The phenomenon of shamanism in the context of modern ideas about the world can be viewed both from ethnocultural positions and from the positions of philosophy and psychology. This phenomenon is multifaceted in itself, as it reveals a whole layer of primitive, archetypal ideas of man about the world, the structure of the real and mythical Cosmos, their inextricable connection and interweaving. Local historian Dmitry Eroshkin tells about this in his work "Shamanism of Southern Siberia".
Catching "doubles"
The one-hemispheric world of modern man, as it were, receives its natural complement here, returns to the space of binary forms, where each thing, the subject of matter, has its own animate “I”, a double, or the original idea according to Plato.
We find a vivid confirmation of this in the culture of Altai shamanism. According to L. P. Potapov, a well-known researcher of the history and culture of the Altaians, “the double of the shaman had the ability to separate from the body during sleep in the form of a small fire, wander in different places and return when a person awakens. In this regard, it was also said that during fishing in the taiga one must be especially careful and fear the release of one's double in a dream, because the owner of the mountain or taiga could catch him, and then the hunter fell ill.
“Cases of non-return of the double during sleep were considered not uncommon. Shamans usually found doubles who did not return during rituals, easily recognizing them by the individual characteristics and traits of the sick person, caught them, took them into a tambourine and “hammered” (with a strong blow to the tambourine) into the patient's right ear. An ordinary person could see doubles of people only in a dream, but shamans and "clairvoyants" - and with their own eyes. The kam saw them especially well, and with the assistance of his own double, whom he could separate from himself of his own free will during the ritual "(Potapov LP, 1991 - p. 30; 63).
Another researcher of Altai shamanism N. A. Alekseev also notes the fact that “shamanism among the Altai is in a strong connection with the funeral cult. They believed that the soul of a shune person is separated from his body and takes the form of a transparent vapor … (Alekseev N. A., 1984 - p. 67).
Shune or Sus (double), according to the stories of the Altaians, can also be tracked down and caught by a shaman with the aim of killing a person who annoyed him with something. They said about the death of such a person: Kam jigän - “Shaman ate”.
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“When analyzing the name“sus”, we also find ancient ideas about the cosmic origin of fire in the form of receiving them from the sun and the moon, ideas about the connection of heavenly deities with earthly beings and the impact on them through a sun or moon ray. The idea of the ray as a means of transmission from the divine to the life of the embryo of children formed the basis of some ancient Türkic and Mongolian genealogical legends, as well as shamanic images of the ray as a brilliant golden thread connecting heaven with earth”(Potapov LP, 1991 - p. 30; 63).
The very process of transformation of an ordinary person into a shaman, or, in Altai, kama, is directly connected with the belief in invisible spirits (kormos), doubles.
Here is what the researchers A. M. Sagalaev write about this. and I. V. Oktyabrskaya: “The idea of being chosen and reborn was most clearly embodied in the shamanic tradition. Without repeating well-known facts, we note the following. The death and subsequent birth of a person in a new capacity is the central nerve of the ideology of being chosen.
The birth of a shaman
Coercion from the side of spirits, the receipt of a hereditary gift - a burden, shamanic illness - this was how the acquisition of a new look was arranged. The culminating point in this mytho-ritual scenario is the symbolic dismemberment of the shaman by spirits. The Kumandins believed that the patron spirit separates the meat from the bones of the future shaman and looks for an extra shamanic bone, which joins the same bones of his deceased shaman-ancestors. If we recall what ideas the Sayan-Altai Turks associated with bone, then the purpose of dismemberment, separation of flesh from bones, becomes obvious. Spirits “seek” the essence of man, the focus of life. Only after dissection, in the opinion of the Kumandins, the applicant received spirits - helpers-ancestors. The most archaic ideas about the death-resurrection of a shaman were preserved among the Yakuts. It was said that the future shaman is being dissected,retiring to the sacred mountain, where it lies on freshly torn birch bark (like a woman in labor or a deceased). It was believed that he was supposedly observing this whole rite with his own eyes: the spirits, “splitting with an iron hook, tear, separate all joints, cleanse the bones by scraping out the meat and removing the juices of the body. Both eyes are removed from the hollows and placed separately. At the end of this entire operation, the bones are again connected and sutured with iron threads … and the eyeball is put back in place. Only after that they (the spirits) transform him into a shaman. "At the end of this entire operation, the bones are again connected and sutured with iron threads … and the eyeball is put back in place. Only after that they (the spirits) transform him into a shaman. "At the end of this entire operation, the bones are again connected and sutured with iron threads … and the eyeball is put back in place. Only after that they (the spirits) transform him into a shaman."
Thus, as a result of a radical transformation of all properties and organs, the “old” man acquired a qualitatively new state, turning into a clairvoyant and soothsayer. Becoming through bodily torment and spiritual renewal brought the chosen one of the spirits - the shaman closer to the prophets of all times and peoples”(Sagalaev AM, 1990 - pp. 94-95).
“A future shaman,” writes researcher E. S. Novik, - getting into the "world of spirits" undergoes certain tests - his body is dismembered and altered, boiled in cauldrons, forged in a forge, magic stones, snakes, worms are brought under the skin, they find "an extra shamanic bone" (Novik E. S., 1984 - p. 199; 192).
The same author notes that "the main motive for being elected (of a shaman) is the sexual love of the spirit for his chosen one." (Novik E. S., 1984 - p. 199; 192).
Such a special relationship between disembodied spirits and people is very reminiscent of the analogous relationship between the Central Asian "initiate" and the "mountain maidens" of the Peri, from whom he, having also passed the ritual death ceremony, received his magical power (Basilov V. N., 1984 - p. 45).
Such "sexual relations" were also known in medieval Europe, where one could easily go to the fire for the love of a female demon (succubus). “It is undoubtedly true that all superstitious sorceries originated from the pernicious communication of people with demons,” we read in the infamous Hammer of the Witches, the handbook of medieval inquisitors. (see. Sprenger J., Institoris G. Witch Hammer - Saransk, 1991 - p. 199). The very process of being chosen and initiated into shamans, if observed from the outside, is very similar to the symptoms of a severe mental illness. The future shaman is at this time in a so-called "altered state of consciousness", or, as the followers of Carlos Castaneda would say, "with a shifted assemblage point" … His counterpart, or, to use analogies from the teachings of Don Juan,The "dream body" at this moment is in a completely different reality.
“The Kets said about a person who was seized with a 'shamanic disease': 'He is looking for his own shamanic path.' The future Khakass shaman, making sure that the spirits of the shaman ancestors want to see him as their successor, had to go to the land of their ancestors. He discovered an unknown world for himself. The road led him to a mountain, on top of which a pine tree grows. Only the one who carves a sign on a pine tree can become a true shaman, therefore, the traveler took care of decorating the tree with his own mark. Then he reached an intersection, from which all kinds of paths diverge in different directions - paths of spirits, animals, shamans. An invisible spirit - the guardian of the crossroads showed the stranger the path destined for him to the spirit that chose him. This path led the shaman to a flimsy bridge over the rushing stream. Having crossed the bridge, the shaman had to walk between two rocks,which either approached or diverged (!). Having slipped between them, the shaman found himself in the land of his ancestors. There was a dissection of his body, a search for an extra bone from him”(Basilov VN, 1984 - pp. 73-75).
It is amazing how much this episode of the shamanic journey resembles the well-known scene from Homer's Odyssey - the passage of Ulysses' ship between Scylla and Charybdis! “After that you will meet two rocks: one ascends to the wide sky with a sharp peak. Closely you will see another rock, Odysseus of many Orthodox”(Homer, 1986 - pp. 123-124).
Perhaps the path of Ulysses is not an ordinary journey across the seas, but the most ancient description of the path of shamanic initiation ?! Let us recall, for example, such an episode as the descent of Ulysses into Hades, into the kingdom of the dead, in order to receive the revelation of the seer Theresius …
Traveling to other worlds
“Altai kam also crossed the familiar natural boundaries at first, but soon entered unknown countries. Before him stretched the lifeless steppes, and behind them darkened the iron mountain, supporting the sky. Climbing it with difficulty, the shaman saw the bones of his predecessors - those who were unlucky. The sky was constantly hitting the iron mountain (this is how the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis move). In those moments when the firmament receded from the mountain, it was necessary to have time to slip further. A precisely calculated jump - and the kam managed to slip past the dangerous place. From here lay the road to the "earthly mouth" - a hole leading to the underworld. Kam descended and saw the sea (!), And over the sea a bridge in the form of a hair. Kamlaya, the shaman staggered from side to side, sometimes almost fell, showing how hard the path along the hair was. The bones of the shamans who had plunged into the abyss gleamed ominously through the thickness of the sea waters at the bottom. Fearfully!Finally Kam stepped onto solid ground. He is on the other side.
At first he walked past the sinners, punished for their misdeeds, and then approached the dwelling of the mighty Erlik Khan, the ruler of the underworld (Basilov VN, 1984 - p. 68; 73).
The analogy is obvious, but it does not exhaust itself. For example, the sacred bow of Ulysses, which was never able to be pulled by the numerous suitors who woo Penelope. Why is this not an analogue of a shaman tambourine, considering, moreover, that the tambourine itself was sometimes thought not only as an "astral" double of a mount, but also as a bow ?!
And according to the information of A. V. Anokhin, “in exceptional cases, a shaman and a shaman can replace a tambourine with an onion - jölrö. There are also shamans and shaman women who, when performing many rituals, are limited to only one jölrö (Anokhin A. V., 1994 - p. 52). In Homer's Odyssey, the bow is a kind of sign of the winner who has gone through the entire circle of initiation. But as mentioned above, success was not always guaranteed to him. “The Kets were convinced: seven roads opened before the future shaman. One of them had to be wary of: stepping on it, the shaman would become mad or die”(Basilov V. N., 1984 - p. 68; 73).
Sacred numbers
But what the researcher A. V. writes about numerical symbolism in shamanism. Golovnev: “In order to climb on a pole to the seventh heaven, a person had to become a complete shaman. The attributes of a great shaman were a seven-part tambourine and seven robes, which he changed during the ritual, invoking one or another Spirit. The "seven-headed" shaman was the spiritual autocrat of the area.
The line between "5" and "7" acted as the line between worldly and spiritual life. The transition to “7” presupposed “ordination” (the conversion of the neophyte to shaman was carried out by the seven-headed Teacher), after which the initiate could no longer return “to the world” and was doomed to life and even posthumous sacred services. This transitional line was painful for the ghost-seeker - he was disturbed by visions, pains, fears, sometimes he was reclusive for a long time in the forest. The "Shamanic disease" usually lasted six six months and corresponded to the ascent through the sixth Heaven to the seventh.
Having passed the obstacle "6", the shaman found himself "in the seventh Heaven, where all the wisdom of the universe was revealed to him. And outside the "7" began "zero" - large numbers were considered "inhuman" (Golovnev AV, 1997 - p. 87).
Here it would be interesting to recall one remarkable episode from the life of Ramakrishna. When he came out of a long, many-day meditation, and accidentally heard the distant abuse of boatmen on the river, he literally felt real physical pain!
- You reached 17, and I stepped a little further, - he commented on his condition. The fact is that the next number 18 is considered a certain symbol of the limit in the Hindu-Buddhist religious tradition (the books of the Mahabharata are numbered eighteen, similarly to the Puranas). By the way, the three sixes in the Revelation of John the Theologian are also "18".
And three sevens, i.e. "21" is the ultimate lasso in Tarot cards based on the letter-symbolic mysticism of the Hebrew alphabet.
Shaman's helpers
So, having reached the limit, having gone through a radical transformation of his entire being - the inner basis of the world perception, a person becomes a shaman. At the same time, he receives his personal assistant spirits … This is the "army" of the shaman, his strength and his fate …
“According to the ideas of shamanists, the ethnographer A. V. Smolyak, - the power of shamans among the Nanais, as well as among other peoples, lies in the power of their spirits-helpers”(Smolyak A. V., 1991 - p. 66.). The Kumandins believed that “the head of all supernatural helpers of the shaman is the spirit of Kara Kush, a black bird. Shamans assured that this spirit is a very strong and brave creature (Alekseev NA, 1984 - p. 84).
The “ancient seers”, according to Carlos Castaneda, also especially revered the black eagle as the mystical ruler of the universe, absorbing the light basis of living beings … Usually, in a dream, a newly initiated shaman received an order from his spirits to make a tambourine, its dimensions and proportions. The tambourine is of paramount importance in the life of a shaman. According to L. P. Potapov, “without a tambourine, no shaman could perform a ritual - a trip to any zone of the Universe. The value of the tambourine was very great "… (Potapov LP, 1991 - p. 159; 193). In Altai, the tambourine is called tungur, it has a round shape, is covered with the skin of a riding animal (horse) and symbolizes the "double" of the latter. In addition, the tambourine is, as it were, a symbolic map, a mytho-mystical description of the Universe: “The common element was the division of the drawings on the tight-fitting tambourine into three parts,symbolizing the idea of the three-term division of the universe. In the upper part, the celestial sphere with its luminaries, rainbows and clouds was always depicted … On the left side was the sun, called the mother, on the right - the month, called the father. This arrangement of the sun and the month reflected summer time, for the Kams traveled across the Sky from spring to autumn, until it “froze”. Drawings of the luminaries, especially Orion and other stars, were not only of cult significance, but also helped Kam to navigate in "space" during the ritual. " (Potapov L. P., 1991 - p. 159; 193).for the Kams traveled across the Sky from spring to autumn, until it “froze”. Drawings of the luminaries, especially Orion and other stars, were not only of cult significance, but also helped Kam to navigate in "space" during the ritual. " (Potapov L. P., 1991 - p. 159; 193).for the Kams traveled across the Sky from spring to autumn, until it “froze”. Drawings of the luminaries, especially Orion and other stars, were not only of cult significance, but also helped Kam to navigate in "space" during the ritual. " (Potapov L. P., 1991 - p. 159; 193).
“Smaller circles are drawn near the sun and moon,” writes A. V. Anokhin, - morning dawn (tan cholmon), evening dawn (änär cholmon). In the area occupied by the month, the sun and lightning, dots depicting the stars (yyldys) are superimposed on the tambourine. Their number is uncertain - from one to eight dozen”(Anokhin AV, 1994 - pp. 59; 51). An anthropomorphic figure of the spirit of the tambourine, the ancestor of the shaman, is placed on the inside of the tambourine.
Also, “shaman tambourines are usually equipped with ringing iron pendants. Each of them has its own symbolic meaning. The pendants mainly depict patron spirits and helper spirits (Basilov VN, 1984 - p. 93).
“A new tambourine, when reading prayers, a shaman or shaman is first smoked with a lit archyn (juniper), then sprinkled with arak. From this moment, the tambourine acquires the meaning of a sacred object (Anokhin A. V., 1994 - pp. 59; 51). Dyakonova VP, a well-known specialist in the ethnography of the Altai, also notes that “after the ritual of reviving the tambourine, the Teleut shamans, conducting the first ritual with it, prepared, along with other offerings, five tolu (ribbons). They gave these offerings during their journey to the worlds to various spirits”(Dyakonova VP, 1984 - p. 33).
The second equally important "tool" of the shaman was the "orbu" beater. “The beater (orbu) to the tambourine was cut out of a birch, on one, the shock side of it was sheathed with the kamus of a wild ram, a wild goat or a male roe deer. The inner part, slightly concave, was upholstered and attached to the plate with nine rings. Colored fabric ribbons were attached to the handle through a ring. A mallet, like a tambourine, was made by one master. The beater symbolized a whip, and the shaman used it to make fortune telling after rituals”(Dyakonova VP, 2001 - p. 165).
As for the etymology of the name of the beater, we can refer to the following studies of the Tomsk ethnographer, associate professor of Tomsk University E. L. Lvov. Here is what she writes about this: “In most of the languages of the Turkic peoples of Siberia, only one name is known for the shaman's drum beater -“orba”. It can be compared with a vast nest of concepts that exist in the Turkic languages and go back to the common Turkic lexeme "arba". In Saryg-Yugur, Khakass, Bashkir and other Turkic languages, the verb "arba" is used in the meaning of "bewitching, conjuring, conjuring" (Lvova EL, 1984 - p. 88).
Shaman's clothes - a space suit for traveling to other worlds
In addition to the above attributes (tambourine and "orbu"), the shaman often has a rather exotic costume that uniquely distinguishes him from the environment of "mere mortals". What does the shaman's robe consist of? The shaman's robe or fur coat is called "manjak". According to A. V. Anokhin, “manjak is used by a shaman or shaman to serve the“spirits of the earth”(jär-su), Erlik (the lord of the underworld) and his sons, blood spirits from the category of aru nämä and other kormos. Ulgen and his sons are served without a maniac, in a dressing gown, to the back of which three white ribbons are hung down to the floor”(Anokhin AV, 1994 - pp. 38; 33; 39; 47). "A complete manjak, with all the accessories, is called: kÿltÿk manjak." Such accessories include colorful ribbons decorating the manjak, sacred cowrie shells,called in Altai jylan-bash - "snake head", etc. "Copper bells are suspended along the lower part of the sleeves: on the right sleeve - four, and on the left - five, nine in total." "Bells and bells serve the shaman with armor given by God" (ie, they drive away spirits harmful to the shaman with their ringing). “Manjachnaya hat, with one or another symbolic ornaments, is called: kush pörük or jylanmashtu kush pörük - bird-hat. It is used when serving only with the "manak" and is not worn on its own. When transporting from one village to another, the cap is turned inside out and put into the sleeve of the manak "(Anokhin A. V., 1994 - pp. 38; 33; 39; 47).with their ringing they drive away spirits harmful to the shaman). “Manjachnaya hat, with one or another symbolic ornaments, is called: kush pörük or jylanmashtu kush pörük - bird-hat. It is used when serving only with the "manak" and is not worn on its own. When transporting from one village to another, the cap is turned inside out and put into the sleeve of the manak "(Anokhin A. V., 1994 - pp. 38; 33; 39; 47).with their ringing they drive away spirits harmful to the shaman). “Manjachnaya hat, with one or another symbolic ornaments, is called: kush pörük or jylanmashtu kush pörük - bird-hat. It is used when serving only with the "manak" and is not worn on its own. When transporting from one village to another, the cap is turned inside out and put into the sleeve of the manak "(Anokhin A. V., 1994 - pp. 38; 33; 39; 47).
Dressing up, changing one's status, instant transformation from an old man into a young man are the characteristic features of the mythological hero.
Putting on his costume, the shaman, as it were, turns on a certain mechanism of autogenous hypnosis, immersing himself in the “virtual” space of myth and dreams. And if in classical hypnosis the dreamer is led by the hypnotist, here the chain of events unfolds quite arbitrarily, according to the logic of the unconscious conflict between the sphere of ideal representations and the limited existence “here and now”. Therefore, unlike modern hippies and punks, the shaman does not set himself the goal of separating himself from society, he separates himself from the "profane" reality for him as a whole.
In this sense, the exotic paraphernalia of the shaman has a completely opposite vector: from existence to transcendence!
Here is what one of the authorities in the field of altaistics A. M. Sagalaev: “All mythology is scattered on the shaman's costume. This is the “cosmic” body of the shaman, or, if you like, a spacesuit, in which he goes to the mysterious depths of another world.
Putting on such a costume and picking up a tambourine, the shaman becomes a living myth."
“In that world,” the author adds, “you can get only by renouncing the human appearance, becoming like its original inhabitants” (Sagalaev AM, 1992 - pp. 115; 120).
Thus, the shaman is almost always on the verge of two worlds - he is a mediator, a mediator, subtly feeling the soul of another world …
Welcome to nothing
G. N. Potanin in the century before last, traveling across Central Asia, noticed the fact that the shaman, almost at the level of some kind of internal automatism, easily enters an "altered state of consciousness", then passing into the phase of a dynamic trance. To do this, it is quite enough for him to simply hear the sounds of a tambourine.
“With the distant sound of a tambourine,” wrote G. N. Potanin, - such a person begins to twitch, his eyes flare up, and, finally, he gets a nervous fit. (Potanin G. N., 1904 - p. 48).
“But what is the shaman's insanity in the context of the ritual? - continues the theme of A. M. Sagalaev. It seems to us that it fits well into the overall picture of the world. It follows from it that one can get into another world in a state different from the ordinary one. This is how the heroes of the epic, the characters of legends and fairy tales penetrate beyond the boundaries of the human world. The hero sits on his horse, starts to move and … loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he sees himself in a distant land. Space and time simply cease to exist, between the human world and the other world there is a qualitative boundary, a “failure”.
They also get to the owner of the mountain. The hunter walks along the side of the mountain, falls through somewhere and loses consciousness. When he comes to himself, he sees that he is in grief”(Sagalaev AM, 1992 - p. 120). Like this! No more, no less, like a "gap" between the worlds!
What is it? "Nirvana"? Shunya Buddhists? Or nihil, Nothing Western Neoplatonists, Christian mystics of the late Middle Ages?
Both those and others, rushing into the zone of the transcendent, met THIS - the sphere of absolute zero, the metaphysical Vacuum. The only difference was that some passed IT, casting aside all fears and hopes of salvation, while others remained in a dumb stupor at the "gate of silence", at the border of the Great Mystery. Modern science, oddly enough, and perhaps natural, increasingly comes to conclusions that essentially coincide with the religious revelations of many thousands of years ago.
About the "energy-information" properties of water, for example, in scientific circles, they started talking openly just a few years ago. The author of this work himself attended the public lectures of Mr. Plykin, the author of the brochure "Footprint on the Water", held in the late 90s. last century at the Tomsk Polytechnic University. However, if we turn to the Bible, the books of the Mahabharata, the texts of Ancient Egypt, we will definitely see that the priests of the most ancient civilizations of the planet were well aware of the concept of water as the information matrix of all living things, and perhaps of all life in general.
Apparently, the situation is similar with the concept of Emptiness, or "gap" between the worlds."
As you know, in the Buddhist East they were well acquainted with the concept of the Great Emptiness - Shunya, the teaching of which was developed in the Madhyamik school. Modern quantum physics actually confirms the main provisions of this ancient teaching.
Even more interesting discoveries have been made recently in the field of biophysics and physical anthropology. For example, it has been established that the synoptic connection of two neurons has a kind of "gap" or synoptic space of the intercellular void, where ordinary intercellular substances-mediators are converted into a pure electromagnetic, energy-informational impulse. That is, as noted by Dr. Silvio Fanti, “our existence is an electro-chemical-electrical process taking place in a void” (Fanti Silvio Giulio., 1997 - pp. 37-39).
Probably, this fact was well known to the ancient Tibetan healers, who presented the human body as a continuous interweaving of luminous energy channels. For some reason, an analogy with the latest computer technology immediately comes to mind: the interlacing of laser light guides, liquid crystal screens with pictures more real than reality itself …
Continuing further a number of analogies, we can again recall the teachings of Don Juan as presented by Carlos Castaneda. According to him, people are actually “luminous beings” who dream, dream of being and themselves in the continuum of this being. But under certain circumstances, the "pictures on the screen" can suddenly change, and the program on the chakra disks will radically reboot in the most unpredictable way … Probably, in this case, a person of traditional thinking would say simply and quite clearly: "A shaman was born!" And from that moment on, the shaman's double, jula, is able to travel to any spheres of the Universe … He is free!
Between Erlik and Ulgen
“According to ethnographic evidence, the Siberian aborigines divided the universe into three main spheres,” writes the historian M. F. Kosarev, - the Upper World, identified with the sky, heavenly bodies, the dwelling place of the "immortal" soul and good deities; The Middle World (our land with waters, land, forests, mountains, people and animals); The Lower World, where evil deities and generally dark forces lived; here was also the land of the dead, where after the death of a person his soul-shadow left”(Kosarev MF, 1984 - p. 214).
“In the lower world, according to the Altaians, there are nine rivers merging into one Toybodym (“I was not satisfied”) along which human tears flow. Behind it are the possessions of Erlik - the heads of the spirits of the lower world. The Altaians believed that he was the elder brother of Ulgen (the ruler of the upper world) and participated in the creation of the world and man. Ulgen created the bodies of people, and Erlik put his soul into them and said that they would be his property. In this regard, Erlik began to take people to him when their earthly life ended.
Shamans in their spells described Erlik as an old man with "athletic build." His eyes, his eyebrows are black as soot, his beard is forked and goes down to his knees. The whiskers are like fangs, which, twisting, are thrown over the ears. He lives in a black iron palace with a fence. This palace, according to myths, stands on the banks of the Toybodym (Alekseev N. A., 1984 - pp. 52-53).
According to the beliefs of the Altaians, Erlik rides a black bull (sometimes a black boat without oars). Therefore, during the ritual, a bull or a black cow was always sacrificed to him.
“They tie the animal on the north side of the yurt (not honorable). (The sunny side of the yurt is considered honorable - a horse is sacrificed to Ulgen there). In the morning, the animal is taken to the west of the yurt to a dirty, thin place. The victim is stabbed, all the meat is boiled and immediately eaten. (The skin of an animal is hung on a skinny, wretched tree); (but not on a birch tree). The birch is a sacred tree. The sacrifice “Bay tere“Ulgenyu”is hung on a birch tree (Choros-Gurkin GI, 1999 - p. 21).
In contrast to the underworld, “The sky, according to the Altaians, is drawn as a vault, separated from the real earth, and consisting of several layers. On its ninth layer rises a red mountain - the place of Ulgen”(Nature and man in the religious ideas of the peoples of Siberia and the North, 1976 - p. 273). “The path to Ulgen lies through seven, and according to other versions through nine, obstacles. This path is available only to shamans - men during rituals. But the shaman reaches only the fifth obstacle (altyn kazyk) - the “golden stake”) and comes back. Ulgen has a palace (örgö) with a golden gate and a golden throne. In appearance, he appears to be a man”(Anokhin AV, 1994 - p. 9; 14). The name "golden stake" for the majority of Turkic-Mongolian peoples of Siberia has the Pole Star. It is she, the center of the Heavenly sphere,is considered the "world mountain" (a prototype of Sumeru), "the navel of Heaven" and the main entrance to the kingdom of Ulgen.
So, for example, according to Buryat beliefs, “the polar star, the“golden stake”(Altan gadas) is interpreted either as a heavenly hitching post made by nine wise blacksmiths, or as a stone that closes the hole in the Sky, or as the top of the world pillar … The central heavenly hole, through which one can get to various layers of the sky (there are 99 of them), there corresponds a hole in the center of the earth, leading to the multilayered lower world”(Myths of the peoples of the World., 1988 - p. 172). By the way, many peoples of Siberia, like the Altaians themselves, believe that it is here in the Altai mountains that a connecting thread runs between the Heavenly Gates and the earthly ones. That is, paths can open here both to various layers of the world of shadows and to the world of Light …
But, as already mentioned above, the shaman reaches, ascending into the world of Light to Ulgen, only the fifth Heaven - the North Star. Here he is met by Utkuchi, the messenger of Ulgen. “He is sent to meet the shaman in the fifth sphere of heavenly space - the“golden stake”- the polar star - and here he negotiates with the aliens of the earth” (Anokhin AV, 1994 - p. 9; 14).
Why exactly the fifth Heaven becomes a certain border, and sometimes an impassable obstacle on the way to Ulgen?
To understand this issue, it is necessary to turn again to the numerical symbolism of initiation into shamans: "The line between" 5 "and" 7 "was the border between the worldly and spiritual life."
According to the “Book of Books” of the Bible, it was on the sixth day (“between 5 and 7”) that Man was created “in the image of God,” that is, symmetrically to the image of God.
The act of disobedience and the fall, asymmetric to the original image, transferred a person to a new ontological status. In turn, the sacrifice of Christ, asymmetrical to this world, was to be the beginning of the return to Eden.
Ulysses, doomed by the gods to eternal wandering, all the same, contrary to fate, strove to Ithaca. He is ready to turn into a beggar old man - a vagabond, to lose his social, ontological status, in order to achieve the desired goal in the end.
So for a shaman, the border between the "fifth" and "seventh" heaven is a point of absolute uncertainty (bifurcation), where it is necessary to perform an asymmetric act - to go into the Void, "the gap between the worlds."
The duality of existence, ritual dressing up - transformations must pass into the phase of final transformation. Since the birth of a shaman through a ritual death in the lower world should be mirrored through his resurrection in the upper world.
The shaman was called upon to resolve the existential conflict of life and death, to reconcile an archaic society with the inevitability of biological death, which all world religions continue to do with success.
The phenomenon of shamanism still requires further study and understanding, and the region of Southern Siberia in this sense is a fertile field for such research work.