On Mar 29, 8:48Â pm, "brian fletcher"
gmail.com> wrote:>>I would come back as anInuit.
>
>
>> "TheInuitpeople inhabit the land stretching from southeast Alaska to
>> Greenland, an environment that heavily influenced a mythology filled
>> with adventure tales of whale and walrus hunts. Long winter months of
>> waiting for caribou herds or sitting near breathing holes hunting
>> seals gave birth to stories of mysterious and sudden appearance of
>> ghosts and fantastic creatures. SomeInuitlooked into the aurora
>> borealis, or northern lights, to find images of their family and
>> friends dancing in the next life, and they relied upon the angakkuq
>> (shaman), while the nearest thing to a central deity was the Old Woman
>> (Sedna), who lived beneath the sea. The waters, a central food source,
>> were believed to contain great gods.
>
>> TheInuitpracticed a form of shamanism based on animist principles.
>> They believed that all things had a form of spirit, just like humans,
>> and that to some extent these spirits could be influenced by a
>> pantheon of supernatural entities that could be appeased when one
>> required some animal or inanimate thing to act in a certain way. The
>> angakkuq of a community ofInuitwas not the leader, but rather a sort
>> of healer and psychotherapist, who tended wounds and offered advice,
>> as well as invoking the spirits to assist people in their lives. His
>> or her role was to see, interpret and exhort the subtle and unseen.
>> Angakkuqs were not trained, they were held to be born with the
>> ability.
>
>>Inuitreligion was closely tied to a system of rituals that were
>> integrated into the daily life of the people. These rituals were
>> simple but held to be necessary. According to a customaryInuit
>> saying, "The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our
>> diet consists entirely of souls." By believing that all things,
>> including animals, have souls like those of humans, any hunt that
>> failed to show appropriate respect and customary supplication would
>> only give the liberated spirits cause to avenge themselves.
>
>> The harshness and randomness of life in the Arctic ensured thatInuit
>> lived with concern for the uncontrollable, where a streak of bad luck
>> could destroy an entire community. To offend a spirit was to risk its
>> interference with an already marginal existence. TheInuitunderstand
>> that they work in harmony with supernatural powers to provide the
>> necessities of day-to-day survival."
>
> Sounds to me thats where you were last time !
>
> BOfL
