What does it take to be a Shaman? How does one become a Shaman? I have been interested in shamanism for some years now but still have yet to find the path. Traditionally all Shamans are male but as we evolve shamanism knows no gender.
Shamans undergo very long periods of training and often they have to pass vigorous, sometimes brutal tests before becoming a shaman in their own right. Shamans are no more than human beings who develop themselves out of interest and dedicaton. An example of such interest and dedication is my very own Reiki Master who went into shamanism at a good ole age of 60 or so. He left his birth place in UK to Canada to go onto his vision quest.
To develop shamanic awareness one needs to first learn about energy and how it works because the intensity of thoughts and emotions direct energy both to the ordinary and spirit world. The practice of shamanism leads one to eventually align oneself with the healing forces of nature. They use their inner vision to journey for knowledge and recognise clues, natural images and symbols as important aspects to interpret messages. Shamans learn how to understand people and how to work with them. They know how to laugh and have learned to be detach enough from the drama of life to find the human conditioning amusing.
For now Shamanism takes a back seat as I move on to more urgent things in life.
