Sacred Messengers of Shamanic Africa by Carley Mattimore

Author:Carley Mattimore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SHAMANISM/SPIRITUALITY
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2018-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Wounded Warrior

The effect of repeated trauma through many generations has created a cascade of heavy, dense energy in our bodies and psyches, limiting and distorting our perceptions of our lives. The effects of war, abuse, struggle for survival, and mayhem experienced by humans over and over throughout history eventually developed an operational structure that we call the patriarchy.

As discussed earlier, patriarchy incorporates the shadow traits of dominance and aggression (denying the human worth of the enemy), the shadow aspects of the left brain. These traits are expressed in fight, flight, freeze, or fold (submissive) behavior, our body’s natural reaction to situations that are dangerous. This survival response creates separation from each other, the natural world, and our own wholeness.

It is out of this separation from others that the role of the warrior as defender of truth, protector of homeland, and fighter for freedom was born. If the “other” is a threat, then we need to have protection from this threat. Cultures built walls and raised armies to do battle for their empires. Their goal in part was to establish dominance and security in their kingdom to prevent harm to their people, but when they were successful, the temptation to use this power to take what others had was strong.

Warriors have traditionally been brave men (and in some cultures brave women) trained in warfare and experienced in battle who fight as a collective group on behalf of a country, place, or cause. They may also be commissioned to fight on behalf of others who have similar interests.

Throughout our warring history many civilizations idolized and glamorized the role of the warrior. The warrior was seen as the hero of the culture, rewarded for the sacrifices he made to protect the greater good. But those sacrifices can have huge costs. Soldiers experience trauma over and over again as they fight. These traumatic effects can be long lasting—manifesting as post-traumatic stress disorder—even as soldiers lose sight of the higher understanding of their mission.

Today, most of these fighters are young men and women with idealistic dreams of supporting their country, religion, or freedom from the oppressor. This can be seen whether they are considered freedom fighters for their country or radical extremists. Some are willing to sacrifice their lives as suicide bombers to effect change, believing that their reward will be in the afterlife. All of this behavior derives from the idealistic desire to make the world a better place.

If a warrior is not given or is not able to accept the time, space, and energy for processing their traumatic experiences, they must find other ways to cope. Often they shut down, abusing substances such as drugs or alcohol or employing any number of other ways to block their pain.

Africa as the place of First Time has a long history of inflicted trauma at the hands of colonizing nations that invaded this continent. In addition, it has a long history of warring within the indigenous tribes over resources, land, power, and attempts to subjugate or defend against the “others,” who were perceived as separate.

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