NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/magick/5872

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-18 | 1.9 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!demon!cix.compulink.co.uk!shaman
Newsgroups: alt.magick
From: [e-mail] (Leo Smith)
Subject: Shaman(esses?)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 07:53:00 +0000
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Lines: 32

This is copied shamelessly from a pagan conference on a UK BBS.


   From comparative ethnographic records, shamanism appears to have been
   the province of shamankas (or female shamans) until the discovery of
   iron and the merging of the ancient sacred role of the smith with that
   of the shaman.  The sacred vestments of the shamans in many cultures
   show that there are performing a "female" task.  This is also quite
   apparent in the ancient annals of both China and Japan in which the
   shaman/priestesses also had a legislative role.

   The Hebrew Bible also contains many examples of prophetesses who were
   accepted within the early phase of Israelite religion.  Deborah, who
   was both prophetess and judge, the prophetess Huldah and even the
   Witch of Endor.

   The relevance of the role of the smith was that the role provided man
   with the archetype of a creator.  While the Goddess-centred creation
   myths saw the universe as either the child or the living body of the
   Great Goddess, the later God-centered myths showed the universe as an
   object created by the God in his role as a smith, artisan or even potter
   or alternatively as the body of a deity who was killed by the Creator
   God.  While the bronze smith was revered in Bronze Age religion, the
   blacksmith, the worker of the dangerous metal, iron, had an ambivalent
   role.  This is why there was a widespread taboo on the use of iron and
   iron implements in the building of temples from the time of the Iron
   Age.  Iron, to the Bronze Age cultures, would have probably viewed with
   the same suspicion as nuclear energy does now.

Hope it was interesting
Leo