Carpathian 23 - Dark Storm

compassion”) and begin the chant. The shaman or healer or leader
     is the prime actor in this healing ceremony. It is he who will actually make the spiritual
     journey into the netherworld, aided by his clanspeople. Their purpose is to ecstatically
     dance, sing, drum and chant, all the while visualizing (through the words of the chant)
     the journey itself—every step of it, over and over again—to the point where the shaman,
     in trance, leaves his body, and makes that very journey. (Indeed, the word “ecstasy”
     is from the Latin ex statis , which literally means “out of the body.”)
    One advantage that the Carpathian healer has over many other shamans is his telepathic
     link to his lost brother. Most shamans must wander in the dark of the nether realms
     in search of their lost brother. But the Carpathian healer directly “hears” in his
     mind the voice of his lost brother calling to him, and can thus “zero in” on his soul
     like a homing beacon. For this reason, Carpathian healing tends to have a higher success
     rate than most other traditions of this sort.
    Something of the geography of the “other world” is useful for us to examine, in order
     to fully understand the words of the Great Carpathian Healing Chant. A reference is
     made to the “Great Tree” (in Carpathian: En Puwe ). Many ancient traditions, including the Carpathian tradition, understood the worlds—the
     heaven worlds, our world and the nether realms—to be “hung” upon a great pole, or
     axis, or tree. Here on earth, we are positioned halfway up this tree, on one of its
     branches. Hence many ancient texts often referred to the material world as “middle
     earth”: midway between heaven and hell. Climbing the tree would lead one to the heaven
     worlds. Descending the tree to its roots would lead to the nether realms. The shaman
     was necessarily a master of movement up and down the Great Tree, sometimes moving
     unaided, and sometimes assisted by (or even mounted upon the back of) an animal spirit
     guide. In various traditions, this Great Tree was known variously as the axis mundi (the “axis of the worlds”), Ygddrasil (in Norse mythology), Mount Meru (the sacred
     world mountain of Tibetan tradition), etc. The Christian cosmos, with its heaven,
     purgatory/earth and hell, is also worth comparing. It is even given a similar topography
     in Dante’s Divine Comedy : Dante is led on a journey first to hell, at the center of the earth; then upward
     to Mount Purgatory, which sits on the earth’s surface directly opposite Jerusalem;
     then farther upward first to Eden, the earthly paradise, at the summit of Mount Purgatory;
     and then upward at last to heaven.
    In the shamanistic tradition, it was understood that the small always reflects the
     large; the personal always reflects the cosmic. A movement in the greater dimensions
     of the cosmos also coincides with an internal movement. For example, the axis mundi of the cosmos also corresponds to the spinal column of the individual. Journeys up
     and down the axis mundi often coincided with the movement of natural and spiritual energies (sometimes called kundalini or shakti ) in the spinal column of the shaman or mystic.
    En Sarna Pus (The Great Healing Chant)
    In this chant, ekä (“brother”) would be replaced by “sister,” “father,” “mother,”
     depending on the person to be healed.
    Ot ekäm ainajanak hany, jama.
    My brother’s body is a lump of earth, close to death.
    Me, ot ekäm kuntajanak, pirädak ekäm, gond és irgalom türe.
    We, the clan of my brother, encircle him with our care and compassion.
    O pus wäkenkek, ot oma sarnank, és ot pus fünk, álnak ekäm ainajanak, pitänak ekäm
     ainajanak elävä.
    Our healing energies, ancient words of magic and healing herbs bless my brother’s
     body, keep it alive.
    Ot ekäm sielanak pälä. Ot omboce päläja juta alatt o jüti, kinta, és szelemek lamtijaknak.
    But my brother’s soul is only half. His other half wanders in the netherworld.
    Ot en mekem naman: kulkedak otti ot ekäm omboce päläjanak.
    My great deed is this: I travel to find my brother’s other half.
    Rekatüre, saradak, tappadak, odam, kana o numa waram, és avaa owe o lewl mahoz.
    We dance, we chant, we dream ecstatically, to call my spirit bird, and to open the
     door to the other world.
    Ntak o numa waram, és mozdulak, jomadak.
    I mount my spirit bird and we begin to move, we are under way.
    Piwtädak ot En Puwe