Guess Who

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Guess Who’s Going to be a Shaman

Debby Legner

You! Yes, you! No, you can’t see me, but listen up anyway. Settle down! You can’t run away and you aren’t dreaming. Crazy? Well, I’ll answer that later. My name’s Grizwald. I’m a ghost. Hey there! Take a deep breath, you’ll be fine in a minute. I’ve been waiting for you to get big enough to have some sense to go along with your gift so I could talk to you. What gift? The gift of speaking to spirits, boy. You’re going to be a shaman. I don’t care if you want to be an artist, you’re going to be a shaman too. Get used to it! We have a lot of work ahead of us. You need to learn more history, philosophy, and, oh yes, spells too. Yes, you do have to, and I’m going to teach you.

Before we start our first lesson, there are a few things you should know about your new calling. Now that your ears have been opened, so to speak, you’ll be hearing from a lot of different spirits. Each one has his or her own agenda. Most just want some attention, helps them keep in focus. Listen to their stories and be respectful, you might just learn something. Others will want you to do stuff for them. Something they left unfinished needs doing before they can pass into the void. Spirits are often a mite hazy on details so try to get specifics. It saves time. A third group just can’t seem to let go of their earthly ambitions and keep on trying to gather power as spirits. Watch out for this type, they can be very dangerous. The worst are the dead necros. They’ll try to use you to build a power base for them on the earthly plane. They crave power and will use any means and anyone to get it. Some go so far as to magically reanimate their corpses. Talk about disgusting. You’ll learn ways to defend yourself from this type and, later, ways to send them to the void where they belong. Until then, I’ll hang around and keep an eye out.

The first thing you need to learn, is how to see on the spirit plane. Look at the spot right in front of you. See the glow? Lower. Now see me? I’m waving at you. Yes, I am a dwarf. You have a problem with dwarves? I didn’t think so. Keep focusing on me as I fade back into the next plane. See how the light changes? Feel the energy shift? Good, you’re doing fine. Now look around. Oops! Don’t worry, it happens to a lot of first timers. You can clean it up later. This is the spirit plane, hazy and nothing you can really focus on. Those shadowy things are spirits passing by. Most travel straight to the void but some get distracted and lose their way. It’s very easy to get lost here. Some spirits wander for eons until they fade out. Some go nuts and get dangerous. It’s hard to tell which is which so pay attention when one talks to you. Always listen when a spirit talks but use your own sense as well. Death doesn’t automatically grant wisdom and knowledge…except maybe the knowledge that doing what just killed you was pretty stupid. A stubborn, ignorant living person will probably become a stubborn, ignorant ghost. Most don’t improve with dying. Also, be sure to anchor yourself well in the earthly plane before exploring here. You can get lost too. OK, tour’s over. Oops! Maybe next time you should sit down before you leave your body unattended. Bless you, that was a nasty sneeze. Dress warmer next time too. You go get cleaned up and I’ll be back in a while for lesson two. You’re gonna love this…