Buryatia is located in the south-central part of the Siberian region along the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, the junction of Mongolia, Siberia and China. Buryat traditional spiritual practice is a mixture of Buddhism and Tibetan Gelugpa Siberian shamanism and can answer the question of how one becomes a shaman. The locals have been practicing this path for many centuries, but the shamanic traditions of Buryatia are still so little known in the Western world that we will analyze them.
Origin of the word
Even today, few people know that the Buryats, Mongols, Yakuts and many other nationalities and other indigenous tribes in Siberia have kept shamanic practices traditionally for hundreds of years. There is some confusion about the origin of the word "shaman". Some say it comes from Sanskrit, others from Turkish. So how do you become a shaman? The truth is that the word "shaman" comes from the Tungus and means "possessed". This is because the shaman's job is to communicate with his spirits and let them work in his body. It's kind ofpossessions that are only the shaman's consent to them in order to gain access to the spiritual realm.
The Russians who colonized Siberia in the eighteenth century and first discovered shamans they called Tungus, then they used this word to simplify the description of all Siberian shamans, ignoring local names such as oyun (in Yakutia), voo (in Buryatia), Kama (Turkic-speaking tribes of Central Asia), etc. In contrast, all speakers of Turkic and Mongolian shamans are called "Yudagan".
Tools and rituals
Shamanism is one of the oldest forms of spiritual expression from which all religions began. The use of farm and wild animals, initiations, sacred techniques and methods, symbols, tools and rites, common to all shamanic traditions on the planet, which have a deep connection and affinity with nature, earth, sky, animals, a network of universal energy and ancestors. Today, after years of religious oppression and persecution by the Soviet government, the shamans of Buryatia and Mongolia are once again free to practice maintaining ecological balance and community.
In the culture of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, shamans play an important role in communities and the spiritual education of people. They knew how to become shamans. Shamans have the right to bestow blessings with rites of protection, blessings in hunting and fortune telling, showing fate. They also heal the spiritual causes of the disease, such as spiritual penetration and pollution, the loss of the soul, and, if necessary, can cancelcurse. Shamans are also guardians of the Buryat culture. Because they know the old traditions, their advice has been sought through the ages.
What is needed to select ancestors
Whoever wants to become a shaman must have a family history - with buried shamanic roots. This means that he has an ancestor who was a shaman. It is even believed that a shaman can only be strong if he has ten practitioners of magic in his family among his ancestors, who actually become the protective spirits of the new chosen ones.
Evidence of this "choice of spirits" can be a distinctive sign on the body - a divine sign. This sign may be an unusual place on the skin, forked fingers, strange behavior. It was even believed that a true shaman should have an extra bone, and only those whose souls were studied in another world, shamanic practice calls good sorcerers. No one can become a shaman just because he wants to.
Summon Spirits
Spirits only come to the chosen ones themselves and do not listen to anyone else. The exception is if the person was struck by lightning and survived, or if the person is a descendant of an ancestor who was killed by lightning (choice of the gods), even if the dead person was not a shaman. While in the West many people seek shamanic initiations, want to be shamans and perceive it as some kind of extreme entertainment or experience, in Siberian and Mongolian cultures this issue is treated with great fear and respect. Usually peoplethose who have received the call to become shamans are not so happy to learn about their fate. Many are afraid of responsibility and consequences.
Rankings and power levels
Many in the world believe that the shamanic vocation is not a gift, but a burden. "Those who are chosen" often discover this suddenly, through the "shamanic illness" they suffer from, which on the outside may appear to be a neuropsychiatric illness. Very often they become alcoholics.
Depending on the rank, the shaman may have a drum, an iron crown, a ritual cloak, and the right to perform more complex rituals. The highest ranking - Zaarin (level 9) - was rare even in the nineteenth century. According to ancient legends, the first shamans could rise up and sow trees, plant flowers and greenery, and perform miracles that their modern descendants cannot repeat.
A shaman is someone who is always between two worlds. The invisible world of spirits and our physical realm, so it is often alone and not always accepted by society. Those who have been chosen to follow this path have no other choice. So we figured out how to become a shaman in real life.
Family tree
But don't think it's impossible for the common man. Almost every person from the country that remained after the Soviet Union has shaman ancestors in the seventh to tenth generation.
So cheer up and get to know your family tree better. Relatives will tell you if there were people in your family who became shamans. You will definitely find strong ancestral spellcasters. Cause you know howbecome shamans. This will mean that your power only needs to be awakened. But you will not find all the rituals and healer skills on the Internet, so it’s better to take a trip to the countries where this art originated. You will become stronger and possibly become the best shaman in the modern world.
