Siberian Shamanism: The Shanar Ritual of the Buryats
by Virlana Tkacz and Sayan Zhambalov. With Wanda Phipps, Alexander Khantaev (Photographs),
Itzhak Beery (Foreword), John Perkins (Foreword)
Itzhak Beery (Foreword), John Perkins (Foreword)
This remarkable book follows Volodya through his personal odyssey to be initiated by Spirit, which needs to enter his body. He needs the help of his ancestors’ spirits and the support of his community—a powerful metaphor that can touch us all, reminding us of the importance of being in close contact and in harmony with our ancestral and land spirits. Although Volodya’s struggle may not seem logical to many in our modern society, it is one we can easily identify with emotionally and symbolically.
Many years ago in my neighborhood in New York City I found myself, entirely by coincidence, glued to my seat with an open mouth, riveted as I watched the Flight of the White Bird at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club. Unprepared, I was transmuted through magical layers of realities where time and space ceased to exist.
This Yara Arts Group performance was conceived and directed by Virlana and was based on a legend of the Buryats, an indigenous people in south Siberia. It delicately wove spoken words with songs, music, movement, rituals, and ceremonies. It was like nothing I had seen before. I may not remember all the story’s details, but I still feel its power in every part my physical and emotional bodies. In that short time I developed a deep emotional identification with the heroine. It was as if we were all transported to the expanses of the tundra, but really it could have been anywhere. It had no specific timeframe but could have been at any time. Although it was a story of one person it had a universal message rooted in the common human experience, connecting the sum of our lives with the Great Mystery of life.
Since then I have attended other productions by her company. Each time Virlana captured the magical dualistic nature of our world—the interaction of the seen and unseen worlds—and brought it into our lives. I believe you will experience this while reading the story Virlana wrote with Sayan Zhambalov and Wanda Phipps and seeing Alexander Khantaev’s beautiful authentic pictures of the Shanar—the shaman’s dedication ceremony.
You will witness the power of the rituals and ceremonies shamanic traditions have held for millennia all around the world wherever humans exist. We need this understanding to feel wholly connected—with all our senses—to the entirety of the universe around us. In many ways like the initiate in this book who struggles to gain acceptance from the spirit world, we as a society struggle to be accepted and authenticated as the guardians of the earth.
If you pay attention, you will notice there is a rumbling under the surface of the mainstream controlled media today. It’s an undercurrent of hot lava oozing from the depth of people’s souls. It carries with it deep passion and old yearnings. It’s a burning desire of millions of people around the world—mostly in the technologically advanced societies—to fully re-experience the world with all their sensory capacity as their ancestors did many thousands of years ago. It is a strong desire to be engaged with flesh and blood communities, to experience the magic and mystery of life through rituals and ceremonies.
The statistics on Shaman Portal (www.shamanportal.org), the website I founded as a hub for the global shamanic community, show that more than three-quarters of the visitors come from the United States and Europe, and in the United States most are from San Francisco’s Silicon Valley and New York City. I believe it is not by coincidence.
Today, we are waking up to the realization that our “primitive” ancestors held a secret key to fully understand and embrace the physical and spiritual world. That knowledge enabled them to live a sustainable life and in balance with Mother Earth and themselves. A skill we as a “modern” society have forgotten and run away from. Many in our Western culture are now embarking on a journey of remembrance of who we humans truly are. We are rediscovering the intimate interdependent relationship between the natural world, the spirit world, the entire cosmos, and us. I believe we are too sophisticated, educated, and well informed these days to uncritically conform to governments rules, corporate media, messages medical and insurance institutions regulations, and most of all organized religions who dictate us how to live our lives, what to believe in, and how to think. We urgently want to independently find that wisdom from the source, the spirit world. We can find this in the shamanic practice through ancient ceremonies and rituals that provide that direct connection.
The practice of what we call shamanism is slowly rising to the surface. Movies, books, music, and computer games with shamanic characters and themes are abounding. Thousands of people are going to South America and other continents every year to experience first-hand encounters with plant medicine and life-changing visions. Thousands are traveling to all the corners of the Earth to participate in workshops and training in an effort to reconnect with their spirit guides, reclaim their full potential, and awaken their shut down senses.
I’m convinced that we human beings are truly living in multidimensional realities. As humans, we have the ability to perceive knowledge, images, and information otherwise hidden from our limited range of senses by shifting from the earthly plane into a shamanic state of higher vibrational consciousness. I’m convinced that this ability has been central to humans’ survival from the moment we first walked on this planet.
As the ancient Inca prophesies point out, beginning in 1993 we entered into a new Pachacuti, a five-hundred-year period of realignment and correction of the human journey and consciousness. It is time to be awakened and accept our true nature by living in equilibrium and harmony between the two opposing and complementary forces of the feminine and masculine that exist within each of us. It is a time to take the long overdue journey from our minds to meet our hearts. Only then, when the heart and the mind accept each other in harmony, can we resolve war, poverty, and environmental destruction to ensure future generations’ survival.
The big sensory shutdown is real. Look at the millions of eyes that are relentlessly glued to the two-dimensional screens of our smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs. Aren't we becoming handicapped, dependent, and purely apathetic as we trade in our birthright sensual gifts and abilities for the gifts of technology? The practice of shamanism through rituals, ceremonies, and life stage initiations helps us reestablish a sense of awe of the universe. It helps us gain a new perspective on life and recognize our ability of “seeing” or intuition—our sixth sense.
As you read through this extraordinary account, see the striking pictures, and recite the chants, I am certain you will be transported into that world yourself. You will get to know the human side of the shamans, fall in love with the sacred grounds, learn about the sacred ritual objects, witness the cleansing ceremonies, and participate in the offerings for the sacred land, ancestors, and spirits. You will go through the doubts and tribulations of the initiate and of his community and celebrate his triumph as spirit finally embraces the new shaman. Volodya’s personal accomplishments come to ensure the successful continuation and the well being of his lineage and that of the whole community into the future. It is a blueprint for modern society to ensure our own fragile future as well.
Many years ago in my neighborhood in New York City I found myself, entirely by coincidence, glued to my seat with an open mouth, riveted as I watched the Flight of the White Bird at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club. Unprepared, I was transmuted through magical layers of realities where time and space ceased to exist.
This Yara Arts Group performance was conceived and directed by Virlana and was based on a legend of the Buryats, an indigenous people in south Siberia. It delicately wove spoken words with songs, music, movement, rituals, and ceremonies. It was like nothing I had seen before. I may not remember all the story’s details, but I still feel its power in every part my physical and emotional bodies. In that short time I developed a deep emotional identification with the heroine. It was as if we were all transported to the expanses of the tundra, but really it could have been anywhere. It had no specific timeframe but could have been at any time. Although it was a story of one person it had a universal message rooted in the common human experience, connecting the sum of our lives with the Great Mystery of life.
Since then I have attended other productions by her company. Each time Virlana captured the magical dualistic nature of our world—the interaction of the seen and unseen worlds—and brought it into our lives. I believe you will experience this while reading the story Virlana wrote with Sayan Zhambalov and Wanda Phipps and seeing Alexander Khantaev’s beautiful authentic pictures of the Shanar—the shaman’s dedication ceremony.
You will witness the power of the rituals and ceremonies shamanic traditions have held for millennia all around the world wherever humans exist. We need this understanding to feel wholly connected—with all our senses—to the entirety of the universe around us. In many ways like the initiate in this book who struggles to gain acceptance from the spirit world, we as a society struggle to be accepted and authenticated as the guardians of the earth.
If you pay attention, you will notice there is a rumbling under the surface of the mainstream controlled media today. It’s an undercurrent of hot lava oozing from the depth of people’s souls. It carries with it deep passion and old yearnings. It’s a burning desire of millions of people around the world—mostly in the technologically advanced societies—to fully re-experience the world with all their sensory capacity as their ancestors did many thousands of years ago. It is a strong desire to be engaged with flesh and blood communities, to experience the magic and mystery of life through rituals and ceremonies.
The statistics on Shaman Portal (www.shamanportal.org), the website I founded as a hub for the global shamanic community, show that more than three-quarters of the visitors come from the United States and Europe, and in the United States most are from San Francisco’s Silicon Valley and New York City. I believe it is not by coincidence.
Today, we are waking up to the realization that our “primitive” ancestors held a secret key to fully understand and embrace the physical and spiritual world. That knowledge enabled them to live a sustainable life and in balance with Mother Earth and themselves. A skill we as a “modern” society have forgotten and run away from. Many in our Western culture are now embarking on a journey of remembrance of who we humans truly are. We are rediscovering the intimate interdependent relationship between the natural world, the spirit world, the entire cosmos, and us. I believe we are too sophisticated, educated, and well informed these days to uncritically conform to governments rules, corporate media, messages medical and insurance institutions regulations, and most of all organized religions who dictate us how to live our lives, what to believe in, and how to think. We urgently want to independently find that wisdom from the source, the spirit world. We can find this in the shamanic practice through ancient ceremonies and rituals that provide that direct connection.
The practice of what we call shamanism is slowly rising to the surface. Movies, books, music, and computer games with shamanic characters and themes are abounding. Thousands of people are going to South America and other continents every year to experience first-hand encounters with plant medicine and life-changing visions. Thousands are traveling to all the corners of the Earth to participate in workshops and training in an effort to reconnect with their spirit guides, reclaim their full potential, and awaken their shut down senses.
I’m convinced that we human beings are truly living in multidimensional realities. As humans, we have the ability to perceive knowledge, images, and information otherwise hidden from our limited range of senses by shifting from the earthly plane into a shamanic state of higher vibrational consciousness. I’m convinced that this ability has been central to humans’ survival from the moment we first walked on this planet.
As the ancient Inca prophesies point out, beginning in 1993 we entered into a new Pachacuti, a five-hundred-year period of realignment and correction of the human journey and consciousness. It is time to be awakened and accept our true nature by living in equilibrium and harmony between the two opposing and complementary forces of the feminine and masculine that exist within each of us. It is a time to take the long overdue journey from our minds to meet our hearts. Only then, when the heart and the mind accept each other in harmony, can we resolve war, poverty, and environmental destruction to ensure future generations’ survival.
The big sensory shutdown is real. Look at the millions of eyes that are relentlessly glued to the two-dimensional screens of our smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs. Aren't we becoming handicapped, dependent, and purely apathetic as we trade in our birthright sensual gifts and abilities for the gifts of technology? The practice of shamanism through rituals, ceremonies, and life stage initiations helps us reestablish a sense of awe of the universe. It helps us gain a new perspective on life and recognize our ability of “seeing” or intuition—our sixth sense.
As you read through this extraordinary account, see the striking pictures, and recite the chants, I am certain you will be transported into that world yourself. You will get to know the human side of the shamans, fall in love with the sacred grounds, learn about the sacred ritual objects, witness the cleansing ceremonies, and participate in the offerings for the sacred land, ancestors, and spirits. You will go through the doubts and tribulations of the initiate and of his community and celebrate his triumph as spirit finally embraces the new shaman. Volodya’s personal accomplishments come to ensure the successful continuation and the well being of his lineage and that of the whole community into the future. It is a blueprint for modern society to ensure our own fragile future as well.