The shamanistic element in Performance

The death and resurrection of priest-kings predated Jesus by thousands of years. The Nazarene was simply this year's model.

Have you read this?:


The Death and Resurrection Show by Rogan Taylor.

It covers something of the same territory as Frazer's The Golden Bough but the focus is specifically on Performance and it takes in every shamanistic act from James Brown to Harry Houdini.

The Death and Resurrection of James Brown:

Wiki:



Cape routine

A trademark feature of Brown's stage shows, usually during the song "Please, Please, Please", involved Brown dropping to his knees while clutching the microphone stand in his hands, prompting the show's MC to come out, drape a cape over Brown's shoulders and escort him off the stage after he had worked himself to exhaustion during his performance. As Brown was escorted off the stage by the MC, Brown's vocal group, The Famous Flames, continued singing the background vocals "Please, please don't go-oh-oh". Brown would then shake off the cape and stagger back to the microphone to perform an encore. Brown's routine was inspired by a similar one used by the professional wrestler Gorgeous George.

Brown performs a version of the cape routine over the closing credits of the film Blues Brothers 2000

The Death and Resurrection of Harry Houdini:

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Death and Resurrection in the Indian Rope TRick:





Wiki:

Although diverse accounts of the trick have appeared in print since the original was published in 1890, it remains essentially the same. There are three basic variants, which differ in the degree of theatricality displayed by the magician and his helper. Here they are.

In the simplest version, the magician would hurl a rope into the air. The rope would stand erect, with no external support. His boy assistant, Jamoora, would climb the rope and then descend.

A more elaborate version would find the magician (or his assistant) disappearing after reaching the top of the rope, then reappearing at ground level.

The "classic" version, however, was much more detailed: the rope would seem to rise high into the skies, disappearing from view. The boy would climb the rope and be lost to view. The magician would call back his boy assistant, and, on getting no response, become furious. The magician then armed himself with a knife or sword and climbed the rope, vanishing too. An argument would be heard, and then limbs would start falling, presumably cut from the assistant by the magician. When all the parts of the body, including the torso, landed on the ground, the magician would climb down the rope. He would collect the limbs and put them in a basket, or collect the limbs in one place and cover them with a cape or blanket. Soon the boy would appear, restored

Russian postcard based on a photo taken in 1908 by S. I. Borisov, showing a female shaman likely of the Khakas ethnicity.

Wiki:

Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. In areas where indigenous shamanism still thrives, there is a clear divide between "lay" people (who participate in and practice shamanic belief and tradition) and the professionals or specialists themselves. A lay practitioner of shamanism is not awarded any special title, as this is the norm within traditional societies. A shamanic professional, who is a highly-trained and very often spiritually selected individual, is sometimes known as a shaman( /ˈʃɑːmən/ shah-mən or /ˈʃeɪmən/ shay-mən).

Shamanism encompasses the belief that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.

Link to full Shamanism entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism#cite_note-Eliade-3

eddie wrote:My only (entirely subconscious) hands-on experience of shamanism consists of certain strange events that happened on stage many years ago. There are certain "trance states" into which one sometimes enters in the course of a performance, during which very odd things do- and did- happen.

I nearly died as a child (from pneumonia)- which is apparently one mark of a shaman- but really I'm as much in the dark as you about such matters

I became interested in shamanism when I was trying to understand Jung's ideas about the collective unconscious, and whether it was accessable via dreams and other altered states of consciousness such as those trance states accessed by the samburu dancers, whirling dervishes, and by those on vision quests etc. It seemed that if the collective unconscious transmits at all it is through symbols, which launched me on a fascinating period of studying them.

Re shamans:

I remember that shamanic powers can be hereditary and involve an ecstatic experience (via dreams or by a deliberate quest), but there also exists spontaneous manifestation. Spontaneous manifestation often occurs during a serious illness in youth...it seems that the illness (often with hallucinations) is cured when the initiate begins shamanic practise.

The sickness/dreams/ecstatic experiences constitute initiation, and they transform the profane individual into a technician of the sacred and indicate that one has been 'chosen'. Initiation almost always involves some form of (ritual/symbolic) suffering, death, resurrection.
I think the progression to practising shaman runs something like this: an illness with ecstaic experience of dismemberment and then renewal of the body; celestial ascent or descent to the underworld to converse with spirits or be instructed by the souls of dead shamans.

I think ecstatic capacity is the prerequisite for a shamanic career.

...Indian rope trick.

...the kauwa-auwa of the Achilpa (an Arrernte group) of Central Australia.

...a shepherd-king betrayed by a Judas and resurrected...

The myth of Osiris and Isis.
(paraphrased from Wiki)

Osiris is an Egyptian god usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as green-skinned man (green is the colour of rebirth) with a pharaoh's beard and holding a symbolic crook and flail (a shepherd's tools). He is brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son.

Osiris was killed by his brother Set, who was jealous of Osiris's position as king. Set tricked his brother into laying in a coffin, and then he slammed and locked the lid on the sarcophagus and threw it into the Nile.

Isis searched for Osiris.

Set found the coffin while he was out hunting and dismembered the body into 14 pieces. Isis was able to recover all of the pieces except for the penis (devoured by a fish). She fashioned a phallus out of gold and sang a song around Osiris until he came back to life. She ritually impregnated herself and bore a son (Horus).

Once he was resurrected, Osiris could have proper ceremonies and burial.


Isis and Osiris


Isis suckling Horus...Madonna and child.

I remember reading somewhere that in the mystery cult surrounding the myth the restoration of Isis was ritually reenacted each year, and a priestess behing a backlit screen reenacted the impregnation rite.[img]

...I don't know if gaga is portraying death and resurrection or is simulating human sacrifice!

It's said that those who experience dreams of Falling, which are pretty common, never actually hit the ground- because if they do, they die.

Well, an horrific nightmare I experienced as an adolescent is with me to this day: I DID hit the ground at the climax of a Falling dream and splintered in a million atoms. Somehow or other, I lived to tell the tale.

Whether that makes me a shaman I've no idea, but I've never liked heights since...

...my guess is that you would have needed to have had a corresponding dream of being reassembled. Did you take to playing the drums?

blue moon wrote:Did you take to playing the drums?

No, but I've always loved Charlie Watts, and frequently punctuate my Stones' listening pleasure with Charlie imitations:



Charlie, it should be observed, looks EXACTLY like a Siberian shaman ought to look.

...hmmmm...

blue moon wrote:...hmmmm...

My God! It's <gasp> uncanny:

Wrinkled, leathery Siberian shaman.

eddie wrote:

blue moon wrote:...hmmmm...

My God! It's <gasp> uncanny:

The more thoughtful shamanic drummer is always prepared for every eventuality:


Keith Moon.

Whirling dervishes in Turkey.


Whirling dervishes at Rumi Fest 2007.

Wiki:

The whirling dance or Sufi whirling that is proverbially associated with Dervishes, is best known in the West by the practices (performances) of the Mevlevi order in Turkey, and is part of a formal ceremony known as the Sama. It is, however, also practiced by other orders. The Sama is only one of the many Sufi ceremonies performed to try to reach religious ecstasy (majdhb, fana). The name Mevlevi comes from the Persian poet, Rumi (born in Balkh, modern day Afghanistan), whose shrine is in Turkey and who was a Dervish himself. This practice, though not intended as entertainment, has become a tourist attraction in Turkey.

...Nijinski...the dance of the faun

"...Nijinsky took the creative reins and choreographed ballets, which pushed boundaries and stirred controversy. In The Rite of Spring (with music by Stravinsky,1913), Nijinsky created choreography that exceeded the limits of traditional ballet and propriety. For the first time, his audiences were experiencing the futuristic, new direction of modern dance. The radically angular movements expressed the heart of Stravinsky's radically modern score. Unfortunately, Nijinsky's new trends in dance caused a riotous reaction at the Théâtre de Champs-Élysées when they premiered in Paris. As the title character in The Afternoon of a Faun, the final tableau (or scene), during which he mimed masturbation with the scarf of a nymph, caused a scandal. He was defended by such artists as Auguste Rodin, Odilon Redon, and Marcel Proust.

In 1919, at the age of 29, Nijinsky retired from the stage, owing to a nervous breakdown, which was diagnosed as schizophrenia. He lived from 1919 until 1950 in Switzerland, France, and England, and died in London in 1950."



L'Apres-midi d'un Faune
A Faun sits on a hillock, relaxing in the afternoon sun. He is eating grapes and playing the flute. Seven nymphs appear, passing through the Faun's domain on their way to bathe in the lake nearby. As they move past in line, the Faun is entranced by the beauty of the creatures and moves down from his hillside. The nymphs, in turn, are fascinated by the handsome creature, seemingly half-boy, half-animal. The Faun begins to dance playfully about the nymphs, who, frightened, flee into the forest. Only one nymph remains; she allows the Faun to come closer, even to touch her, to which she seemingly responds. But she too takes fright and rushes off to join her companion; as she leaves, a silk scarf falls from her.

The Faun, now sad at her departure, picks up the scarf and holds it to himself longingly; he caresses it tenderly, imagining it to be the nymph he has frightened away. He returns contentedly to his hill-side, dreaming of the nymphs and that he has possessed the most beautiful of them all.
Philip Ralph, Paris Dances Diaghilev, 1990

...from Daoism:

...the concept of Yin-Yang, illustrated by this symbol:



...the practise of Feng-Shui (a balancing of energy by arranging your living space a certain way)

...Tai Chi:


Taoism is one of the most important “strains” of Chinese thought through time. Taoism, unlike other religious traditions has no single origin, like Christianity or Islam. There are two distinct sources for Taoism: One, the philosophers of the Civil War period (403-221 BCE) who followed a Tao or way of nature instead of following the Tao of society. Second, The shamans and magicians who, since the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BCE) played a significant role in the life of the ordinary Chinese population (Hubbard 25). (http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/fall99/hundoble/)