Grandpa Kewl

Book Review – The Shaman’s Coat – Anna Reid

I bought this book, along with several others on 9/6/07:

Lost Civilizations
Engineering the Pyramids
Keys of Egypt

in a bookstore in Washington state as we were waiting for a ferry to Vancouver Island.

This was not as expected…there is no real old history here but quite valuable none the less.

This was a rather sad book. It tells the story of a woman’s travels into Siberia in search of information about the past. Along the way we learn a great deal about the disaster that is the remains of the Soviet Union and the impoverished lives led by the common folk. This helps one understand why so many in today’s Russia still yearn for the days of Communism. These folks were many of those who benefited from the distribution of wealth which disappeared when Communism fell. They have never recovered, probably never will and they lead lives that are quite miserable and without much hope for the future. You can really get a sense of why alcoholism is so rampant and why so few children are born.

At the same time, the remaining knowledge of the Shaman’s ways is pretty slim pickings. The stories are mostly of the barbaric behavior of the Communists who drove all aspects of Shamanism to near extinction. The example that rolls thru my mind often is the story of the Shaman who had flying dreams. The Communists took him up in a helicopter and threw him out saying – “now fly, if you can”. There are many other stories of the harsh treatment of the believers in the old religions.

These people are broken…..and will never recover in this lifetime…and their regions are broken as well.

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