Posted by giveawayboy on March 17, 2005 at 14:32:10:
In Reply to: of fish tongues and shellfish bellies posted by cav on March 17, 2005 at 07:37:39:
: and mirrors and duplicated Johns that reflect different things. Between is a bad place to be...but then maybe that's good.
No John, in between is a good place to be. It's a place of presence and participation. It is not isolated buy involved. The way of the shaman is a way to go into the world of spirit and bring back a message, and the hard part, living it out in a way to communicate it to the people and beings that inhabit the local communities. I'm no expert on shamanism but it seems that from my understanding this 'in between' state is what it's largely about. And this to me seems like a great point of unity between a shamanistic way of seeing and what Christianity talks about when it talks about the god-man hanging between Heaven and Earth, having his very center poured out to sew Creator and creatures back together. It seems to me that in between is where the shaman or the god-man does his greatest work. Am I equating Christ with shamanism. Certainly not. I'm showing a relationship. That there are similarlities does not equate things. It merely relates them in a respectful, hopefully harmonious way. I do however, believe that a shaman will give us one perspective on the nature or things, esp. as those things relate to a local culture, and Christ will give us the perspective on the nature of things as they relate to God and man. I'm not going to try and reconcile these two ways of seeing. I only hope that we don't pluck out any eyes that God may have given us. Being in between you and John I see how dialogue, w the possibility of a fall and redemption can bring in the necessary checks and balances for equipoise. O.K. This is all said underwater, but I think there is a nice sleek manta ray knocking about in there somewhere.