The shaman, through sacred action, reveals this unity. It is the way of compassion that opens in the course of this revelation. The shaman then is a master of play, dancing, and chanting in the field of human suffering. And through these acts, the people are awakened from the nightmare of sickness to the dream of Paradise. Playfulness and absurdity sharply rouse the slumbering ones. The beauty of poetry and the ferocity of keen wisdom remind the forgetful ones. Compassion and poise heal the diseased ones. The world is revealed, remembered, and celebrated. The ancestors and Nature-kin are again in the sacred circle.
While I stood there, I saw more than I can tell, and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
Joan Halifax, Shaman; the wounded healer
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