Books about Shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism

by Nicholas Breeze Wood

The ancient Silk Road - which ran from China to Rome, with branches off to both the north and south - carried material goods, such as silks, spices, gem stones and much more. And it also carried ideas, cultural developments and sacred teachings.

Along it Greek art travelled to inspire Buddhist art in China and Tibet, and later Chinese art travelled back down again to inspire Islamic art in Persia. Buddhism, Islam and Nestorian Christianity travelled along it, all influencing and mixing with each other, as well as with the ancient shamanism and animistic Tengerism of Central Asia. As each tradition met and mingled they affected and changed the others they encountered.

And also along the road, people carried different divination methods. Some of these became popular, spreading from culture to culture, practiced on down the centuries until they passed to us today as living folk traditions. Others became codified as prescribed methods within sacred traditions such as Tibetan Buddhism, Islam and other faiths while some were forgotten, only remaining in ancient manuscripts and scrolls, preserved in the dry air of the desert lands through which the ancient Silk Road passed.

This book describes divination methods using special four-sided dice, and more ordinary six-sided dice, as well as sheep’s knucklebones, coins, prayer beads and stones.

All of them can be looked at as either a serious ancient sacred tradition, which can be brought into your practice, or as a bit of interesting ancient fun with which you can entertain yourself and your friends.

I suggest that you will get out of them as much focus and intent as you put into them, and if you intend to work with them in a sacred manner, working with preparation practices that go with them will help you in your divinations.

But whether you use them in a serious way, or just as entertainment, you will be following in the steps of the ancients - who no doubt worked with them in both ways too, just as people today most likely will; after all, people are still people.

Available from Amazon. The link is to Amazon.com

Published 2022

Visit Amazon to read a sample.