Shaman: Developing a Modern Edge
By Linda Leicht
Feb 23, 2005, 17:25
http://springfield.news-leader.com/lifestyle/today/20050219-Shamandevelopin.html...
Shamans are found in traditional cultures around the world — African witch doctors in huts, Celtic pagan priests standing in open fields, American Indian medicine men in sweat lodges.
Shane Knox plans to work in an office.Knox, who uses the name ShadowHawk, says he has been a shaman for 25 years. He studies and applies traditional native American, Asian, African, Celtic and other methods, but he is firmly planted in the modern world.
"I may very well do a traditional ... smudging and blessing with prayers to Grandmother and Grandfather, but I will have booked that appointment on my cell phone and entered it in my electronic organizer," says Knox. "Now we're going to do it at the office."
Moving into an office seemed natural to Knox as his business grew to include more clients, CDs and a Web site.
"My personal mission is to take all of these traditionally honored modalities of helping people and bring them into the modern age," says Knox, sitting in front of a desk covered with plants, crystals, a cell phone and a Hewlett-Packard computer.
Knox plans to be in his new digs by month's end. He will share space with longtime friend and massage therapist Sheila Johnson, owner of Natural Escapes Body Therapeutics on East Battlefield Road.
"My basic concept ... is to help people relax," says Johnson, leaning back on a comfortable brown leather sofa in the waiting room of her salon, the natural sounds of birds and running water filling the air. "The world is complex and fast paced. It's hard to get quiet," she says. "Shane is very good at ... getting you quiet."
The combination of a shaman — who offers guided meditation, intuitive readings, soul retrieval and energy work — and traditional spa services seems natural to Johnson, whose office is filled with representations of angels.
She also finds it a natural fit with traditional Christianity. A churchgoing Christian herself, Johnson believes her own clients will feel comfortable with the match.
"When doing massage you have a whole attitude of acceptance," she says. "You accept everyone where they are. That's why there are so many different religions; everyone is at a different level. There's room for everyone's beliefs."
Knox also has a Christian background. Raised in a Baptist church, he still remembers his "calling" as a young boy of about 10 singing in church.
"I felt the call of Spirit and was saved," he says. "I felt for the first time a true connection and closeness to God. I wanted more."
His quest began, leading him to various churches, faiths and interests from Zen Buddhism to metaphysics. By the time he was a student at Ash Grove High School, he was doing "shamanic rituals out in the yard."
While he was a youngster he met a woman he calls "Barb" who told him he was a reincarnated shaman who had more work to do in this life. Barb and her sister, whom Knox describes as "medicine women of the Black Bear Clan of the Lumbees," gave him the name ShadowHawk. The Lumbees are a tribe in the eastern United States.
Knox says he continues to respect the faith of his youth as he participates in rituals that recall other belief systems. "Even though I ... use words like Grandmother and Grandfather to refer to God, I believe it's a gift from God," he says.
"I'm not afraid of standing up in the middle of the Bible Belt and saying, 'I'm a shaman and I'm going to do my work,'" says Knox.
'Try on new ideas'
The word shaman comes from Evenki, a Tungusic language of Siberia, and means "a priest or priestess who uses magic for the purpose of curing the sick, divining the hidden and controlling event," or anyone who "resembles a shaman."
While definitions differ, Knox says a shaman is "somebody who acts as a go-between for the physical and spiritual realms, and who is said to have particular powers such as prophecy and healing."
Almost all cultures around the world have shamans, he says. They have different names and their emphasis varies, but they all connect the "people and the spirit world."
For shamans such as Knox — modern day Americans in a fast-paced world — all those traditions are mixed together.
"Each has his own specialty, but the core thing is that they are the people who can alter their consciousness, connect with the divine, the all, the that-which-is-beyond-the-physical-limitations,"he says.
Meditations, intuitive readings and even healings are now offered in climate-controlled offices, on CDs, Web sites and over e-mail.
Michelle Pillen, a psychologist and author who lives on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, seeks out Knox for his readings, a way she manages to "stay sane" amid a busy life of work and family. They connect every few months by phone.
"Shane has helped me to accept my path and live my life more fully," she says. "Sounds corny, but it's true."
She says moving into Natural Escapes is a good business move because "it will give folks like me, who aren't fluent in New Age ways, more opportunities to try on new ideas and new experiences."
Mindy Spitz of Springfield agrees. She has been consulting Knox for years, but she sees his new location as a place where "people would feel more comfortable to visit."
For Spitz, who works in public relations, having a "regular place and schedule" will also make it easier for her to access his services.
Fitting the ancient spirituality of a shaman into a square office may seem an odd fit, but Spitz isn't concerned. "While (Knox) is in tune with other-worldly powers, we also have to be part of the real world," she says. "The real world means doing business. It's part of life."
'spirit guides'
Knox lights his smudge pot — filled with cedar, sage and tobacco — and blesses the room while moving the smoke with a "spirit fan" made of colorful feathers. He offers prayers to the Grandmother and Grandfather as the smoke covers his computer screen. He turns to a shelf covered with crystals, totems and a pipe wrapped in animal skin and leather.
"The sage gets rid of the negativity. The cedar calls for good, and the tobacco is an offering to the spirits," he says.
Then he sits down in a high backed office chair, tucking his legs up lotus style, and begins handling a deck of tarot cards with American Indian symbols. The cards offer focus but no information themselves. Bouncing back and forth, the leather medicine bag swinging from his neck, Knox begins an intuitive reading, barely looking at the neatly displayed cards.
He mentions disagreements at work, projects at home, health problems and a dying friend, all spilling out of him in a matter-of-fact way. It is his "spirit guides" who provide the information. He offers no solutions and no opinions.
"My guides and my intuition tell me what to say", Knox explains.
In the background, he plays a CD of pipes and drums, taking the place of the traditional drummer. His cell phone interrupts the reading. He smiles apologetically and turns it off.
The computer screen shows the shamanshadow.com Web site where music and meditation CDs are available.
"We're introducing the cyber shaman aspect of what I do," says Knox. "Yes, we're going to honor tradition ... but we're going to bring it into the modern day."
He gently moves a rattle, tied with a small fetishes of bird and bear claw, to its place on the shelf, then flips open his cell phone to see who called.
"We're living in a high-tech world," he says. "There's no reason why those two things can't be married."
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