Food for Thought - Modern Spiritual Practices are Insane!

I can only speak to the slice of the world I have experienced over the past decades across the United States as well as reading up on practices in other countries and a bit of correspondence with practitioners around the world.

Modern Spirituality has developed massive audience. The myriad of offerings and discipline can be overwhelming.  Most claim their teachings contain universal truths, teachable to all (regardless of background, talent or skill) and techniques that are applicable to help in any situation after the lessons are learned.  Once a person reaches a level of certification, they are ready to practice that discipline or learned modality on others.  In a few years and after few another courses, you have the knowledge of an instructor and can pass on the life changing wisdom to others.  Knowledge spreading forth into the world, awakening new minds everyday.

I have witnessed this pattern repeated across multiple disciplines and in all forms of media.  

For a moment, I am going to focus on the "Shamanic" practitioners.  "The Old Ways are the Best ways."  The way of Tradition and of the First peoples will help us rejoin the spirit of the Earth. We pass on the traditional teachings.

Okay, so just keep teaching the teachings of the teacher,s, teacher's, teacher's, teacher. The knowledge was gained by hundreds of practitioners over thousands of years while living in harmony with the land and its creatures. It is solid.  It's efficacy is proven.  The detailed knowledge is spot on.  

The information being passed on is an echo of a whisper being presented on as cold hard immutable fact. Lessons are clung to from the old man who lived in the desert of the American Southwest and was the active practicing spiritual leader for the tribe and intermediary to the unseen world.  How does that specialized knowledge entrusted from medicine man to medicine man who lived in the desert apply to someone living on the edges of the Black Forest who is having problems with an Alp?

Let me put this another way.  Would you want a to be treated by a physician from the 1630s or a Holistic Doctor in the 2010s?  The knowledge of anatomy, the functionality of the body, and lets not forget the practice sterilization has advanced incredibly in 400 years.  

Ancient shamans were the intermediaries of the tribe to the spirits of the world around them. They had a direct and immediate connection to the land with NO INTERFERENCE. There were no skyscrapers, no paved roads, no internal combustion engines, no power lines, no satellites, GPS, self driving cars or Reality TV.

How many "shamans" are currently practicing being in touch with nature and all of the wonders of the world they way it has been done for generations all while living in an apartment, in the city?  The ceremonies I witnessed called upon ancestors, nature spirits or the nurturing energies of Gaia. This was done in the middle of Meeting room filled with all the lights, av equipment and electrical interference our modern world has.  Shamanic Practitioners are taught to expect that entities called and power summoned will be easily at hand.  They call that which is cut off by plastics and paint and drywall and electrical wiring and synthetic carpet and the toxic glue.  They call the things that can not pass thru the cotton/synthetic blend of their garments or the 2 part epoxy that holds their crystal to their silver plated bracelet. 

Have any of these practitioners contacted the local dumpster spirit for knowledge on the health and flow of the small business next to the clients shop?  Do they commune with the spirits of the rat to help their clients to adapt and find ways to navigate the changing world around them? Do Shamans impart lessons from the universal survivor, the cockroach, to guide a client to being resilient?  Do they speak with the unkindness of Ravens that travel together year round to learn the ebbs and flow of that neighborhood to see where the geo-pathic stresses are and why the clients house won't sell?

Modern Shamanic Practitioners call forth the Spirit Guides as they were trained and expect what shows up to be the beings they can trust.  But if the true and pure spirits of nature can not reach them due to man made interference, what does answer the call?  

What have they been taught to trust in when they reach out for guidance, for protection or to heal a client?

Do you think every practitioner is knowledgeable, discerning and adept enough to know the difference?

Food for Thought

A.