My immediate family attends a Baptist church. They are unaware of my differing spiritual beliefs, and were I not sick right now I would be preparing to leave for day three of the church's mission conference with them. Earlier today I picked up one of the little booklets that has information about the attending missionaries and began to flip through it, and a page titled "What is animism?" caught my attention. Here is a link to the article online.

Any thoughts? I'm a newbie to the animist community admittedly, but have yet to run into anyone who views life as "everything in the universe as warring against each other to become the deity or king of the hill." Granted this article is talking about cultures where animism is the dominant belief, and beliefs are certainly different between cultures. Not that everything in my universe is happy dancing through fields of flowers with other spirits, but I'm not concerned with tricking them in order to fight my way to the top of whatever spiritual mountain.

I am just mildly curious if any of you had this warring view on life, or anything to say. Being stuck at home has left me bored and itching for something to talk about, hah, so forgive the lack of pressing questions or serious thoughts in this post.

- Teagan

x-posted to my own journal.

One of the things that's hard to find in contemporary shamanic practices (especially if you're not a Core shamanist), is a sense of community. Whether that be online, or in person.

( finding communities when you're a non-Core shamanist )

I have prophecies on the brain. I blame it on the 2012 craze and the fact that every third movie coming out this summer is post-apocalyptic. It all feels like some sort of pre-millennial redux circa year 2000 where folks stocked up on canned goods and awaited a visit from Jesus, Satan, or UFOs. But sometimes I wonder...is there something, even the teensiest bit of something, to this who prophecy business?
I think part of the appeal of prophecies is that many people are comforted by being told exactly How Things Are. To many, believing that the end is nigh is more tolerable than being totally uncertain about what the future holds. I also note that when Westerners turn to prophecy, they tend to favor very dogmatic interpretations. They prefer being told and believing that This, This, and then This will happen. While I'm sure there were prophets who laid things out like that, when I research the older sources of prophecy I am struck by the sense that things are more open to interpretation. Prophecy seems to be like divination on a mega-scale. As someone who practices divination, I know that it is very rare for the cards or the spirits or the runes to smack you in the face with exact information. In divination you learn the flow of the tools you work with and how to sense patterns to interpret the information given. That information can be surprisingly useful and accurate, but there is always a measure of guessing and room for subjectivity. Maybe prophecies are like that.
On the other hand Westerners (even Western occultists and pagans) place high value on free will. Even when we lay out the cards or cast the runes for someone, it is good form to remind them that this is the direction things are going at the moment but there is always the opportunity to change direction. Prophecies are kind of a different animal in that they tend to say "there WILL be war" or "God IS coming" or "the world IS ending". These events will happen no matter what we do. Though I do note that many prophecies seem to imply that choice is still very importantant, that how we react to these events will determine if we survive or not, or if the coming world cycle will be more like a heaven or a hell.
In my rather neutral study of prophecy I haven't found any single dogmatic set of predictions I feel like latching on to. However, I have found some things that make me go "hmmmm". There seems to be a some common issues that are nearly universal. The idea that Earth has ages and that all ages end. The idea that our current age has to dip into a sort of hellish state before it can swing back to a better state. The idea that people will be given a choice on how to react to it and that choice will determine if humanity survives or not. I also find it interesting that within a century's time (roughly starting in 1950's and ending around 2050) many different culture's age cycles are due to end or turn into the next one.

The reason I brought this topic up here is that many traditional shamanic cultures placed a high value on prophecy. In some cultures, shamans were expected to also be prophets. However, today it seems that neopagans aren't that interested in exploring the possibilities and study of prophecy. Perhaps this is because neopagans tend to value free will, or perhaps that want to distance themselves from a practice that has been taken up more strongly by New Age traditions.
So dear community, I am interested in any and all thoughts you may have on prophecy. Things I am particularly wondering are: Does ancient prophecy have any relevance to modern shamanists? Does modern prophecy exist and in what manner? Is prophecy (whether on a small scale or a large scale) a tradition that modern shamanists should look into and/or revive? If so, in what manner? And how the heck does prophecy work anyways?

A few new reviews up on books with various degrees of relation to shamanism and animism...

The Animal in You by Roy Feinson - an animal-based personality test in book form
Rainbow Medicine by Wolf Moondance - I'm not sure how much more New Agey you can get in five words. Maybe if there'd been "dolphin" thrown in there.
Drawing Down the Spirits by Kenaz Filan and Raven Kaldera - finally, a book on possession and other spirit work aimed at a neopagan audience!

Two new book reviews related to shamanism--click on the links to see what I had to say!

Spirit Animals by Victoria Covell

Soul Retrieval by Sandra Ingerman - August BBBR

(X-posted a few places)

....and another book review as I play catch-up. Click the link for the full review:

Seeing in the Dark: Claim Your Own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age by Colleen Deatsman and Paul Bowersox - Another core shamanism 101 book?

Have a book review; click the link to read the full review:

Beyond 2012: A Shaman’s Call to Personal Change and the Transformation of Global Consciousness by James Endredy - finally, a 2012 book I can take seriously! And it's from one of my favorite shamanic authors, too.

Another review of potential interest--click the link to read:

Toltec Dreaming by Ken Eagle Feather - it's derived from Castaneda; what did you think I thought of it?

It's been a while since I've torn apart something in a review...click the link to see what happened:

The Hawaiian Oracle: Animal Spirit Guides From the Land of Light by Rima A. Morrell