In Nepal, they have a term to describe aspects of shamanism that do not involve human teachers, they call this self generated or spontaneously arising shamanism. I have observed this certainly to be the case on my own journey and in the way my shamanic tools came to me.
One day, whilst reading a book by the late Mongolian/American shaman, Sarangerel, I discovered that one of the traditional grades of shaman is, a shaman with three drums and an altar. I found this quite astonishing as that is exactly the position I found myself at; spirits had guided me through dreams and visions to make three quite different drums and I did indeed have an altar. I had no real memory of consciously deciding to make an altar, it had indeed seemingly arisen spontaneously without intention or conscious effort on my part. It came about because I was being gifted so many spiritual objects that I needed a place to put them. A friend had given me some expensive whiskey, that came in a wooden box, lined with blue silk. The box seemed perfect to store my objects as it was also portable and I could bring it anywhere. I soon found myself using it as a handy altar, I could take what I needed out and set it up wherever I wanted. Upon further reading of Sarangerel I discovered that the Buryat shaman’s altar not only takes the form of a portable wooden box but that it is often lined with blue silk!
On my altar there are gifts from humans such as the knife and jingle cones, forged and gifted to me by a shamanic blacksmith, and the little Zuni bear, from my wife. There is also the piece of shed skin from a living female Komodo dragon, given to me unasked for by her keeper in Bali. Then, from nature, there is a stone with three lines on it, representing for me the Three Worlds of shamanism and a porcupine quill(used for spiritual protection in Mongolia) that I found on a beach in Sri Lanka. There is the impossibly beautiful and delicate shell of a wild bird egg(probably crow) and a pair of antlers brought to me by my dog. One is on the altar, the other became the beater of my drum. Within the drum there is also the wing of a buzzard. I found it dead on the road, its poor body was destroyed but the wings were perfect. Of the feathers, the tiny one is from a jay and the wing is from a small bird, which is how I sometimes see souls. The first striped feather is from a green woodpecker, this bird reminds me of a shaman, banging away on the tree trunk like a drum. The second one is from an owl and the last is from a crow but a specific type. I know this because when I found it, I sat and meditated with it. The spirit of the bird entered the back of my head and screeched its name, Rooook! This, is spontaneously arising shamanism.
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