SHAMANISM OR ANIMISM?
There is a lot of debate, scholarly and otherwise, about what exactly shamanism is and what it’s not. What is usually agreed upon is that shamanism is a branch of animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More.
To understand what is shamanism, then, we first need to look at what animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More is.
WHAT IS ANIMISM?
Animism is our oldest spiritual practice. It is far older than the organised religions. It is the original spiritual practice that the overwhelming majority of our ancestors practised, for tens of thousands of years, in every part of the world where humans have settled.
EVERYTHING IS ALIVE AND CONSCIOUS
For animists, everything has a soulSoul is of the lower-world and the unique individual that Mother Earth wants us to be, the template for our life. Spirit is of the upper-world and a part of Father Sky. More – not just humans or even just other animals, but plants, and even the mountains, rivers and the wind too. This makes animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More an essentially nature-based spirituality.
Animists experience the world, and everything in it, as being alive, conscious and sacred (albeit conscious in a way that might be quite different to human consciousness). It is not a belief so much as an experience!
Animism is not a religion.
It has no priests, no hierarchies, no sacred texts, no dogma, no sects or factions, and no sacred buildings. Instead, it is based on direct and personal experience.
NO HUMAN SUPREMACY
In animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More, there is no spiritual hierarchy. Humans are not seen as “better” or more evolved than other beings. Instead, animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More is a spiritual “round table” where all beings are equal and treated with respect. The central concern of animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More is then how to live in a “right-relationship” and be of service, not just to our fellow humans, but to all our brothers and sisters, human and non-human alike.
A SPIRITUAL HOMECOMING
Given the number of different and diverse cultures in which animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More is found, there is a remarkable consistency in what animists experience and practice. This is because animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More is deeply embedded into the human psyche. This makes (re)learning it an easy and familiar experience for many people, a kind of spiritual homecoming.
Shamanism is practical application of these animist beliefs.
WHAT IS SHAMANISM?
An applied version of animism.
Shamanism is essentially a practical application of animist beliefs. It is a highly practical and accessible form of spirituality. You don’t have to believe anything or take anything on faith. Instead, it is a path of direct, personal experience.
It can be used in many ways, including healing (of self and for others) and for personal and spiritual development. Practising it brings a deep sense of wholeness and a sense of the interconnectedness of all life. It can instil (or, restore) in one a profound sense of connection with nature, something that has been lost to many of us in our modern-day, urbanised lifestyles
SHAMANIC JOURNEYING
As well as experiencing the world as alive and sacred, as other animists do, shamans are people who also have the ability to enter into a particular kind of trance state, leave their bodies, and travel the shamanic worlds. This is known as the “shamanic journey”.
In a journey, the shamanic practitioner can converse freely with non-human people, receive healing gifts and knowledge, and then bring this back to ordinary realityThis world. a.k.a. the Tonal, the Explicate Order, Surface Reality, Consensual Reality, etc.. In this way, as well as healing, a central role of the shaman is to act as an intermediary, and help us humans live in right-relationship with our other-than-human kin.
HOW OLD IS SHAMANISM?
Let’s do some shamanic math! If you accept the history of human evolution, modern humans (Homo sapiens) are around 200,000 years old as a species. Now, as a round figure, let’s say that in a hunter-gatherer society, you would have had children by the time you were aged twenty. That means you have around about 10,000 generations of human ancestors.
Now, taking another round figure, let us say that we stopped practising animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More and shamanism around 2,000 years ago. That means it is only the last 100 generations of your ancestors who were not shamanic!
If each generation is represented by 1 person, and we were to put them in a line 1 metre apart from one another, we would have a line of 10,000 people almost 10 kilometres long! In this line, only 100 metres would be ancestors that didn’t practice shamanism.
Put another way, that is a staggering 99% of your human ancestors were animists who lived and breathed shamanism.
THERAPEUTIC SHAMANISM
A BRANCH OF CORE SHAMANISM
Therapeutic Shamanism is a branch of Core Shamanism, the work of anthropologist and shamanic practitionerWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More Michael Harner.
As he studied shamanic cultures, Harner realised that underneath the cultural trappings of a particular tribe’s shamanic practice, there is a series of core beliefs and practices that are essentially common to all shamanic cultures. These form the basis of what Harner called “core shamanism”, and wrote about in his seminal book “The Way of the Shaman”.
As such, core shamanism (and therapeutic shamanism) is not rooted in any one particular culture or geographic region of the world. Instead, it is a set of practices that are common and nearly universal in terms of shamanic practice worldwide (i.e. not specific to particular culture). They are the birthright of all human beings. Whereas certain practices and beliefs may belong to particular cultures, shamanism as a whole cannot be claimed by any culture.
SHAMANISM FOR MODERN TIMES
For around 200,000 years, humans lived as hunter-gatherer tribes, and as far as we know there has not been a single hunter-gatherer tribe in the history of the human race that did not practise shamanism (in the broad sense of the word). Then, 6,000 years ago, we not only turned away from shamanism, we waged a war upon it! The reasons for that requires a separate discussion. What is crucial to understand here though is, as we witness the recent resurgence and growth of interest in shamanism, shamanism is re-emerging into a very different world from the one it thrived in before.
Emergence of the Under-worldNot the same as the lower-world, but part of the middle-world. The realm of repressed and disowned psychic energies and parts of self, both personal and collective (the personal unconscious and collective unconscious).
As we turned away from shamanism, in order to fit into our new, domesticated, tamed, complex modern society, we had to disown and repress huge parts of our psyche and true nature, in order to fit in. In doing this, we created a whole new realm – the under-worldNot the same as the lower-world, but part of the middle-world. The realm of repressed and disowned psychic energies and parts of self, both personal and collective (the personal unconscious and collective unconscious).. This created an enormous sea of repressed material, what Jungians and other psychotherapists might understand as the personal and collective unconsciousRepressed of unconscious material that goes beyond the personal. The unconscious and unintegrated material of society as a whole.. This is not an issue traditional shamanism had to deal with. It is though where psychotherapy can help.
SHAMANISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY NEED TO LEARN FROM EACH OTHER
Just as shamanism is specifically designed and equipped to deal with problems of soul-lossThe idea that we lose a soul, or part of our soul, usually through things such as trauma, abuse, bereavement, co-dependency etc. Symptoms include things like depression, fatigue, feeling stuck, lack of enthusiasm, addictions, a sense of something mis… More and power-lossIn shamanism, this is different to what, in psychotherapy, might be understood as the loss of personal power. Instead, Power-loss is being cut off from nature and from the untamed and undomesticated. This is, of course, something that is endemic to m… More, psychotherapy (or at least any deep psychotherapy) is specifically designed and equipped to deal with the issue of the underworld. It provides a set of specialist tools and knowledge to deal with issues involved in healing and developing a healthy middle-worldThis physical world, and the energies ‘behind’ it. Everyday reality, both seen and unseen. self and in finding a healthy way to live in modern society.
In losing shamanism and animismThe experience that everything is alive and has a soul. More, we lost our way. We need it back. Indeed, our very survival, and those of our fellow species, may well depend on it.
WHAT DO SHAMANISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY HAVE IN COMMON?
Shamanism and psychotherapy meet in many areas, particularly in the more body-aware psychotherapies, where the work often occurs in a somewhat “altered” state of consciousness.
In this altered state, people experience their emotions and/or symptoms in metaphorical, mythological, or even archetypal forms.
Shamanism provides a set of techniques for entering this realm easily and at will, and so is potentially very useful when working at this level of psychotherapeutic depth.
In both psychotherapy and shamanism, a layperson might seek the help of an experienced practitioner (the psychotherapist or the shamanWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More, respectively).
In the case of traditional shamanism, usually the shamanWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More “journeys” for the person seeking help, or does healing on them in some other way. In this sense, the power is with the shamanWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More, as the “expert”.
By contrast, in (humanistic) psychotherapy and counselling, the therapist works more as a facilitator, empowering the client to explore their own process of healing.
Therapeutic Shamanism also seeks to work in a way that empowers the “client” as much as possible. The practitioner works with the client with the aim of helping them eventually become their own shamanic guide. Over time, a client is shown how to enter their own shamanic journeys, meet their own shamanic guides and helpers, and find their own answers.
In this way, in Therapeutic Shamanism, a practitioner is there to help the client recover their own spiritual authority, power, integrity and wholeness.
Core to the practice, drawing from body-centred psychotherapy, is a deep understanding of the wisdom of the body and of body symptoms. From shamanism comes a deep sense of resonance with nature, and the aliveness and interconnectedness of all things. From both traditions comes a profound understanding of energy and consciousness.
SHAMANWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More OR SHAMANIC PRACTITIONERWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More?
In founding Core Shamanism, Michael Harner suggested, as a mark of respect, reserving the term “shaman” for people in indigenous cultures who lived and breathed shamanism, and instead of using the term “shamanic practitioner” for modern “Westerners” practising core shamanism.
I agree, so out of respect, I do not call myself a shamanWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More. Instead, I am a shamanic practitionerWe are shamanic practitioners. Shaman is a term conferred by one’s community, not on one’s self. More. You can read more about the reasons for this choice in the embedded post below.
SHAMANIC PRACTITIONER TRAINING
Therapeutic Shamanism can be used for personal healing, help with life issues, raising self-awareness, personal and spiritual development, and much more.
If you want to learn shamanism with is, our training starts with taking the First-Steps course, which covers all you need to know to begin journeying shamanically, and start building your shamanic practice.
If you are looking to integrate shamanic practices into therapeutic work, we also offer shamanic counselling training and shamanic practitioner training.
