Monday, August 26, 2013

Aug 27 3-minute Weekly Insight: "What is Shamanism? And how can it help us with our spiritual problems?"

"What is Shamanism?  And how can it help us with our spiritual problems?"

(The 3-minute Weekly Insight from Spirituality U.)

What is Shamanism?  And how can it help us with our spiritual problems?

Shamanism has been practiced for as long as 100,000 years by indigenous peoples in places as far flung as Siberia, Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Greenland, and native North and South America. And though it may be the oldest continuously practiced form of spirituality, it still offers tools that can help us mend our spiritual and psychological wounds.

Shamanism does not focus spirituality on a creator God. Instead, according to longtime shamanism educator Sandra Ingerman, “Shamanism teaches us that everything that exists is alive and has a spirit.  Everything on earth is interconnected and any belief that we are separate from other life forms including the earth, stars, wind, etc is purely an illusion. And it is the shaman’s role in the community to keep harmony and balance between humankind and the forces of nature.”

What is a shaman? Ingerman says that a shaman (male or female) “sees with the heart” and “…interacts directly with the spirits [inherent in all things] to address the spiritual aspect of illness and perform soul retrievals, retrieve lost power, as well as remove spiritual blockages.”
One of shamanism’s core beliefs is that when we fall ill or descend into depression, it is because some portion of our soul has been lost or wandered away, often as a result of trauma. Even though shamans perform a wide variety of functions and rituals, a key practice related to “soul retrieval” is shamanic journeying.

Shamanic journeying involves the use of rhythmic sound (e.g. drumming) to place us in a state in which we can undertake a type of creative visualization in which we connect with a power animal (serving as something like a guardian angel), or with a wise human being, both of whom can give us the advice we need.

Through conversation with these beings and through the posing and answering of questions related to our loss of soul, the power animal or wisdom figure can help us understand why part of our soul fled (usually as a protective measure) and what we need to do to restore our souls to wholeness. For many people this practice seems to be just as effective as month—or even year—of psychological counseling.

For more information about shamanism and shamanic journeying, 

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Aug 20 Weekly Insight: Om Sweet Om

Om Sweet Om

(The August 20 Spirituality U. Weekly Insight
 from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

The chanting of the word “Om” has become so common in popular culture that we sometimes overlook the deep, spiritual implications of this simple sound.

So, what does Om really mean?

The Mandukya Upanishad (a Hindu sacred text), says, "Om is the one eternal syllable of which all that exists is but the development. The past, the present, and the future are all included in this one sound, and all that exists beyond the three forms of time is also implied in it".

According to an article by Subhamoy Das, “Om is a sacred syllable representing Brahman, the impersonal Absolute of Hinduism — omnipotent, omnipresent, and the source of all manifest existence. Brahman, in itself, is incomprehensible; so a symbol becomes mandatory to help us realize the Unknowable.”

OK, but how does the chanting of Om actually work in spiritual practice?

 According to Das, “Om is not a word but rather an intonation, which, like music, transcends the barriers of age, race, culture and even species. It is made up of three Sanskrit letters, aa, au and ma which, when combined together, make the sound Aum or Om. It is believed to be the basic sound of the world and to contain all other sounds. It is a mantra or prayer in itself. If repeated with the correct intonation, it can resonate throughout the body so that the sound penetrates to the centre of one's being, the atman or soul.”

What is the benefit of chanting this sound? For one thing it helps our rational minds move to a level at which they can encounter the world and the transcendent more directly, without words, without thought.

Das says, “During meditation, when people chant Om, they create within themselves a vibration that attunes sympathy with the cosmic vibration and they then start thinking more universally. The momentary silence between each chant becomes palpable. Mind moves between the opposites of sound and silence until, at last, it ceases the sound. In the silence, the single thought—Om—is quenched; there is no thought. This is the state of trance, where the mind and the intellect are transcended as the individual self merges with the Infinite Self in the pious moment of realization. It is a moment when the petty worldly affairs are lost in the desire for the universal. Such is the immeasurable power of Om.

For more information about Om, visit:

Monday, August 12, 2013

Aug 13 Weekly Insight: Pope Pius XII pronounced it Dogma; Psychologist Carl Jung embraced it. What was it?

Pope Pius XII pronounced it Dogma; Psychologist Carl Jung embraced it.

(The August 13 Spirituality U. Weekly Insight from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

Pope Pius XII proclaimed that all Catholics must believe it; Carl Jung said the Pope’s words were the most momentous spiritual pronouncement of the 20th Century.

What was it that could bring together such radically different thinkers?

It was “The Assumption of the Virgin Mary” which is celebrated on August 15 each year as a day of “Holy Obligation” in the Catholic Church. On this day all Catholics are required to attend Mass.

In November of 1950, Pope Pius XII made it a matter of official Church dogma that the Virgin Mary (believe by Catholics to be without sin) was “assumed” body and soul into Heaven at the end of her life. The Assumption had long been a popular belief among Catholics. Pius XII made that belief not only official, but mandatory.

But why did Carl Jung think this was the most important spiritual event of the 20th Century?
Because, in a sense, it restored the Divine Feminine to the Godhead. Much of Western religion for millennia had been almost entirely patriarchal. Until recently theology in the Abrahamic religions generally conceived of God as male. There was no room for a feminine aspect of Divinity. Of course, there were hundreds of female saints in the Catholic and Orthodox religious world; but, God was decidedly male.

And in another way, the official pronouncement of the Assumption as dogma reached even farther. It symbolically brought Heaven and Earth back together. Here’s what Catholic scholar Eugene Kennedy says about Jung and The Assumption.

“As a master of the mythological river that nourished what he termed our ‘collective unconscious,’ Jung grasped the profound and fitting symbolism of such a declaration at mid-century.

The Assumption proclaimed the Mystery of the century, the return of Mother Earth to the Heavens and the end, therefore, of the split between Earth and Heaven and all the divisions, such as between flesh and spirit, that flowed from that. It heralded the unity of the universe and the unity of human personality. That is the richest and perhaps least plumbed aspect of this feast. The wonder is that the Assumption is rich and deep enough a Mystery to accommodate these various levels of understanding all at the same time.”

For more information on The Assumption and Jung’s response to it visit:


http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/theassumption.html