Blog 6

Shape-shifting, pipes, and mushrooms, what great things to read about!

"...an ally can reveal all the secrets of these lesser powers, rendering them rather childish." (9)
Yes, killing a person with a kernel of corn is childish...

It is interesting to me how many similarities there are between different "shamanic" traditions. The very touching of an object (in this case a kernel) has much in common with the Hoodoo that I know. The use of the path on which the person walks comes up again and again in curses. There are a few spells where the person's footprints are used, sometimes even dug up and used.

In reading about Jimsonweed, the mushrooms, and peyote, it seems interesting that many of the most powerful plants are so plain looking. Grand Absinthe looks like roadside brush and was first used in Ancient Egypt. Salvia divinorum looks a lot like garden-variety sage. Hiawasca is strange in that in order to be used there is a long complicated process. Mushrooms are the worst because edible mushrooms and poisonous mushrooms have a very similar appearance and often grow in the same places. I wonder how people without the aid of modern science and testing could have figured these things out, especially since trial and error would be lethal.

"Accident, my eye! I have an enemy nearby." (49)
Remembering the field and the ability of thoughts alone to make things happen, it should be noted that psychic attacks are quite possible. Many believers would look toward a bad day: your hair is a mess, you stubbed your toe, you tripped on the stairs...etc, to be indications that somebody is ending ill-will your way. Throughout the various traditions there are ways to shield yourself from such actions.

As a pipe smoker, the discussion of the pipe appealed to my interests. I began smoking a pipe after I was given a peace pipe for I tattoo a designed for a neighbor of mine. I don't smoke the mixture that don Juan uses, (though that would be interesting) I instead use tobacco which was the most commonly used shamanic plant in America; in some places it was even currency.
As two ironies to history, though everyone these days seem to be anti-smoking, it was tobacco which saved Jamestown financially (as Europe had become hooked on the latest fad of pipe smoking) and the drug of choice in Europe, alcohol, became a plague upon the native peoples of the Americas. I found that pipe smoking is first off a lot different than cigarettes both in flavor and in the actual effects and second it is quite relaxing. The preparation of the pipe to smoke is a ritual in itself. Apart from being a sacrament in many Native American traditions, tobacco is also a sacrament to the Voodoo loas (spirits/angels/etc) Papa Legba (pipes and cigars) and Baron Samedi (cigars).

I think the most valuable thing from don Juan is his desire to treat such things with respect.