as white and black and are the subject of the existing white and black shamanism . The head of the black, Erlik , is the ruler of the underworld.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Till Mostowlansky: Islam and Kyrgyz on Tour. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-447-05583-3 . Pp. 42-48, 64-66, 76, 86-87.
  2. ↑ Michael Kleinod: Shamanism and Globalization. Essay in the context of the seminar Cultural Globalization and Localization, Ethnology, University of Trier 2005, ISBN. Pp. 4-7.
  3. ↑ Hans Peter Duerr (ed.): Longing for the origin: to Mircea Eliade. Syndicate, Frankfurt / M. 1983, ISBN 9783810802118 . P. 218.
  4. ↑ Karin Riedl: artist shamans. On the appropriation of the shaman concept with Jim Morrison and Joseph Beuys. transcript, Bielefeld 2014. ISBN 978-3-8376-2683-4 . Pp. 105-106.
  5. ↑ Britannica, Vol. 26, pp. 537-540, pp. 1013 ff.
  6. ↑ box, p. 50; Müller, p. 38; Hultkrantz, p. 10.
  7. ↑ Two websites with samples of shaman's drums: [1] [2] , viewed on December 23, 2010
  8. ↑ a b Gorbatcheva, pp. 156-179.
  9. ↑ Müller, p. 38 ff .; Eliade: shamanism. Pp. 249-263.
  10. ↑ Gorbatcheva, S. 155th
  11. ↑ a b Britannica, Vol. 26, p. 1014.
  12. ↑ Eliade: History of Religious Ideas. Vol. 1, p. 19.