Flying With Shamans In Fairy Tales And Myths

Full of exciting journeys through the shamanic worlds of many different cultures, Flying with Shamans in Fairy Tales and Myths is enchanting as well as instructive. In addition to an introduction to the world's shamanic beliefs, Nana Nauwald provides background information about the culture from which each fable comes. On this enchanting flight with the shamans, you'll learn about the three worlds, the world tree that connects them all, and the magical shape-shifting and healing powers of the she- and he-shaman. You'll journey through ancient Europe, Siberia, Japan, North and South America, discovering how the magic of human imagination conjures images that people in widely separate parts of the world hold in common. Fairy tales and myths until today are carrier of information about the knowledge of the interrelation of all life. By reading the reader is creating the world and happenings anew in her or his mind. In this book many "stars" contained in the rich pot of shamanic cultures are sparkling for you!

Full of exciting journeys through the shamanic worlds of many different cultures, Flying with Shamans in Fairy Tales and Myths is enchanting as well as instructive. In addition to an introduction to the world's shamanic beliefs, Nana Nauwald provides background information about the culture from which each fable comes. On this enchanting flight with the shamans, you'll learn about the three worlds, the world tree that connects them all, and the magical shape-shifting and healing powers of the she- and he-shaman. You'll journey through ancient Europe, Siberia, Japan, North and South America, discovering how the magic of human imagination conjures images that people in widely separate parts of the world hold in common. Fairy tales and myths until today are carrier of information about the knowledge of the interrelation of all life. By reading the reader is creating the world and happenings anew in her or his mind. In this book many "stars" contained in the rich pot of shamanic cultures are sparkling for you!

It is often assumed that the female characters found in popular folk and fairy tales are little more than inconsequential stereotypes--mostly serving as hapless victims in need of rescue, boring one-dimensional princesses, or egotistical and conniving villains. This book presents more fully-realized portraits of these female characters and the ways in which they actually represent bold and powerful connections to the goddesses of classic mythic narratives. The rich legacy of female goddesses, shamans, queens, and priestesses is in fact preserved and celebrated through these more modern representations, whether as brides who can transform into animals, wise old women who live alone in the deep wilderness, strong warrior maidens, or witches who can conquer and command the elements of nature. In contemplating this revised analysis of female characters within global folktales and fairy tales, readers can see that the goddesses of old have never truly been forgotten.

An exploration of the role that dreaming, psychedelic experiences, and mystical visions play in visionary art • Includes discussions with 18 well-known female artists, including Josephine Wall, Allyson Grey, Amanda Sage, Martina Hoffmann, Penny Slinger, and Carolyn Mary Kleefeld • Reveals how they have all been inspired by deep inner experiences and seek to express non-ordinary visions of reality, reminiscent of shamanic trance states, lucid dreams, and spiritually transcendent experiences • Shows how visionary art often contains an abundance of feminine energy, helping us to heal ourselves and see that we are all connected Since early humans first painted from their mystic eye onto cave walls, artists have sought to share their sacred visions with the world. Created in every medium, from oil painting and sculpture to contemporary digital modeling, these visionary works of art give those who experience them a chance to “see the unseen,” realize wider modes of perception, and discover spiritual and mystical realms. In this full-color illustrated book, David Jay Brown and Rebecca Ann Hill examine the work and inspirations of eighteen of today’s leading female visionary artists, including Josephine Wall, Allyson Grey, Amanda Sage, Martina Hoffmann, Penny Slinger, and Carolyn Mary Kleefeld. They explore the creative process and the role that dreaming, psychedelic experiences, sexuality, and divine guidance play in the work of these women, alongside full-color examples of their art. They discuss the future of visionary art and reveal how these artists have all been informed and inspired by deep inner experiences and seek to express non-ordinary visions of reality, often reminiscent of those encountered in shamanic trance, lucid dreams, psychedelic states, spiritually transcendent experiences, and other altered states. Showing how visionary art often contains an abundance of feminine energy, helping us to heal ourselves and see that we are all connected, the authors explore with each artist what it is about being a woman that has most influenced their artwork. They also examine the connection between visionary art and spirituality, the influence of Nature and sacred geometry, and how this creative form is simultaneously ancient, futuristic, and timeless, providing an accessible doorway into the visionary realm.

Drawing upon historical, archaeological, and mythical examples from around the world, this book reveals how societal views of female empowerment and authority can be directly traced to the reverence once directed towards female warriors, priestesses, healers, queens, pharaohs, and goddesses. Communities which revered women as sacred idols of their belief systems were far more likely to place women in prominent positions of social or political influence, since their members were quite used to envisioning power in the hands of a strong or divine woman. The book also explores how goddesses were purposefully devalued during the rise of patriarchal civilizations, thus restricting the social importance of earthly women and their accompanying rights. One such instance can be found in Greek mythology's Gaia: once revered as a dominant earth mother, she was replaced by a division of less-powerful figures with more socially acceptable feminine roles, such as Aphrodite, the goddess of love (typically held up as an object of male lust); Hera, the goddess of marriage and childbirth (often portrayed as obsessed with jealousy over the extramarital exploits of her husband); and the mostly silent goddess of the hearth, Hestia. The devaluing of once revered goddesses appeared in quite distinct ways across different cultures; thus, this book breaks down its chapters by global region, including Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, India, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania.

An enormous amount of scientific research compels two fundamental conclusions about the human mind: The mind is the product of evolution; and the mind is shaped by culture. These two perspectives on the human mind are not incompatible, but, until recently, their compatibility has resisted rigorous scholarly inquiry. Evolutionary psychology documents many ways in which genetic adaptations govern the operations of the human mind. But evolutionary inquiries only occasionally grapple seriously with questions about human culture and cross-cultural differences. By contrast, cultural psychology documents many ways in which thought and behavior are shaped by different cultural experiences. But cultural inquires rarely consider evolutionary processes. Even after decades of intensive research, these two perspectives on human psychology have remained largely divorced from each other. But that is now changing - and that is what this book is about. Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mind is the first scholarly book to integrate evolutionary and cultural perspectives on human psychology. The contributors include world-renowned evolutionary, cultural, social, and cognitive psychologists. These chapters reveal many novel insights linking human evolution to both human cognition and human culture – including the evolutionary origins of cross-cultural differences. The result is a stimulating introduction to an emerging integrative perspective on human nature.

For anyone who’s ever had the desire to look at the world through the eyes of our indigenous ancestors, here is a unique opportunity. Traveling between the Worlds is a treasure trove of insight and exploration into the ancient spiritual wisdom of such diverse cultures as Ireland, Africa, and the Americas. The keeper of this wisdom is the shaman--a man or woman who can, at will, enter into altered states of consciousness in order to acquire extrasensory knowledge and healing power. In this important book, Hillary S. Webb invites us to eavesdrop on her conversations with some of today’s most influential teachers and writers of shamanism. While the conversations cover a variety of topics pertaining to the shaman’s path and practice, this book explores how we in the modern world can use these ancient teachings to help ourselves, each other, and the world around us. Included in this book are conversations with:Renowned author and environmentalist John Perkins, who brings corporate executives to the Amazon to teach them the value of merging business and eco-philosophy.Rabbi Gershon Winkler, who uses the beliefs and techniques of the Jewish shamanic tradition to bring Israelis and Palestinians together on common, and more peaceful, ground--their indigenous roots.“Renegade” shaman Ken Eagle Feather of the Toltec tradition, who explains how modern technology can help us evolve into the next level of perception.Peruvian shaman Oscar Miro-Quesada, whose ideas on life and death may alter your view of reality itself. And that is just the beginning.

From the beautiful apsaras of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, stories of flying women-some carried by wings, others by clouds, rainbows, floating scarves, and flying horses-reveal the perennial fascination with and ambivalence about female power and sexuality. In Women Who Fly, Serinity Young examines the motif of the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. She considers supernatural women like the Valkyries of Norse legend, who transport men to immortality; winged deities like the Greek goddesses Iris and Nike; figures of terror like the Furies, witches, and succubi; airborne Christian mystics; and wayward, dangerous women like Lilith and Morgan le Fay. Looking beyond the supernatural, Young examines the modern mythology surrounding twentieth-century female aviators like Amelia Earhart and Hanna Reitsch. Throughout, Young demonstrates that female power has always been inextricably linked with female sexuality and that the desire to control it is a pervasive theme in these stories. This is vividly depicted, for example, in the twelfth-century Niebelungenlied, in which the proud warrior-queen Brünnhilde loses her great physical strength when she is tricked into surrendering her virginity. Even in the twentieth-century the same idea is reflected in the exploits of the comic book and film character Wonder Woman who, Young suggests, retains her physical strength only because her love for fellow aviator Steve Trevor goes unrequited. The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, art, and pop culture, Women Who Fly offers a fresh look at the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions throughout the ages and around the world.