Wheel of Wonder November 15, 2015

Today we continue our three part Shamanic Journey.  Our first part was through the middle world of Land, today, the second part through the lower world of Sea.  In many cultures it is the crossing of a body of water that leads the Shaman, Shamanic Poet, or Shamanic Hero to the land of the ancestors, to the land of the dead.  The hero Vainamoinen from the Kalevala (runos 1-10) crosses the water to reach Tuonola, the land of the dead, in order to glean wisdom from their teachings.  I read of a story from the Iglulik of Greenland in which a Shaman has to journey to the bottom of the sea and show respect to the Spirit of the Sea there, inside of her lair, guarded by a strong and vicious dog, like Cerberus, guard dog of Hades.  The Shaman has to show this respect to the Spirit of the Sea as she had become angered by the men of the land not living as they aught to, without that respect, and without the wisdom to live as they should, they would face storms and bad hunting and lack of fish for the catching.

  Sometimes the Celtic Sea God Llyr is said to represent deep wisdom, deep emotion and oneness with the earth and universe, singularity as it were.  These various tales easily correspond to journeys to the underworld for wisdom, knowledge and healing.  Deep Magic Deep Wisdom, the depths of knowledge represented by the ocean.  The upper world, or the Sky will be the subject of the next part of the journey.

The picture above is entitled "Nereid" and is by an artist named Sussi.  I found it on this blog