Shamanism

By Stuart Norman, AKA Cyrwyn, The Leatherfaerie Shaman: Author, Activist, and Founder of the Tarheel Leather Club
cyrwyn@infionline.net
http://www.coolcatdaddy.com/cyrwyn/


Stuart Norman is a gay activist, a leader in the Leather/SM subculture for more than 20 years, and founder of Tarheel Leather Club. He describes himself as a Leatherfaerie Shaman, exploring the connection between BDSM and spirituality and bringing that to our community through his writings, lectures and workshops. His writings have been published in a variety of magazines, the best known of which is “I am the Leatherfaerie Shaman,” published in the now classic anthology, “Leatherfolk.”

Read the SCENEprofiles Interview with Stuart Norman

Shamanism is not a religion, but a spiritual way of living in and seeing the world. It is a very individual calling.

A shaman is a person having special spiritual knowledge and abilities. In tribal societies, shamans are known as medicine-people, witch-doctors, the visionaries, counselors, healers and even sacred tricksters who serve the tribe. In that context a shaman is not quite like a priest or clergy, but usually is the spiritual leader of a tribe. The Native American berdache is only one example. Each tribe's concept of the shaman and hir role is different, making shamans difficult to pidgeonhole into one identity.

Shamans are chosen ones, often identified in childhood by their proclivities: sensitivity, artistic, empathic. They are often gay or bisexual. But birth alone does not make a shaman. They must go through a rigorous training in esoteric lore and a solitary visionquest to prove themselves worthy. Many may fail. The visionquest may be so dangerous, both physically and mentally, that life is lost. This experience irrevocably changes the person and gives a direction to their life. It is a kind of born-again experience. Usually they take a new name representing their vision and their new place in the world. In this training shamans learn to discipline both body and mind to a high degree and to know self thoroughly. This gives them the ability to perform magick, to read others and manipulate them for the benefit of the tribe.

The shaman walks between worlds: the temporal and the spiritual. Although accepted as an integral and necessary part of the tribe, the shaman is always “the other” or outsider in some respects, too strange and mysterious to be a regular guy. Shamans always walk on the edge of society so that they can look back on their society clearly and out beyond its edge to bring back new knowledge.

Because there was no one tradition to fulfill my needs and offer me a path, I came into shamanism by my own unique efforts, learning from some masters and existing traditions and creating the rest out of the whole cloth of personal spiritual experiences. Most modern shamans don't have tribal traditions to follow and so must create a shamanism that is relevant to our times and the personal.

My specialty is using SM as a path to shamanism. Because of its physical and mental intensity, it can cause altered states of consciousness, insight, emotional catharsis, trust-building and intimacy. I have presented workshops on shamanism at two National Leather Association Living in Leather conferences. I can offer workshops on shamanism and other aspects of a personal spiritual path to interested organizations, explaning what it is to become a shaman and the many ways one can be one, but I do not guarantee to turn anyone into a shaman. I can only offer a beginning direction on how to walk on that path.

You may want to read my chapter, “I Am the Leatherfaerie Shaman” in Leatherfolk, ed. by Mark Thompson, Alyson Publications, 1991. It is available in many alternative bookshops.

Please contact me if your group is interested in sponsoring a shamanism workshop.

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Copyright 2003

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