Shamanism bears some of the oldest spiritual history we know. It is not a religion, but a spiritual practice which allows people to directly experience various depths of the reality we live in. In fact, all religions have begun on a shamanic foundation regardless of whether they acknowledge this.
The predominant image that most modern folks have of shamanism is of scruffy, “primitive’ people who use everything from chicken bones to cornmeal to concoct a stew from the ingredients of cultural superstition. However, most shamanic cultures (even despite being separated in their evolution by tens of thousands of years) have developed bodies of similar understandings of how Spirit works, that is, of the Other World. And because they pinned their survival to these Non-Ordinary methods of knowing–to find reindeer herds, to initiate their children into responsible (and non-culture destroying) adults, to defend against coming dangers, to predict natural disasters, and to heal physical and mental illness–these understandings needed to be accurate and effective for the culture to survive.
In a reality where life was more precarious, our ancestors had no room for empty superstitions. However, they did have modes of living which allowed them to remain mindful of the Other World and the sacredness of life.
These are not superstitions, but a commonality of humanness–of those ineffable but palpable forces that we call love, hate, loss, ecstasy, humiliation, ennervation, and empowerment. It is this knowledge of ourselves and our world that we have forgotten in our search to refine our material dexterities. Such human savvy allows us to deliver the unique gifts and purposes we bring to the world in a way that truly benefits all Life…and avert forces which undermine the creative and fulfilling ways we actualize the Life within.
Without these understandings, everything from personal resolve to public policies have a hard time climbing the slippery slope of real change. But we cannot gain these understandings without real experience, and real experience doesn’t come when we are constantly avoiding life’s challenges. And we’ll continue to avoid life’s challenges unless we have the tools to competently meet them. And for those who are ready, this is what shamanism delivers.
While the issues that shamanism addresses are age-old, how the practice looks in the modern world seems quite different from its tribal precursors. That is because the practice springs naturally from the culture that nurtures it. The practices of desert people will have different forms than those living in a jungle, for instance. Yet the basic principles are the same.
A shaman journeys into the Spirit World by moving into an altered state of consciousness. In some traditions, the shaman achieves this by ingesting drugs. But in most instances, it is through some sort of sonic driving (usually drums or rattles) which changes the frequencies in the shaman’s brain and allows him/her to attune to realities that are normally invisible to us. After receiving the necessary information or performing a needed action, the shaman returns and shares with the client, family or village the story of his or her journey. These actions can be accompanied with great fanfare (as in the prescribed elaborate ceremonies of Korean Mudang) or with great subtlety, as in a modern practitioner sitting beside a patient in an ICU with nothing more than some earbuds plugged into a drumming track.
Shamans in all traditions manifest their practice in accord with their respective cultures–understanding that Spirit’s gift is sometimes to dismember that which no longer serves. Traditional shamanic cultures had shared cosmologies which allowed them to have an agreed set of symbols to hold realms of understanding about the basic workings of our world and our natures. Ceremonial actions and regalia were heavy with these meanings which could be read by the members of that society.
In a modernistic world where meaning is often purposefully swept clean, there is no single agreed-upon understanding of Life–creating both a fecundity of possibility and a complexity of issues. It is in this new and challenging circumstance that modern practitioners work to fulfill their age-old roles, maintaining a bridge between the physical reality and the Spirit realities.