The Burning Mirror: a Christian Encounter with Shamanism
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The Burning Mirror: Sandy Yule The Burning Mirror: A Christian Encounter with Shamanism Rev. Dr. Sandy Yule Published in 'Voices from the Edge' Series, No. 3 ISPCK, Delhi 2005 May 2002 The Burning Mirror: Sandy Yule Table of Contents Introduction Conversational Beginnings Shamanism Interlude: Summoning Animal Spirits Christian Europe and Witches Interlude: Witches and Malevolence The Burning Mirror (Story) Interlude: Through the Looking Glass The Image of the Burning Mirror Interlude: Self-awareness Meeting the Aztecs Interlude: Evil and Holocausts Narcissus and Sin Interlude: Discerning the Spirits Exorcism Interlude: Demons The Spirits of the Dead Interlude: Spirit in Humans Australian Aborigines and Shamanism Interlude: Spirits in the Landscape Enlightenment Revisited Interlude: Recognizing Spirit Afterword Select Bibliography The Burning Mirror: Sandy Yule The Burning Mirror Introduction This book is offered as a work of Christian theological reflection. It arises from active listening, by a person committed to Christian faith and life, to another very different faith tradition, that of shamanism. In terms of method, the work occurs in the second person more than in the third. Listening to another tradition cannot be done with proper respect if the basic orientation is towards setting out the facts of the case from the supposedly universal viewpoint of the author. In dialogue, more than one view can be presented in its own terms. This allows for the possibility of meeting the alien tradition at its strongest rather than at its weakest point. This allows us to reflect on what we hear in terms of what it shows us about our own shadow. Active listening leads to active imagining of how to make sense of what we hear. To achieve these things, we need to travel into the alien perspective, at least for a time. For many Christians, this will seem like an invitation to abandon our Christian commitment. It certainly is an abandonment of the stance of warrior Christianity which sees no possibility of benefit from non-Christian traditions. Yet I have found that what seems like a recipe for the disintegration and abandonment of traditional Christian faith has in practice had quite the opposite result. I have discovered that the spiritual resources of shamanism confirm and illuminate many features of traditional Christian faith of which I had become doubtful. Prayer, prophetic inspiration, encounters with angels and demons, miracles and spiritual healings are illuminated by what we find in shamanic stories. The shamanic world view challenges us Christians to draw on our faith if we are to stand and not be overcome by the forces that we encounter. An appreciation of positive qualities in shamanism also challenges us to revisit the history of misunderstanding and persecution of shamans and shamanic communities by Christians. There is need here for a readiness for repentance and even restitution, as we recall that our God is a God of justice and not the tribal God of western civilization. The specific spiritual power of this method arises, as the title suggests, from this confrontation with the shadow side of our own tradition. Where injustice has been done and not made good, there is unhealed trauma on all sides which produces its own need for repression and constriction of spiritual possibilities. The current revival of warrior Christianity in politically conservative The Burning Mirror: Sandy Yule manifestations does nothing to deal with this kind of trauma from the sins of the past. It is understandable that Christians should react against social disorder and failed liberal policies, but to return to the days when the state favoured the Christian church and suppressed other faith traditions is not a good answer. We need to recognize the evils that were perpetrated within this framework, such as the Crusades and the execution of witches, heretics and tribal peoples. Yet the task is not only critical, to deconstruct the tradition so that its shadow lies exposed to the light of day. Theology also has a constructive role, in seeking the healing of trauma through confession and repentance, as well as in reminding us that God is the One with whom we have to deal. The essential role of theological reflection is to bring all things into the light of consciousness so that we see clearly. This can only be done with the help of the Holy Spirit, but it can be done. This is where our enemies help us, with their remorseless attack on our points of weakness. So uncovering and dealing with what is in the shadow can be done, but not easily, not without pain and struggle, not without the grace of God and the journey into darkness and loss of identity. Perhaps there is no method but faith, following the leading of the Holy Spirit into further dimensions of truth. While the shadows are crucial, they are not salvation, but merely an important part of God’s creation in need of healing and restoration. Once the shadows are exposed, we have a new freedom for relating to our historical enemies. So this internal dialogue is both a fruit of, and a pre-condition for, effective inter-religious dialogue. Essential to an understanding of shamanism is the experience of spiritual encounter. This book offers a reflection about the general character of human spiritual experience. It seems hard to imagine a full and dignified view of human nature which does not have a place for those aspects of our experience traditionally referred to as spiritual. Yet concepts of ‘spirit’ have become problematic for us, particularly when we adopt the materialistic perspectives of modern western culture. We therefore need to address questions about the nature of ‘spirit’ and about how the realities to which it refers can be studied. Religious traditions refer to spiritual as well as ethical and social dimensions of human experience. Shamanic traditions are noteworthy for their focus upon intentional encounters with the world of spirit. My concern is with what can be learned about the world of spirit from these traditions rather than with an exhaustive account of the traditions themselves. As I am, however unwillingly, treading in the footsteps of Hegel in addressing the notion of ‘spirit’ in a general sense, I note at the outset Kierkegaard’s judgement of Hegel’s project. The Burning Mirror: Sandy Yule If Hegel had written the whole of his logic and then said, in the preface, that it was merely an experiment in thought in which he had even begged the question in many places, then he would certainly have been the greatest thinker who had ever lived. As it is, he is merely comic.1 It is indeed comic to be proposing that it is possible to discern patterns in the subjective experiences of people which reveal something important about reality at superhuman as well as human levels. The humour emerges from the disparity between our best accounts of our personal experiences and the putative metaphysical realities to which they sometimes seem to point. We should nevertheless reflect seriously upon our own lived experiences despite their objective inadequacy because these experiences will always shape who we are. It is also true that certain of our experiences have a compelling importance for us which is intuitively discerned. The possibility of gaining an understanding of spiritual realities draws us on. In studying shamanism, we Christians may come to find that it is spiritual reality itself which we have locked away in our unacknowledged shadow. This comical inadequacy of personal reflection seems less injurious when we reflect upon the equally comical spectacle of our dominant knowledge industry busily reducing the world to the unidimensional status of information. Is it more delusional to think that whatever lies beyond the limits of our present official knowledge can only be more of the same, or to believe that official, third-person knowledge needs systematic supplementation from the knowledge that we have in first and second-person experiences? I prefer the latter option, which is why this book includes story and dialogue as well as expository text. Stories cannot be appreciated without an imaginative identification with the protagonists. Dialogue allows us to listen to a variety of viewpoints at once. It is also powerful in exposing and stretching our own horizons through the encounter with the perspectives and horizons of others. These are living forms of thought. They are also central to objective and scholarly forms of investigation, however carefully concealed behind scholarly method and third-person language. My own perspective is formed by the Christian tradition, particularly in its Reformed Protestant manifestations, as well as by the western philosophical tradition. I find myself drawn to the practice of a contemplative theology and philosophy which seeks the realities that are met with in our experiences, realities that exist independently of all propositions about them. Verbal formulations, contemporary as well as traditional, are at best pointers to this independent reality, pointers which 1 The Journals of Kierkegaard, 1834-54, Ed. and Trans. A.Dru, Fontana Books, Collins, London, 1958, pp.90-91. The Burning Mirror: Sandy Yule progressively refine and qualify each other. It is not that there are no wrong ideas, but rather that all ideas have their areas of validity, however limited. In this book, I am writing as an insider to Christian tradition, which includes advocating certain stances and reformulations. I am writing as an outsider to shamanic traditions, even though I would acknowledge shamanic elements in some areas of my own experience. I am sufficiently formed by western philosophical tradition to acknowledge the need for critical questioning of human experiences, particularly spiritual experiences which seem to confirm metaphysical and/or religious beliefs. If David Hume’s arguments concerning the possibility of miracles2 are accepted, we would find it very difficult to listen sympathetically to the stories that shamans tell.