Black Sky, White Sky
By Ken Hyder
5/5
()
About this ebook
Chimit Ondar is a musician from the autonomous republic of Tuva, in southern Siberia, not far from the Mongolian border. A childhood friend, now a female shaman, Zoya Sedip has taken him on as an apprentice shaman. And he begins learning how to heal, how to access spiritual energy and how to direct it.
In Boston, USA, graphic artist Ray Farmer is restless. He realises he’s wasted a lot of his life dabbling in spiritual pursuits – without focus. He strikes up an Internet friendship with an ex-Speznaz paratrooper near Lake Baikal, Siberia and decides to visit him, and take time out to find himself. Finally.
He is introduced to another artist, Kolya Poliak, who takes him to Olkhon, the holy island in Lake Baikal, where he starts sketching and making connections with the spirit of the place.
But Kolya runs out of answers to Ray’s questions about spirit and art, and he suggests Ray travels to Tuva where he could ask the shamans to help him on his quest. The shamans have only recently been able to come out and practice in public after decades of being outlawed. Kolya suggests Chimit – a musician he’d met after a concert - can make the introductions, and Ray flies into the capital, Kyzyl.
Through Chimit, Ray is invited to attend a night-time ritual conducted by three shamans at a spring on the banks of the Yenesei river. Almost absent-mindedly, he begins drawing in his sketchbook. When the drumming is over, the senior shaman sees that Ray had been drawing a portrait of the subject of the ritual. And he announces that Ray should be his apprentice.
Ray begins his studies reluctantly, falls in love with Zoya, and gets into a rivalry with another shaman jealous of his attention and fast-track apprenticeship.
And suddenly Ray is plunged into a fast moving turmoil involving trust, belief, betrayal, fear and courage before he completes his task.
Ken Hyder
Ken Hyder is a London-based freelance Home Affairs correspondent specialising in policing, drugs, and race for a range of national daily and Sunday newspapers. He is also an cutting-edge musician who has made over 30 albums, starting with five albums fusing jazz with the music of his home country, Scotland, latterly collaborating with folk-based musicians from quite differing backgrounds - Tibetan and Japanese monks, Siberian shamans, South American and South African musicians. In 1990 - with another player - he did the biggest tour of Russia by any British musician up till then. They played throughout the country from Leningrad to Vladivostok. Later, Ken began studying shamanic music in Yakutia, Buryatia, the Altai and Tuva in Siberia. He performs and records with a shaman from Tuva, and that connection made it much easier for him to gain the confidence of local shamans who were very generous with the information they passed on. Lots more detail, with videos and tracks here - www.kenhyder.co.uk
Read more from Ken Hyder
How to Know: Spirit Music - Crazy Wisdom, Shamanism And Trips to The Black Sky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHack Attack Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Black Sky, White Sky
Related ebooks
The Arrow Keeper's Song Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Covenant of the Cauldron Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLedi Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Whispers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdylls of Womanhood: 'His kiss of betrothal yet burned on my tremulous lips'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLustra: "Poetry must be as well written as prose" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNightway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Those Gorgeous Ghosts: Prize-winning Stories with a Catholic Flavor. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Watchmaker's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Keelman's Fortnight (Volume One) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan Family's Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paradise, New York: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Sky Is Shooting Blue Arrows: Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMitochondrial Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Contact Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roselyn X Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Fifty-Five Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInversion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFootsteps in the Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Isaiah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThiana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAutumn's Ravage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rebels of Aeden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Retreatants Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRenegade Wind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Flood Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Flower Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPast the Sleeping Sons of God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorlds Begin: Heir to the Firstborn, #0.5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
General Fiction For You
The King James Version of the Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Terminal List: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Black Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cabin at the End of the World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Black Sky, White Sky
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great expository on the practices of Siberian shamanism. Very human and raw. Multiple parallels with practices of other traditions.