SECRET OF THE
SHAMAN'S CIRCLE
When the majority of modern day people read the article on the Wanderling being brought back from the brink of Death from the ravages of Dengue Fever high in the mountains of Jamaica through the efforts of an occult man of spells called an Obeah, they most often roll their eyes and move on. In doing so they ask themselves, and possibly rightly so, how can the casting or tossing of a few bones or the drawing of a circle with sand or ash possibly help or affect the matter of a person's life or health?
First of all the Obeah was not just any man and secondly the bones were not just any bones --- and for sure the circle was NOT just any circle. So saying, however, even if one is willing to buy the Power of the Shaman such an answer begs the question on one hand and overlooks the interwoven web of overlapping subtle intricacies underlying the manifestation of the phenomenon on the other.
The Obeahman is covered quite adequately elsewhere. The bones are covered as well in Casting Bones, but in a quick reminder of how they are not just any bones, besides being consecrated in some fashion by the practitioner, a four bone set is made up of the THOLA, the widest bone (it provides positive character); the COHADO, the longest bone (long term vision of life); IMBAY, the small bone (the less powerful and of transitory aspect); and SCITA, the broken bone (possibility of problems and of negative aspect). The bones also decay over time due to the supernatural strain placed on them. In order to remain accurate in their predictions, viable replacements must be continually sought out.
What is not covered elsewhere is the CIRCLE.
"Under NO circumstances had the Obeah ever been known to leave his mountain lair, everyone in need of his services ALWAYS had to go to him no matter how serious the situation. However, much to the suprise of everyone in the village and others for miles and miles around, within a few hours of hearing of the Wanderling's condition he showed up on the veranda. He would not enter his house, again because the Wanderling was a white man, but he did remove spiritual items and herbs from his
Medicine Bag called an Oanga Bag and perform a set of rituals that included spreading sand and ashes in a circle, casting bones into the circle, sitting Buddha-like doing some chanting and using smoke that waifted throughout the house. The next day the Wanderling was up and around, sore, and except for a substantial loss of weight and weak from having not eaten, OK. The Obeah was gone." (source)
The day after the Obeah departed and following a night of heavy wind and rain, the Wanderling, conscious but racked with pain, for the first time in days was able to move and hobbled himself out onto the veranda. Barely able to stay upright he stood before the circle, and despite the storm of the night before, the circle was still in place just as it had been left by the man of spells. An ever so slight breeze came up and spread across the veranda floor twisting itself into a small dust-devil-like Vortex encompassing the Wanderling's bare feet and legs with the ash and sand of the circle. As the twisting breeze climbed his body the pain dissipated eventually disappearing altogether along with the wind.
In an incredibly interesting conincidence, almost paralleling the Wanderling's experience as described above, Enlightened Zen master Hsu Yun (1840-1959), had the following striking similar incident:
Later he
(Hsu Yun) caught malaria and dysentery and was dying in a deserted temple on the top of a mountain when the beggar appeared again to give him the hot water and medicine that saved him. The begger, who had given his name as Wen Chi, asked several questions which Hsu Yun did not understand and could not answer because he was still unenlightened and did not understand the living meaning of Ch'an dialogue. Although he was told by the beggar that the latter was known in every monastery on the Five-Peaked Mountain, when Hsu Yun arrived there and asked the monks about Wen Chi no one knew him. Later he mentioned the incident to an elderly abbot who brought his palms together and said: "That beggar was the transformation body of Manjusri Bodhisattva." Only then did the master realize that he had actually met the Bodhisattva who had saved him twice on the long journey.
As mentioned in Casting Bones Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a dozen best selling books, all following in some respect a Yaqui Indian spiritual elder he calls Don Juan Matus. Castaneda says Don Juan calls a shaman-sorcerer a man of knowledge. It is the knowledge of the Shaman that comes into play when it comes to the circle. Without it, the circle is just a circle --- and to the outsider or layperson it may seem just such. However, the lines and markings within the circle are not just put there. Nor are they simply oriented toward the four cardinal points as the graphics below so aptly show:
In the same way the unknown ancient North American indigenous peoples constructed the hand carved single-person caves along the edge of a sacred ridge to aim toward the sun as it set over the mountain peak across the valley on the equinox and solstice --- as visited by the Death Defier described in Julian Osorio --- and the astronomers and spiritual elders of Chaco Canyon were careful to locate the giant stone slabs to ensure that the casting of the suns rays fell across the sacred spiral circle of the Sun Dagger, each circle of the Shaman, if done right, and it must be done right in order to work, is individualized for the person involved and oriented in accordance with the location of the Shaman as related to the Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice, and the Spring and Fall Equinox. A true curer, tribal elder, or Shaman knows that.
NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST
NE EAST SE NORTH CENTER SOUTH NW WEST SW
TALON AND SCRATCH MARKS OF THE GIANT BIRD
SEE:
CARLOS CASTANEDA: TIMELINE
SEE ALSO:
POWER OF THE SHAMAN: WHERE DOES IT COME FROM, HOW DOES IT WORK?
the Wanderling's Journey
(click image)
WITH OUR MOST GRACEFUL THANKS TO A WONDERFUL WEB SITE
ANIMATED CIRCLE GRAPHICS COURTESY:
Mid-Atlantic Geomancy
