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moonvoiceI have finally decided, after a lot of thought, to make some of my Vilturj / shamanism entries public.
This is the first.
In many ancient spiritual cultures, those which are 'shamanic' in nature, crystals often have a seminal importance. They are the bestowers of wisdom to those who learn the secrets of knowing, and learning such secrets is not a matter of simply interpreting the wounded vibrations of a tumbled amethyst, but a matter of years of studying, interpretation, learning both anecdote and literal translation.
In Australia, there are reports of some Indigenous peoples swallowing crystals into their body upon the point of initiation; whereby the crystals will aid them and keep them permanently connected to the spiritworld. These crystals hum and vibrate and warn the wise and magical wise-men, of those who would do harm to a community. They advise of changing patterns in the earth and in the men and women themselves.
In some parts of the Americas, fragments of soul could be deliberately severed and stored in crystal amulets, sealed there to both soak up the wisdom of the crystal. Crystals could be used, perhaps those especially with terminated points, to find and locate souls and soul fragments in the otherworlds.
In Vilturj, and indeed in other cultures of the snowy climes, crystals had many special properties. To the Ilkara'te, or sky shamans, they were the tools by which the sky shamans came to understand the weather gods, and the tools by which they may - if necessary - work directly with the weather on behalf of a community of humans, or even a community of vili or animals; for it must be said that the Ilkara'te and Oraite were not just placed on this earth to serve those human bipeds. The community is more than just the Homo sapiens looking back at us, occasionally demanding service. A community is the gods, the spirits, the animals, the vili, the trees, plants and rocks - all respectfully gods themselves in many cases.
It perhaps seems strange, that one would find secrets of the weather not just in observing the weather itself, but also in the stones. Ilkara'te held that the stones were the oldest thing on our earth except for the weather itself. If one could understand the slow talkings and knowings of stones, one held the secrets of much of the land, its history, its future, and therefore the weather patterns inscribed upon both.
Granite and hardened stone, not generally made valuable now in neopaganism, was of great importance - in Russia, and here in Australia where granite outcrops are often gods, or the sites of gods and spirits. If granite whispered to you, you could know where the k'acze wolf and deer-men lived, or the svelte and sleek shifters, the schikala. If a slavae, the great bird from which gems fell from her wings, appeared on this earth to converse with a god and granite witnessed this event, one could learn from how the granite remembered that slavae the nature of a slavae, a great thing, for they do not ever visit humans in this world or the otherworlds.
Those small tokens of wisdom that some keep on their shelves; tumbled stones, heavily wounded stones taken away from their god-sites in the way that a fin is taken away from a shark can only give so much wisdom. It is true that sand blows off the mountain, but this is like fur blowing from the shedding wolf. To take great chunks is a greater slight, the difference between a leaf naturally falling and a human severing a great limb, the tree itself generally survives - but the limb does not.
Tumbled stones taken far away from their countries of origin and expected to gift us with their healing abilities are sadly misused. They can indeed be nursed back to life, they can impress us with their energy, but when you have the fingernail of a god... you will not hear exactly what the god has to say!
In this world I live in, I see gods not in archetypes or in amorphous ideas of transcendance. Gods are granite outcrops, the rain falling, the earth beneath my feet. I believe - like the Indigenous Australians generally believe - that when someone blows up a granite outcrop and destroys a god, they have destroyed a part of themselves that may never recover. When the land hurts, the people hurt.
The land can survive a great deal, so can gods, so can humans. We survive housing and mining and still look to find the deeper thrum of nature around us, how can we not when the crust and mantle thrums beneath us? Untouched by bombs, seething with bacteria and life, giving us its pulsing heartbeat, heat and activity; fuelling the weather and winds.
And so here we have it, an eventual explanation for how the Ilkara'te saw that connection between stone and weather. Without our shifting tectonic plates driven by heat and rock, it is very likely we would not have wind as we know it, and therefore it is also very likely we would not have our transient weather patterns moving across our lives. The weather moves with the secret of the rocks, for on planets without tectonic movements, the air is often non-existent, the atmosphere does not last long.
Do not turn to tumbled crystals thinking that you will find great secrets in a god's fingernail or worse, in something greater. Commune first with granite outcrops, limestone cliffs and shale if it has not yet been pulverised by the scientists who need to hold bones in their hands, instead of just touching the shale and waiting for the story of the animals to come to them hale and whole. Walk a rocky mountain and listen to the beat of whatever creatures may pulse deep within.
Then go back to the tumbled crystals, the shinies, the glowing colours that have been brutalised into glowing for the benefit of our meagre eyes. It is easier to appreciate a tiny part, once you have taken the time to appreciate and know the greater whole.
Keep up this pattern of learning, observation, listening and respect and one day you may learn something more about the weather that tumbles around us. One day the granite that once formed a particular plate that created a particular wind, will tell you exactly how to work that wind now if the need arises, and will tell you the gods in that wind, for before the weather, there were the rocks seeing the need to create those gods of wind and weather which in turn created us, who then proceeded to walk, command and deludedly tame the rocks, those who created us and gift us, are those which will gift us again if we stop taming the tumbled stone, and find the wilder places once more.
I believe it is a rare thing for stones to share such wisdom, but share it they will if you take the space. The time.
It is true, the roots of the underworld really do support the sky. :)
This is the first.
In many ancient spiritual cultures, those which are 'shamanic' in nature, crystals often have a seminal importance. They are the bestowers of wisdom to those who learn the secrets of knowing, and learning such secrets is not a matter of simply interpreting the wounded vibrations of a tumbled amethyst, but a matter of years of studying, interpretation, learning both anecdote and literal translation.
In Australia, there are reports of some Indigenous peoples swallowing crystals into their body upon the point of initiation; whereby the crystals will aid them and keep them permanently connected to the spiritworld. These crystals hum and vibrate and warn the wise and magical wise-men, of those who would do harm to a community. They advise of changing patterns in the earth and in the men and women themselves.
In some parts of the Americas, fragments of soul could be deliberately severed and stored in crystal amulets, sealed there to both soak up the wisdom of the crystal. Crystals could be used, perhaps those especially with terminated points, to find and locate souls and soul fragments in the otherworlds.
In Vilturj, and indeed in other cultures of the snowy climes, crystals had many special properties. To the Ilkara'te, or sky shamans, they were the tools by which the sky shamans came to understand the weather gods, and the tools by which they may - if necessary - work directly with the weather on behalf of a community of humans, or even a community of vili or animals; for it must be said that the Ilkara'te and Oraite were not just placed on this earth to serve those human bipeds. The community is more than just the Homo sapiens looking back at us, occasionally demanding service. A community is the gods, the spirits, the animals, the vili, the trees, plants and rocks - all respectfully gods themselves in many cases.
It perhaps seems strange, that one would find secrets of the weather not just in observing the weather itself, but also in the stones. Ilkara'te held that the stones were the oldest thing on our earth except for the weather itself. If one could understand the slow talkings and knowings of stones, one held the secrets of much of the land, its history, its future, and therefore the weather patterns inscribed upon both.
Granite and hardened stone, not generally made valuable now in neopaganism, was of great importance - in Russia, and here in Australia where granite outcrops are often gods, or the sites of gods and spirits. If granite whispered to you, you could know where the k'acze wolf and deer-men lived, or the svelte and sleek shifters, the schikala. If a slavae, the great bird from which gems fell from her wings, appeared on this earth to converse with a god and granite witnessed this event, one could learn from how the granite remembered that slavae the nature of a slavae, a great thing, for they do not ever visit humans in this world or the otherworlds.
Those small tokens of wisdom that some keep on their shelves; tumbled stones, heavily wounded stones taken away from their god-sites in the way that a fin is taken away from a shark can only give so much wisdom. It is true that sand blows off the mountain, but this is like fur blowing from the shedding wolf. To take great chunks is a greater slight, the difference between a leaf naturally falling and a human severing a great limb, the tree itself generally survives - but the limb does not.
Tumbled stones taken far away from their countries of origin and expected to gift us with their healing abilities are sadly misused. They can indeed be nursed back to life, they can impress us with their energy, but when you have the fingernail of a god... you will not hear exactly what the god has to say!
In this world I live in, I see gods not in archetypes or in amorphous ideas of transcendance. Gods are granite outcrops, the rain falling, the earth beneath my feet. I believe - like the Indigenous Australians generally believe - that when someone blows up a granite outcrop and destroys a god, they have destroyed a part of themselves that may never recover. When the land hurts, the people hurt.
The land can survive a great deal, so can gods, so can humans. We survive housing and mining and still look to find the deeper thrum of nature around us, how can we not when the crust and mantle thrums beneath us? Untouched by bombs, seething with bacteria and life, giving us its pulsing heartbeat, heat and activity; fuelling the weather and winds.
And so here we have it, an eventual explanation for how the Ilkara'te saw that connection between stone and weather. Without our shifting tectonic plates driven by heat and rock, it is very likely we would not have wind as we know it, and therefore it is also very likely we would not have our transient weather patterns moving across our lives. The weather moves with the secret of the rocks, for on planets without tectonic movements, the air is often non-existent, the atmosphere does not last long.
Do not turn to tumbled crystals thinking that you will find great secrets in a god's fingernail or worse, in something greater. Commune first with granite outcrops, limestone cliffs and shale if it has not yet been pulverised by the scientists who need to hold bones in their hands, instead of just touching the shale and waiting for the story of the animals to come to them hale and whole. Walk a rocky mountain and listen to the beat of whatever creatures may pulse deep within.
Then go back to the tumbled crystals, the shinies, the glowing colours that have been brutalised into glowing for the benefit of our meagre eyes. It is easier to appreciate a tiny part, once you have taken the time to appreciate and know the greater whole.
Keep up this pattern of learning, observation, listening and respect and one day you may learn something more about the weather that tumbles around us. One day the granite that once formed a particular plate that created a particular wind, will tell you exactly how to work that wind now if the need arises, and will tell you the gods in that wind, for before the weather, there were the rocks seeing the need to create those gods of wind and weather which in turn created us, who then proceeded to walk, command and deludedly tame the rocks, those who created us and gift us, are those which will gift us again if we stop taming the tumbled stone, and find the wilder places once more.
I believe it is a rare thing for stones to share such wisdom, but share it they will if you take the space. The time.
It is true, the roots of the underworld really do support the sky. :)
