Techno-Shamanism and Animal Powers: Part I
Paul Shepard’s lead essay “The Origin of Metaphor: The Animal Connection” in
his post-mortem publication of Encounters with Nature (Island Press) lays
out his basic premise about the evolution of homo sapiens. Shepard believes
that it was our interaction with the great beasts -- hunting them and eating
their flesh -- that created the environment for the intelligence and the
consciousness that ultimately raised us to a level of self-awareness unseen
in the animal kingdom:
As our ancestors became hunters, they plunged, late arrivals, into the old,
savanna game of brain-making by means of clues. . . The scenario is one of
reciprocal , strategic pursuit and escape in which the amount of brain beyond
that necessary for routine body functions is the measure of intelligence,
which slowly increased in both predator and prey as they reckoned each other
over the millennia .
Ecopsychology posits that it is the experience of the natural world, which
one ventures into from a mother’s knee, that gives the developing human an
expanded sense of self and identity; that, in a world right with itself,
Mother Earth becomes the second mother for all of us.
Shepard goes on to talk about the Bear and its relevance for the early humans
both as a worthy opponent and as “the giver of life in bone, fat, glands,
skin, [and] meat.” Why else would we have named the largest and most visible
constellations the Big and Little Bear (Ursa Major and Minor)?
Think of how often and in what essential ways the Bear is represented in our
language in the dozen meanings of the verb “bear:” to give birth or to
produce, to carry or transmit, to support or to hold to a course. Bear up,
bear in mind, bear out, bear fruit, bear down on, bear witness to, bear left.
Our psyches, our language, our very consciousness we owe to the animals. They
have been our sacred partners in this grand experiment called ‘life on
earth,’ and in some realms, with some individuals, they continue to lead and
assist with their essential animal powers.
In next week’s tip we speak to a ‘techno-shaman’-a computer network
administration who uses ritual and animal powers to ‘cleanse and purify’ bits
and bytes from troublesome networks.
