NATURAL RITUALS
My interest in the ethnography of Central and South Siberia led me in the past years to the observation of traditional local ritual which is shamanism. The deep internal experience which I gained directed me to the desire to try to introduce something similar to the Czech land.

When I was observing the processes of national renaissance in Evenk National Okrug and in Republic Tuva, which happened after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, I was in touch with several shamans and I had the opportunity to take part in various rituals. In the beginning I followed the rituals from a distance, but the commonly shared athmosphere of life changes such as the loss of your dear ones or serious illness helped me to understand the real significance of rituals for community.

During rituals held in nature in various traditional energy fields people can get connected with nature and they experience their own existence. The fire is the center around which the ritual takes place. People either stand or sit around the fire in a circle because everybody is equal in the circle. The circle symbolises the time cycle in nature (starting with birth, continuing with growth, maturing, harvest to dying away and death). The important moment of every ritual is a purification both in seasonal rituals and healing. Shamanists believe that the essence of each illness is the state of the “soul“ or even the loss of the soul or its part. During the healing shaman clears the “soul“ (as well as the body because the body is regarded as one of the “souls“, energetic substances which create a human being) from negative sediments and “remedies“ the soul. At first shaman has to cure his or her patient on spiritual level. This process of spiritual healing influences the body and the body starts to get better. When a human dies, all components of the body and the soul return to their Origin. One of these components – Eternal Life – is born again. Just like nature wakes up in spring, the soul is reborn in a human body.

The rituals are not only cleansing processes and realisation that we are a part of Nature and Universe. They remind us of eternal process of being born, dying and resurrection. They remind us that the Spiritual Order controls the life on Earth.