Different Terms For Spiritual Energy and Power
The concept of spiritual energy is common across cultures. Here are some of the various names and descriptions of spiritual energy from different cultures.
As a nerdy shamanic teacher, I love research. One of the things that fascinates me is how different cultures, separated by time and geography, can represent similar spiritual ideas. For example, the practice of shamanism goes back tens of thousands of years and has been practiced by cultures worldwide.
Recently, I was asked about spiritual energy. It seems that many different cultures have very similar concepts regarding spiritual energy. So, I thought I would share just a few terms for spiritual energy from different cultures.
Different Terms For Spiritual Energy
Mana - In Polynesian culture, particularly among the Maori of New Zealand, "Mana" refers to a supernatural force in a person, place, or object. It's often seen as a spiritual energy or power.
Prana - In Sanskrit, originating from Hinduism and also used in Buddhism, "Prana" is the life force or vital energy that permeates reality on all levels, including inanimate objects.
Chi (or Qi) - In Chinese culture, "Chi" is the fundamental life force or energy that flows through all living things. It's central to traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts.
Ond - In Norse mythology and culture, "Ond" refers to a divine force or breath, believed to be the essence of life.
Ruach - In Hebrew, "Ruach" means "breath" or "spirit" and is often used in Jewish texts to describe the spirit of God, or a divine wind or breath.
Chakra - Originating from Sanskrit and found in Hinduism and Buddhism, "Chakra" refers to the various focal points in the subtle body used in a variety of ancient meditation practices, each thought to be a center of spiritual power or energy.
Kundalini - In Hinduism, "Kundalini" is a form of divine energy believed to be located at the base of the spine. It's often depicted as a coiled serpent and is associated with spiritual awakening.
Vitalism - In various Western philosophies, "Vitalism" refers to the belief in a life force outside the jurisdiction of physical and chemical laws.
Baraka - In Islamic and African cultures, "Baraka" is a concept of spiritual presence or charisma. It's often thought of as a blessing or divine grace.
Ki - In Japanese culture, "Ki" is conceptually similar to "Chi" in Chinese culture, referring to the universal energy or life force.
Lüng - In Tibetan Buddhism, "Lüng" refers to the concept of wind or breath and is associated with the flow of energy in the body.
Ankh - In ancient Egyptian culture, the "Ankh" symbol represents the key of life or the breath of life, often interpreted as a kind of spiritual energy.
Numen - In ancient Roman religion, "Numen" refers to a divine power or force, often associated with specific places, objects, or phenomena, considered as the manifestation of a deity's will.
Wakan Tanka - In Lakota Sioux Native American culture, "Wakan Tanka" is the term for the sacred or the divine. It is often translated as "The Great Mystery" and refers to the power or the sacredness that resides in everything.
Mana’o - In Hawaiian culture, "Mana’o" refers to thought or belief, often seen as a form of mental or spiritual energy that can influence the physical world.
Sekhem - In ancient Egyptian culture, "Sekhem" is a type of spiritual energy or power, sometimes linked to the form of the lioness goddess Sekhmet, representing the destructive and regenerative powers of the sun.
Prakṛti - In Hinduism and Indian philosophy, "Prakṛti" refers to the basic nature or material substance of everything in the universe, including the spiritual energy.
Aether - In ancient Greek philosophy and science, "Aether" is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere, often associated with the divine or the heavenly.
Ashe - In Yoruba culture, "Ashe" represents the spiritual and creative power. It is a concept that signifies the power to make things happen and produce change.
Orenda - In the spiritual beliefs of the Iroquois and Huron peoples of North America, "Orenda" is the inherent spiritual energy in people and their environment, believed to be a powerful force that can be harnessed.
Pneuma - In ancient Greek philosophy, "Pneuma" means "breath," and is seen as a sort of vital spirit, soul, or creative force of a person.
Tao - In Taoism, a Chinese philosophical tradition, "Tao" refers to the fundamental nature of the universe, the source and guiding principle of everything in existence. It's often seen as the flow of the universe, or a force that flows through all life.
Awen - In Welsh and Cornish spiritual tradition, "Awen" is a concept similar to inspiration, referring to the divine inspiration or the flowing spirit.
Sila - In Inuit spirituality, "Sila" is a term that describes the primary component of the universe, often equated with weather, the atmosphere, or the breath of life.
Logos - In ancient Greek philosophy and early Christian theology, "Logos" is a term meaning "word," "speech," "account," or "reason," and is used to describe the principle of order and knowledge, often considered a universal, divine force.
Elán Vital - A concept introduced by French philosopher Henri Bergson, referring to a hypothetical life force that drives the evolutionary process in a creative direction.
Vril - A term from the 19th-century novel "The Coming Race" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and later adopted by some occultists, referring to a powerful, unknown energy or life force.
Aether - In various mythological, religious, and philosophical traditions, "Aether" is often seen as a physical substance or energy that fills the universe. In some Greek mythology, it is the pure, fresh air that the gods breathe, as opposed to the regular, polluted air breathed by mortals.
Great Spirit - In several Native American religions, "Great Spirit" is a concept of a life force or supreme being, characterized as a powerful, creative, and caring force.
Qi (Jing-Qi-Shen) - In traditional Chinese culture, "Qi" is often thought of as a vital force forming part of any living entity. "Jing-Qi-Shen" is a compound term denoting "essence-vitality-spirit" – a key concept in Chinese medicine and martial arts.
Ether - In various esoteric traditions, "Ether" is considered the fifth element (quintessence) in addition to air, fire, water, and earth. It is sometimes equated with the concept of the spirit.
Megen – In Norse magic and spirituality, Megin is spiritual power or strength.
These represent just some terms I’ve collected over the years.
Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine
Gender is in everything; Everything has its masculine and feminine principles; Gender manifests on all planes.
-Hermes Trismegistus, The Emerald Tablet
Underneath all that we think we are, is a pure spark of divinity connected to absolutely everything. There is no separation, and all is one. That inner spark is unborn, deathless, cannot suffer injury, or be affected by your life events. Good news - what you are is already whole, complete, and perfect.
That divinity, in order to experience itself, creates an illusion of separation. Matter appears to be separate from spirit. We appear to be separate from each other. Cats chase mice, Red Sox fans hate The Yankees, etc., etc, etc.
Divinity, in order to create, expresses itself through two impulses - the divine masculine, and the divine feminine. Just like with sexual reproduction, these two impulses combine to create the universe and express themselves through it and through every living being.
I want to call out an important point here - that the gender referred to here is not necessarily a political or biological construct - though those reflect the principle. Gender identity is another concept II won’t address here other than to say that every being has both masculine and feminine divine impulses - regardless of gender identity.
Politically, here in the West, we have been living in a patriarchal hierarchy for several thousand years. This extends to religion, politics, and culture. This out-of-balance expression of the masculine is like a giant pyramid scheme. There are always very few people at the top enriching themselves at the expense of those below. There’s always a king, or a guru, or a priest putting themselves between you and divinity.
Patriarchy is not really an expression of the divine masculine, but a perversion of it. It is entirely out of balance.
Divine Masculine
The divine masculine impulse, which Ken Wilber refers to as eros, is the impulse of the individual to grow. Spiritually this is the impulse to practice, to seek knowledge, to supersede where we are at the moment.
While this impulse is individualistic, it wants to lift the individual rather than making the individual seem greater by oppressing the masses. Think of the Buddha who sat under the Bodi tree in meditation until he reached enlightenment.
Shadow Aspect of the Divine Masculine
The out-of-balance, corrupted, or shadow-side of the divine masculine is the power hungry, abusive, or violent. Think of this as the cult leader who abuses their followers, or the inflated ego of those who declare themselves “ascended”. This is not the divine impulse, but a corrupted version of it. It seems power over others at all costs.
Divine Feminine
The divine feminine, which Ken Wilber refers to as agape, is the impulse to gather, nurture, to tend to. On a spiritual level, we find words like Earth-based, community, motherhood. The divine feminine concerns itself with the whole, bringing the many along and nurturing them.
This impulse is egalitarian, it wants to see each individual cared for, but not at the expense of the whole. Think of a human body. If one critical organ fails, it can cause death or, at least, the failure of other organs.
Shadow Aspect of the Divine Feminine
When the shadow aspect of the feminine is at work, there is stagnation. It brings individuals down to the same level as the whole rather than bringing the whole up. “Rocking the boat” is seen as a threat. It shuns new ideas and outsiders.
Balancing Masculine and Feminine
In alchemy, there is a stage in the great work (magnum opus) referred to as the Rebis. This is the unification of spirit and matter into a divine hermaphrodite. This symbolic language is not describing a single person with two sexes but is describing the combination of opposites into a nonduality.
Recognizing nonduality as a worthy spiritual aim, how do we accomplish this realization? One way is by emulating the impulses of both divine masculine and feminine.
Embrace the impulse to develop; this is the masculine impulse. It is important to do your work, whether that’s meditation, study, ritual, shadow work. As an individual, you work to grow spiritually. You look at yourself with brutal honesty and evolve from a place of love - not to be better than anyone else, or to wield power over, but simply to experience more of your own spiritual nature.
Embrace also, the impulse to take care, nurture, gather, and commune. You look to raise everyone up rather than drag everyone down. As you evolve and do your work, you do it for the betterment of the world. You recognize the underlying unity of everything. There truly is no separation.
When “Thrice Great” Hermes said that gender is in everything and on all planes, he meant we express it on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. The underlying unity of everything means that our divinity can express through both polarities. On a spiritual level, you are neither masculine nor feminine, but both at once and always. You are both a god and a goddess.
Every man and every woman is a star.
- Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law
How to Make Holy Water The Shamanic Way
Shamans use a lot of spiritual tools; Our shaman ancestors had to make their own tools. Obviously, they couldn’t order a Remo frame drum from Amazon or buy a totem of their power animal from Etsy. Beyond the practicality of living in a pre-industrial world, there is a spiritual reason for making your own tools.
Anything you make yourself, especially with helping spirits, will be imbued with your own energy and intention. When you were in school, you may have magnetized a piece of metal like a needle by drawing a magnet along it. When you create and use objects in a sacred way, they become attuned. They pick up blessings. Those objects lead their power back when we use them later.
In my own work, I have made a drum in a drum birthing ceremony. I have made masks, bags, altar cloths, totems, Florida water, etc.
To follow this process, you will need to know how to journey, and you should have at least one relationship with a helping spirit.
Why make your own holy water?
Consecrated water, which I’ll use from here on out when referring to what I am doing, is a useful tool. You can think of it as a spiritual wash - used to clear away and dissipate unwanted spiritual energy.
In the movies, holy water is used to chase away vampires and demons. There’s something to this. Consecrated water disburses energy and can send unwelcome beings packing.
Some other uses include:
Purifying and consecrating other spiritual tools
Cleansing sacred space - such as an altar or meditation room
Cleansing oneself and others - like smudging but with water
Use in healing rituals.
Use in ritual baths
Use in spiritual self-defense
And I’m sure there are as many uses as you can think of. Any time you want a little cleansing or feel some unwanted energy, this is a real go-to tool.
The Principles of Consecrated Water
There are two principles at play when you make or use consecrated water:
1 Physical
The physical properties of water and salt - the things you physically make consecrated water with - reflect on a spiritual, metaphorical, and spiritual level.
Water in itself is the universal cleansing substance. It’s used in rituals in many different ways all over the world.
The crystalline nature of salt makes it a great absorber and transformer of energy - electric, etheric, astral.
Combined, these two substances can cleanse, transform, scatter, and disrupt spiritual energy. Note: I would not use consecrated water on items that had a charge you want to maintain.
2. Spiritual
When you consecrate water, you will use intent, focused will, and spiritual power from helping spirits to imbue the water with power. You essentially are changing the water's spiritual structure that lies on the etheric and astral levels of existence.
Intent is the key. Almost everything else is flexible, but a focused intent will make it work.
The Process
When I decided I wanted to consecrate my own water, I did what good shamanic practitioners do; I went to my helping spirits. They gave me this ritual to use. You should feel free to adjust it or receive different instructions from your helping spirits.
What you’ll need
Some water (I use filtered)
Salt (I use sea salt)
A surface you can use as an altar.
A candle on the altar
A drum and rattle
The steps
Set up your altar with a small amount of salt, water in a glass or a bowl, a lit candle, and perhaps totems representing your power animals or images of other helping spirits.
Use a rattle to open the directions. If you have training in shamanic journeying, this should be something you know how to do.
Use your drum to journey to your helping spirits with the intent to merge with one or more of them to consecrate the water. Merge, then open your eyes while still merged.
Hold the palm of your hand over your salt and imagine the energy and intent of purification flowing into it.. You may choose to say a blessing, tone, or stay silent.
Hold the palm of your hand over the water, likewise imagine and intend that purifying energy flow into it. Say a blessing if you choose to.
Pour the salt into the water, hold your hand over the now combined water and once again bless and imagine the purification energy flowing into the now consecrated water.
Thank your helping spirits, ask them to unmerge, then snuff the candle.
If you’re not using it right away, you may want to keep the water in a special container on your altar or elsewhere. You can carry a small vial with you for use throughout the day.
How Does a Shaman See People?
Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes.
-Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
When a shaman looks at a person in nonordinary reality, or during a journey, they see much more than a physical body. For that matter, all sentient beings appear as wildly complex energetic constructs. Further, many beings who do not seem conscious to physical eyes are sentient when viewed through a shamanic lens.
I will start by saying that the following description is merely a model. Mere words cannot describe the totality of even a single being. I will also use words in ways that others may not - and that’s OK too. If I say the word “blue,” I might be thinking of sky blue, and you might be thinking of a dark blue. It’s just a difference, and neither is “wrong.”
Shamanism is animistic and sees spirit everywhere. The natural world is full of conscious spirits - of trees, wind, animals, the Earth itself.
I like to use the analogy of an onion. Sentient beings, such as humans, have layer upon layer of “stuff.”
Most spiritual systems recognize that the physical body is the surface “layer” and acknowledge at least one other part of the person. We might call that spirit or soul. There are words in every language for this part of a being.
To create a model with huge pieces that can be easily understood, I’ll talk about at least three parts or layers of a person. Each one of those layers is infinitely complex.
Take the physical body. The human body has approximately 30 trillion cells. Medicine recognizes dozens of individual organs. The chemistry of the body is incredibly complex and not fully understood. And there are differences between each particular body.
You can see that the concept of the body is a massive oversimplification of an uncountable number of things working in concert. But us useful to be able to refer to the physical body as a shortcut.
I will refer to the three simplified parts of a person as bodies.
Physical Body
We’ve already discussed the physical body. This is the part of the person that has mass and exists in ordinary reality. Most people strongly identify with their physical bodies, even though it is one small part of them. It’s a little like saying, “I am my toenail.”
Astral Body
The next, more subtle body is the astral body. This is what many shamans refer to as the soul. Some would call it your spirit or your ghost. The astral body is an energetic part of you - you may have heard of astral travel. This part of you can be split into pieces, and parts can travel in nonordinary reality—this is what shamans do when they journey.
The astral body is some blend of form and formlessness. It is much subtler than the physical body. Shapeshifting in the astral body is quite natural. In trance states, shamans may perceive spirits as having specific forms, even if they are physically disembodied. This is the way spirit can communicate with the minds of humans in ways we can understand.
Essences or parts of the soul can also become lost during trauma. A soul retrieval ceremony is shamanic healing intended to heal this type of spiritual injury.
While you are physically alive, your soul is somewhat attached to your body. This connection is severed when you die physically. If you were to lose ALL of your soul, your body would not survive. I will talk more about this in a bit when I discuss how the bodies interact.
Causal Body
The causal body is entirely subtle; it has no form. I refer to this layer as the spirit. It is unchanging, whole, complete, and incorruptible. It cannot be injured or harmed.
The causal body is your spark of divinity. If you think of the creator (God or whatever name you have) as an ocean, this is like a drop in that ocean. Inseparable from divinity, yet still an individual.
At this level, time and space break down, so no form can exist. There are shamanic practices to access this level of Self (capital S here). It can be experienced as a center point of pure light that radiates infinitely in all directions. Even that is a mental construct to help our physical minds.
You can also think of the causal body as a field of pure consciousness in which everything you experience arises. It is the container for your consciousness and your cradle of creation.
How does this relate to shamanic healing
Shamans work primarily at the astral or soul level. You might see a doctor to work on a strictly physical issue, and a shamanic practitioner to help with the spiritual aspects of an issue that is reflected physically.
The astral body and physical body are close together; they are overlapping layers. Issues in one can affect another. For example, long-term physical illness may result in soul loss. Likewise, soul loss may result in physical problems.
There is a practice called transfiguration, where a healer journeys to identify with their pure soul essence, and this can provide needed healing energy to the spirits of others.
Since the causal body cannot be injured, there is no need and no technique for healing this aspect of another person or being.
Again, I would remind you that these descriptions are just pointers, like a map of a large territory. They aren’t meant to be exhaustive, and no map is 100% accurate.
Is Shamanism a Religion?
How yould you characterize shamanism as a spiritual path?
Shamanism is a set of universal spiritual techniques overlaying a belief system. But in any modern sense of the word "religion" it is not a religion.
The ways shamanism is different from religion
Shamanism has no organization other than loosely organized learning circles and organizations dedicated to research. There is no head shaman. There is no book or doctrine. Shamanism is primarily dogma-free.
There is no organized shamanic religion. There's no tithing, no churches, no hellfire.
There are no requirements to practice shamanism or to employ the services of a shamanic practitioner. One can be a Buddhist, or Christian, or nonaffiliated person and still practice.
How are they similar?
In religion and shamanism, there is usually a spiritual intermediary. The shaman, in this case, is the initiated expert who helps one to access spirit. This isn't to say that anyone can't access spirit, but people would usually contact a shamanic practitioner because of spiritual illness or disconnection. The practitioner might help to restore that connection, instead of reinforcing the dependency.
Shamanism includes ceremony and ritual. Ceremony and ritual are important because they address the person at the level of body, mind, and spirit. Shamanic ceremony tends to look different than traditional Western religion, in that it involves the practitioner accessing altered states of consciousness, and traveling via intention and imagination, to other spiritual realms.
What's the difference between spirit and soul
You are a spirit, you have a soul. Why is that important
It may be useful to think of human beings like onions, with many layers. We each have a mind, a body, a spirit, and a soul. Our bodies are made of many interconnected parts, as is our mind and soul. Each of these systems also overlaps. You cannot separate mind from body or spirit without disintegration.
One of the areas that confused me, as a fledgling spiritual practitioner, was the difference between spirit and soul. Many practices and beliefs seem to use these terms interchangeably. They are both non-physical components of us and our world.
I'd like to break it down a little, for the spiritually confused. Here's the take on soul and spirit from the shamanic perspective:
What is spirit?
In the view of the shaman, everything is spirit. You might say, everything has a spirit. You can think of spirit as the nonphysical essence of everything. Every object, every animal, every person has a nonphysical counterpart in spirit.
Further, the wind has spirit. The planet has spirit. There is the spirit of fire.
Spirit is formless, but during a shamanic journey, spirit often appears as something. A power animal, for instance, is the spirit of a deceased animal.
Your spirit is luminous to those who can "see in the dark" and unchanging. Your spirit is not affected by lifetimes here on Earth. It is that piece of divinity that is represented in "ordinary reality" by your body. Yes, everyone and everything is divine - even that guy that cut you off in traffic.
So, what is soul?
Your soul is that nonphysical part of you that animates the body and carries the lessons you learned from lifetime to lifetime.
Your soul can be affected by the things you do, see, feel, and think. Pieces of your soul can get lost during trauma. You can unwittingly lend away pieces of your soul. Soul loss is one of the major causes of physical and mental illness.
Soul retrieval is a healing ritual in which a practitioner brings back lost soul essence with the aid of helping spirits. It's a gentle but powerful practice which can lead to profound healing.