Sarangerel > Quotes

“As in the case of the tea serjim, the shaman prepares the juniper serjim for someone else to use. In Mongolia and Siberia, the sacred smoke arsa (juniper) is kept on hand in large quantity because a shaman will often be required to prepare such a serjim, either by itself or in addition to other types of serjim. When the shaman prepares this serjim, he speaks over a few spoonfuls of ground juniper to invoke the spirits and ask them to empower the juniper for a particular intention. The shaman then wraps up the juniper into a little paper bundle. The client will burn a bit of it every day until it is gone in order to continue to energize the intention that has been introduced into the juniper.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The use of liquor in Mongolian and Siberian shamanism tends to be poorly understood by outsiders. In the past, the only liquor used in ritual was arza, which was distilled from fermented milk (kumiss or airag). This sacred drink was termed the “essence of the herds” and was considered to be the perfect substance to offer to the spirits.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“It is believed that the summer solstice starts a time when the amount of spiritual help available to the shaman is at its peak, and this period lasts for three months.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Our universe, the middle world, is unique in that it has physical reality in addition to a spiritual dimension. Physical living organisms are inhabited by at least two spirit entities; humans have three, one from each of the three worlds. The middle-world component of the human being, the suld, lives in the natural world after a person’s life; it is immortal but never incarnates again. Nature is permeated with millions of these beings, all of whom are capable of communicating with shamans.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The drum (hese, hengereg) is the most famous attribute of shamans, for its sound drives the shamanic journey and its rhythm represents the hoof beats of the shaman’s magical mount.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Verbal magic is the manifesting of magical forces through the speaking of certain invocations and intentions, particularly when doing serjim spells”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Scientists often speak of the big bang theory, which holds that the entire universe was once concentrated inside an infinitesimally tiny point that, for some unexplained reason, exploded and expanded outward to create the universe as we know it today. Now, if we think about it, in non-ordinary reality, where all time and space merge into a single point and single time, is not the gol the original cosmic egg? Not only do we return to the center, but we also return to the Beginning.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Animals also have the ami soul; thus, hunters kill with respect, for the deer killed this year will return to the same forest in the next spring. For example, what happens if a hunter kills a deer badly and violates the taboos? The ami soul of the deer will tell all the deer to be born in the next year to avoid a certain village or a certain hunter. In such cases, a shaman will be called to placate the spirits of the game so that hunting luck returns to his community.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“What is the nature of this center of all existence? It is simply the point or axis, depending on your perception, where all time, all space, and all potentialities touch. It can probably be conceptualized as a sort of higher-dimensional place, as it is essentially impossible in the geometry of the physical world as we normally perceive it. In the reality of the gol there is no separation among past, present, and future; all times that have been or will be are the present. In the same way, all places in the universe touch at this point.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The terms gavia and buyan are related to windhorse. They build up or tear down windhorse, depending on how they are used. Both are based on the idea that each person has the responsibility to help keep the world in balance, to avoid causing harm to people or living things as much as possible, and to act to bring greater happiness to all living things. Gavia is the doing of things to benefit the community as a whole, such as volunteer service, contributions to culture, or taking a position of responsible and benevolent leadership. A shaman may accumulate gavia by his service to the community in which he works and by preserving, teaching, and adding to shamanic traditions. Buyan is related to personal behavior, the way one relates to other people and with the natural world. Buyan is created by acts of generosity, healing, and respect for nature and other humans, living things, and the spirits. Buyan and gavia can be regarded as being like a bank account: They can be added to or depleted according to one’s actions. They are depleted by selfishness, hatred, personal filthiness, and disrespect for the natural world, living things, and the spirits. Acts that increase buyan and gavia are like deposits in our spiritual bank account, adding to our personal power and good fortune.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The equipment of a shaman, known as tonog (“tools”), has both a physical and a spiritual component. In the unity of time within the gol, the time of the creation of the object destined to be used by a shaman and the time when a shaman starts to use it are not separate. Each piece of a shaman’s equipment is said to be amitai (“alive”) or ezetei (“having its own master spirit”), which means that it has a master spirit that entered into it at the moment of its creation. When a shaman begins to use a certain piece of equipment, he needs to contact and interact with its master spirit so that it can be used most effectively, for the ezen of a shaman’s tool will add its own spiritual power to that of the shaman. Once the shaman has bonded with the spirits of his tools, other people are not normally allowed to touch them unless the ezen of his tools allow it.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Are we physical beings in a definite here and now, or are we simply all beings in the gol rationalizing this whole physical reality in order to make the universe more understandable? If you answer yes to either question, you are right. This is the paradox.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The use of stones with magical power is widespread in Mongolian and Siberian shamanism. The three kinds of power stones are the meteorite, the quartz crystal point, and the zadai. All three are believed to be buumal—that is, sent down from the sky for use by shamans.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“In spite of the suppression, the spirits of the old shamans never went away. Sometimes they expressed themselves through the spirit familiars of witches, through the spirit contacts of mediums, and through other people with a non-Christian spiritual calling. From a Siberian point of view I cannot help but feel sad about the many, many shamanic spirits from the old times who are out in nature, unable to share and express their ancient wisdom with the descendants of the people whom they once served. How happy they must be that shamanism is now reviving.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The Harvest Festival, held at the fall equinox, ends the peak period of spiritual activity and is a time of thanking the spirits for the bounty of the summer. Food offerings and feasting are a major component of this festival. In the shamanic ritual calendar, this is the new year and it was the original Sagaan Sar (White Moon) festival.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The Buryat shamanic teacher Boris Bazarov defines five different types of magic in Siberian shamanism: contact magic, addressed magic, imitational magic, cleansing magic, and verbal magic.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The ami and suns are mobile and may leave the body temporarily without any serious consequences, but the departure of the suld from the body results in death very quickly. The suld, being a middle-world entity and unique to a single life, like the body, may be the soul most closely associated with the human brain.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“There is a special kind of rattle, however, that is believed to have magical powers. This is the raven rattle. It is made out of a cow horn, with the tip carved to look like a raven’s head. It is not normally used as an instrument to drive the shamanic trance; rather, it is a tool to direct spiritual-magical energy in a specific direction. The rattle is shaken in the direction toward which the energy is to go, with the movement imitating pecking (tonshoho). The energy then flows out through the raven’s beak. The power of the raven rattle is usually directed toward sources of negative energy or harmful spirits.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The suns soul is a lower-world soul. It also reincarnates but does not follow any specific succession. For example, a person who was born a Mongol in this life may have been an American in a past life and may reincarnate as an African. The succession of incarnations is determined by the spirits according to a person’s fate, zayaa. The idea of zayaa is similar to that of karma in Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. A person living a destructive life now may reincarnate into a life of suffering in order to learn of the need to live benevolently and in balance. Likewise, a person living a benevolent life in which he accumulates much buyan will probably reincarnate into a life of happiness and prosperity. Just as Umai is in charge of determining the time and place of the incarnating of ami souls, the lower-world spirit Erleg Khan is in charge of the decision to reincarnate suns souls. Erleg Khan is conceived as being like a judge, assigning suns souls to certain incarnations according to their past actions.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“On April 20–21, when the migratory birds have arrived and mushrooms start to appear, the Great Spring Ceremony welcomes the birds and celebrates spring.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The three souls have their origin in each of the three worlds, the upper, middle, and lower. They are described as follows: 1. ami upper world reincarnates 2. suns lower world reincarnates 3. suld middle world non-reincarnating,
becomes nature spirit”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Each person in his own spiritual sphere has the same axis running from the sky above his head to the ground beneath his feet. In the chest is the gol of one’s personal consciousness, the setgel.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“In Siberia and Mongolia the White Moon Festival (Sagaalgan), held in mid-February, marks the beginning of spring. It starts with the new moon of that month and usually falls close to the beginning of Lent in the Western calendar (there is a joke here in Siberia that when the Russians have to start fasting, we are feasting). The White Moon is the festival of the return of the spirits. It is believed that all the shamanic and nature spirits go to the upper world for cleansing and return at sunrise on the morning of the White Moon. The spirits are welcomed with fire, sacred smoke, and offerings of food and drink, and it is customary to avoid any conflict or hostility until the moon becomes full. Thus the White Moon season is a time of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Suns souls are often visualized as traveling through water when outside the body. The river Dolbor is a river of souls flowing with its current to the river’s mouth in the lower world. Animals that live in water are believed to have a special link with spirit. This is connected with the principle behind the making and using of arshaan, that liquids can contain and transmit spiritual power. Suns souls can fragment into thirteen parts, although they usually function as a whole. Up to twelve of them can be lost without serious consequences, although the human organism will be weakened by their loss.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The true source of power is the center of all existence, referred to in Siberian languages and in Mongolian with the root word gal or gol. Gol has the essential meaning of “core,” “essence,” “center.” This word is the root of such important words as gal, “fire,” golomt or gulamta, “place of the fire,” gol, “river,” and golduu, “most important.” Fire is a symbol of this core of existence, for it is a place where heaven and earth merge, creating heat, and shamans use it in rituals as the symbolic representation of this center. Gol, when used in the sense of “river,” is related to this same concept—another symbol of the center of the universe is the river Dolbor, which links all consciousness and ties together the upper, lower, and middle worlds. In this sense the root word mur is also significant. Mur means “trail,” but in the form murun it refers to a great river flowing to the sea. Dolbor murun is the river of the universe, while the sunsnii mur, the stream of consciousness linking shamans in a line of succession, is visualized as a tributary stream of the Dolbor.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The Lake Baikal region was the cradle of the Mongolian people. The ancient inhabitants of the Lake Baikal basin were called the Borte Chino, a name derived from the ancient word bured, meaning “wolf.” Buryats, as well as other Mongols, trace their ancestry to the wolf. In fact, the name Buryat comes from bured, so their name means “the wolf people.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“The Jew’s harp (hel huur) is a popular shamanic instrument throughout Mongolia and Siberia. In Russia it is considered equal to the drum as the classic shamanic instrument. Some Jew’s harps are made in the shape of a bird, usually a swan, again symbolizing the animal as a shamanic mount. Jew’s harps, like the shaman costume, are usually decorated with “snake” tassels, colorful ribbons, and sometimes jingle cones. As with hoomei, the playing of the Jew’s harp sets up a vibration in the head and throat that helps to induce an altered state of consciousness.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Imitational magic involves the imitation of certain actions by the shaman in order to manifest particular forces in the spiritual realm, such as the acting out of drawing and releasing a bow when shooting magical arrows against an enemy.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Another use of mirrors is for dom (shamanic magic). There is a magical spell known as toli erguulehe, “spinning the mirror.” The meaning is understandable when you remember that the mirror is a direct connection with gol and the spinning evokes its vortexlike nature. The shaman takes the mirror he wears around his neck, twists it around on its string until it is fully wound up, and then allows the mirror to spin while he states his intention. This technique is so powerful that once it is done, reversal of the spell is extremely difficult.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling

“Meteorites are thought to be the carriers of new udha spirits into the world. If a non-shaman steeps a meteorite (tektite) in liquor and then drinks the liquor, the udha spirit will enter the person through the liquid and the person will be able to become a true shaman.”
― Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits: Following Your Shamanic Calling