Busted Uncle 'DEMOlisten'

Recently, I joked about my luck with vehicles about how they were breaking down every time I got inside one. I joked about getting the services of a Shaman or a Priest. I got this response from a REAL Shaman…

First off, while you spoke in jest, I would take information off your blog saying you will curse someone else's car for you. Believe me when I say this is NOT something to joke about.

Shamanically, we work in the name of love and compassion for all spirits, sentient and non-sentient.

If you are serious about doing work with a shamanic practitioner, there could be a few ways that this could go. The first is that a divination question could be done:

Why are all the vehicles in X's life breaking down now?

Divination is the art of going to the compassionate helping spirits for answers to questions; typically, we have looked hard at the issue and tried our best to solve it, but are finally out of ideas about how to take care of this in ordinary reality.

If you were my client, I would ask you if you had any traumatic events prior to the cars breaking down. Did you have surgery? Did someone you know pass away? Did some heartache befall you? And, is this car trouble a part of a larger picture -- in other words, has your "luck" been bad for some time?

Yes… I was merely joking because that’s what I do most of the time. And by looking at the Shaman’s short list of questions… I did not have surgery. No one I knew passed away and heartache has not befallen me. For the most part, my “luck” has simply been luck both good and bad. It’s been fairly indifferent.

Allow me to be serious for a moment…

I spent most of my life without any religious convictions. I was forced to attend church because that’s the way my parents raised me. I didn’t agree with the teachings on how God was portrayed by Christians, the Baptists in particular. A lot of it just didn’t make sense to me. God sits up in Heaven watching and judging everything you do and if you make the BIG wrong decision, not accepting his Son as your Savior, why you’re gonna blister for eternity in a lake of fire.

So I spent years holding fast to the agnostic belief of “prove God to me”. At times, I was borderline atheist.

I have always tried to keep an open mind about a lot of things. I have had deep and heated discussions with Christians, Wiccans, and just about anyone wanting to discuss their beliefs. And even though we didn’t often agree, I took various parts of their ideals and beliefs to heart.

Within the last few years, I have found my place in the world of spirituality and I believe that everyone has their own path to God. I have found mine and maybe you have found your own. You may not agree with mine and the Baptists will be the first to chastise my beliefs. That is one of the reasons that I don’t discuss my beliefs with my family.

The one faith that has spoken to me my entire life is that of the Native Americans. Is it because Cherokee blood flows through my veins?

Granted, I don’t know much about their beliefs… The agnostic in me hasn’t really let me go enough to investigate.

Bottom line… I now believe in God and I try to pray every day. It’s very personal with me and I can’t believe that I’m writing about it on my blog. I believe in good spirits, both angelic and of the deceased, that watch over us all. I believe in bad spirits, both demonic and deceased, that work against us. I try to be compassionate and understanding of everyone around me.

Things were going very well for me during my heavy agnostic years, but everything took a turn for the worst within a short period of time. I lost a lot of things that I thought truly made me happy. I spent a lot of years being angry and unproductive. I fully believe that was God’s way of getting my attention and causing me to look at things differently.

I truly believe whatever path to God that you’re on is the way that’s right for you. I have never believed that ONE faith held all the answers or was the ONLY way.

Please allow me a philosophical moment here… Perhaps God intended there to be many different paths to enlightenment in order to teach us the things that many of us forget… To have love, compassion, and respect for each other despite our differences.