adorned themselves in garments of feathers. I f true, then it would also mean that
some semblance of this shamanic tradition was later inherited by the Horus kings of
Heliopolis, who felt it important to continue incorporating garments of imitation
feathers into their jubilee festivals right through to Pharaonic times. Furthermore, it
is probable that the Shemsu-hor, the Followers of Horus, the hawk-headed god,
were direct descendants of the Elder antediluvian shaman gods, therianthropic
deities such as the falcon figure named ‘Lord of the Perch’, who resided in a place
enigmatically named “ ... the place in which things of the earth are filled with
power” (Collins, 1998:176-177, 186). Collins also points out, more significantly, that
the earliest evidence of writing has come to light in the form of a series of
pictogram carvings, unearthed in the Upper Euphrates of northern Syria which
consist of lines, arrows and animals, the same symbols described by Lewis-Williams
in his neuro-psychological model of shamanism, cited earlier, and are believed to
date back 10,000 years which would make them an intermediary between
Palaeolithic cave art and more modern forms of writing (Collins, 1998:222).
I n an earlier work, Collins argues that the Dead Sea Scrolls provided new
material on the nature of these Elder Gods suggesting that the angels, serpents and
‘Watchers’ of the Old Testament were, in fact, these early shamans (Collins,
1996:46-49). I t is not difficult to see the shamanic connections with later Greek
traditions and myths such as that of I carus and his fatal flight too near the sun;
indeed, Harold Bloom suggests that Pythagoras, Empedocles and Orpheus were
Greek shamans (Bloom, 1996:137).
Other researchers have traced a sacred shamanic tradition back into the
depths of history. The Rosi-crucis emblem is recorded as far back as 3500 BCE in
Mesopotamia and is said to be the original and longest standing mark of
sovereignty, identifying a sacred culture retained in the Messianic line of David
(Gardner, 2000:3-7), and whose members’ sacred temperament was symbolised by
the wearing of shamanic swan-feather cloaks, this wing-like garb leading to the
artistic portrayal of angels and their ability to transcend the human condition
(Gardner, 2000:28-9).
Dr. Brian Bates’ research into shamanism and sorcery in England’s Dark Ages
has revealed a world in which the Anglo Saxon sorcerer [ shaman] lived and worked
and where “ ... there thrived a powerful tradition of sorcery and mysticism”, where
individual sorcerers practiced healing and divination, presided over worship rituals
and festivals and sometimes served as advisers to the kings (Bates, 1983:11).
ron
(Ron)
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