[News] Russian shamans unite to vote for a nationwide Russian chief shaman.

[moonvoice]

Russian shamans unite to vote for a nationwide shaman chief for the first time.

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this myself. I think it could potentially be great, and hopefully stop the persecution that many Russian Indigenous still face, depending on where they live and practice...

On the other hand, trying to unite many diverse, and not always same-seeing religious paths under one leader can be potentially catastrophic when it comes to preserving cultural diversity. Globalisation has not always been the friend of Indigenous shamanism. And trying to get a leader to fairly represent very different subcultures may not, in the long run, be the friend of Indigenous shamanism either.

Still, there is always hope. Anything that stops the persecution they still face to this day is a good thing.

Comments

[darakat-ewr.livejournal.com]

Heard about this, its something thats happened in a lot of places and sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. Hope it works in this case, what we don't need is more of ancient culture and tradition going down the gurgler.

[erynn999.livejournal.com]

From what mythworker was saying in his blog, a lot of the shamans aren't interested in having a shaman pope and I can't say as I blame them. I can't imagine it will be good for anyone except the person who gets elected. Too often this sort of thing is political in an extra-religious sense and doesn't have anything to do with the reality that the folks in question are facing. It's like the guy who started a shamanic certifying bureau over there -- that's not really helping things either.

[lupabitch.livejournal.com]

IAWTC.