People are abundant with opinions about how to talk (or not talk) about shamanism; it's a real trainwreck of a word that reveals a lot about the gnarly history of colonialism and what's been lost from earth-honoring ways of life. It's a word that I personally try to avoid because it can be *so* divisive. By the time the English language started to congeal, Christianity had already done a number on European indigenous traditions and so, we've never really had good, home-grown words in English for what the words shaman and shamanism point to. With that preface, if used judiciously the terms can help open the door to actual communication and sharing, just keep in mind that the subject is a bit of a mine field.
For recommended reading on shamanism, if you are new to the subject Hillary Webb's Travelling Between the Worlds is my favorite intro text as it's a book full of interviews with different teachers and therefore useful in reducing the tendency toward dogma. If you have a scholarly or academic bent I love Graham Harvey's latest work Animism: Respecting the Living World. Also, David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous is juicy. The writings of both Martin Prechtel and Sarangerel Odigan are also fantastic. Martin's work is really fantastic and nourishing. Sarangerel's book are more practice oriented.
Here is the first paragraph of Harvey's book and why I think he gets it right. If you need to, replace the word "animist" with "shamanist" or "pagan" or "Indians and people who think like them" or whatever terminology makes you happy...it's not the key part of the message:
"Animists are people who recognize that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others. Animism is lived out in various ways that are all about learning to act respectfully (carefully and constructively) towards and among other persons. Persons are beings, rather than objects, who are animiated and social towards others (even if they are not always sociable). Animism may involve learning how to recognize who is a person and what is not - because it is not always obvious and not all animists agree that everything that exists is alive or personal. However, animism is more accurately understood as being concerned with learning how to be a good person in respectful relationships with other persons." (Harvey, 2006, p. xi)
At the heart of shamanism or animism or Indigenous Mind or paganism is an emphasis on relationship. Interconnectedness. Interrelatedness. Wisdom and learning how to be an effective, grown-up, team player involves learning how to relate well with many other types of beings, human and otherwise.
If we humans think we are the only real beings around, the results are going to be predictably miserable for everyone else and eventually for ourselves (for example, our current global extinction crisis and flirting with planet-wide ecological collapse). Annoying generalizations aside, Native American historian and author Vine Deloria Jr. spoke clearly to the underlying assumptions currently threatening the survival of our species and causing the extinction of many others:
"I think the primary difference between [the western and indigenous ways of life] is that Indians experience and relate to a living universe, whereas western people – especially scientists – reduce all things, living or not, to objects. The implications of this are immense. If you see the world around you as a collection of objects for you to manipulate and exploit, you will inevitably destroy the world while attempting to control it. Not only that, but by perceiving the world as lifeless you rob yourself of the richness, beauty, and wisdom to be found by participating in its larger design" (as cited in Jerome Bernstein, 2005, p. 35)
Insofar as I have anything useful to share or teach regarding shamanism or indigenous wisdom it all follows from this question of relationship and how to reclaim our capacity for intimate and reciprocal relationships with not just other living humans but the whole spectrum of beings, human and otherwise, with and without physical bodies. All ceremonies that I offer revolve around this core assumption of interrelatedness. Relationship is the medicine, it's where the learning is at, it's where the challenges are, and it's what shamanism is about for me. We do not exist apart from relationships. No other, no self.
So shamanism, when it's a spiritual path or calling, is about trying to live the wisdom of the shaman figure, to wake up our indigenous selves or souls so to speak, and learn how to relate well with many kinds of beings. That's why people seek out shaman types and bring them chickens and money and bones and bags of goodies and ask them to do ceremonies; because they are well connected and therefore can get results. They have friends in low places, high places, other dimensions, etc.
In truly relating with other beings, truly connecting, we also get to have a subjective experience of existing (which is fabulous, much better than a slow death by loneliness). Good for us, good for them. For more context on my approach to different aspects of earth spirituality and shamanism check out the FAQ section of this site.
