Issue date: Saturday, December 16, 2006
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P A R A N O R M A L I N S I D E R
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Hi, Dear Readers:
Are you looking for an excuse to let your hair down and go
a little nutty today? Well, I've got some good news for
you! Today is the eve of the week-long feast of Saturnalia
- an ancient Roman feast which is part of the origin of our
modern day Christmas. On December 17th, the ancients
ushered in the Winter Solstice celebrations with a great
festival lasting seven days (and sometimes more) in honour
of Saturn, the god of agriculture. As part of the greatest
festival of the Roman year, there was unfettered feasting,
gift-giving, dancing and all manner of merrymaking. The
normal rules of society were suspended and even slaves
were given time off. These were "between-times" for the
pre-Christian Romans, when all nature's rules hung in the
balance. To mirror the seeming reversals in the heavens,
societal structures were overturned, class distinctions
were deliberately abolished and all rules of law and
morality were thrust to the winds. This was a Feast of
Fools where masters served their staff, men wore women's
clothes, people caroused obscenely in the streets and
tried to outdo each other in drunken contests of vulgar
and lewd behavior.
An appointed King of Saturnalia, later called the Lord of
Misrule in the medieval evolution of this feast, presided
over the brawling festivities and was charged with
concocting ever more obscene and sacrilegious acts for the
people to perform and partake in. The King of Saturnalia
may have enjoyed his rule of the rowdy and rollicking
festivities, but sadly, in the early years of this feast's
observance, he was also obligated to slit his own throat
at the conclusion as a sacrifice to the gods. Not such a
good job after all:>)
Decorating homes and lighting candles to represent a
symbolic return of the sun in the coming months were
also a feature of Saturnalia.
As the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere
approaches, my mind is already anxiously turning to
getting past the deepening darkness of these waning days
and embracing the promise of ever-increasing light after
the winter solstice. One of my pet projects at this time
of year is always 'clean up'. As the Wheel of the Year
turns, I like to finish up any projects I've started, tidy
up loose ends and put my desk and house in order so that
the new energies can come flowing in, unobstructed by
unfinished or leftover business.
On this note, today's issue of Paranormal Insider will
focus on follow-ups and reader comments on topics from
pervious issues:>)
Do you have any holiday or New Year superstitions you'd
like to share with our readers? If so, please email your
customs or your supernatural experiences to me at:
paranormal@zsuzsana.com
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Welcoming a New White Buffalo
The Herald Standard reported just days ago that Sonny and
Jill Herring, owners of Woodlands Zoo in Farmington, got
an early Christmas gift this year, one that they will be
sharing with delighted people far and wide. On Nov. 12, a
normal brown buffalo at the zoo gave birth to a white baby
bull calf - prompting an immediate and excited response
from the local First Nations populace.
A naming ceremony for the calf has been scheduled for
Dec. 23 at the zoo. The Herald Standard report says,
"Lenape Indians, indigenous to the Fayette County area,
from the Standing Stone Village, have offered the three
names to the zoo for the sacred animal. The choices include
Kenahkihinen, which means 'watch over us'; Luwan Alankw,
which means 'winter star' and Wulileu, which means 'good
news'."
Wynne Brown of the Cherokee Indian Tribe, an alternative
medicine practitioner in Fayette County where the Woodlands
Zoo is located, visited shortly after learning of the
calf's birth. Brown greeted the calf with a ritual she
describes as a "traditional way to move into communication
with soul and spirit." Eyes closed, Brown turned slowly to
salute all four directions, East, South, West and North,
as well as Father Sky and Mother Earth.
The buffalo's birth "is a unique opportunity across the
nation for healing to occur," said Brown, who is part of
the committee organizing the naming ceremony. "The name
of the buffalo must reflect that."
The Herrings say this birth is doubly unique because most
buffalo claves are born in the spring, not the fall. They
plan to allow the animals to raise this baby themselves,
instead if separating it from the herd and bottle-feeding
it as they would normally do with other babies. This
decision is applauded by the Native American community
who are flocking to the zoo the view the sacred calf and
contemplate this special birth. Many people, both native
and non-native, believe that the birth of a white buffalo
calf signifies that the legendary prophetess, Sacred White
Buffalo Calf Woman, is returning to teach people to
communicate with the creator.
(Special thanks to my friend Shana of the Winter Steel
Paranormal Site for updating me on this great news.)
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The Question of Shamanism in Native American Cultures
A reader writes:
In December 9 2006 issue of Paranormal Insider, you said,
and I quote: "It (Shamanism) is still practiced by
indigenous peoples around the world, especially Native
American, Latin American, Hawaiian, and Eskimo cultures,
as well as in various areas of Siberia, Mongolia, Africa
and Asia."
The statement that Shamanism is practiced by Native
American cultures is
100% FALSE. Native Americans DO NOT
HAVE SHAMANS.
To further illustrate my point, please read the following,
quoted from "We Do Not Have Shamans: The case Against
'Shamans' in North American Indigenous Cultures",
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/not_shamans.html:
"Shamanism is not the same thing as Native American
spirituality. The word shaman, used internationally, has
its origin in manchú-tangu and has reached the ethnologic
vocabulary through Russian. The word originated from saman
(xaman), derived from the verb scha-, "to know", so shaman
means someone who knows, is wise, a sage. Further ethnologic
investigations shows that the true origin for the word
Shaman can be tracked from the Sanskrit initially, then
through Chinese-Buddhist mediation to the manchú-tangu,
indicating a much deeper but now overlooked connection
between early Buddhism and Shamanism generally. In Pali it
is schamana, in Sanskrit sramana translated to something
like "buddhist monk, ascetic". The intermediate Chinese
term is scha-men. It has been adopted into the English
speaking world not unlike words such as kayak for example,
but when it is used to describe Native American holy men
or women it can be offensive to traditional Natives and
their Elders."
Saying that Native Americans practice Shamanism is
extremely offensive to me and to other Native Americans.
The term "Shaman" has come to be a "New Age" term that
has been applied to any position held by a medicine
person or spiritual leader, but this is not applicable
in Native American religion. Each tribe has a slightly
varied belief system but NONE of them use the term "Shaman"
to describe their religious leaders.
Please let your readers know that the information that
was in your newsletter was incorrect. This type of mis-
information is what continues to contribute to the mis-
perceptions and stereotypes attributed to Native Americans
and our culture.
Thank you.
Cheryl Grice
Note from Zsuzsana:
I appreciate this comment and I have read the above
article, as well as several other related articles with
greatly varying points of view on this matter. It is
certainly not my intention to offend anyone and I do my
utmost to research all the subjects I write about care-
fully. If anyone else has a comment on this topic,
please post it to our forum: Paranormal Insider Forum ------------------------------------------------------------
The Mayan Calendar
Back in October, two of our readers, Jeff Wright and Eric,
wrote to me in response to my October 14th column mention-
ing the Mayan Calendar. In it, I stated that some experts
who have studied the Mayan calendar believe that the end
of the world will occur on Oct. 13th, 4772. Many
researchers believe that while there will be a 'Baktun'
ending in 2012, the commonly accepted 'end date' of the
Mayan Calendar, this is only the end of another 400 year
period, not the end of the age.
At the turn of the millennium, W.L. Rathje, Senior Editor
of Scientific American Discovering Archaeology, wrote for
the Febuary 2000 issue of Discovering Archaeology Magazine:
"In just 12 years we face another apocalyptic test: the
Classic Maya millennium, on December 23, 2012 (based on
our Western Gregorian calendar). That's when the Maya
calendar will turn over to all zeros — 13.0.0.0.0 by the
long count. (By the way, the Maya use of the zero by at
least A.D. 200 is one of their key claims to fame, since
the zero was not introduced to the West until the insights
of Aryabhata, a fifth-century Indian mathematician, reached
Europe.) The Maya millennium comes 5,126 years after the
creation, which, by their reckoning, occurred precisely
on August 11, 3114 B.C. But we probably shouldn't worry
too much about this, since Pacal, the most famous ruler
of Palenque, confidently predicted that his accession
would be commemorated on October 15 in A.D. 4772 (Gregorian
time).
We, like the Maya and probably everyone else, are always
trying to predict critical turning points in the future
so we will have time to prepare for them. Unfortunately,
we're not very good at it."
Experts at Wikipedia say: "The end of the 13th b'ak'tun
is conjectured to have been of great significance to the
Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world
according to their beliefs, but a new beginning or time
of re-birth. According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling
details of creation accounts known to the Quiché Maya of
the colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fifth
world. The Popol Vuh describes the first four creations
that the gods failed in making and the creation of the
successful fifth world where men were placed. The Maya
believed that the fifth world would end in catastrophe
and the sixth and final world would be created that would
signal the end of mankind.
The last creation ended on a long count of 13.0.0.0.0.
Another 13.0.0.0.0 will occur on December 21, 2012, and
it has been discussed in many New Age articles and books
that this will be the end of this creation, the next pole
shift or something else entirely. However, the Maya
abbreviated their long counts to just the last five
vigesimal places. There were an infinite number of
larger units that were usually not shown. When the larger
units were shown (notably on a monument from Coba), the
end of the last creation is expressed as 13.13.13.13.13.
13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0,
where the units are obviously supposed to be 13s twenty
places larger than that b'ak'tun. In this age we are only
approaching 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.
13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, and the larger places would
all need to similarly roll over to 13 again to match the
date of the new creation. This is confirmed by a date
from Palenque, which projects forward in time to
1.0.0.0.0.0, which will occur on October 13, 4772 (a
Friday). The Classic Period Maya likely did not believe
that the end of this age would occur in 2012. According
to the Maya, there will be a baktun ending in 2012, a
significant event being the end of a 13th 400 year
period, but not the end of the world."
Both projected dates have spooky significance nonetheless,
the earlier date being the first baktun to end on the
winter solstice, and the second date falling on a Friday
the 13th.
Carpe Diem!
Zsuzsana Summer
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End of PARANORMAL INSIDER - Another Gopher Central Publication
http://www.gophercentral.com
Copyright 2006 by NextEra Media. All rights reserved.
All editorial content by Zsuzsana Summer, www.arcanamatrix.com