LHP Shamanism
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Serenitydawn
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LHP Shamanism
Anybody know anything about LHP Shamanism? Also what do you think of it?
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~ H.P. Lovecraft
Re: LHP Shamanism
How are you defining left hand path? Some would consider dealing with Palo Mayombe left hand path. Some would define the Order of the Voltec LHP, though I wouldn't call them so at all.
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Serenitydawn
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Re: LHP Shamanism
I've always used the definition for LHP as having the goal being self deification, but it's also working with the gods of chaos (whichever system you use).
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~ H.P. Lovecraft
Re: LHP Shamanism
Well, in response to your original question, I'm usually not one for the shamanic ritual format - I've met too many damned hippies who think that Joe Red Eagle's two week intensive in the woods makes them initiated into Indian teachings, and the usual format I've seen for rituals still has you on your knees petitioning the spirits for their intercessions on your behalf (often to a greater God), which doesn't match my definition of LHP, especially given how it's usually implemented... I don't beg well.
Still, I don't see a problem with trying something like an ancestral altar. I see some potential value in that if you're interested in self-deification since your ancestors are the physical link to how you've been evolving into a higher form over multiple incarnations (assuming you believe in those) so harnessing them would be probably pretty good. That opens up the door for some necromancy, which I don't consider particularly LHP, but a lot of people do. I have some trouble with African source material since I'm not used to the vocabulary, so I tend to stick to the South American stuff.
What shamanistic systems have you been trying?
Still, I don't see a problem with trying something like an ancestral altar. I see some potential value in that if you're interested in self-deification since your ancestors are the physical link to how you've been evolving into a higher form over multiple incarnations (assuming you believe in those) so harnessing them would be probably pretty good. That opens up the door for some necromancy, which I don't consider particularly LHP, but a lot of people do. I have some trouble with African source material since I'm not used to the vocabulary, so I tend to stick to the South American stuff.
What shamanistic systems have you been trying?
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Serenitydawn
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Re: LHP Shamanism
Oh I totally forgot about the ancestral link to shamanism, thank you so much! I forgot that was important. To be honest I know very little about shamanism. I even had to look up what you posted. I don't even know what types there are, though I seem to be learning some form of Siberian shamanism (I think). I'm learning from someone else, let's just say I'm supposed to learn it...it's very complicated.
I'm with you, I don't beg. While I am mostly LHP, I'm not one of those people who won't do something because it's RHP or not strictly LHP. I think that point of view is too limiting, you only hurt yourself and limit your own knowledge and thus power. However I have heard of RHP shamans freaking out over LHP shamans, which is just silly. Thank you for the advice!
I'm with you, I don't beg. While I am mostly LHP, I'm not one of those people who won't do something because it's RHP or not strictly LHP. I think that point of view is too limiting, you only hurt yourself and limit your own knowledge and thus power. However I have heard of RHP shamans freaking out over LHP shamans, which is just silly. Thank you for the advice!
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~ H.P. Lovecraft
Re: LHP Shamanism
A hairflip "it's not LHP so I don't like it" isn't what I meant. A lot of the shamanistic-style rituals I have read (and it's a big stack, trust me) usually put the practitioner on the extreme end of the divine continuum, to the point where it's actually stultifying, and thus antithetical to the LHP approach (if you think how generally down the totem pole and shit-upon the average Catholic is, mystically speaking, you're not far off.) Of course, this is a lot of outer temple stuff, too, since over and over you read that inner temple practice (ie, initiated practice) is a lot different. Of course, there's a shortage of traditional African/South American style shamans here in New Mexico, so I have no one reliable to ask, lol. Go try Pomba Gira, if you like (she's a spirit you read about in Quimbanda.) I heard playing with her is a lot of fun.
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Serenitydawn
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Re: LHP Shamanism
Perhaps you need a trip to Peru or something. [grin] Find the shamans in the middle of nowhere that still practice the same way their ancestors did.
It sounds like most of the rituals and books about shamanism would not be for me at all. I will have to check out Pomba Gira, sounds interesting.
It sounds like most of the rituals and books about shamanism would not be for me at all. I will have to check out Pomba Gira, sounds interesting.
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~ H.P. Lovecraft
Re: LHP Shamanism
I've been contemplating a trip to Mexico to track down some Santa Muerte shrines, actually. There's supposed to be a massive open air occult market in Mexico City near the Basilica, and I'd love to go play there.
If I had to give a super generic form for an ancestral shrine, it would go something like this:
You need:
a. Pictures and direct mementos of your dead relatives. The pictures are a no-brainer; direct mementos can include things like letters your gramma wrote your grampa back in the war for ancestor-specific items, or items important to the family and passed down (the family Bible goes great on an ancestral altar, if you got one - already invested with generations of spiritual energy ready to harvest and often has a list of names in the front, too, as a Book of Names, booyeah.) Obvious sympathetic link is obvious.
b. A candle, often white or yellow, to guide the spirit there (yes, I know there are a lot of reasons you put candles in ritual setups, but the rationale given in these books often has to do with guiding the spirits to the altar, so that how I'm presenting it)
c. A glass of water to drink when they arrive (hey, it was a long trip, good thing you lit the candle to guide them)
d. A sweet snack to eat, often fruit or candies
e. A dish for a meal
f. Incense, both for perfume and spirit chow
g. Booze and smokes. So you're dead and you've made a long journey to come see your living grand grand grand niece, and all this has just reminded you of your own life, and what you miss about it. Man, wouldn't a cigar be good? And a beer? It's not like they're going to kill you now, right?
h. Any other small but meaningful gifts that your ancestors would like.
i. Flowers - often again white or yellow, but this one varies really widely.
There's more to do with the symbolism of some of the offerings, too -- the booze and smokes are as much vices as they are refreshments, and represent a portion of the spectrum of life, for example - but you get the general idea. A lot of the books also suggest some sort of intercession from a psychopomp/gatekeeper-type spirit in order to facilitate these types of transactions. A commonly used spirit is Papa Legba, so people put St. Peter cards/candles on the altar (or Lazarus, depending how you want to work it... I don't know if Tibetans use a psychopomp-type spirit on an ancestral altar.)
So if I was going to set up an ancestral altar, it would be oriented towards my mom's side of the family since my dad was adopted. My mom married an American and emigrated to the US from Germany when she was 18, so I would tailor my altar to include schnapps instead of regular alcohol, and lots of strong black coffee since my gramma and aunt (both recently deceased) were huge coffee fiends. I'd also put the pearl necklace my cousin sent to me when my gramma died on the altar since it used to belong to my gramma, probably draping it over a picture of her.
The altar does need a lot of maintenance. You're basically inviting your dead relatives to move in with you. Oftentimes these books will instruct you to to share a small portion of each meal with them, keep the flowers fresh and water refreshed, say good morning/good night to your relatives, remember their birthdays and Mother's Day and Christmas, etc. The upside is dead folks are very powerful, and those related to you are really quite inclined to help you both materially and spiritually, so it's supposed to balance out.
The other thing that you see repeated across books is that you need to spend a good time (6 months plus) dedicating your altar and trying to contact your ancestors before considering it set and done and ready. The reasoning behind it makes sense, although it sort of chafes a bit (like I mentioned above.) It goes that if you load an altar with items in order to connect with spirits to which you have a strong emotional attachment (do you love and miss your gramma?) that you will get the immediate attention of a lot of spirit trolls trying to convince you that they're your gramma. In your desire to reach out and contact your dead relatives (perhaps a touch too distraught? too hopeful?) you'll connect to the near hoping that they're your dearly departed. It doesn't help that a lot of religions teach that your dead are "right there, watching over you" - unless they just recently died, they're reachable but not that close, make sense? Anyhow, the spirit you think is your gramma really isn't, and next thing you know you've used your emotional energy to supercharge a little asshole spirit that will cause trouble just because it can, and you've now gone and boarded the magical fail train. Supposedly if you spend a long time working on getting your actual ancestors (6+ months) you'll bore off/chase off the other crappy spirits and actually successfully seat your relatives within the altar. I don't know how well that sits with me because my aim in getting the spirits I want is pretty good based off my results with other magical systems, so I don't know if the 6-month provision is because a) it establishes a psychological buffer for the magician, especially if they are also dealing with unresolved issues pertaining to their deceased relatives somehow, b) the systems that I have studied presume there are no methods by which to filter your results when calling spirits, or c) the systems presume the magician cannot filter the results.
It could easily some variation of answer A which I do not understand because I lack experience; my deceased relatives were less than voices on the phone to me growing up since they were 6000 miles away, so I barely knew my own family, much less felt much attachment to them when they died. Therefore, would I feel much pain or "psychic blockage" of some sort calling on them? Would I jump at the first opportunity to talk to my dead aunt? I doubt it - my bullshit detector is fully charged and I'm not inclined to be emotionally swayed. If your gramma raised you, though, you might feel waaay different. I lack experience here, so there's that. If the answer is B, it could easily be that I just don't understand the system well -- I readily admit I've read a few books of this flavor and I've no one useful to talk to, so I may not understand filtering methods. It could also be that there ARE generally no filtering methods. If you look at Bertiaux's Voudon Gnostic Workbook, for example, you'll see that this man's magical lodge basically fused Louisiana-style voodoo with OTO-type stuff. The purpose of this, as far as I can tell, is to expand core compiler libraries in order to add features and expand the functionality of voodoo -- options like advanced spirit evocation techniques, which would be helpful. The C option says you can't pick and choose your own targets and implies you are (to a degree) at the mercy of the spirits... how well does that sit with you, oh budding Divine One? So, whether you'd spend 6 months, I dunno. I haven't tried setting up an ancestral altar myself so I have no practical advice.
Regarding LHP shamanism in general, what I'd really do is pick up a copy of the Voudon Gnostic Workbook. It's not an easy read by any means, resembling more Regardie's Intro to Golden Dawn book (the big black brick) than 5000 Spells to Increase Your Stupidity By (or whatever that book is called.) It forms a cohesive and comprehensive system that's true to foundational principles, so there's no headache trying to figure out why the author decided to use some weird-ass ritual tool in place on the what's "supposed" to be there. This would give you some metaphysical flexibility (so to speak) that you might find useful, or at least provide a map of correlations to start chipping away at some concepts. There are some other books I could recommend along this vein, but they're not easy to get your hands on.
Of course, you could just say screw it and go learn some runes. The story about Odin hanging from the tree for 9 days to get the power of the runes is an awesome tale about self-deification and the pursuit of power. The go-to man for that sort of thing is Stephen Flowers, who also wrote under the pen name Edred Thorsson. He put together a rune-oriented Odinist system, and he also identifies as being on the LHP (even wrote a top notch book on the subject, Lords of the Left-Hand Path) so you'd probably find that interesting. His Futhark Runes book that came out by Weiser Press is a good book (like anything, I'm leery of Llwellyn Press stuff, even if it is Flowers.) The Flowers version of the Galdrabok looks like a fun Icelandic grimoire, although I haven't tried any of it. I like that in the beginning he explains the mechanics of how the spells are supposed to work before launching into spell lists, anyway. That's always a plus.
If I had to give a super generic form for an ancestral shrine, it would go something like this:
You need:
a. Pictures and direct mementos of your dead relatives. The pictures are a no-brainer; direct mementos can include things like letters your gramma wrote your grampa back in the war for ancestor-specific items, or items important to the family and passed down (the family Bible goes great on an ancestral altar, if you got one - already invested with generations of spiritual energy ready to harvest and often has a list of names in the front, too, as a Book of Names, booyeah.) Obvious sympathetic link is obvious.
b. A candle, often white or yellow, to guide the spirit there (yes, I know there are a lot of reasons you put candles in ritual setups, but the rationale given in these books often has to do with guiding the spirits to the altar, so that how I'm presenting it)
c. A glass of water to drink when they arrive (hey, it was a long trip, good thing you lit the candle to guide them)
d. A sweet snack to eat, often fruit or candies
e. A dish for a meal
f. Incense, both for perfume and spirit chow
g. Booze and smokes. So you're dead and you've made a long journey to come see your living grand grand grand niece, and all this has just reminded you of your own life, and what you miss about it. Man, wouldn't a cigar be good? And a beer? It's not like they're going to kill you now, right?
h. Any other small but meaningful gifts that your ancestors would like.
i. Flowers - often again white or yellow, but this one varies really widely.
There's more to do with the symbolism of some of the offerings, too -- the booze and smokes are as much vices as they are refreshments, and represent a portion of the spectrum of life, for example - but you get the general idea. A lot of the books also suggest some sort of intercession from a psychopomp/gatekeeper-type spirit in order to facilitate these types of transactions. A commonly used spirit is Papa Legba, so people put St. Peter cards/candles on the altar (or Lazarus, depending how you want to work it... I don't know if Tibetans use a psychopomp-type spirit on an ancestral altar.)
So if I was going to set up an ancestral altar, it would be oriented towards my mom's side of the family since my dad was adopted. My mom married an American and emigrated to the US from Germany when she was 18, so I would tailor my altar to include schnapps instead of regular alcohol, and lots of strong black coffee since my gramma and aunt (both recently deceased) were huge coffee fiends. I'd also put the pearl necklace my cousin sent to me when my gramma died on the altar since it used to belong to my gramma, probably draping it over a picture of her.
The altar does need a lot of maintenance. You're basically inviting your dead relatives to move in with you. Oftentimes these books will instruct you to to share a small portion of each meal with them, keep the flowers fresh and water refreshed, say good morning/good night to your relatives, remember their birthdays and Mother's Day and Christmas, etc. The upside is dead folks are very powerful, and those related to you are really quite inclined to help you both materially and spiritually, so it's supposed to balance out.
The other thing that you see repeated across books is that you need to spend a good time (6 months plus) dedicating your altar and trying to contact your ancestors before considering it set and done and ready. The reasoning behind it makes sense, although it sort of chafes a bit (like I mentioned above.) It goes that if you load an altar with items in order to connect with spirits to which you have a strong emotional attachment (do you love and miss your gramma?) that you will get the immediate attention of a lot of spirit trolls trying to convince you that they're your gramma. In your desire to reach out and contact your dead relatives (perhaps a touch too distraught? too hopeful?) you'll connect to the near hoping that they're your dearly departed. It doesn't help that a lot of religions teach that your dead are "right there, watching over you" - unless they just recently died, they're reachable but not that close, make sense? Anyhow, the spirit you think is your gramma really isn't, and next thing you know you've used your emotional energy to supercharge a little asshole spirit that will cause trouble just because it can, and you've now gone and boarded the magical fail train. Supposedly if you spend a long time working on getting your actual ancestors (6+ months) you'll bore off/chase off the other crappy spirits and actually successfully seat your relatives within the altar. I don't know how well that sits with me because my aim in getting the spirits I want is pretty good based off my results with other magical systems, so I don't know if the 6-month provision is because a) it establishes a psychological buffer for the magician, especially if they are also dealing with unresolved issues pertaining to their deceased relatives somehow, b) the systems that I have studied presume there are no methods by which to filter your results when calling spirits, or c) the systems presume the magician cannot filter the results.
It could easily some variation of answer A which I do not understand because I lack experience; my deceased relatives were less than voices on the phone to me growing up since they were 6000 miles away, so I barely knew my own family, much less felt much attachment to them when they died. Therefore, would I feel much pain or "psychic blockage" of some sort calling on them? Would I jump at the first opportunity to talk to my dead aunt? I doubt it - my bullshit detector is fully charged and I'm not inclined to be emotionally swayed. If your gramma raised you, though, you might feel waaay different. I lack experience here, so there's that. If the answer is B, it could easily be that I just don't understand the system well -- I readily admit I've read a few books of this flavor and I've no one useful to talk to, so I may not understand filtering methods. It could also be that there ARE generally no filtering methods. If you look at Bertiaux's Voudon Gnostic Workbook, for example, you'll see that this man's magical lodge basically fused Louisiana-style voodoo with OTO-type stuff. The purpose of this, as far as I can tell, is to expand core compiler libraries in order to add features and expand the functionality of voodoo -- options like advanced spirit evocation techniques, which would be helpful. The C option says you can't pick and choose your own targets and implies you are (to a degree) at the mercy of the spirits... how well does that sit with you, oh budding Divine One? So, whether you'd spend 6 months, I dunno. I haven't tried setting up an ancestral altar myself so I have no practical advice.
Regarding LHP shamanism in general, what I'd really do is pick up a copy of the Voudon Gnostic Workbook. It's not an easy read by any means, resembling more Regardie's Intro to Golden Dawn book (the big black brick) than 5000 Spells to Increase Your Stupidity By (or whatever that book is called.) It forms a cohesive and comprehensive system that's true to foundational principles, so there's no headache trying to figure out why the author decided to use some weird-ass ritual tool in place on the what's "supposed" to be there. This would give you some metaphysical flexibility (so to speak) that you might find useful, or at least provide a map of correlations to start chipping away at some concepts. There are some other books I could recommend along this vein, but they're not easy to get your hands on.
Of course, you could just say screw it and go learn some runes. The story about Odin hanging from the tree for 9 days to get the power of the runes is an awesome tale about self-deification and the pursuit of power. The go-to man for that sort of thing is Stephen Flowers, who also wrote under the pen name Edred Thorsson. He put together a rune-oriented Odinist system, and he also identifies as being on the LHP (even wrote a top notch book on the subject, Lords of the Left-Hand Path) so you'd probably find that interesting. His Futhark Runes book that came out by Weiser Press is a good book (like anything, I'm leery of Llwellyn Press stuff, even if it is Flowers.) The Flowers version of the Galdrabok looks like a fun Icelandic grimoire, although I haven't tried any of it. I like that in the beginning he explains the mechanics of how the spells are supposed to work before launching into spell lists, anyway. That's always a plus.
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Serenitydawn
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Re: LHP Shamanism
Yes I've read some of Stephen Flowers. Thanks for the info! I'm not sure what I'm looking for, but I was given something to try. My father just died about a month ago, but I think I'm aiming for ancient relatives...maybe. Ugh, my daughter just threw a bunch of shit off the balcony. Gotta go, thanks again.
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~ H.P. Lovecraft
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Serenitydawn
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Re: LHP Shamanism
Ok, I just realized something. I mean I've always known this, just have never seen it written like this. LHP deals with chaos realms, while RHP deals with cosmic realms. So if someone is LHP dealing mainly with the realms and gods of chaos, are they still shamans? Or do they have another name? Is it inverse shamanism, somehow opposite of cosmic shamanism?
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~ H.P. Lovecraft
Re: LHP Shamanism
I would argue that shamanism is more of a technique cluster, like ceremonial magic is a technique cluster with different "flavors" plugged into it. Mathers and Regardie and Crowley all approach cosmic vs chaos, approaching God as penultimate goal vs the self as God as penultimate goal differently, but they all belong to a tool and technique cluster called ceremonial magic. I guess it's how you're defining chaos, too -- Savage argues that chaos is only a higher form of order that humans can't understand, so working with chaos instead of against it is a form of adhering to the Divine Plan - essentially a RHP approach. I see the gist of what you're saying, though -- I'm not sure chaos shamanism has a particular term that I've heard, and God knows if you google "Chaos Shaman" you're going to get a bunch of hits for Warhammer 40k. Have you looked at any of the work of Julian Wilde? I only know his work by reputation, but he was part of the Circle of Chaos with Sherwin and all those folks around the Magickal Childe in the 80s when these folks were getting shit together. I've read that the elements of shamanism that you see in these works are part of his influence (he was some sort of chaos-oriented 70s shaman type [so probably a touch fruity]). Perhaps hunting down some of his stuff might be worth it?
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Serenitydawn
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Re: LHP Shamanism
Cool, thank you I'll look into that!
We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of disociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~ H.P. Lovecraft
Re: LHP Shamanism
This seems like a good enough place for my general statement:
Speaking for myself, my Shamanic practice is about a relationship with my totem animals and Journeying to the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds. What I need to learn, I learn from them. This is both simple and authentic: no borrowed rituals from National Geographic and I never paid $1,000 + for a Friday night seminar. Whatever anyone does on a reservation or in the Amazon, while I respect it, has no relevance to me. I am not them and they are not me.
Speaking for myself, my Shamanic practice is about a relationship with my totem animals and Journeying to the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds. What I need to learn, I learn from them. This is both simple and authentic: no borrowed rituals from National Geographic and I never paid $1,000 + for a Friday night seminar. Whatever anyone does on a reservation or in the Amazon, while I respect it, has no relevance to me. I am not them and they are not me.