Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man: Shamanism from the Far North

By Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq

The work of the shaman is to guide you on your inner path. The shaman is there to familiarize you with yourself and support you in recognizing your beauty so that you can know yourself and love yourself. The shaman is there to guide you to a new level of reality, a new consciousness, through teachings, storytelling, and most importantly, through ceremonies. My Grandmother said that the ceremonies are the key. That is the work of a true shaman.

There is nothing more important in life than ceremonies. When you ask a shaman for help he will do a ceremony with you. He will do this to lift your spirit.

It is so exciting that more and more people are inviting people like me as a shaman to come and visit so they can have an understanding of what it is. Isn’t this fascinating? I come from a small village in the Far North, far, far away from everywhere. Yet the teachings I carry are now accepted in many places all over the world. Everywhere people say, “The teachings from the Top of the World are not so strange after all.” Why? Because they bring life. Because they bring life to you and make you consciously aware of who you are.

It is often so difficult to know yourself because the complexities within you are so powerful. It’s easier to get to know others than to know yourself. You have been trained to love others but not yourself. The shaman’s work is to make sure that you realize how beautiful you – and everything within you – is.

When we learn to pray – when we walk tall and powerful and in beauty on Mother Earth – only then will we feel the powerful beauty of this world. With our prayer, our ceremony, we open ourselves, and everything becomes beautiful, light, and free. Ceremony is from the heart and has deep meaning. When we look at our life in terms of ceremony and celebrate that, we take steps toward realizing a new reality within and our life becomes a living ceremony.

We now know with certainty that what we have been doing is not working. Look at what is happening in the world. The economy is faltering. The financial system is collapsing. We are taking so much from the land; we have changed the balance of the Earth. We have had wars upon wars upon wars to create peace. Peace has never come through war. Our policies don’t bring peace. Our laws don’t create peace. Our educational systems have not brought peace. Our technological advancements haven’t prevented war. Nothing has worked.

That means that we, the people, we need to change. There is only one earth. Mankind, all 7 billion of us, when we understand that we are all citizens of this earth then we will work together and support each other.

When I look at my traditions from the Far North and how they have survived for thousands of years under the harshest of conditions, I realize that they can be a gift to this world. Our gift to the world is the lifting of the spirit of people so they can realize their incredible beauty, the beauty of a smile or the beauty of boundless laughter.

Our mother, Aanaa Aanaqqii, said, “Only by Melting the Ice in Heart of Man will man have a chance to change and begin using his knowledge wisely.” It is crucial now to melt the ice in our hearts.
 

Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq is an elder, healer and shaman. His name means "The Man Who Looks Like His Uncle." Angaangaq was raised in a remote village in Greenland. In 2004, after years of being the runner for his elders, bringing the message of the melting of the ice to the world, he accepted the immense responsibility of being a shaman. His work, "Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man," has taken him to five continents and over 66 countries around the world. His teachings are from the Eskimo-Kalaallit people. They summon us to bridge the distance from our minds to our hearts through strength, gentleness, compassion and love, bringing about personal transformation and global healing for the times to come. Angaangaq was called by his people to bring home the Sacred Fire to Greenland. In July 2009, elders and spiritual leaders from Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Siberia, the Amazonia, Bolivia, Peru, Nepal, Japan, Africa, North America and Europe made their way to an ancient sacred site on the "Top of the World," fulfilling a prophecy so old that no one knows the time. The melting ice cap is dramatic evidence of our accelerating global climate change. Our world is changing and those changes will alter our way of life. The time has come to restore the balance that’s been missing on the Earth. We cannot wait.

To learn more about Angaangaq, go to: http://www.icewisdom.com