What are Shamans and Shamanism?
"Shamans are the keepers of a remarkable body of ancient techniques that they use to achieve and maintain well-being and healing for themselves and members of their communities. These shamanic methods are strikingly similar the world over, even for peoples whose cultures are quite different in other respects, and who have been separated by oceans and continents for 10's of 1'000s of years . . . Shamanism is a great mental and emotional adventure, one in which the patient as well as the shaman-healer are involved. - Your shamanic experiences will prove their own value. - In shamanism, the maintenance of one's personal power is fundemental to well-being. . . The techniques are simple and powerful. Their use does not require "faith" nor changes in the assumptions you have about reality in your ordinary state of consciousness. Indeed, the system usually does not even require change in your unconscious mind either, for it only awakens what is already there."
[From "The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner"]
[From "The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner"]
"Shamanista":
As a form of respect, we like to reserve the term “Shaman” for our teachers and practitioners from native cultures. We coined this word to describe a serious shamanic practitioner who is drawing from various traditional healing practices combined with his or her own unique healing talents.Shamanista is a term coined in the seminars of Dr. Barnaby Ruhe to denote a contemporary practitioner and/or follower of ancient ritual traditions, who maintains their own individuality, sense of freedom, and personal modalities (and talents, "superpowers", fields of focus, life-path, etc.) in a positive relationship that mutually benefit and augment themselves, those ancient traditions, and the community around them-- large and small, local and global. Shamanista is what happens when we as individuals take the initiative to combine our art and our individual expression, with our concept of healing and transformation--in practice and our everyday lives. It is our experience that in many ways you, as an individual may already be practicing some form of Shamanism in your own spiritual discipline such as Yoga, Reiki, Chi Gong , Massage etc... Indeed, we do not heal you, because you are not broken. We only facilitate the healing, but it is you who must make a conscious (and un-conscious!) choice to embrace the experience of transformation. Shamanista is here to augment that experience and invite freshness and consciousness of spirit into the lives of ourselves, those around us, and the world at large. Ritual is when something happens!
Shamanista' is a combination of the words 'shaman' and 'fashionista'. It is as much a nod of reverence to the Shamans that came before us, and those on a fully initiated shamanic path today -- as it is to our freedom of movement and momentum within everyday life, art, and practice -- and the full utilization of our eccentricities, modalities, and individual life circumstances in the contemporary world. We are combining the best intentions of the new and the ancient for the good of the now and the future.
SHAMAN
' Shaman ' - "in societies practicing shamanism: one acting as a medium between the visible and spirit worlds"
" . . . Aboriginal medicine-men [and women], so far from being rogues, charlatans or ignoramuses, are [people] of high degree; that is, [people] who have taken a degree in the secret life beyond that taken by most adult[s]--a step which implies discipline, mental training, courage and perseverance . . . they are [people] of respected, and often of outstanding, personality . . . they are of immense social significance, the psychological health of the group largely depending on faith in their powers . . . the various psychic powers attributed to them must not be too readily dismissed as mere primitive magic and 'makebelieve,' for many of them have specialized in the working of the human mind, and in the influence of mind on body and of mind on mind . . ." -[from Aboriginal Men of High Degree by Australian anthropologist A.P.Elkin]
' Shaman ' - "in societies practicing shamanism: one acting as a medium between the visible and spirit worlds"
" . . . Aboriginal medicine-men [and women], so far from being rogues, charlatans or ignoramuses, are [people] of high degree; that is, [people] who have taken a degree in the secret life beyond that taken by most adult[s]--a step which implies discipline, mental training, courage and perseverance . . . they are [people] of respected, and often of outstanding, personality . . . they are of immense social significance, the psychological health of the group largely depending on faith in their powers . . . the various psychic powers attributed to them must not be too readily dismissed as mere primitive magic and 'makebelieve,' for many of them have specialized in the working of the human mind, and in the influence of mind on body and of mind on mind . . ." -[from Aboriginal Men of High Degree by Australian anthropologist A.P.Elkin]
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FASHIONISTA
' Fashionista ' - "A term used to define a [man or] woman with a penchant for shopping [a term for a contemporary modality of culture accruement and/or identity amplification gathering] and a natural flair for combining both current and vintage fashionable trends. "Fashionistas" simply look at Fashion as an Art, their own bodies as the canvas, and the sense of style they develop along the way as the masterpiece." -[from UrbanDictionary.com]
Photo:
Photographer: Rebecca Yale
Fashion Designers: Amia Yokoyama, Seanna Sharpe
Models: Cody Horn, Amia Yokoyama, Seanna Sharpe
FASHIONISTA
' Fashionista ' - "A term used to define a [man or] woman with a penchant for shopping [a term for a contemporary modality of culture accruement and/or identity amplification gathering] and a natural flair for combining both current and vintage fashionable trends. "Fashionistas" simply look at Fashion as an Art, their own bodies as the canvas, and the sense of style they develop along the way as the masterpiece." -[from UrbanDictionary.com]
Photo:
Photographer: Rebecca Yale
Fashion Designers: Amia Yokoyama, Seanna Sharpe
Models: Cody Horn, Amia Yokoyama, Seanna Sharpe
