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Shamans know where to access power and information from nature. They study and communicate with plants, animals, elements, and the spirit world. They are excellent problem solvers, diagnosticians, psychologists, storytellers, teachers, and hypnotists.
- What is Shamanism
Shamanism is the world’s oldest spiritual path coupled with...
- What is a Shamanic Healing
A shamanic healing starts with an interview to find out what...
- FAQs
There are several ways you can find and share information...
- The Journal
The Journal of Shamanic Practice is a forum of articles...
- Code of Ethics
I will do no harm and to avoid any sexual misconduct in my...
- What is Shamanism
The practice of shamanism has mystical and spiritual connotations, but it's not tied to any specific religion or creed. So, what exactly is shamanism?
- Michelle Konstantinovsky
- In ancient times, healers were called shamans. They work with the spirit, healing illnesses at a soul level. They collect insights and acquire know...
- The verb ša is used to form the noun, which translates to “to know.” The word “shaman” means “one who knows.”
- Shamanism is not associated with any particular religion nor is it itself a religion. Instead, shamans across the world belong to different organiz...
- Shamanism is alive and well today. It’s practiced all over the world, though North Asia is one of the most common regions where it’s used.
- To communicate with a spirit’s consciousness, the shaman tries to transfer their own state of awareness. They may employ different approaches, such...
Shamanism or samanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman or saman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance.
- Overview
- Classic shamanism
shamanism, religious phenomenon centred on the shaman, a person believed to achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious experience. Although shamans’ repertoires vary from one culture to the next, they are typically thought to have the ability to heal the sick, to communicate with the otherworld, and often to escort the souls of the dead to that otherworld.
The term shamanism comes from the Manchu-Tungus word šaman. The noun is formed from the verb ša- ‘to know’; thus, a shaman is literally “one who knows.” The shamans recorded in historical ethnographies have included women, men, and transgender individuals of every age from middle childhood onward.
As its etymology implies, the term applies in the strictest sense only to the religious systems and phenomena of the peoples of northern Asia and the Ural-Altaic, such as the Khanty and Mansi, Samoyed, Tungus, Yukaghir, Chukchi, and Koryak. However, shamanism is also used more generally to describe indigenous groups in which roles such as healer, religious leader, counselor, and councillor are combined. In this sense, shamans are particularly common among other Arctic peoples, American Indians, Australian Aborigines, and those African groups, such as the San, that retained their traditional cultures well into the 20th century.
It is generally agreed that shamanism originated among hunting-and-gathering cultures, and that it persisted within some herding and farming societies after the origins of agriculture. It is often found in conjunction with animism, a belief system in which the world is home to a plethora of spirit-beings that may help or hinder human endeavours.
Shamanism as practiced in northern Asia is distinguished by its special clothing, accessories, and rites as well as by the specific worldview connected with them. North Asiatic shamanism in the 19th century, which is generally taken as the classical form, was characterized by the following traits:
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1.A society accepts that there are specialists who are able to communicate directly with the transcendent world and who are thereby also possessed of the ability to heal and to divine; such individuals, or shamans, are held to be of great use to society in dealing with the spirit world.
2.A given shaman is usually known for certain mental characteristics, such as an intuitive, sensitive, mercurial, or eccentric personality, which may be accompanied by some physical defect, such as lameness, an extra finger or toe, or more than the normal complement of teeth.
3.Shamans are believed to be assisted by an active spirit-being or group thereof; they may also have a passive guardian spirit present in the form of an animal or a person of another sex—possibly as a sexual partner.
Shamans work with the spirit or the soul. They heal illness at the soul level. They gain knowledge and insight from working with the spirits of nature such as rocks and trees, the land, and they gain knowledge from working with spirits of animals and humans such as their ancestors.
Apr 27, 2024 · Shamans are recognized as both spiritual therapists and healers. They use their connection to the spirit world to diagnose and heal physical and mental illnesses, aiming to restore balance and harmony.
Jun 4, 2024 · A shaman foresees events distant in time and space, discovers the place of a lost animal, forecasts prospects for fishing and hunting, and assists in increasing the gain. He is also a healer and a psychopomp, one who accompanies the dead to their otherworldly domain.
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