If Gods Like Anything, It's People Who Follow Instructions

So before I share awesome news about Best Beloved (my soon-to-be-wife, known hereafter as BB), I probably ought to mention what a shaman actually...is*. I'm going to paraphrase Raven Kaldera's definition here, because he's brilliant and far further along the way than I am, and also better with words.

Basically, a shaman is someone who:

1) Has a sortof inbuilt ability to feel and move energy, otherwise known as chi, ki or prana or whatever else.**

2) Is chosen or contacted by a god from any pantheon, and then

3) Is put through a set of trials to bring them to the brink of death, insanity or (usually) both.

Testing, Testing... You Learn Herbs By Using Them

This morning I made my standard morning tea - a lavender and nettle blend with a pinch of valerian - and had a moment of thinking about how convenient and helpful it is to just...be able to do that. To reach into my cupboard full of medicinal and culinary herbs in jars (and you'd be surprised how much crossover there is) and make up whatever tea I need that morning.

I see a lot of...malarkey with herbs. People on the internet posting about "Five and Herbs To Heal Depression!" on websites like...naturalspirit.com or something, who have done a bit of reading but don't really understand herbalism at all, or don't understand the body at all.

Most herbal manuals, while good, are only good if you have the requisite background knowledge, or are sensitive enough to experiment on yourself  (I am; it's helpful, and a skill that's worth learning). Both is even better, and is how you end up writing your own herbal, in poorly organised notes scattered through Evernote with titles like "Stuff I Have Tested About Herbs" cough.

DIY Religion

And here we come to the main problem I have with starting a new blog: making it look shiny. Frankly, I'm not good at this kind of design; I don't have the patience for it.

Still, I'm making this anyway, because there are lots of words in my head that want to get out, and tumblr isn't doing the job.

The other day, a muslim client asked me, "Can I ask about your religious beliefs, if you have any?"

Well.

I'm never sure exactly where to start with that one. I didn't call this blog "Adventures in Shamanism" by accident, or as a joke - I'm quite serious. But that doesn't help me subscribe to any sort of religion; for one, my path is so different from even my close friends who are doing similar things that any sort of organised worship would be ludicrous; I can just imagine us all clustered in the same room, arguing about what to put on the kamidana*, or whether Kali counts as a Bujin spirit**. It's a cats in a bag problem, really.