One of the new study‘s authors said: “We are now entering the sixth great mass extinction event.”
The last such event was 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs were wiped out, in all likelihood by a large meteor hitting Earth.
“If it is allowed to continue, life would take many millions of years to recover and our species itself would likely disappear early on,” said the lead author, Gerardo Ceballos.
The Devil is a big character in Irish folklore and some folk trads around plants exist to find him and make deals with him.
For example if you find a double rooted briar/black berry bush and go under the thing at midnight you might make a deal with the devil for whatever you wanted… in return for your soul. One story popular with Cuairdeoirs is the card player that put his deck under the briar and made the deal. Winning all over the country and donating money to good people to avoid the inevitable end.
The Elder tree is another eeeevilll one. If you burn the tree the devil will appear to you though this time usually to cause havok because youve damaged his favorite plant. Its so eeeevil that if you make a cradle from it the baby will die and if you try to herd cattle with it they will start producing bloody milk!
A Sami shaman with his magic drum. Copper carving by O.H. von Lode, for a book by Knud Leem, Beskrivelse over Finnmarkens Lapper, deres Tungemaal, Levenmaade og forrige Afgudsdyrkelse
Shaman are spiritual beings with the ability to heal, work with energies and ‘see’ visions. The essential characteristics of shaman are mastery of energy and fire as a medium of transformation.
Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause human suffering by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits. Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds. Shamanistic traditions have existed throughout the world since prehistoric times.
The shaman Galba plays a ritual drum beneath the tree in the Altai Mountains that marks the place of her birth. Galba was a member of Mongolia’s small Uriankhai ethnic minority; most Uriankhai live in China. She died three months ago.
We have entered the time of the return of the Shaman.~~
As the world around us continues to evolve with a huge increase in technological advances, the world within us is pulling us towards our true essence – Spirit and the realm of Nature. This paradox in seemingly opposite directions is actually an act of stability and harmony. But only if we listen and follow that inner pull. Continue reading “We have entered the time of the return of the Shaman”→
Photographing the Foxes of New Jersey’s Island Beach State Park
For more photos from the park, explore the Island Beach State Park location page. For more nature photos and videos from the US Northeast, follow @thesecondgleam and @darrenerbe on Instagram.
Off the coast of New Jersey, 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) of sand dunes and tidal marshes make up Island Beach State Park, a protected 10-mile (16-kilometer) stretch of barrier island. Among the wildlife that call the island home, a population of photogenic red foxes inhabit the park’s thickets and marine forests. When Haley Decker (@thesecondgleam) and boyfriend Darren Erbe (@darrenerbe) first began visiting the island with hopes of photographing the animals, they were only met with paw prints disappearing into the dunes. Toward the end of winter, however, when fewer people frequented the park, their luck changed. “We parked in a huge empty parking lot, and all of a sudden foxes started popping up out of nowhere from all directions,” Haley tells. “We kept a distance and one curious fox came closer and closer right by our parking spot! It is kind of scary to be so close to a wild animal. You never know how they’ll react.”
A resident of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Haley finds inspiration in the natural world around her. “The Northeast is where I thrive. I am an outdoors type of person, and without fresh air and trees I tend to get cabin fever,” she says. Haley and Darren bonded through their mutual love for photography, and their relationship takes them on frequent adventures together. “We’re definitely a team when shooting photos. One of us has an idea and the other helps that come to fruition,” Haley explains. “But with the foxes, we just both approached them slowly and we switched off between shooting with an iPhone or a digital camera. If one of us was taking pictures of the foxes, the other was making sure the foxes felt comfortable.”
Human history may have to be pushed back to the age of the Dinosaurs, calling into question everything we know about natural history, geography etc. Native Americans, and Hindu Brahmins say I told you so.
The url of the blog has been changed from eurasian-shamanism to ritual-specialists. Title also went from Eurasian Shamanism to Ritual specialists of Eurasia. Description and mass post modification are coming soon!
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but the main issue was that I really,…
Tool of the devil, harmless family game—or fascinating glimpse into the non-conscious mind?
In February, 1891, the first few advertisements started appearing in papers: “Ouija, the Wonderful Talking Board,” boomed a Pittsburgh toy and novelty shop, describing a magical device that answered questions “about the past, present and future with marvelous accuracy” and promised “never-failing amusement and recreation for all the classes,” a link “between the known and unknown, the material and immaterial.” Another advertisement in a New York newspaper declared it “interesting and mysterious” and testified, “as sProven at Patent Office before it was allowed. Price, $1.50.
I copied this photo from a friends collection of shaman-y images, so I couldn’t find out much about it – like who has taken it and where -, but I’m pretty certain* that this outfit belonged to Tubyaku Kosterkin. Tubyaku, along with his brother, Demnime, are regarded as the last great shamans of the Nganasan people. ———————————— *I have a photo of his son wearing what appears to be the same robe, and the second photo on this page seems to depict this outfit. Granted, it’s a very poor quality image, but the shape of the headdress and the location of the metal bits are an exact match.
I think the Bealtaine fire traditions have entered the popular consciousness enough that a good number of people know they exist. There are even big music festivals built around them. But have you ever questioned why they fires exist?
May eve and the Bealtaine festival are times when the Irish version of Hollywood voodoo is at its most potent. Its not just a time for curses like Piseog Bags that are designed to kill. Its a time for stealing the power of creativity, beauty, luck, fertility you name it and it can be done consciously or unconsciously.
Consciously people can bury raw eggs in your hey or any produce of your business to take your profitability. Doing that they wont just curse you to fail theyll also steal your success for themselves. Someone might bury raw meat on your land to destroy your home as it stands never mind the future.
Unconsciously its an auspicious time so taking something from a house or bringing it in is a danger. If you turn up at someones house at this time of year and theyre really into folk trad they might run you off.
More than just a time for piseogs its a time when the fairies are at their most active. The fairy wind and the fairy dart bringing acute and prolonged sickness respectively are a danger. The fire traditions exist as a preventative for all those things. New age people tend to celebrate bealtaine but in folk culture its a time of high stress.
Mayday corresponds with the Irish festival of La Bealtaine, which officially heralded the beginning of the summer. It was surrounded by a large number of folk
A good link with some info on may day Piseogs.
In mythology the Tuatha de Danann come ashore at Bealtaine and heros like Cu Chulainn are born. Lots of good and bad things happen at this time of year in folk stories too. The fairies move from their winter house to their summer house and anything can happen.
You can fall asleep by a tree or ringfort and learn a song. You can come across fairies playing a game at night and get the gift of bone setting by helping out anyone that gets injured. You can also be harmed by them and theyll test you to see if your greedy, selfish or lazy and punish you accordingly. Maybe even kill you.
The fairies moving about at this time of year is mimicking the transhumance called Booleying that used to be traditional in Ireland. There are indigenous nomadic ethnicities in ireland today but we were all a lot more like the travellers once.
Shamans Spear 