How is a hmong shaman chosen

Traditional Hmong religion is animistic with the belief of ancestor worship. It is a religion based on spirits. The Hmong belief in multiple souls, also known as ntsuj plig. The also Hmong believe in reincarnation, curing and incantations for blessings.

Saub, an important deity of this story is the one who started the reproduction of mankind. When Ntxwj Nyoog a wicked creature began to kill humans faster than they were being created, Saub bestowed a mortal named Siv Yis with healing power to heal illness and disease. However, one day he made a mistake and had to leave the world to heavens. The humans were worried about who will cure them from their illness. Siv Yis then announced that he would appoint human successors in earth and share his power to them, so then can heal illness and diseases.

Shamans are those who heal illnesses and diseases. In the Hmong culture, healing work through engagement with cultural symbols, with souls and not just bodies, and with the spirits themselves. A shaman addresses physical pain and bodily ailments as localized manifestations of cosmological imbalances and disorder, and while occasionally in tension, these healing traditions often take their rightful place for Hmong people alongside professional Western medicine.

Most of the common rituals a shaman performs search for the lost soul and bring it back to earth so that a person might recover from his or her illness. Shamans are quintessential mediators and are threshold crossers who can go between the earth and the sky.

That is why they are identified with archetypal connectors such as images of ladders, bridges, ropes, and cosmic trees that sink roots into the earth while branching towards the sky. The status of a shaman can be measured by the size of his or her altar.

Even after training as a shaman, Lor still was skeptical of the good he could do, wondering if the rituals and ceremonies he was to lead would make a difference to those requesting his help. They were experiencing certain symptoms, and after a ceremony they say they feel better and their illness has not returned. They return to work and school. That is when I believe. Whether spiritual or supernatural, what I believe in is the healing.

During a ceremony, which typically lasts two to 10 hours, Lor remains in a trance, a state somewhere between sleep and wakefulness. Your eyes can confuse you, but your heart knows where to go. I follow the spirits, and the spirits always know your heart. One of the best things about a ceremony is that they bring families together, which is especially important to the elders in the Hmong community, Lor says.

Here in America, kids do leave their families. So, elders are lonely. When we do a ceremony, families attend, sometimes coming from far away.

They are very happy afterward. A lot of the healing I see is mental healing because families reunite. While Lor now is enjoying his life as a Blugold and a shaman, the road to get there was not easy, he says. Since he became a shaman at such a young age, he did not have peers who could guide him or relate to what he was experiencing, Lor says.

There was no community for him to lean on, he says. His mother died in while Lor was still in high school. His father died in , just two months before Lor started college.

The death of his parents also meant he had to assume more responsibilities to support and help his younger siblings, he says. It was hard being a full-time student, working a job, supporting and helping my siblings and being a shaman. As a result, Lor struggled with his mental health. Eventually, he says, he began using what he has learned as a shaman to heal himself.

People come to me for help, but I had to learn to ask for the help that I need.