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I think it's quite difficult to have this conversation at the moment, as you seem to be working off the principle that we all share an understanding of what the term "shaman" means. What do you mean when you say shaman? Already we have entheogen use and transgender thrown into the "shaman" complex, so I'd say it's worth exploring to what extent your notions of the shaman actually have any basis in the magico-religious practices of a specific culture or cultures - and to what extent they are an unexamined westernised construction comprised of various ideas that have somehow coalesced into the western pop culture image of the shaman, and which you may be taking on board uncritically to some degree.
I would argue that if you accept magic works, the obvious thing to do with it is to use it to help people to whatever extent you can. It really confuses me how so many people can take on board the idea that magic works and then think that doesn't come with the responsibility to actually use it constructively in the world. I actually loathe the western idea of the "shaman", because I think the idea that this is a specific role and calling for certain special magicians - rather than the basic responsibility of anyone who practices magic - is quite problematic.
It doesn't need to be a big deal. You don't really need to wake up one morning and decide "I'm a shaman now". It's just the obvious thing to do with magic, and to do otherwise is a bit like studying for years to become a doctor but never seeing anyone who needs help and only using it for your own well being. Or studying for years to practice law, but only ever representing yourself in court. I find it really bizarre how it just never seems to occur to people that magic might perhaps actually have a purpose beyond one's own recreational entertainment and self-gratification. I think the idea of the "shaman" - and the slightly precious way its being discussed in this thread - is actually a part of the problem.
"the Call" to serving the spirits and my community (whatever that means, these days).
I really don't like the popular idea that "serving your community" is something that is no longer easily relevant to today's society. It smacks of an insidious Thatcherite "there is no society" mentality that divides and alienates. People seem to imagine "the shaman's community" as this bygone thing that existed in the past, where the witchdoctor had a clear cut role in the village and his/her community lived in straw huts nearby and the whole setup worked perfectly and seamlessly. I'm not sure to what extent this may just be a romanticised and idealised view of something that was probably as complex in practice as it is today.
I work as a professional witchdoctor in London. I've advertised in the past, but I've found that route tends to bring you certain types of client who don't actually need magical services so much as they need a dose of reality and a bit of a wake-up call. You get a lot of people who want you to wave a magic wand and make them a millionaire, or a famous movie actress, or a variety of other unrealistic goals that they aren't really doing anything else in their life to try and bring about. They just want you to magic it for them without any effort on their part. You get a lot of people who want you to make some specific person fall in love with them, when said specific person has dumped them, moved to another country, married someone else, and actively hates them. You get this sort of stuff a LOT. Worse, there is a whole cottage industry of "dodgy docs" who exist specifically to fleece this sort of client for as much money as they can be taken for. I've seen clients who have literally given away thousands of pounds to disreputable practitioners who have promised to make their dreams come true, and that having failed, have immediately hunted out another practitioner cos maybe this next one will be able to deliver what they say they can.
I'm a bit of a Thelemite witchdoctor in my approach to client work, and my practice is about enabling people to understand and accomplish their Will, not to enable their fantasies or be complicit in their unrealistic obsessions. It can be a little disheartening to discover that, by and large, a lot of the clients you will encounter really do not want that. They just want you to tell them what they would like to hear, they want you to say you can make X implausible wish come true, and they want to pay you cash in return for supporting and prolonging the often quite problematic and self-destructive delusions they are invested in. Needless to say, that's not what they get when they call on me. However, this type of client will generally not be happy with doctoring that attempts to get to the root of their problem, wean them away from their obsession, and set them on a healthier track. They will tend to run for the hills as soon as you start engaging with them like that, and into the clutches of yet more dodgy docs who will be more than happy to take their cash and spin them another unlikely yarn. It can be a bit exhausting to deal with.
I ended up coming to the realisation that this is actually not the sort of doctoring that I should really be doing. Nowadays my practice is about serving my actual community - the people within my social orbit who I already have a relationship with, and who have real problems that magical intervention could assist with. As opposed to having my time taken up by a procession of random nutters who don't actually need help and just want to pay me to be complicit in their fantasy world. I always have clients. There's always people in my life who are facing challenging life situations or have someone close to them who is. Sometimes they come to me, sometimes I offer to do work for them without them asking. I see it as my responsibility to the Spirits I work with to do this sort of work. A spirit doctor is like an axis through which the spirits can reach out into the world and bring help where it is needed to the whole community, not just a community of one. You don't have to "fake" community or construct it along artificial lines - your community is simply the people around you in your life, family, friends, acquaintances, friends-of-friends, the occasional random person who washes up on my doorstep sent by the spirits. I find that I don't actually have to go looking for community or worry about it too much. That side of things will take care of itself. The spirits will bring me the clients I should be working with, and my job is to be a kind of middleman that enables them to bring healing where it is required. You become a localised point where spirit may interact with matter. |
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