The image above shows an impression of a room called the 'Vulture Shrine' in the town of
Çatal Hüyük, an ancient site still being excavated at Anatolia, Turkey. Çatal Hüyük culture dates back to 6,500 BCE and yet these people were surprisingly sophisticated. The vulture image appears to represent for them a god-form, responsible for removing the head (i.e. the soul?) of the deceased, as can be seen in the picture above. They may have practised 'sky-burials' (where corpses are left to the birds to eat) or the imagery may have been entirely metaphorical, or both. There is some evidence to suggest that over time as this culture developed the bird image evolved into that of a 'vulture-goddess'. But most importantly at least one of the murals from Çatal Hüyük apparently shows a human being dressed in a vulture skin. (see)Taking an eight-thousand year old image of a "human in a vulture skin" and turning it into an early Vulture Shamanism culture could be stretching things a bit...and one should always be careful of making assumptions when the evidence in support of pet theories is tenuous. However, in the last few decades archaeological research has come to light which, when added to the evidence from Çatal Hüyük, begins to lend very strong weight to the idea of a 'shamanic connection'. In the 1950's the archaeologist/anthropologists Rose Solecki and her husband Ralph began excavating a cave site near the Greater Zab river in Kurdistan. This cave had been used for burials by the Zawi Chemi people (as this small area is called) around 8870 BC (plus or minus 300 years, according to carbon-dating) -- over 10,000 years ago -- and 4,000 years before the beginnings of the various Mesopotamia cultures referred to here. What did they discover that was so significant? They found a number of goat skulls placed next to the wing bones of large predatory birds, including the bearded vulture, the griffon vulture, the white-tailed sea eagle and the great bustard. The Soleckis had to ask themselves what the purpose of such a 'ritual burial' was, and why it was that only certain species of birds had been selected.
SEE ALSO:
Early European Tribes
In 1977 the journal Sumer published an article by Rose Solecki entitled `Predatory Bird Rituals at Zawi Chemi Shanidar' where she described the findings, going on to suggest that the wings had almost certainly been utilized as part of some kind of ritualistic costume, worn either for personal decoration or for ceremonial purposes. She connected the finds with the Vulture Shamanism of the protoneolithic Çatal Hüyük community in Central Anatolia mentioned above (which was 2000 years later in time, and several hundred miles away in distance). Recognizing the importance of their discovery, however, Rose Solecki concluded the article by saying:
"The Zawi Chemi people must have endowed these great raptorial birds with special powers, and the faunal remains we have described for the site must represent special ritual paraphernalia. Certainly, the remains represent a concerted effort by a goodly number of people just to hunt down and capture such a large number of birds and goats... either the wings were saved to pluck out the feathers, or that wing fans were made, or that they were used as part of a costume for a ritual. One of the murals from a Catal Hayuk shrine ... depicts just such a ritual scene; ie, a human figure dressed in a vulture skin"(see)
The ritual coats of present-day Siberian Shamans are cut to look like birds: they are cut to a point and tasselled in a way that is suggestive of feathers, and this is quite deliberate.
Dangerously perched for the second or third time from a highly angled prone position on the edge of Fajada Butte --- the lonely 400 foot high core remnant of an ancient mountain rising from the floor of Chaco Canyon and home of the sacred Native American solar calendar called the Sun Dagger --- for no other reason than pure curiosity or an adrenaline high, I began watching three vultures lazily circling at about the same height across the valley ... and scary or not, to drop a few rocks over the edge as probably any ten-year old boy might be expected to do no matter where they were.The three vultures were soon joined by a fourth and in my mind I thought how cool it would be to have the
Da Vinci glider my uncle and I had built and launch it from the cliffs and join them. The group was slowly moving away, drifting south and higher on the thermals. One of the four, whether it was the new one to the group or not, widened its circle flying incredibly close to where I was on the ledge, so close individual feathers could be seen and it seemed, but not probable, eye contact made. The vulture circled around toward the group. Thinking there might be a second pass I waited, but in the process of the flight, somehow lost visual contact. The vulture group continued to drift south, but now distinctly with only three members.With no sign of the bird returning I decided to inch my way back away from the ledge toward the ruin entrance. In a slow turn while rising to my hands and knees in order to scoot back inside where it was safe to stand, I caught what was nothing more than a fleeting glimpse of what seemed to be a person, almost shadow-like, not my uncle or the elder, but possibly a woman, along the ledge several rooms down. Covered with goose bumps and scared out of my mind I scrambled into the ruin and hid in the corner of the crumbling half-height wall in such a fashion that if a person did pass by they would be unable to see me.
I glanced slightly over the wall and could see that it would be easy for anybody to recognize that the ground-surface of the ledge between the ruin and the edge had been disturbed quite recently by a someone or something going in and out of the structure. I decided to hop the wall between the rooms thinking that if someone did come into the room and see the backpacks and equipment they might think whoever owned the stuff was out on the butte and just leave. I raised up in a half-crouch to slip over the wall into the other room when I was confronted by a woman on the other side. At first glance, in the shadow of the cave, backlit with the bright blue sky, she looked like an old lady with long white hair and wrinkled face, but as we both moved to strengthen our positions I could see surprisingly, she was not old at all. Her face was smooth and young and her hair long and black, the whiteness I thought, apparently caused by the brightness of the backlit sky. She carried a small pouch-like bag tied at the top in the palm of her hand. With her thumb and the first finger of her other hand she spread the top open and stuck in two fingers, pulling them out covered with a fine white powder. For some reason I was no longer scared, I even leaned forward as she put her hand out as though she wanted to touch my face. She put three marks across my forehead two fingers wide, each time returning her fingers to the pouch to replenish the powder. She also put what felt like cresent shaped marks on my cheekbones starting at the top of my nose and going outward toward the bottom of my ears. She also put one downward on my chin. She then turned and walked away. When she reached the exit she turned back for only a moment, shaking out the pouch much like one would shake out a handkerchief, the wind coming through the portal catching the dust and swirling it into a white cloud. In the second the dust took to dissipate she was gone.
When my uncle and the tribal spiritual elder I was traveling with returned from the Dagger higher up on the butte and heard my story they began a search in the direction she went outside along the abandoned ruins. They found the pouch and the tie-string laying in the dirt and tracked her to the edge where it got too narrow to walk and too far to jump, but no sign of the woman.
(source)
At the Sun Dagger site the following description is given as to what the woman on the butte looked like:
She looked like a Native American, Navajo, possibly Hopi. She never said a word. She was dressed in all white, actually sort of off white, heavy weave cloth. One piece, dropped over her head almost to the ground, no sleeves, tied at the waist with a string or rope, fringy around the bottom. Looked handmade, not worn or dirty, but something about her outfit seemed old, almost ancient. Her too. Barefoot, no shoes, sandals or boots. Maybe three necklesses, one maybe of shells, not sure. A bracelet, possibly wood or bone on one arm. No silver, turquoise, leather, buckskin or feathers in the traditional sense. No markings, applied or otherwise. When I say no feathers in the traditional sense what I mean to say is she did have what appeared to be a shiny black feather cape or shawl --- possibly made of crow feathers only seemingly much longer --- tied, attached, or layered across the top of her shoulders and slightly down her back like nothing I had ever seen before or since, especially in relation to Native Americans.
She had on "what appeared to be a shiny black feather cape or shawl --- possibly made of crow feathers only seemingly much longer --- tied, attached, or layered across the top of her shoulders and slightly down her back." Possibly made of crow feathers only seemingly much longer? Sounds much more like vulture feathers than crow feathers.
TALON AND SCRATCH MARKS FROM THE GIANT BIRD
AND NOW THIS:
Why all the fuss about giant flying creatures, giant birds, and giant feathers, and all somehow and in someway related back to the Wanderling?
Basically, the Wanderling's uncle stated many times that he felt the reason for his destiny and fascination regarding all aspects of giant flying creatures went back to an incident that involved the fly over of a giant airborne object that the Wanderling witnessed as a young boy. The object, of an unknown nature and an unknown origin, was seen by literally thousands of people along the coast of California barely three months into World War II. Eventually to be called the Battle of Los Angeles, the incident is mostly forgotten now. However, during the early morning hours of February 25, 1942 the whole city and surrounding communities were in an uproar as thousands of rounds of anti-aircraft shells were expended in an attempt to pull down whatever it was in the sky that night. The slow moving object, said to be as big or bigger than a Zeppelin, was caught in the glare of the searchlights from Santa Monica to Long Beach and seemed impervious to the the constant barrarge of shells. It eventually disappeared out over the Pacific after cruising along the coast and cutting inland for a while. The huge object was never clearly explained and was basically hushed up without response from the authorities.
THE VULTURE AS TOTEM
VULTURE SHAMANISM: PART TWO
DO YOU THINK FLYING IN THE SKY IS MAGICAL?
WE DO NOT HAVE SHAMANS
The Case Against "Shamans" In the
North American Indigenous Cultures
SEE:
ZEN, THE BUDDHA, AND SHAMANISM
MIDEWIWIN: Secret Ojibwa Medicine Society
POWER OF THE SHAMAN: Where Does It Come From, How Does It Work?
SEE ALSO:
SHAMAN IN THE CAVE
(click image)
DREAM
CATCHER
SITE
THE GATE KEEPER
WITH THANKS AS WELL TO:
...the Wanderling
