Shamanism -- New to Me

It’s been a season of marriages, my close friend got married yesterday and one of his aunt mentioned to me couple of days back that I need to be part of the rituals. She introduced me to a new form of traditional beliefs called as Shamanism --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism. She told me that I need to be prepared to speak about Mother Earth and call upon her as The Goddess of the West and bring all the qualities of stability and growth to the ritual. I was thoroughly tensed and looked up to the net for more information; I could not find any this more than the definitions and spiritual effects of the same. She told me she creates rituals and she is creating this ritual for her nephew and she want to make it as meaningful. I was excited to see something new and also be a part of it.

The ritual began with the parents letting go of the children to lead their own life, they told nice things about them and their childhood and wished them luck for the new start. Then the brother and sister of the bride and bridegroom spoke about the qualities and gave their wishes. Then it was the part of the friends -->so we were the five elements as explained by the aunt, there was nothing in the beginning and then due to some friction Air was formed and then there was friction in the air and Fire was formed. Because of Fire and Air there was vapor and therefore there was Water, Water got cooled and there was mass formation and Earth was formed. So these are elements from North-East-West-South. All of us gave the couple a prayer related to the qualities of the 5 elements Ether-Air-Fire-Water-Earth to be the core of their relationship. After that the bride and the bridegroom expresed thier feelings about each other and proposed to each other and exchanged rings.

Phew, actually it was all informal – seriously I was expecting to have some spirits and some chanting etc J

Then the priest took over and did the rituals of a traditional Hindu wedding with the parents of the bride and the bridegroom, and he did explain every thing he did. First time I understood the Hindu wedding and enjoyed it too, maybe because I was part of it. And also maybe this is a modernized version of the Shamanism culture.

Now I am more curious about the different rituals and cults around the world – interesting research it would be huh?