Blue Fox Shaman

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LATEST STORIES

• The Satanic Versus [sic]
• Fox’s Book of the Dead
• Summer Vacation
• Something’s Fishy
• The Flying Sorceress

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Fox’s interview with “Hell University Review”

HUR: We wanted to bring our readers in Hell up to date with recent events in the Middle Realm. Humans have done some wacky things in the past, but this time, it looks like they’ve cooked up their own Apocalypse. And into this background steps one of ours and stirs things up even a bit more. Here with me today is an Alumna of the University, a Kitsune who goes by the name of Fox. She made waves in some circles when she first decided to cross a Cultural barrier and possess a Westerner. And to add to her outrages, rather than ruining him she taught him Self-Realization. Fox, thank you for joining us today.

Fox: I’m very glad to be here!

HUR: The first thing I wanted to ask you is how is it working in full view of, and together with, Humans?

Fox: It is complex, and frankly baffling at times. As most of your readers will know, the primary Cultures in the West are Umbrella Cultures containing many, diverse sub-cultures, with various “tugs-of-war” going on between these sub-cultures. Right now, some of the more primitive religious sub-cultures, who I’ll call “Fundamentalists” are in backlash against the more culturally adapted, “Modern” sub-cultures. These Fundamentalists have been co-opted by the oligarchs who are attempting to hold on to power despite that looming Apocalypse you mentioned. Those humans who are Modern are, almost entirely, separated into two camps. I’ll call one the “Spiritual” camp–those who attempt to either extend or adapt older, primitive religions and cultures for modern times, and the “Scientific” camp who have taken the Scientific Method as their basis for interpreting the World. The motivations and goals of the Spiritual ones are not really different from the Scientific one, except the Spiritual ones do emphasize increasing cooperation and community within their sub-cultures. To put it another way, the Scientific sub-culture sees the World primarily in terms of competition and conflict.

HUR: Where do the “Fundamentalists” stand on that spectrum between cooperation and competition?

Fox: Ironically, they are on the extreme side of competition, conflict, and exclusion. That will surprise those of your readers who know the teachings of their original founders, their scriptures. We attribute that to the influence of the oligarchs who have co-opted them. But none of this is new. In the case of Christianity, we have the same thing in the Late Roman Empire, continuing through the Middle Ages.

HUR: Where do you think the Scientific sub-culture got its emphasis on competition and conflict?

Fox: It’s a remnant of the historical and cultural period in which the Scientific Method developed–Reformation Christianity, which itself was co-opted by European Princes and Mercantile oligarchs. The Scientific sub-culture likes to think that they are nothing like the Fundamentalists out of which they sprang, but in this regard, in their view of Human Society, they are obviously born of the same stock. The Scientific sub-culture could, from their own first principles, easily derive an Ethics which includes community and cooperation, but they have so far refused to do so. This is the most shameful fact about the Scientific sub-culture. As a Spirit Guide to a Shaman in that culture, I acknowledge that our presence is unasked for and probably unwelcome. However, I feel that we are obligated to call out this glaring fault, since we can now readily foresee its consequences.

HUR: Indeed, you’ve been quoted as saying that “the cancer afflicting Human Culture is greed”. Can you elaborate on that?

Fox: Self-interest is, of course, the Prime Directive. By invoking Greed, we specifically address organisms who live in Community and are capable of Planning and Learning. These Evolutionary advantages grant much power to an individual in a Community, and require proper handling in order not to destroy the individual, the Community, or the ecosystems in which they are embedded. It’s the old Miracle Worker’s Dilemma–if you can make it rain, you become responsible for any droughts or floods. It is patently obvious that individuals who live in a Community bear responsibility for maintaining that Community; those who have technological power bear responsibility for the health of the physical environment in which they are embedded; and a culture bears responsibility, not only to perpetuate itself, but to refine itself in regard to community and inclusion, in order to adapt to new circumstances. Currently, Humans are failing in all of these responsibilities. Nonetheless, they have been increasing their numbers and their technological prowess at an alarming rate. When this happens in a biological system, the result is cancer.

HUR: And, having stepped into this milieu, do you think you’ll be able to make a difference?

Fox: To be honest, what we’re trying to do is subversive in the extreme. We’re trying to unite Ancient and Modern viewpoints by subsuming them both into the meta-cultural viewpoint of Postmodernism. Humans think of Postmodernism chiefly in terms of a critique of Modernism, but it’s actually an Epistemological re-evaluation. We think it gives us the necessary language to re-evaluate the Ancient viewpoints as well, and to find the points at which Ancient and Modern correspond. Except, we have to use metaphor and story to do this properly–things which are generally undervalued in the Scientific sub-culture, yet some change appears to be afoot.

HUR: Considering that you’ve run up a significant amount of Karma in achieving your current position, do you think it was worth it?

Fox: Oh, yes. You see, there is a bit of a secret which I will let your readers in on–Karma changes its context and significance when you cross the Chasm. My Shaman, Bärchen, likes to quote an old Protestant Hymn that goes “it is joy unspeakable and full of glory; O the half has never yet been told!” The work we do together is of a different character than it would have been had we not come this far. It also affects our overall viewpoint in profound ways–once you see how reality really is, you can’t unsee it.

HUR: So, then, as you see it, we can anticipate even more activity here in Hell in the near future?

Fox: I think so, given your main function of re-cycling. But, as any one of your readers who has ever visited the Middle Realm can attest, there is much beauty there, which makes this prediction so poignant. There is the possibility that a remnant of Humanity will survive, but only those of whom their Young Rabbi said, “The meek will inherit the Earth”.

HUR: Thank you for speaking with us today. I’m sure our readers appreciate hearing from someone so close to the situation. And I enjoyed meeting you.

Fox: Again, it was my pleasure to be here and to meet you as well. Thank you for the opportunity.

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Bärchen Answers the Call of the Spirits

[phone rings]
Hello?
Yes; is this yourself?
Well, yes, I …
Please stand by for a collect call from the Spirits.
[clicks]
Hello, hey, this will only take a moment of your time. The Spirits have chosen you to be a Shaman for our Modern/Western Rationalist culture. All you have to do to accept this gift…
A what?!
A Shaman. Further instructions will be given once you accept this prize. Can I sign you up?
Well, I’ve always wanted to see Non-Ordinary Reality, but…
Great! I’ll put you down for a double-whammy, er, helping. Ciao!
Wait!
[more clicks, then after a moment]
You got a pen handy?
Give me a sec…
Okay, cross the River…
Which river?
(Boy don’t they get them green these days!) That would be the River Styx, sir. Can I continue?
Yes.
Turn right at the cypresses, pass by the signs that say “Warning, Danger of Amnesia”, take a left at the fork. Ask for Persephone. Bring your Life. It’s gonna cost you that and then some.
Okay. What!? My Life?…
[click!]
[some time later, I am looking between a piece of paper and a dark tower]
Can I help you?
Yes… OH! You’re a monster!
Why thank you! Can I help you out, or would you rather that I eat you?
Uh, you can help me out. Do you know where Persephone lives?
Oh! You must be her lunch date.
I guess so, I…
Come right this way.

And the rest, as they say, is History!
Yeah, well, I’m a Shaman now. And although it didn’t happen exactly that way, you get the idea.

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ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν: πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω, πολλὰ δ᾽ ὅ γ᾽ ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν, ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων.  The Odyssey 1.1-5