What’s in a name?

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For the last twelve or so years, my partner Sam and I have had two websites: ‘The Path of the Mystic’ is our American digital home, while ‘The Shamans Journey’ is our digital home in the Netherlands ~ although it started out as that part of our activities that hosted our products.

As time has moved on, different parts of our activities have moved to the foreground ~ even under different names. Yet, especially in the Netherlands, The Shamans Journey is still the ‘umbrella’ under which most of our activities find shelter.

And all this time, it has been regarded as exactly that.

But something seems to have shifted. Last weekend I was a vendor at the ‘Levenskunstbeurs’ in the small Dutch town of Driebergen ~ a big fair of which the name translates to the ‘The Art of Living Fair’. The name ‘The Shamans Journey’ was advertised; as it has been before with other fairs I have been to.
This time around, a lot of people came up to me asking about shamanism. What kind of shamanism we practice, what kind of shamanic journeys we take, and so on.

Now, shamanism is something that is very close to our hearts. For me, my greatest interest lies in how we can strengthen our bond with nature while living our day-to-day lives in our Western society ~ with all our obligations, not to mention living very close to our neighbors...

What was just as surprising to me, was that most people coming over to ask about shamanism, did not seem happy with this explanation. They apparently hoped to find a specific brand of classical shamanism, which although well known, has its roots in a different part of the world altogether...

It has made me wonder; what has given the name for our business which we have had for many years such a different ‘ring’ to it? Is it the energy of this point in time? Have we, unwittingly, changed our energies to such extend that it shows in the name? Are our current perspectives more suited to a more general public (even though they may not agree with our view on shamanism)? Or is it a message to us from the Universe, and if so, what does it tell us?

Another aspect to ponder is whether the same thing has happened to ‘The Path of the Mystic’...  And if so, how is it being viewed differently? What are the questions people may have about us and ‘The Path of the Mystic’ at this point in time?
Would it instigate similar questions on shamanic practices? Or would it spark questions on mysticism? And if the latter were the case, would it be about a specific mystical practice or belief?

Whichever way you look at it, it seems that the name and its energy have a lot more to them than meets the eye...
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