 The most powerful force on earth is the untamed fire of the human soul You probably saw this coming since the soul is such a huge topic with so many different avenues and interpretations We obviously couldn't fit it all into one video. So here comes the promise sequel Previously we looked at the history of Western thought on the matter of the soul Including the Egyptian and Greek conceptions as well as the general eastern ideas in Buddhism and Taoism So today let's continue our story looking at some less common traditions from around the world specifically some of the shamanic and indigenous views of the soul Before we get started the very concept of shamanism requires a bit of explaining and myth-busting as the phrase Shamanism is used quite often today, but in a rather obscure way We all probably have some picture in our minds when we hear the word like some kind of medicine man or woman who Gives you a magic potion to guide you through the spirit world and engage in ritual dances But the thing is it's more of a category or type of practice rather than a religion or belief See the word shaman probably comes from the Tungusic Siberian word shaman meaning one who knows But ironically for a phrase about knowing this is pretty contested While the dictionary defines a shaman as someone who has access to the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits Who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual and practices divination and healing This is a pretty huge oversimplification In fact the word shamanism originally only applied to the ancient religious practices of the Turks Mongols and Tungusic peoples But when early Western anthropologists started seeing similar beliefs or contexts around the world in other indigenous societies They just transferred the term over without truly understanding it It was used to describe unrelated Magico religious practices found within the indigenous religions of other parts of Asia Africa Australasia and even completely unrelated parts of the Americas as they believed the practices to be the same Classic scientists Ultimately, we should remember that each people and tribe have their own ways of life and use terms in their own languages To conceptualize both their own spirituality and their soul Our differences are to be celebrated not generalized and run away from for the most part though The one general idea most people can agree on is that shamans act as Intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit world and offer some kind of guidance So with that little tangent out of the way, let's return to souls One of the most common beliefs among shamanistic practices is this idea of soul dualism This is the idea that someone has to or occasionally more souls within them Usually you'll have one bodily soul which takes care of the boring stuff like breathing and physical life and all that stuff and A free or wandering soul that can leave the body and go into some kind of other world Among Australian Aboriginal and Polynesian traditions we see the concept of the Nawa and Dusa The Nawa is the material soul and is also one of the words for breath Funny how consciousness is always associated with breathing, huh? The Nawa is supposedly located in either the abdomen heart or liver and is associated with daily functions and life The Dusa though is more in line with the free soul and is located in the head Dusa actually means twin or double in the proto-Austronesian languages So it seems to be kind of similar to the suit from the Egyptian mythology in the nearby Filipino tradition a Virtuous or holy figure is said to be someone whose two souls are in harmony or balance while suffering or evil is said to be a result of the souls being in conflict with themselves or Sometimes one not being there at all This is strikingly similar to the wisdom of the ayahuasca eros that we've been connected with at Rhythmia We've shared that all disease Depression illness and stress comes from a disconnection with our soul and that by doing the inner work Merging with our souls and healing our hearts We can become whole Unified beings and that these issues melt away when that healing takes place in a lot of shamanic healing practices Especially among the Austronesian traditions a disease or illness of some kind is often seen as a result of losing an aspect of your souls Since the free soul can often leave the body during trance stress sleep or confusion It seems like to some indigenous traditions then the soul is seen as an aspect of ourselves that controls Or maybe even is our inner being While we might liken it to the unconscious mind I think the sense here is that logic reason and the mind itself Arguably results from the two souls coming together in the body allowing us to live both physical and spiritual lives One of the main ways healing takes place in the Austronesian tradition is for a shaman to Return the lost parts of the human soul from wherever it's gone and in doing so brings us back into balance Something that I think is beautiful is that in the medicine traditions of the dagara people of West Africa The famous healer Maladoma Somme argues that mental illness results from a similar situation In fact to him mental illnesses are almost soul Emergencies and need to be regarded as such as it signals the beginning of a journey for a potential healer According to Somme when energies or entities from the spiritual world emerge in or influence a Western psyche Most people are completely unequipped to integrate them or even recognize what is happening Which ultimately leads to issues like depression and disassociation Among the dagara however the community helps the person reconcile the energies and souls of both worlds by Separating them out so that they can be observed and communicated with Helping the person transmit messages between the two and act as a healer for the tribe themselves Now moving on on our soulful world tour Let's go a bit further north to the Inuit peoples of Alaska and Canada Like before we should remember that the Inuit are a huge diverse group of people and grouping them all together in one single Eskimo religion is a big no-no move That said similar beliefs are shared among regions close to each other albeit under different names One of the more well-known soul beliefs comes from the Inuktitut speaking people of eastern Canada Where the soul is known as a near-neak, which you can probably guess by this point is also their word for breath Either everyone just knows we need oxygen to live or I'll secretly onto something here Now similar to our buddy Aristotle many Inuit believe that all things have a soul just like humans Among the tiki-gak people humans were made up of three main parts two main souls Known as the Injyuseik and Ilikusik life force and personal spirit and a name soul known as attik After death the Injyuseik is said to leave the body for the east But the other souls could be reborn the soul of both animals and humans can exist after death After it's being liberated from the body Interestingly though due to the harsh winter and you know constant fear of death and hypothermia and stuff The Inuit worldview is kind of bleak and their view of spirits is generally one of fear the Kenai vegetarians in the audience though Might have already noticed something if all animals have souls and the majority of the Inuit diet is stuff like seals and fish we're gonna have one big angry ghost seal on her hands and you'd be totally right a Common Inuit saying is that the greatest peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls Since all souls are equal if you kill an animal in some Inuit cultures It is akin to killing a human and that animal could potentially come back and haunt you and hey You don't want to have to deal with a ghost seal as well as a harsh winter, right? But it's not like you can grow an avocado tree or order in a meat substitute in the middle of a frozen tundra So what are you gonna do? This is where the Angakuk or shaman comes in see the soul of the dead can only be calmed down and implored not to seek vengeance by obedience to custom avoiding taboos and performing the right rituals If you just go seal hunting willy-nilly you risk offending their soul and on top of the unpredictable climate Doing such a thing is basically asking for extinction Now the other big deal in Inuit folklore with regards to the soul is this concept of the Sila Inui Sila is a bit confusing to us on the one hand He is a spirit of the sky the wind and the weather Although he's never actually depicted in art since he's seen as formless or pure energy But in most of the myths about him he isn't really treated as a character instead. He's an impersonal force of creation He probably isn't even the right word to describe it and for me personally the concept seems more kind of like the force than a God That said Sila does also have a malevolent human aspect being known in some traditions to lure children away from their play Often to the tundra never to be seen again Just in case you weren't already confused The word itself is found a lot in the Inuit languages in different forms and generally means something like space Intellect or sky It's seen as a force or component that makes up and connects all life Kind of similar to the ether in our understanding of it Everything that occurs is said to occur within Sila and all souls are understood to be a part of it Simply borrowed temporarily until they return to the infinite hole after death Although each soul is an individual Sila is also the essence or thing that makes up the soul itself the material it is made of so we are all connected through it Since the word can also mean breath or spirit There's a sense that Sila is also the breath of life and the method through which things progress and move Among the copper Inuit shamans were believed to obtain their power from Sila, which they called the wind in dweller So even their helping spirits were termed as Sila Inuit as outsiders It's impossible for us to understand the true meaning and nature of this breath of life But since the belief is so widespread among Inuit populations Anthropologists believe it's incredibly old In fact, Sila may have been one of the oldest conceptions of the divine among the Inuit Before being supplanted by more popular figures like Sedna the seal mother and the caribou mother Since all souls are connected through Sila the shaman who interacted with it are believed to be able to borrow their powers Or characteristics of other souls within it by taking the attic or name of them Similarly a keeper or someone connected to a certain type of beings like seals or whales Can also invoke that species soul and then it can act as a spirit guide or helper to the shaman To aid in his efforts of communication with the spiritual worlds So where does all this leave us with what a soul actually is in shamanism? Well while the conventional definition from last time still kind of applies That the soul is our incorporeal or non-physical essence or being It almost appears like the physical body is secondary or at least resultant from it The soul is the primary core teaching of shamanism in its therapeutic sense Everything is understood from the soul's perspective be that illness death birth depression madness relationships conflict or whatever else In some traditions infertility in women is supposed to be cured by the shaman venturing out into the spirit worlds To find and bring home the soul of the future child Wrapped up in this then is a knowing via experience that the soul journeys through multidimensional landscapes seemingly not limited by time or space This is where the conception differs from something like buddhism like we talked about earlier Where energy is simply conveyed throughout our lifetimes in many indigenous communities Our soul is imbued with our personality memories and vital essence All of which can occasionally be incarnated into different bodies The key distinctive part of the picture that shamanism fills in though Is that a soul loss can occur when parts of it venture off and stay gone until we come looking for them This ultimately brings a multi-part philosophy to our soul Our energy isn't just one single essence But rather a combination of different parts or aspects that come together to make a unified whole And occasionally one of those aspects may get damaged or lost as we go through our daily lives Which requires us to retreat inwards either with plant medicine meditation breath work or other practices to heal our connection And bring ourselves back into balance There's still one more aspect of the conversation to cover though the modern approaches So in the next episode we'll look at the more new age approaches of how we got there Culminating into where exactly the soul fits into modern science and consciousness It's an interesting idea that our soul has multiple parts or dimensions And where exactly awareness or consciousness fits in there's a huge discussion Especially since there does appear to be a space or gap between our emotions that allows us to perceive them The one thing that does seem certain though is that the shamanistic approach is very ancient and natural Putting strong emphasis on the interconnectivity between ourselves and the world around us And so until next time remember to balance all aspects of your soul not just your energetic or emotional centers Toodles