(part 2; english version)
Before the shaman can actually become a shaman, they first need to go to the world beneath, so the shaman will be asleep for 3 days and 3 nights while they are on their journey to the spirit world. During this journey, the potential (at this point they haven’t earned the title of the shaman yet) shaman visits the land of frogs, the land of lizards and the land of snakes.
This motif is important because the world beneath is portrayed as the land of reptiles. When we read further we find out that it’s because the world beneath is home to creatures that live beneath the ground, or beneath the waters, so this will also include fish.
This is also found in other Uralic and Siberian cultures. That’s key to understanding that the ancient Hungarian religion (aka Hungarian paganism) was/is indeed a form of shamanism, because these beliefs formed while we still lived in the Ural mountains surrounded by other shamanistic cultures, and not after we migrated to Europe.
We have already discussed in my last post that the tree of life connects the three worlds and works as a sort of bridge that the shaman uses to visit the other worlds. In Nenets culture the shaman ‘climbs’ the tree of life to visit Num, the sky god in Nenets culture (not to be confused with the Egyptian god Khnum)
So while the shaman can climb down the tree to the world beneath, they can also travel upwards.
{EDIT: So then what can we find in the world above and in the world beneath? Just like in Nenets beliefs, the world above us is for the gods. However, the world beneath us is not only the land if reptiles, it’s also home of every ‘magical’ creature. }
Now let’s bring a few examples of this motif found in other Siberian and Uralic cultures.
Selkup: at the bottom of the tree of life the house of ‘Mother Life’ can be found. Without going into too much details, the house is made of steel with steel fence, and is also surrounded by ducks because ducks are a symbol of birth and motherhood. The three holy trees are also seen on this image, which are birch, cedar and larch.
(13. Selkup drawing depicting the universe)
Mongolian: the land beneath the tree of life is the land of snakes, frogs and lizards as well
Nanai: the first shaman is supposed to have gotten their equipment from the tree of life. So on the shaman’s drum they paint/carve/draw the three different worlds.
(18. Nanai tree of life with snakes at its roots and frogs climbing upwards on its trunk. + Shaman bells and mirrors are drawn at the end of its branches referencing the legend of how the first shaman gained their powers)
(15. Sideview of Tuba shaman’s drum, we see the drawing of a snake, a fish and a frog symbolizing the world beneath. + At the top we can also see 3 separate drawings, from top to bottom they are: a 4-legged creature, a bird, and then we see a more complex image, which is of a bird sitting on a tree growing out of a circle. If we take a look back at Ket mythology in my previous post, we realize that the circle symbolizes the Sun
16. Teleut shaman’s drum, at the bottom of it we see drawings of the world beneath
17. Buryat amulet with the tree of life, underneath it we see the land of snakes, frogs and lizards, aka the world beneath)
These examples the book brings up are important for us to make the connection between hungarian paganism and shamanism.
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