What is Shamanism?



I was recently referred to a lovely woman, Cassandra Hawkins who practices acupuncture and Shamic Healing. She lives only a few minutes from my home (very handy) and when I first met her, I had no idea what Shamanism was all about as I had complete trust in my bio energy healer who had said to me, “Lana you really need to do this...and the sooner the better”.

Our first session was quite amazing, after our initial chat to examine my health issues, Cassandra invited her ‘guides’ to help in the quest to retrieve missing pieces of my soul. As Indian drumming music played softly in the background, Cassandra went into a trance for about 45 minutes in the hunt to heal my soul.

For those of you who also never heard of shamanism, I’ll share with you the fascinating background.

The word shaman (pronounced shah-man) comes from the language of the Tungus reindeer herders of the Lake Baikal region of Russia. It is derived from the Tunguso-Manchurian word saman, formed from the verb sa, meaning ‘to know’, and quite literally means ‘the one who knows’. It is also commonly translated as ‘one who sees in the dark’. A shaman can be either male or female.

The word shaman was chosen and used by anthropologists to give a precise technical definition to describe those individuals in native societies who perform specific functions within their communities. Shamanism is classified by anthropologists as an archaic magico-religious phenomenon in which the shaman is the great master of ecstasy. Meaning, a man or woman who ‘journey’s’ in an altered state of consciousness. The journey is a term referred to as a ‘soul flight’, when the soul is said to leave the body and travel beyond both time and place. Basically, what differentiates the shaman from a medium is that the shaman journeys to the spirits and remains aware of what is happening at all times, where a medium invites the spirits into their body and generally once coming out of the altered state has unsubstantial memory of the events which have taken place during the possession. Throughout history shamanism has been practiced in parts of Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, Greenland, and both North and South America, making it the earliest spiritual practice known to humankind.



There are many types of shamanism and many ways in which individuals traditionally become a shaman. In some Native American tribes the initiate is purposefully ‘killed’ and must make the decision to heal and return, receiving the power by way of the guides and spirits. In the Australian Aboriginal tradition the shaman is one who has received the shamanic calling, usually in a dream. In other native traditions the individual is chosen and taken aside for training as a child due to recognized attributes. Michael Harner, in the article ‘Shamans and Neo-Shamans’, explains that shamans in Siberia may inherit the power and knowledge through the family. In other areas of Siberia, a person may be expected to die due to a serious illness, but then have a miraculous recovery. This recovery is then recognized by people of the tribe as being a sign that healing power has come to this person and that this could possibly be used to heal others of the same illness. Amongst the Shuar (Jivaro) people in eastern Ecuador, shamans may buy their power from other shamans. While in the Conibo tribe of eastern Peru the shaman may learn from a large tree.

Shamanism is not usually viewed as a revealed religion but rather a spiritual tradition based on a connection and communication with the spirits and with nature, nature being perceived as an uncontrived display of the ‘Great Sprit’ and therefore truth. For the most part, Shaman do not follow a guru type figure for years on end serving a type of apprenticeship. Rather, once the shaman has learned the methods for contacting the spirits and has initiated that contact, it is the spirits that become his or her greatest teachers.



In Nevill Drury’s book, ‘The Elements of Shamanism’, he writes, "Shamanism is a visionary tradition, an ancient practice of utilizing altered states of consciousness to contact the gods and spirits of the natural world. ...It may be that the shaman is a healer, able to conquer the spirits of disease: a sorcerer, skilled in harnessing spirits as allies for magical purposes; or a type of psychic detective, able to recover lost possessions. At other times the shaman may seem to be somewhat priest like--an intermediary between the Gods of creation and the more familiar realm of everyday domestic affairs."

There are various methods in which a practioner of shamanism will achieve an altered state of consciousness. These range from mind altering plant substances, such as ayahuasca, peyote, or mushrooms, where the practioner surrenders to the spirit of the plant. It must also be remembered that these practices are done with complete respect for the plant and are not done in a recreational or abusive manner. To rhythmic sound, such as drums, rattles or chanting, which are used by shaman all over the world, or places such as here in Australia, where clapping / tapping sticks may be used, and in Southern Asia where they may use gongs or metal bangles or through movement, such as dancing, often until exhaustion.

In contemporary, modern, or neo forms of shamanism, the study and practice of this is not about becoming a shaman, in the tribal indigenous sense, but about connecting with the core elements that our ancient ancestors, all around the world, discovered could maximize human abilities of mind and spirit for healing and problem-solving.

See Soul Retrieval.