I went to the Disney nature movie, Earth, on Sunday. I left the movie theater traumatized after watching animals stalk and kill one another, while my 9 and 10-year-old thought it was great. As they stated, “It just showed the natural cycle of life.” But for me, it isn’t natural. Death and killing are not natural. Deep down inside I have ancient memory of paradise, where the lamb and the lion laid together. With no killing, no separateness, and no need to eat.
I remember as a kid, thinking that it seemed that I had always been alive and would never die. Now as a shaman, I understand that those feelings were more real, than real life. It truly is not natural to die, grow old or become ill. Somewhere along the line we lost our way, our connection to our divine nature. Our natural state is to be healthy and alive forever.
Shaman Elizabeth Herrera 
“Deep down inside I have ancient memory of paradise, where the lamb and the lion laid together. ”
This kind of belief seems more appropriate in say a Jehovah’s Witness school of thought (especially with the Christian iconography of the lion and the lamb; I even believe those specific animals are used to help illustrate their views of Paradise), than in shamanism – where death is not just appropriate and natural, but also a sacred miracle and gift, no matter how it is wrought.
I am sorry that you are so unable to process and accept the gift of this miracle; without it, I doubt your ability to be a healer in any capacity. Death and life are sides of the same coin, you cannot truly have one without the other.
Unless, of course, you are a Jehovah’s Witness. 🙂
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“Death and killing are not natural.”
You are kidding, right? Death and killing are perfectly natural, and are vital for the wheel of life to turn. For us to live, we take the lives of animals and plants. In turn when we die, we feed the bacteria in our guts, and the nutrients within us help life roll on.
How can you claim the title of “shaman” yet not understand the reality of the situation? Death and killing may seem brutal in our sheltered lives, but we still do it.
“Our natural state is to be healthy and alive forever.”
I have to disagree. Living forever is the most unnatural idea ever. We cannot live forever. My remaining static, live cannot revolve, move on and evolve. It’s natural to fear death, but to try and prevent it is disrespectful to the world we live in.
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Death is certainly a part of our physical world. However, we are spiritual beings. Just because lions eat lambs today doesn’t mean it was always that way. Maybe that will change someday.
Our current beliefs form our nice, cozy domes. That is why I choose not to live under a dome anymore. It is still cozy though. 🙂
I agree with you about death. To me, it is just a transition. It is the pinnacle of a mountain. You choose to remain there or like me, you look across and see another mountain to climb. 🙂
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My experience is that there are many strata to this plane, and while on some there is no predatory behaviour, on others there always has been. I don’t think it’s so simplistic as to examine just one level of Being here, nor do I find that it encompasses the shadow aspects of the Earth plane, which cannot be avoided.
Be well!.
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Predation is one of the main reasons plants and animals evolve. It is why lion have sharp teeth and claws and why sheep live in protective herds. You cannot learn from Nature or animals if fear of death keeps you from accepting them on their own terms. Your children were wiser than you are in understanding the dance of Life and Death as natural. Without Death to feed Life, there would be no rich soil for plants, no rich diversity of animals. A true shaman must be able to look Death in the eye and come to terms with it to be a good healer. If you feel the need to escape into a fantasy world where Nature is how *you* want it to be rather than how it really is it indicates you have much to learn.
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I appreciate the views given here. Perhaps I should clarify my view. I believe that this life is an illusion – a long-standing, collective dream. The dreamer doesn’t die, just the dream. As a shaman, I help people to change their dream. Help them to create a dream where they are healthier and happier. I have looked death in the eye, and saw that we don’t die, we simply awaken.
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See The Fountain. Death is not an illusion; it is a necessary experience we must undergo again and again, and the only true way to live forever.
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And yet it’s the tendency to continually distance ourselves–or to perceive ourselves as more distant–from the physical world that has caused so many problems. If you aren’t engaged and a part of the reality of the world, to include the things you see as ugly, then you’re missing a crucial part of the participation of life in all its facets. Additionally, because we as a culture are so disengaged from physical reality on a daily basis we take it for granted and that leads us to the many abuses we enact on a regular basis. Not that that’s specifically what you’re trying to accomplish here, but the false dichotomy between physical and spiritual has led Western civilizations to devalue the physical to the point of mass destruction. (After all, if you–rhetorical you, I might add–are going to Heaven anyway, why care about things here that you’ll leave behind?)
You don’t have to like death and other not-fun things, but to try to paint the things you don’t like as “just dreams” while allowing the “real” and “not-illusive” to only be things you subjectively like says less about shamanism, and more about your own personal issues with death.
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Therioshamanism,
You bring up points that are important. Many say that when people focus on the destination (where we go after we are no longer physically in this realm) that we are missing out on the journey here.
Trying to bring joy into this realm is my main objective. I was bringing up a point that I feel that we have “fallen” from a perfect world into this realm. That originally there was a place where there was no death or separation from our divine source.
As a shaman, I see the spiritual realm on a regular basis. My fear is not of death. I find it painful to watch the perceived pain we cause each other, even when it’s unintentional or needed to sustain life (and therefore a weakness on my part since nothing is truly painful since it’s an illusion). This is an area where I will need to learn to release my attachment.
We all struggle, make mistakes, and grow. This world is a great learning realm. But I am NEVER watching an animal documentary again! 🙂
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I have sailed the oceans of the world have been around dolphins and have interaction with them at various time s.I can tell you these animals are smart as us or even more .They must must truly have souls as man dose . It was the great exployer Couseto who said if Jesus came back to earth this time it would be as a dolphin. Out at sea they follow the ship for day s and when you looked down at them you know they were looking back you. Off the coast of Africa on the island of Sartom you can go swimming and the dolphins will come up to and play for hours and you can touch them and they you..They inter act freely with the people helping chase fish in there net s.. So I don’t know how they can kill such animal s.
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