power objects -- modern methods

Back before the organized rituals of civilization, and then on back forever the earth seemed a different place. Big bright stars passed overhead at night, and it was difficult to tell what the day would bring, what with no nightly news to keep folks informed. Almost every community everywhere had an office for the most original person among them, the most extreme, the least likely to respect everyone else's rules and they were called ‘shaman.’ Theirs wasn’t a command responsibility, and though they might be called on to advise, no one expected them to lead. They had a different job.

They talked to spirits, tripped on local herbs, and spent a lot of time alone, an outsider yet with revered status almost everywhere humans went on the planet, skin color, skull structure, or dietary habits notwithstanding. Who were these spirits and what was the nature of these encounters the average tribal member was likely never to ask. They were too busy with the maize, wiping out the megafauna, propagating by local custom and didn’t care to know the details. 

Almost all shaman were familiar with ‘power objects,’ typical stock and trade for the profession, and had their own methods for producing them. Were they actually potent in themselves or did they simply produce powerful placebo effects for their subjects has been difficult to say, and we can guess the quality varied from crystalline embodiments of cosmic wisdom to little more than tourist trinkets, depending on the inherent talent and insight of the shaman, as well as the discernment of their public. 

We are ready to reveal the basic method used to create ‘power objects,’ although there are bound to be regional differences, subtle cultish overtones, and always room for individual variation, generation to generation, one shaman to the next. Incantation and pharmaceuticals aside, the idea is to concentrate human attention on an object, a pipe head, a pouch of feathers, and to hold it there long enough for some of the shaman’s essence to leak over. It was never supposed to be scientific. 

Does it work these days? Well, the notion of shaman has been pushed aside by technicians and TV and modern conveniences, but the profession hasn’t died away. It’s just retreated, rebranded, accepted a niche in the modern architecture of human institutions and now they call themselves ‘artists.’ In a general way their methods have remained as well, pouring all of their experience, skill, and thought into an object, a square of canvas, a metal sculpture, a hand-made pot. Whether or not these objects are actually potent in themselves turns out to be ‘in the eyes of the beholder.’ Bought for visual appeal, they’ll become an asset to their owner as they are accorded due respect, for how and why they were made and for who made them.