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About post-industrial quasi-shamanic beliefs

We are all, in a sens, idolaters of this recent western cultural artifact called "shamanism"; we love, we cherish, we dedicate our self to it, but as much as we get involve, so little we have something to do with the original, indigenous shamanism; we've created a lie, an illusion and we keep doing it just because this is how our culture works... you don't practice shamanism to sell it and to achieve personal transformation, shamanism it happens to be practiced because the world has unmanageable situations and because life is precarious and unforeseeable , because some people (the shamans) are forced to talk to the spirits and to heal the sick people... they are not doing it for fun or for them, they are doing it because there are some forces beyond them that affects them. I'm not speaking about the "real" shamans, it does not matter this point of view, it only matters our illusion, our lie, our self-limitation. This is what I want to know about and I want to fight against.

My point is that the only accurate perspective or maybe the only "right" place of shamanism in our culture, can be found in the scholarly literature of ethnology, sociology, anthropology, psychology and history of religion, but not as a proclamation of scientific objectivity of our powerful western culture, but because this is the only really "fair" usage of this cultural artifact called "shamanism", meaning - the only aspect of our shamanic intelligibility that is not intentionally mixing indigenous culture with western culture, that is just acquiring information. I'm interested in scholarly literature at its most psychological or subjective (read it "weak") level, as a culture who tries not to conquer, to engulf another culture but just to understand it.

Note: this is an important shift of my search. Perhaps this blog will die or will become something else.
03.02.2009

I'm returning to this blog and leave it as it is, it's ok as it is...
I'll add some more links at the bottom.
30.12.2009

Sunday, September 30, 2007

again, relocating myself

I'm always trying to find my place. Not because I'm lost, unsure or confused, but because of what the inner experience suppose, a constant realisation and recall of the existential and ontological dislocation that our simple life and being is (a factual reality, just a throw-in-the-world, as Heidegger puts it).

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

no passion - no action

Ma simt cam mihnit si trist. Aseara m-am intilnit cu citiva prieteni ai unui prieten, invitat fiind sa prezint ceva din ceea ce ma preocupa. Am ajuns sa povestesc despre samanism, si sa fiu, vrind ne vrind, un avocat al samanismului. Insa in momentul in care am motivat acest advocacy prin reactia directa la problemele sociale, culturale si de mediu datorate precaritatii in care se afla lumea occidentala, oamenii prezenti s-au eschivat. Mi-au dat de inteles ca sint departe de ei toate aceste lucruri, si ca ce i-ar interesa pe ei ar fi partea exotica din samanism sau eventual partea exotica din a gindi si a filosofa. Subit, am remarcat ca fara pasiunea si empatia activista pe care speram sa le-o insflu celorlalti, tot demersul meu era sterp, sec.
Pentru mine, cam tot ceea ce fac vine din considerente civice si sociale, motivatia mea este una activista chiar daca cautarea si finalitatea este una spirituala, iar unealta principala in acesta cautare este filosofia. Fara imboldul si energia activista cautarea mea nu ar mai avea nici un farmec...

OK! My mind is philosphic, but my soul and passion are pretty activists and I want to be filled by nature's vital energies...

I got this clear idea last night that I couldn't jump right into shamanic practice and then go to my job, surf the net, do small talk and just live my life in the consumerist society; I feel like this isn't a sincere and meaningful way of living.
I don't want to offend no one, but I think we are far away of what indigenous people feel and understand. In a way, all modern humans are stuck into their cultural and social condition. More than this, we have a so complex and perverse cultural condition that I, personally, just can not say "let's get back to shamanism", to the primitivism that every aspect of our culture hates it...

I think that shamanism must be done CAREFULLY, not because of angry spirits, but because of our twisted cultural programming through which we process everything. Carefully means that we have to INTEGRATE the animistic and magic believes of shamanism into most of our cultural aspects that define us. We must link them at the meaning level of our being. Before I do shamanic practice I want to demanstrate that there is magic around my desk, in the computer and when we talk about the weather, and this must be done in proper words and with relevant meanings.
I've studied philosophy and I made it my profession, I certainly see most of the things through this more or less permanent cultural and social condition; so, for me, the proper words and the relevant meanings that instruct me about shamanism must resonate with my philosophic background and with philosophy in general, as it is in the schools and in our modern lives.

All of my efforts here are part of this philosophical and theoretical integration of psychedelia, shamanism, magic, etc.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Doar ce am vizitat seiturile lui Ross Heaven si Howard G. Charing si am simtit din nou ecoul chemarii lui Flavio. Apoi, vazind ca exista o "consistenta" a acestei chemari pe care nu am banuit-o pina acum, am dat un search google la "shamanis" si am gasit http://www.shamanicteachers.com/welcome/welcomeromanian.html. Sint uimit de faptul ca e tradus si in romaneste si ca poate exista invatatori si in Romania :)...

Am privit shamnismul prin prisma contraculturii psichedelice, a gindirii lui Mckenna in deosebi. Nu am banuit ca shamanismul ar putea fi o credinta si o practica vie in lumea occidentala. Incep sa ma simt atras si de aceeasta parte a problemei, cu toate ca am anumite rezerve visavis de simulacrul ontologic pe care notiunea de samanism si practica ca atare o dezvolta vrind-ne-vrind in mintea si sufletul nostru.

(Imi dau seama ca exista de fapt cel putin 2 nivele ale simulacrului ontologic: anume unul estetic sau adus de interesul prin el insusi, de placerea prin esa insasi - asa cum ar aparea in cultura psihedelica de exemuplu, si unul etic sau practic, adus de modul in care este folosit, uzat lucrul, gindul sau fapta cu pricina - un exemplu cum asa cum am declarat deja ar fi coreshamanismul...)

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I've just saw the websites of Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing, and I've felt again the echo of Flavio's calling. There's a real deal going on with this type of calling among a lot of people, I've never imagine it could be so "heavy"; so, I've googled about it and found this http://www.shamanicteachers.com/welcome.html. I'm amazed that this is also translated in romanian and I presume that there may be some shaman instructors in Romania :)...

I've always looked shamanism through psychedelic counter-culture glasses, mostly through Mckenna's eyes and thoughts. I've never belived that shamanism could be a faith and a practice in the West. I begin to feel more and more attracted by this side of the issue, 'though I have some reserves concerning the ontological simulacrum of the notion of shamanism and the usage and the practice of what shamanism means to Europeans and westerners.

(I think there are at least two kinds of ontological simulacrum: one is related to aesthetics and to the shamanic study itself and the pleasure itself produced inside us - as it is in the psychedelic culture, for instance; and one that is related to practice and the ethic of how shamanic knowledge is used by the soul and it is reflected by the facts - an example as I already wrote is the coreshamanism...)

Thursday, September 06, 2007


Ieri am trecut pe la librarie din intimplare si am gasit "Shaman - Spiritul plantelor (Căile străvechi de vindecare a sufletului) de Ross Heaven & Howard G. Charing. Nu cunosc autorii, insa mi-a dat un feeling revigorant (cautam mai de demult ceva asemanator) si, uitându-ma mai atent, am vazut ca introducerea era facuta de Pablo Amaringo, apoi am gasit si un citat de T. Mckenna. Am cumparat-o, iar seara tirziu am inceput sa ii citesc primele pagini. Am fost lovit de asemanarea mesajului de la sfirsitul introducerii lui P. Amaringo cu strigatul lui Flavio din finalul filmului "The Shamans of the Amazon": "Eu ,Pablo, spun tuturor celor ce traiesc in Amazonia si in celalalte paduri ale lumii ca trebuie sa iubeasca plantele pamintului lor si tot ce se afla acolo!". (Textele celor 2 autori se fac patrunse de aceasta chemare, cred ca ele sunt niste marturii valoroase ale atitudinii cvazisamanice. Urmeaza sa ma dumiresc mai bine citindu-le...)

Oricum ideea esta ca s-a trezit din nou imboldul de a-mi oglindi cumva cautarile.

Intradevar exista o teorie sau o filosofie dupa care ma ghidez si pe care o dezvolt insa nu prea se potriveste cu gindul de a urmarii constructia unui proiect intelectual, de a ma absorbi munci de a o redacta intr-un limbaj exegetic; deoarece, in acelasi timp cred in altceva mai mult decit in proprietatea intelectuala occidentala sau in modelul intelectualului modern, considerind ca de fapt toate cautarile si teoriile mele tin de o intelepciune ce depaseste propria-mi persoana si care vibreaza in sufletul si mintea oricarui om. Vreau sa disipez tot ceea ce ma incearca si ma formeaza, cautarile si asertiuniile mele personale, vreau sa fiu cuprins de aceasta intelepciune si ea sa se perpetueze prin gindurile mele, nu vreau sa o prind, sa o bat in cuie si sa arat cu degetul spre ea, cit pot, prin ceea ce fac si spun las sa se oglindeasca gindurile si credinta mea ca si cum as scrie o carte.

Lupta impotriva curentului inertial a ceea ce trebuie sa faci...

About

This is the log of a work in progress. I'm tryning to keep here acount of all my quasi-shamanic inspiration - the medium - so, please, do keep in mind that these posts are in fact the actual WORK that some day will be presented as a finished work - the message - (I hope it will be a book, but I certanly see this only as a last "bagage" that I have to throw away to free myself).
You can email me at -mariustoica_at_gmail_ dot_ com- for any question or opinion that you might have regarding my work.

Some info about myself: My name is Marius Stoica, I live in Timisoara (Romania), I'm 27 years old. Next week I'll get merried and my wife is pregnant in 4 months :) I've studied philosophy with an emphasis on contemporary french philosphy and some on phenomenology. In fact, I'm pretty influenced by authors like Battaille, Deleuze, Husserl or Marc Richir. I also don't like corporatism and imperialism and I try to resist to all the crap that the world is more and more filled in.
8 September 2007
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Trecem la modul freestyle
7 Octombrie 2008