Jenny L. M. (2022-04-27 07:51:02), category: shamanism

I agree with that. He has sown seeds, or rather maybe he’s been a somewhat successful link in passing on knowledge about this. The spirits might have placed Mr Gaup right where and when he needed to be. Like you say, maybe that goes for you as well. Your name carries resemblance to a noaidi that I have heard of. Perhaps it was even the same name?

What’s your take on the monotheistic religions compared to shamanism? On a slightly related note, would you say that those monotheistic religions are creating an imbalance in neglecting the feminine side of society? (I know, it’s a leading question and quite imbalanced as well).

I don’t know why humanity don’t learn. Maybe we have strayed away from spiritual guidance? The balancing act from being conscious of the spirits is maybe lost? Whenever no higher power is making you aware of the bigger picture, you may not take that broader picture into account? Everything becomes arbitrary actions entertaining your immediate pleasure. I believe most people don’t realize that there is a bigger picture. A politician who really sees the big picture will never make it to office if he or she is campaigning for a healthy earth in an eternal perspective. Neither would a corporate CEO survive the wrath of the stockholders displaying visions like that. Politicians of such mindsets are being ostracized on a daily basis for thinking about that out loud. The kids want their candy now.

Bottom line? I don’t have a clue. Do you?


Best regards,

Jenny

Ove (2022-04-27 15:42:06, updated 2022-04-27 17:32:47)

Sure. I appear to be a patrilineal descendant of Mathias Andreassen Kaaven, Johan Kaaven’s brother. Johan became well-known for having extremely powerful magical powers. His legacy does influence us in various ways. Not sure if you know this, but my sister Elin is a singer-songwriter who sings in her native Sámi language, but throughout her life she has also been slowly developing her spirituality. She has a special connection to the spirits of nature. She’s not a shaman, she doesn’t go around healing people, at least not yet, but I suspect that her power to heal and bring light can still be heard in her songs. (But she does have a proper shaman, “Jungle Svonni”, as a boyfriend. It’s also one who didn’t learn from Ailo Gaup, but went on his own journey to the Amazon jungle to learn. Their current blog is “Beneath Northern Lights”)

Note that I do not really consider Johan Kaaven a shaman/noaidi. There’s no evidence of him working in that way (he didn’t need a drum, for example). Shamans (and others) distinguish between different types of magic users by whence their power come, and I believe Johan would fall into the category of “sorcerer”. A shaman, or noaidi, is granted healing powers by the grace of higher spirits/gods. A sorcerer, by contrast, takes power by manipulating Earth-bound spirits, such as spirits of the dead. (Some say that Johan did this by cleverly and fearlessly surviving an encounter with the Wild Hunt, thus making the Wild Hunt spirits obey him. Not sure how much to believe that, though.) Several stories about Johan concern how he had an army of the dead at his command, which he could order to do gruesome things if he wanted. A shaman/noaidi wouldn’t be able to do that, because higher spirits wouldn’t allow their power to be abused in that way. But Earth-bound spirits might. (This also relates, I think, to why nobody in the Kåven lineage became noaidis after Johan: the power he possessed, was tainted. Any new host for them would need to possess great mental strength, wisdom, and willpower in order not to be consumed or destroyed.)

Anyway, monotheism. As some shamans have said (maybe I read this in Ailo Gaup’s book, not sure right now): religion is what you get when you combine spirituality with politics. I think religions might come into existence when, for example, a particular spirit decides to interfere with how humans live their lives (some of them like to do that). Also, some spirits just love being worshipped. When humans allow this, monotheistic religions may happen. But true shamans will of course know that all such religions are false; the religion’s “god” might very well exist in some form in the spirit world, but its nature is severely misrepresented, usually in order to push some sociopolitical agenda (e.g. Jesus Christ essentially pushed a socialistic agenda). Which is, of course, part of the reason why it’s always been so important for the Church to destroy all witches, sorcerers, and shamans, and their books and things.

Monotheistic religions don’t necessarily create a gender imbalance, since the Creator does not need to have a particular gender (and in many religions, it doesn’t). The problem with that is that genderless deities tend to be abstract and hard to relate to. They’re hard to personify. Thus, it seems almost all gods that people actually worship and pray to have a gender. And, of course, once you assign a gender to the Creator, people can take advantage of that to establish power structures that will favor that gender. The Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) consider their god male, along with their first human, and it has been used to justify systematic oppression of women and their rights and dignity. There’s no spiritual reason women should be restricted like that, it’s just politics from the time the religion was founded. Which, in turn, is partially rooted in men’s fear of the spiritual power that women actually possess. (See the table in my article The Meaning of Life, part 2)

And, yeah, why do humans not learn? I don’t think it necessarily has to do with spiritual guidance. We consider ourselves the most intelligent species on Earth, or, well, at least the most innovative. We solve problems on a large scale, we should be smart enough to understand the following without guidance: don’t make your own home an inescapable death trap. Not even if doing so would gain you time, money, energy, or other resources. Just don’t do it. This is simple enough that you shouldn’t need spiritual guidance. A little bit of common sense should be enough. How is this so hard for humanity to understand? Don’t make your own home an inescapable death trap. How can all of mankind combined be too stupid to understand this?

Do I have a clue? I’m not sure. Maybe. I’ve spent years, decades, on what is essentially the question: how can humanity be this stupid? I’ve tried exploring the issue from many angles. Scientific, logical, psychological, evolutionary, and so on. It’s one of the reasons I, for example, reached the conclusion that rationality isn’t a thing that exists. So stupidity is enabled, for example, when people believe too much in rationality, particularly their own. (It’s of course possible to be fair, objective, unbiased, and prudent, to some extent (depends on the situation), and you may be able to use logic to reach certain conclusions (which is good if you can), but you can’t really be rational. It’s mathematically, logically, computationally, practically, biologically, and physically impossible.)

I’m still looking into it, though, So maybe I’ve started to get a rough idea, I hope, but I’m not clear on every detail yet. And then there’s still the question of what to do about it, which I certainly can’t answer yet, sadly.

Jenny L. M. (2022-04-26 15:41:27), category: shamanism

Mr Kaaven,

Thanks for telling me about Ailo Gaup. I was able to find his old website and had an interesting time reading his texts and the comments from a myriad of people posting there. Unfortunately it came to and end with his disease and then death.

Mr Gaup appeared to be a spiritual soul and a leader, but also a businessman and a most talented communicator. What is your stance on his work?

Best regards,

Jenny

Ove (2022-04-26 21:48:41)

For various reasons, I’m not really personally attached to his work. He died before I started my own investigations, so I never had the chance to meet him. (And sometimes I wonder if this might not be a coincidence, like perhaps the spirits meant for things to happen this way, for one reason or another.) I do have to respect him for what he’s done for the Sámi people, but it has turned out his way is not going to be my way. I’ve read a couple of his books, but they leave many questions unanswered. Perhaps some of them were meant to be answered by future generations, once he passed on his knowledge to them. But unfortunately, as I said, I’m not among the people he got to pass it on to before he died, and perhaps for a reason. The spirits may have wanted one thing from him, but from me they seem to want something very different. Which means I have to take a quite different path, and try to figure things out my way, not his way.

For that reason, I’m not really in a position to personally judge his work. All I’m in a position to say about him, is that I have to respect his commitment and dedication, and that I’m sure his work has the power to inspire generations to come. While I’m not sure he managed to fully bring the ancient wisdom to Sápmi on his own, I’m sure he did manage to plant many of the seeds that needed to be sown. Perhaps they will turn out to be important for the things that are to come. (And the way things are going with our planet right now, perhaps those things will come uncomfortably soon. Why is it so hard for humanity to learn?)

Jenny L. M. (2022-04-11 20:58:03), category: shamanism

So you’re saying they’re apologizing, but that they don’t know, or won’t acknowledge, exactly what they’re apologizing for? Sounds like they, pretty much like U.S. authorities, are mighty afraid of admitting liability.

Ove (2022-04-12 15:23:26)

I suppose that’s one way to express it, but personally, I probably wouldn’t go that far. After all, the world of modern politics is all about moving money around, and they have to prioritize heavily. Anytime they spend money on something, there’s going to be less money for something else. So if they’re given a choice between, say, allocating money to take care of old people, or allocating money to investigate historical events where the overall picture of what happened is already pretty well known, then I can kind of understand the decision not to investigate. But from a justice perspective, it does kind of give a bad signal, yes.

Jenny L. M (2022-04-10 19:17:44), category: shamanism

Mr Kaaven,

Yes, “Læstadianism” is what I’m referring to, but also the impacts of “Finnemisjonen”.

I was not aware that Isaac Olsen was in possession of shamanic powers himself. I have read an article on Idunn.no written by Skjelmo and Willumsen “Isaac Olsen - Lærer og Forkynner”, but the text is partly quotations from Isaac Olsen’s handwritten texts and not very easy to get if you’re not well versed in 18th century Norwegian/Danish. Nevertheless, from what little I managed to comprehend, I got the impression that he knew a great deal about what the shamans was doing, where they performed their rituals and etc, but they did not say anything about him being a person who had shamanistic powers himself. From the context of the article that is maybe not so surprising. I’m not familiar with the authors, but my gut feeling is telling me that the piece is written from a Western perspective which is not emphasizing phenomenons from outside of that frame.

Would you say that the missionaries were treating the Sami people like Native Americans were treated by the Europeans? I know there’s a tremendous amount of differences between missionaries vs. the Sami and Europeans vs. Native Americans, but the creating of an environment of exploitation sounds somewhat similar.

I’m sorry about asking you all these questions, but my curiosity is oftentimes overriding my manners.

Best regards,

Jenny

Ove (2022-04-11 10:27:17, updated 2022-04-11 11:04:05)

There are of course similarities between the way the Sámi and the Native Americans were treated, but I don’t think they run deep. It mainly comes down to human nature — there have always been people who try to exploit others, everywhere, anytime, with any excuse they can find. So while exploitation may have happened in both cases, the nature of the conflicts were different.

For starters, the Sámi weren’t warriors. Unlike with Native Americans, there were no military conflicts, no peace treaties, and no reservations. Furthermore, in the case of Native Americans, white man was mostly interested in their lands and valuables found there. It wasn’t about ruining their culture as such, it was about material goods. Possibly a few missionaries may have been interested in changing their ways, but they didn’t have much real power over them. So the Native Americans were at least in a position to defend their culture, if not their lands. (Not that this makes it okay, of course. It was still very coldblooded and cruel.)

The Sámi were assaulted in a quite different, and more sophisticated, way. It wasn’t about territory, valuables, or power. It was only about destroying their culture, for various reasons. It may be obvious why the church was interested, but the secular authorities also had their reasons, namely “social darwinism”, the idea that some cultures are superior to others, and that progress happens when inferior ones die — with the implication that actively destroying inferior cultures is both ethically justifiable and a good idea. Since the Sámi people and culture were considered primitive, Norwegians authorities wanted to convert them to Norwegian culture “for their own good”, because, as they saw it, the Sámi culture was bad for the Sámi people. Essentially, destroying their culture was seen as an act of benevolence, of “uplifting” them. It had no other particular purpose, it wasn’t about money or land or anything (although some greedy people took advantage of it, naturally). It was only about people thinking their own culture is superior, and that this made it okay for them to destroy other cultures by any means necessary.

And, with secular authorities on their side, missionaries did have a lot more power in Sámi areas than they might otherwise have had.

In the latter half of the 20th century, Norwegian authorities finally started acknowledging that this was wrong. In 1997, the King of Norway made an official apology. However, Norway is still resisting a full public investigation.

Jenny L. M. (2022-04-04 10:55:11), category: shamanism

Mr Kaaven,

Thank you for the information about Johan Turi and Ailo Gaup. I will sure be studying their work. What you said about the missionaries persecuting and exterminating traces of shamanism sounds like a sad story. This also made me investigate the period when the persecution was taking place, and a friend of mine from Finnmark offered me an update on this whenever I asked her about it. Amongst other things, she particularly shed some light on what happened in Eastern Finnmark back then. She specifically mentioned one Isaac Olsen, he entered the scene in cooperation with Thomas von Westen. From what she said this here Isaac Olsen was literally using a wrecking ball to demolish the ancient Sami shamanism.

I have heard that there’s a presence of conservative Christianity in Sápmi. Could this be traced back to the missionaries or is it merely a consequence of social conditions during the 19th and 20th century?


Best regards,

Jenny

Ove (2022-04-04 19:34:26, updated 2022-04-04 20:14:09)

By “conservative Christianity”, do you mean læstadianism? If so, then probably both, but maybe not in the obvious way. There’s now a movie related to it, “Kautokeino-opprøret” (the Kautokeino Rebellion, IMDb), which says something about how this branch of Christianity actually inspired the Sámi people to fight back against Norwegian exploitation and systemic oppression (albeit with tragic results). The movie probably explains the social conditions and reasons for its adoption better than I could. But if you’re unable to watch it, I’ll say that it shows, among other things, how greedy Norwegian traders would, for example, encourage alcohol addiction among the Sámi in order to make them easier to exploit. Thus, Læstadianism, where alcohol abuse is a sin, was a way to stop this and give the Sámi people back at least some of their free will.

As for Isaac Olsen, as I recall, there were things von Westen wrote that suggest that one of the reasons Isaac was so effective at destroying Sámi religion, was because Isaac had special “insights”, i.e. shamanic powers, himself. Which may help explain how Sámi shamanism managed to hold on through hundreds of years of persecution before Isaac, but lost against him.

Jenny L. M. (2022-03-27 19:45:23), category: shamanism

Dear Mr Kaaven,

I have been reading your views on shamanism with great interest. For some time now I have been trying to educate myself on the matter, and I’m particularly interested in shamanism in a Sami context. Unfortunately, to me leastways, information regarding this is not always available in English. Now, I sort of read and understand Norwegian and even some Sami, but it’s not like I can be getting through a text somewhat more advanced than a news article and actually comprehend it in a sufficient way. I’m aware of google translate and stuff like that, but older texts tend to give electronic translation services a hard time on accuracy. Pretty much like my own rudimentary understanding of Norwegian and Sami. This is leading me to my question to you: is there any information about Sami shamanism in English written by people who have first hand knowledge about Sami shamanism? I have heard of Johan Turi. Would he be an author worth considering?

You also expressed that you have experienced things beyond the frame of western minds, if I got you correctly. I share that experience which is why I’m getting more and more devoted to looking into this.


Best regards,

Jenny

Ove (2022-03-27 22:33:07, updated 2022-04-04 21:47:50)

I don’t know of many English texts about Sámi shamanism specifically (although I know some English texts about shamanism in general do mention them). Before modern times, the Sámi people did not have a written language, and the Christian missionaries etc that did describe them, were of course very prejudiced, and were probably writing about it not so much to document it objectively, as they did it to justify the persecution and extermination that later happened.

Johan Turi (1854 – 1936) is generally considered the first proper Sámi author (meaning someone who wrote Sámi books). He wrote several books with stories about Sámi life. He was also a talented artist, and a (shamanic) healer himself. The book that specifically covered shamanism (“Sámit ja noaidevuohta”) was immediately translated into English, with, I think, the title “Lappish texts” (1919). Note that this was during a time that the Christians had already eradicated much of Sámi shamanism, although perhaps not yet all, and this affected some of the content. (It was also published in Denmark.)

Another interesting Sámi personality may be Ailo Gaup (1944 – 2014), a more modern shaman, who had the misfortune to live in a time when Christianity had won and Sámi shamanism was almost completely extinguished. Thus, his quest became to travel the world, visit other cultures, rediscover the roots of shamanism, and bring its essence back to Sápmi. Almost all shamanism that’s practiced in Sápmi today, now exists because of Ailo Gaup’s work. He wrote several books on shamanism, some of which have been translated to English (“The Shamanic Zone”, 2014).

Other books have been written about the subject matter, of course, but at the moment, these are the only ones I am aware of that have English versions, are about Sámi shamanism specifically, and were written by people who presumably knew what they were writing about.

(Edit: In case blogs may also be of interest, I probably ought to mention my sister and her shamanic friend’s blog, Beneath Northern Lights.)