Greenwood - The Shaman

SolSionnach

I'm curious about the two "prongs" on top of the Shaman's head. What part of a bearskin would those be? Mi-Shell? They are so strange, but the are surrounded by white light, perhaps a connection to the Sky/Otherworld?

(I have more questions than answers)
 

lark

SolSionnach said:
I'm curious about the two "prongs" on top of the Shaman's head. What part of a bearskin would those be? Mi-Shell? They are so strange, but the are surrounded by white light, perhaps a connection to the Sky/Otherworld?

(I have more questions than answers)
I noticed one day when I was using my Celtic Shaman Pack along with my Greenwood and the Walker Between Worlds came up right under the Shaman that the Walker has the same sort of "ears" sticking out on the top of his head.
The Walker (among other things) is about seeing the inner (spiritual) and the outer (form) and being able to balance them and interpret them like after a journey or for others, like in tarot reading.
This would mean listening, smelling, seeing, feeling using all the senses.
So for my own personal interpretation of this card when I notice those 'ears"...in a reading I am especially aware of what I am to hear...during the day ..or if reading for another talking to them about what they have heard.
And seeing how it plays out in my, or my clients daily life..how can I help balance the spiritual with the practical in this hearing experience.
And make it understandable and usable for myself or another.
 

Mi-Shell

SolSionnach said:
I'm curious about the two "prongs" on top of the Shaman's head. What part of a bearskin would those be? Mi-Shell? They are so strange, but the are surrounded by white light, perhaps a connection to the Sky/Otherworld?

(I have more questions than answers)

Honestly -
I have wondered about that myself.
It does not realy make any sense in how they are atop of his head.... It can not be the front - or hind legs of the animal, because Bears have larger wider more muscular legs than we do and they would also be MUCH wider appart... to allow for the broad rump of the Animal.

Let's see......

Ok, experimental stage over: I just tried one of my Bear furs to wear in such a way, like on the card...
(It comes in handy in more ways than one, that "Survivor Man" Less Strout gave me another bear fur for teaching purposes....)
Ifffff it was a baby bear and you sowed the chest part of the fur together to form a hood, you could have part of the front legs stick up like this, But then the fur "falls the other way", the guard hairs sticking up, not sort of down like in the card.
I think the artist did not know that....
Maybe the shaman wears a set of antlers attached to his head - like many Siberian Shamans do and this garb allows for the antlers to fit through these "leg- parts."
With a little imagination I can detect onsets of antlers coming out of the "attachment" Aaaaand - The 2 Rock Art shamans/ anthropomorphs superimposed on his fur both wear antlers.....
Antlers = more than ordinary knowledge and unison with the branches of the Tree of Live....
Huuuiiih - that Bear fur is HEAVY!! I better get it of..... ;)
 

Mi-Shell

Hi Everyone!
I thought I will add this here information pertaining to the “sorcerer”, the anthropomorphic Being shown at the right lower part of the Shaman card:
It is from the book “Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit" by David S. Whitley
xxx said:
The focal point of the Sanctuary was a large painted and engraved image (about two and a half feet high), placed above the lower panels, which seemed to command the room. Dubbed the "Homed God" by Breuil, this has been more commonly called the Sorcerer, and it has become one of the most famous Paleolithic images It was a human, of course, or really more than a human for it conflates the features of three, maybe four, different species, poised in a half crouch falling somewhere between an upright two-legged man and a standing quadruped. The hind legs and feet were distinctly human, even to the details of the calf muscles and toes. A large pendant penis and testicles emerged from the creature's rear, making clear its sex (male) but little else: this is the position of a feline's sexual organs, not a man's. A large flowing tail (horse? carnid?) also emerged from its rump, which, like the rest of the leaning body, appeared to be most likely a stag. The ears and antlers confirmed this identification, but the face was different and distinctive, with the deep-set, night eyes and the small beak of an owl. The outward reaching front legs/arms and hands, elbows tucked against the chest, appeared half formed or, better, in a state of transformation. Rather than a sorcerer, this was a shaman transforming, standing at the balance between the natural and supernatural worlds, entering into or emerging from the spirit realm within the cave walls.
This is, how the drawing, isolated from its surroundings, appeard to the discoverers of the cave. Since then it has been touched, traced, charcoaled photographed and what not by thousands of hands and is markedly deteriorated.
 

Mi-Shell

Since month now I have a little reminder on my desk, to transfer/ copy my very interesting finding about this card from my Tarot blog into this deck study group.
Here finally it is:
See, I stumbled over the original image, that Cheska Potter used as inspiration for this enigmatic Arkana card

It is right here, in the book with all the photographs from Edward S. Curtis:
See picture 1

“Die Indianer Nord Americas, die kompletten Portfolios."
translated from German : the indians of North America, the complete portfolios

Here, on page 209 we find our Shaman.
See picture 2

It is Bear’s Belly from the Arikara Nation. The sub text translates as:

>>A member of the brotherhood of the Medicine men, wrapped in his sacred Bear fur<<


We were wondering just how the rather strange top/ tip of the head cam to be in the image. Now, looking at the original inspiration for the image, it is quit clear, that yes, the Shaman is wearing the Bear fur. The Bear was skinned in one whole piece and then the pelt was slit open from the underside of the neck to the middle of the belly to allow its wearer to slip inside.

The top is the dried up head and muzzle of the bear. Its ears should be approximately, where the Shaman’s ears are. Very important, because a Bears hearing is excellent.
Bear Medicine is the Medicine of the Healer Shaman, the one who can ward off sickness and scare away the Spirits of illness. That is not only so among most all indigenous tribes in North America, but also all over Siberia (among my own people for example!) and most likely also in Palaeolithic Europe.
Evidence has been found that Bear bones - mostly from cave Bears were used by the Neanderthal People to create ritual objects like percussion instruments and flutes and it was Bear grease, that was mixed with red ochre to create the sacred body paints of which traces were found in Neanderthal graves and artefact sites.
In places the DNA from Cave Bears could be found!
In my tribe (Uryanchai - north Eastern Tuva) Bear was seen as the Guardian against all the "unpleasant Spirits- Albis and boks, benge'es and so on, that show up from the East - from the uncertain future, that we all hope to see, but that at times has a rather nasty surprise waiting for us. Bear Was one of the Creator Spirits, the Sacred ones that lived amongst the Stars. But to prevent all the "Nasties" from wrecking havoc among the living - Animals, Humans and Plants on of the Sacred ones had to come down to the "middle Realm " = Mother Earth and keep watch and swat them away. So Ee'ren Adik, the Spirit of BEAR decided to take corporeal form and do the job. All Bears are under his lordship and his physical representatives. If someone gets sick, my great grandmother - and now me, we put them onto a Bear fur for the curing ritual, which includes red Ochre and ground turquoise made into a paste using Bear grease. .....
That is similar to what some Native Americans here do.
The Haudenosaunee for example have all their healers from the Bear Clan and often the Bear Clan Sachem leads our Longhouse proceedings.
Among many tribes, the touch of the Bear claws away the illness and brings healing, so a Bear paw, just even drawn, is powerful.
There would be numerous more examples.......
There is a lot more, I could write.....
 

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