In the previous few sections I have presented the basic ideas of Mongolian shamanism. The essential characteristics can be summarized as follows
* Living beings live happy productive lives by promoting balance in the world and observing the customs of respect toward Father Heaven, Mother Earth, and the spirits
* The world is a circle oriented toward the south, with Father Heaven above, Mother Earth below; the right side is male and the left female
* The sacredness of fire
* One’s personal power can be increased by living a yostoi life and revering the spirits and living things
* The presence and protection of the spirits of the ancestors
* Humanlike sentient spirits in the heavens, animals, trees, mountains, and other natural features
* Power and totem animals
* Human beings are a combination of 3 souls in addition to the physical body
* There are three worlds, the lower, middle, and upper worlds connected by the World River and the World Tree
* Shamans have a special helper spirit that initiates him and empowers him to restore balance to the world
* The use of the drum, ongons, shaman staffs, dalbuur, sacred smoke, hallucinogens * Shamans’ chief duties include healing, invoking protection, blessing, divination, hunting magic
and weather magic
* The causes of illness are due to spiritual forces disrupting a person’s souls by either intruding into the body or stealing one of the souls. This requires expulsion of the foreign spirit mor soul retrieval
MONGOLIAN COSMOLOGY
- The Four Directions (Durvun Zug)
- The Ger and the Sacred Circle
- The Upper and Lower Worlds, and the World Center
- Windhorse and Buyanhishig
THE NATURAL WORLD
- Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Heavenly Objects
- The Ancestors
- Tenger, Chotgor, and other Nature Spirits
- Spirits of Animals, Totems, Animal Guides, and Hunting
- Sacred Mountains and Trees
THE SPIRIT WORLD
- A Multiplicity of Souls, their Form and Function
- The Siberian Circle of Life and the Water Cycle
- When Spirit and Earth Touch: Customs, Taboos, and Ongons
