Published by Shaman is a general name given to a range of related animist priests, witch doctors and magicians across the Southeast Asian region. They share a range of common characteristics. Firstly, their belief in and understanding of the spirits who inhabit so many features of the natural world (e.g. streams, trees, rocks and hills) enables them to call upon those spirits to use their powers in ways requested by the shaman.
Secondly, they need to undertake a lengthy apprenticeship from a local shaman in order to claim these powers, since the spirits are unique and what is true of one tree spirit may be quite untrue for another of a seemingly identical tree a few miles away down the river.
Finally, to conserve their powers, shamans need to preserve their link to their home village or environment and so will only rarely and reluctantly travel away from their homes. They will also avoid luxuries such as consumer goods or western style foods which might also interfere with the mystical link with the land that shamans enjoy.
Powers of the Shaman
The spirits of the earth tend to be capricious or at least fickle and so the shaman is far from guaranteed to obtain a favourable response to his or her requests. Indeed, if the shaman has not been assiduous in propitiating the spirits at suitable times of the year and with the proper sacrifices of rice wine, pork meat and so forth, then an angry response might result. In cases where duties have been ignored to an extreme degree, spirits may require the sacrifice of one or more small children to satisfy them and may if necessary cause to materialize suitable ghosts or demons to take those children.
Rituals involved in appealing to the spirits will feature a combination of elements such as dance, chanting and singing, offering of sacrifices of food and wine and ceremonial movements and processions. Just as each spirit is different, so too are the rituals to which they will respond and using the wrong ritual or making a mistake in procedure can be a dangerous practice. Spirits upset in this manner may take their revenge on the shaman by withholding rain, poisoning plants or animals and generally making peoples’ lives miserable. It would be a mistake to assume that the spirits of nature or always or even sometimes benign.
Nevertheless, shamans do manage to produce good results from spirits when the proper methods are followed. The effects that might be produced include:
- Boosting the fertility of plants and animals;
- Removing diseases and curses
- Locating lost and missing precious items
- Banishing and exorcising ghosts and demons
- Temporarily hiding the village from bandits or marauding enemy armies, including from airborne observers.
It is also possible for the shaman to inspire the spirits to create negative or harmful effects such as creating curses or diseases. However, this is an even more dangerous path for the shaman to tread.
