The parallel between traditional shamanism and the psychology of shamanism that I have elucidated should be obvious. The following text depicts the quintessentially shamanistic orientation toward uniting the world that is veiled from consciousness with the world that is available to consciousness, in order to create a unity of the sense of being that is felt to have been lost:
And Marechera really did embody the Nietzschean principle of living his ideas – thus becoming “the spirit” (that is, the creative drive) that ran “alongside him” [Zarathustra]:
Bataille’s shamanistic orientation goes further to eludicate a dualism between two fundamentally different “worlds”, which the shamanistic consciousness must cross between:
Taking this quote along with the text above, from Eliade, it is apparent that anyone who was capable of crossing between these two worlds would effectively restore an integral unity that had been lost. This can be understood allegorically, in terms of the restoration of the primal unity with the mother, as a source of wholeness. Yet, such a description risks being cast as “pathological” or in an overly simplistic light of contemporary psychology. It is absolutely crucial to add a further proviso, concerning shamanistic dynamics and how they operate on our minds: wherever reality – as held in place by dominant ideologies and political power and its rhetorical devices-- is unable to hold our consciousness into one place, doubt arises concerning the nature of the real and whether it is as real as it may seem to be. This opens up a wormhole in the nature of real and access to the realm of “spirit”. The realm of the spirit is both the existential counterpart and yet also the negation of the real (it is the negation in terms of the fact that the self-evident quality of reality becomes open to doubt and questioning: Ultimately the bridge to the other realm is crossed in terms of answering the question: is the real that pertains to communicable experience really the ultimate form of reality – ie. all that there is? Shamanistic doubting of this sort is extremely politically subversive.)
According to the "World Myth" found in many cultures, the earliest stage of human life was one of total harmony and wisdom. The planet was connected to the sky, which was always a place of light and the focus of human devotion, by the bridge, tree, mountain etc., thought to be the "axis mundi", the center of the world. "Humans could effortlessly communicate with the gods above."[Eliade] They could pass between heaven and earth without obstacle because there was no death yet. This easy communication was cut off by a "fall" from grace similar to that in the Christian bible. Since this "fall", the only way to cross the bridge is in "spirit", ie. as dead or in ecstasy. This bridge is full of obstacles, demons and monsters, and the way is as narrow as a razors edge. The crossing is dangerous and only privileged persons succeed in passing over it in their lifetime. " In the myths, the passage emphatically testifies that he who succeeds in accomplishing it, has transcended the human condition; he is a shaman, a hero, or a spirit and indeed this passage can be accomplished by only one who is spirit. "[Eliade] The shaman in crossing by way of his ecstatic journey proves he is spirit, and attempts to restore the "communicability" that originally existed between this world and heaven. What the shaman succeeds in doing today through ecstasy, could be done at the dawn of all beings "in concreto" ie. without trance, in the physical body. 'The shaman reestablishes the primordial condition of all mankind."[Eliade]
[ see: http://easternhealingarts.com/Articles/shamanism.html ]
And Marechera really did embody the Nietzschean principle of living his ideas – thus becoming “the spirit” (that is, the creative drive) that ran “alongside him” [Zarathustra]:
I love him who keeps back no drop of spirit for himself, but wants to be the spirit of his virtue entirely: thus he steps as spirit over the bridge.
Bataille’s shamanistic orientation goes further to eludicate a dualism between two fundamentally different “worlds”, which the shamanistic consciousness must cross between:
Insofar as it is spirit, the human reality is holy, but it is profane insofar as it is real. Animals, plants, tools, and other controllable things form a real world with the bodies that control them, a world subject to and traversed by divine forces, but fallen. [Bataille, George, Theory of Religion, Robert Hurley Translation., p.38.]
Taking this quote along with the text above, from Eliade, it is apparent that anyone who was capable of crossing between these two worlds would effectively restore an integral unity that had been lost. This can be understood allegorically, in terms of the restoration of the primal unity with the mother, as a source of wholeness. Yet, such a description risks being cast as “pathological” or in an overly simplistic light of contemporary psychology. It is absolutely crucial to add a further proviso, concerning shamanistic dynamics and how they operate on our minds: wherever reality – as held in place by dominant ideologies and political power and its rhetorical devices-- is unable to hold our consciousness into one place, doubt arises concerning the nature of the real and whether it is as real as it may seem to be. This opens up a wormhole in the nature of real and access to the realm of “spirit”. The realm of the spirit is both the existential counterpart and yet also the negation of the real (it is the negation in terms of the fact that the self-evident quality of reality becomes open to doubt and questioning: Ultimately the bridge to the other realm is crossed in terms of answering the question: is the real that pertains to communicable experience really the ultimate form of reality – ie. all that there is? Shamanistic doubting of this sort is extremely politically subversive.)
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