Re: Re: Big spirit dudes

From: Julian Lord <julian.lord_at_...>
Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2000 12:31:29 +0200


Peter :

> >In fact, from an average shaman's POV, Integration of Spirits is a
> >reinforcement of Identity ; and moving away from the Community.
>
> But the spirits that the Shaman integrates are losing _their_
> identity irreversibly. If they are well-loved spirits of the
> shamans own tradition (like Ancestors), then this is going to
> be seen as a Bad Thing.

An interesting point.

I don't think that that is a universal truth, but in many Traditions that can certainly be true.

Come to think of it, Ancestral shamanism is poorly represented by the GL World-View. It should probably be a Borderline magic, half-way between shamanism & theism ...

> The question was under what circumstances can a spirit be
> persuaded to be integrated without hitting him over the
> head.

And a good question it is !

Thing is, despite the fact (I would say) that various methods of Integration are possible, I think that a good rule of thumb for HW is to remember that they all involve some form of difficulty (and most likely psychic trauma) that can be well represented by your 'hitting him over the head' suggestion.

In fact, I would say that more peaceful, politically correct, hippy-type shamans who integrate Spirits with a Peace & Love attitude actually have to hit *themselves* in the head, so to speak (using rigourously similar game mechanics) : that is, spiritually combat their own petty non-Integrated selves (their Id Monsters ?) to allow greater one-ness with the macrocosm ...

The details will vary, in other words, but the HW mechanics should be remarkably similar in all cases ...

cheers,

Julian Lord

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