hamanismwhereas the mongols and buryats call them bugeor bo, the koreans mudangor baksu, the tartars...

HOOP ISSUE 96 2017www.sacredhoop.org

Above: Tuvanshamans inSouthern Siberiadrum around afire during aceremony

Defining shamanism is not easy,and you may not agree with thedefinition I will try to give here.Shamanism is not tidy and there willbe anomalies in what I write - but Ihope to give at least a rough rule ofthumb, despite the exceptions.

The word ‘shaman’ is a Westerncorruption of the word samaan ors’amanthe, from the SiberianEvenk people (previously known asthe Tungus people), which wasbrought into the Russian languageby early explorers of Siberia.

The word gradually becameestablished as a general term for aSiberian tribal healer in Russia, andthen migrated to the rest of theworld in the 19th and 20thcenturies via anthropologists.

The word shamanka - meaninga woman shaman - was never usedby Siberian people - the ending kais a Russian way of giving a word adiminutive female form.

Some say the word is of Sanskritorigin, coming from the words'ramana - which means a Buddhistmonk - but the Evenk language is notrelated to Sanskrit, and the Evenkswere not exposed to Tibetan Buddhistmonks in great numbers - with whom,some people say the word wascarried from India into Siberia. So theSanskrit origin of the word isextremely dubious. FurthermoreRussian explorers first recorded theword in the 16th century and anyTibetan Buddhist contact would havebeen roughly around the same time.

The word shaman only comesfrom the one tribal group, found inSiberia and Manchuria, and differenttribal peoples in different regions usedifferent names for the role.

In Siberia - close to the Evenkpeople, the Yakut people call maleshamans khamma or ayun,whereas the Mongols and Buryatscall them buge or bo, the Koreansmudang or baksu, the Tartars andAltaians kam and gam, theshamans of Kyrgyzstan baksy, andthe Samoyed people tadibey.

But a woman shaman in Siberiahas a different name, and thisname is very much the same, overa very wide geographical area.Among the Mongols, Buryats,Yakuts, Altaians, Evenks, and

28

SO,WHAT EXACTLY

ISSHAMANISM THEN?Nicholas Breeze Wood

THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazineabout Shamanism and Animistic Spirituality, based in West Wales, published four times a year since 1993.

You may share this in any non-commercial way but reference to www.SacredHoop.org must be made if it is reprinted anywhere.To get a very special low-cost subscription to Sacred Hoop please visit : www.SacredHoop.org/offer.html

HOOP ISSUE 96 2017www.sacredhoop.org

Left: Buryatwhite shamanwill ritual bell

and dragon staff

Siberian Shamansare generally

divided up intowhite and blackThis has nothing

to do with theWest’s concepts

of white andblack magic,it is more todo with the

shaman’s role intheir community

Kyrgyz the word for a womanshaman is udagan (or variationssuch as utagan, ubakan, utygan orutugun). This word probablyoriginates from the Mongolian wordEtugen which is the name of theancient hearth-goddess.

Because udagan is so universal,language experts know it to be avery old word, older than all thewords for a male shaman, whichshows that female shamans havebeen around a lot longer than maleones have.

SHAMANISM AND ANIMISMA shaman has an animistic worldview. An animist understands that allparts of Creation are alive in someway, and have spirits. Nothing isdead in the animist’s universe - youand I have souls, and so do all theanimals and plants, and likewise therocks and rivers, mountains andclouds, stars, sun and moon, evenan illness, or a concept, or aceremony, or a ritual object has asoul - everything has a soul, and welive within a vast network ofinterconnectedness. All animistic andshamanic cultures understand this.

All shamanic cultures areanimistic - but not all animisticcultures are shamanic.

Shamanic cultures are somethingspecial, something rare, somethingthat only occurs in a few places onearth - although there are animisticcultures all over the globe.

An animistic culture is a culturewhich has a basic world view ofanimism. Examples of animisticcultures include the Q’ero of Peruand Bolivia, the tribes of NorthAmerica, the Mayan people ofCentral America, the Maori of NewZealand, the Aborigines ofAustralia, tribal groups of Africa,the ancient Celts and Vikings,some groups in India, and manyother peoples around the world.

None of the above are shamaniccultures, although some aspects ofancient animistic Viking culturewere shamanic - the practice ofseidr specifically. Seidr is anancient practice where seers -generally women - go into tranceand have the spirits speak or singthrough them. The practice diedout centuries ago, but the modernshamanic movement has done asplendid job of re-creating it, and Iknow many powerful seidrpractitioners who dive deep andswim fast and strong.

A shamanic culture is an animisticculture where shamanism is practised- either within families - where theshaman heals just those immediatelyclose to them - or where ‘professional’shamans can be found, who work forthe wider community.

A shaman is someone who goesinto trance, and in that trance, theyare either taken over by ancestorspirits - who were shamans beforethem - or they get taken over bylocal gods and spirits, such as thespirit of a mountain or a lake, ortheir soul leaves their body, andtravels out to the other spirit worldswhich are all around us - unseen -there to meet with spirits, so as togain knowledge and power. Oftenall of these things happen withinthe same shamanic tradition.

Some people within animisticcultures have experiences of trancetoo, for instance when on a visionquest - in the Native Americantraditions - the quester may fall intoa trance and see visions, but thatdoes not make them a shaman,because the trance happens without

their volition - and they can not callupon it when they wish to enter it.

Animistic cultures can have agreat knowledge of magic, canperform powerful healings and canhave great wisdoms, but theirpriests and healers don’t enter intocontrolled voluntary trance, and donot go to the spirit worlds - instead

29

Shamans have an animistic worldview, they understand that all

parts of Creation are alive andhave spirits. Nothing is dead in

that universe - you and I havesouls, and so do all the animals

and plants, and likewise the rocksand rivers, mountains and clouds,

stars, sun and moon, even an illness,a concept, a ceremony, or a ritual

object as a soul - everything hasa soul, and we live within a vastnetwork of interconnectedness.



they tend to call the spirits into thisworld - which although can beextremely powerful, is subtlydifferent from shamanism, whereshamans go to the spirits.

The cultures where shamanism isfound mostly are tribal groups acrossSiberia, Finland and the far North ofEurope, Mongolia, Tuva, CentralAsia, China, SE Asia, Tibet andNepal. Some anthropologistsconsider some of the tribes from theAmazon Rainforest to be shamanistictoo, whereas others don’t.Personally, because their medicinepeople go into trance - albeit with theaid of psychoactive plants - I thinkthey could be called shamanistic too.There are also traces of shamanicpractice to be found in Hungary andother places. The map - likeshamanism - is not perfectly tidy.

As a rule of thumb, if you areworking with a culture outside ofthose geographic areas you areworking with an animistic culturerather than a shamanic one. Butthe edge between what isshamanic and what is animistic is a

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Left: MongolianshamanPhoto C1910

Below: a Buryatshaman looks outover ‘shamanrock’ on OlkhonIsland, LakeBaikal, Siberia



Top: a Nepaleseshaman performs

a ceremony

Left: a Tibetanshaman holds his

double skinneddamaru drum

very blurred one. For example aSiberian shaman performs manypractices which have much incommon with a Native Americanmedicine person. This can beexplained by saying that shamansalso perform animistic practice -not everything they do for people isshamanic - shamanism is the extrasomething they do for peoplewhich a medicine person doesn’t.

All animistic cultures the worldover have similarities - that isbecause the world is the way theworld is, and spirits are the waythat spirits are. You can look upon

this as the ‘bones of the sacred.’All the bones of the world’sanimistic spiritual systems are thesame, but each culture putsdifferent flesh on the bones. This iswhy a Zulu medicine person and aLakota medicine person will look -on the surface - different, butwhen you understand the bones,you will see they are doing thesame basic job.

WHO CAN BE A SHAMAN?The Evenk people, from whom theword shaman came, have a saying;‘A shaman sits on a different

branch of the Tree of Souls to anormal person.’

This relates to a story they havethat the souls of babies sit likebirds on branches of the WorldTree, waiting to be born. Normalbabies sit on branches in the tree,but shamans sit on their ownunique branch - shamans aredifferent to other people.

Can you choose to be ashaman? No you can’t. You areeither born a shaman, or you arenot. If the spirits want you, there isnothing you can do, and if thespirits don’t want you there islikewise nothing you can do. Nospirits equals no shamans.

Being a shaman is not a cool life,most tribal people think it’s a bit of acurse and often try their hardest toget away from the role. Howeverthe spirits always have their way,and the shaman-to-be often gets ill,or may die, if they don’t accept theircalling. Native shamans often thinkpeople in the West are crazy if theywant to become shamans, andactually seek it out.

The most important teachers ofa shaman are the spirits. Withoutthe spirits a shaman is nothing, andthe spirits teach the shaman, whobecomes their apprentice. Humanteachers are important toohowever, as a human teacher is abit like a marriage arranger, theyintroduce the shaman to the spiritsand also teach the shaman ways tointeract with the spirits.

Some shamanic traditions givetheir new shamans initiations,others don’t, it depends on theculture. Some cultures say you cannot be a shaman in their cultureunless you have the DNA of thatculture - however far back in timethe DNA came from. Others sayyou can be a shaman in thatculture without the DNA.

Mostly people get the call to bea shaman because they are ‘offwith the spirits’ from a young age,and this will often lead to eitherphysical or metal illness in theirteenage years - often called‘shaman sickness.’ They may alsohave all of these and be hit bylightening as well, or getpossessed by spirits and go intoinvoluntary trance.

In traditional shamanic culturesa shaman will be called to diagnosethe nature of the illness, and if it isdetermined that the sick person is

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to be a shaman, and the sicknessis shaman-sickness, the shamantreating them will tell the sickperson they have to learn to be ashaman, or face theconsequences. However in thewest, which is not a shamanicculture, things are, of course,generally not so clear.

In the early 1980s a new,Western style of shamanism camealong - generally known as ‘CoreShamanism.’ This came about mostlythrough the work of Michael Harner.

Core shamanism took the basicmodel of going into trance andjourneying out to the Spirit Worlds,but stripped it of all culturalaspects, making it more easilydigestible to Westeners.

The basic tenet of CoreShamanism is that anyone can learnto journey and employ ‘shamanictechniques’ in their life, in order tohelp themselves or others. This isno doubt true, and many peoplederive much benefit from learningCore Shamanic techniques.However the same rule of beingchosen by the spirits still applies.

I always think of the spirit worldas being a bit like the ocean. Allpeople can explore the shallows ofshamanism; sit on the beach withtheir toes in the water, or paddle inthe breaking waves - in otherwords almost everyone can learn todo a basic shamanic journey and dosome things close to the shore.

Some people will wade out intothe ocean up to their chests, or learnto swim a little - they go deeper in.

But only those chosen by thespirits will really learn to swim anddive, and hold their breathunderwater, and go to the depthsof the spirit world.

Saying this is not elitist - it issimply true. When doingshamanism at this deep level, itcan be very physically andpsychologically dangerous - someshamans die in ceremony. Not allpeople are cut out to dive deep,and only those with the spiritsblessings and help will learn to govastly out of their depths, to returnsafely - if they are lucky.

But everyone can live a richanimistic life and can learn somesimple shamanic first aid - and Ithink the world would be a lotbetter if more people did.

Below: Dayakshaman fromBorneo

Bottom: aKorean Mundang


The most important teachers of a shamanare the spirits. Without the spirits ashaman is nothing, and the spirits teachthe shaman, who becomes their apprentice



SOME DO’S AND DON’T’SThere are lots of people out therewho are really doing goodshamanic practice - and their arelots of people who are not doinggood shamanic practice at all - theNew Age can be a place so full offluff one can drown very easily,getting choked on all the fairy dust.

I often come across people whothink yoga, or reiki, or some otherform of therapy is the same asshamanism. It is not - at best it isanimistic - but it is not shamanism.

I also come across many peoplewho think shamanism is going andsitting out in nature, perhaps withtheir back against a tree, connectingand becoming ‘one with everything.’

Again that is not shamanism.Meditating in nature is somethingto be encouraged - tuning in andfeeling your connection with allyour relatives is something of greatbenefit - but it’s not shamanism.Shamanism is hard disciplinedwork, meeting the spirits andhaving actual dialogues with them,negotiating - or at times subduingor even fighting them - for the sakeof your community.

Often in the New Age communitypeople think shamans are wonderfulpeople - close to Spirit - who loveeveryone and do good deeds all daylong. That too is a myth.

Traditional shamans will oftenfight each other, and sometimes tryto kill each other and steal powerwith the aid of their spirits.

Traditional shamans will alsooften curse as much as cure, andmake it difficult for other shamansto practise. I was recently talkingwith a Mongolian shaman friendabout this, and they were ratherenvious of some of my own‘shamanic adventures,’ because Ihad journeyed to places they hadonly heard about from their elders;they themselves were unable tojourney to those places, as the fearof attack from other shamans wastoo much a possibility for them.Thankfully these types of attacksare very rare in the Westernshamanic and Core Shamaniccommunities, as within thosecommunities, there are few peoplewho have more than mere ‘hot air,’as they often lack the knowledgeand power to do much damage.

Also be warned, trying such‘dark work’ is not advised, you will

likely open yourself to spirit forcesfar greater than you, and putyourselves and your loved ones indanger. You might also lose yourconnection to any healing spiritsyou have working with you.

Many years ago, one of my ownteachers was tempted to try to usea spirit for a little bit of low level‘dark work.’ They had a goodrelation with their spirit helper - whowas really important to them andtheir practice - but when my teachertried to get this spirit to do the ‘darkwork’ that spirit left them, and nevercame back. That was over 30 yearsago now, and I know my teacher stillregrets that, even to this day.


Being a shaman is not a coollife, most tribal people think it’s a

curse and often try their hardest toget away from the role. Howeverthe spirits always have their way,and the shaman-to-be often gets

ill, or may die, if they don’t accepttheir calling. Native shamans oftenthink people in the West are crazy

if they want to become shamansand actually seek it out

Buryat shaman,wearing an ironcrown set withiron antlers andholding his drumand a hobro - ahorse spirit staff

Photo taken C1910



I had a sobering warning from myown spirits too, although I was notattempting ‘dark work’ at the time.My spirit helper looked at me andthen casually reminded me theycould turn off my shamanic ability‘just like that.’ There was the soundof a click of the fingers, and I wasback out of trance in an instant, andback in normal reality - they hadthrown me out. It was a lesson, therewas no problem going back the nexttime, but I have no doubts that -should they want to - the spiritswould simply turn me off like a tap.

There are many, many booksout there which purport to be about

shamanism. Some of them are verygood, others are not. Many of themare not about shamanism at all,because the word shamanism is asexy word and book publishers useit to add fairy dust to their titles.

If you want to learn about shamans,I would advise reading about actualtribal shamanism, in good, groundedbooks about the cultures, SomeNew Age books are good, but mostreally are best avoided.

Likewise some books - whichare really fiction - are often sited asimportant books about shamanism.Here I’m especially thinking of thewritings of Carlos Castaneda, butthere are many other authors too.

Castaneda was an excellentnovelist who wrote some fine storybooks. He drew from many ancienttraditions and his books are acornucopia of useful metaphorsabout Spirit and the sacred - onlyplease do not think they are literallytrue, and especially please don’tthink his books describe shamanism.

Shamanism often getsassociated with the taking of mindaltering plants. In recent yearstourism to the Amazon hasproliferated and people take suchsubstances as Ayahuasca, SanPedro, Peyote and various types ofmind-altering mushrooms.

People often seem to think thisis essential when it comes toshamanism, but let me assure you itis not. Most shamanic culturesacross the world do not take anymind altering substances at all -instead they rely on the spiritstaking them over, aided by a mixtureof ceremony, song and drumming.

If you are drawn to working withwhat are often called ‘teacherplants’ that’s fine, but work withthem in such a way that you respecttheir spirits. Every traditional culturewho uses plants like this hasceremonies and songs which arepart of the practice. You don’t justgrab a plant and ingest it in order tohave a cosmic adventure; learn thetraditional ways, find traditionalteachers and do it properly - foryour sake and for the respect andhonour of the plant spirits, and thespirit of the linage.

Shamanism is not a path ofpersonal growth or personalhealing. Sure both are going tohappen to you along the way, butthat’s a by-product.


Often people in the New Agecommunity think shamans arewonderful people, close to Spirit,who love everyone and do gooddeeds all day long. That too is amyth. Traditional shamans willoften fight each other, andsometimes try to kill each otherand steal power with the aid oftheir spirits. Traditional shamanswill often curse as much as cure

Buryat shamanin trance as thespirits enter him



However, Core Shamanism canbe excellent for those things - andthere is nothing wrong with usingaspects of Core Shamanism to healyourself, in fact, again, the worldwould be a much better place ifpeople worked on ‘their stuff’ andgot some healing, and the muchmore therapy-like model of CoreShamanism can be excellent for this.

But primarily a shaman’s job isto help their community - howeveryou define that term.

Your community can be yourfamily. As I said before, in a lot oftraditional Siberian cultures, ashaman worked only for their family- or it could be for your friends andpeople you know in your real worldlife, or it could be your internetfamily, or even nationally orglobally. We mostly no longer live inrural, agriculturally based smallvillages, our concept of communityhas changed dramatically in thelast few hundred years. You willhave to work out what the wordmeans to you now.

Because we are not a shamanicculture - or even an animisticculture - we, in the West need tofind ways to build an animisticworldview ourselves.

Because of this, we have tendedto look towards other cultures whohave held their animistic worldview -such as the Native Americans orAfricans - despite the West’s oftendetermined efforts to ‘educate thesavages out of their primitive ideas.’

So, you are likely to tread on thetoes of tribal peoples who have beenmarginalised, and seen genocideand cultural annihilation happen totheir ancestors. They might welcomeyou and wish to share sacredteachings with you, or they mightnot. That will be on a tribe by tribe,person by person basis.

So tread carefully andrespectfully. Learn with humility andpay attention to what is being taughtto you. Treat it preciously as youcarry it - like a fragile baby - intoyour own life and culture, as thechances are, the people you arebeing taught by, held on to thosetraditions through times of absolutehorror and desperation - so act well.

You might feel drawn to followan animistic path from your ownancestors - perhaps you haveCeltic or European blood, perhapsyou have African blood or Central

Asian blood - and the pull of theblood on you is strong.

That’s a wonderful blood line toexplore, but be aware, if you comefrom a European culture thetraditions are broken, and paths suchas Wicca or the Druids, are moderninventions, and bear little in commonwith their ancient ancestors.

Our ancestors were notfollowing their spiritual path forrecreation, or self improvement,they held to their spiritualitybecause it was there to save theirlives, to help heal their sick, and tohelp bring crops and animals totheir table.

It is very easy to ‘get off’ onfantasy in the West, because weare divorced from the natural world,and we don’t need our ancient waysto help us survive. In the oldendays, if things didn’t work, peoplewould die, now it is not like that,and the essential pragmatic point ofspirituality is no longer there. Weseek it to find balance in our urbanworld, and because we do that, it isfar too easy to get seduced by theromance of it and entranced by the

‘fantasy. Don’t become so spiritualthat you are no earthly good.

You may indeed be called towalk a true shamanic path - but ifyou are, it’s no big deal, you arenot special, you are just chosen bythe spirits to bear a heavier load onyour back than many of yourfellows - remember only an idiotactively wants to be a shaman.

But walking an animistic life-path, seeing the beauty in all ofyour relations, seeing it in everybeing you meet, from a raven to arainbow, a starfish to a star, willmake your life richer, and makeyou feel more connected - becausewe truly are all related.

Nicholas Breeze Wood is the editor ofSacred Hoop Magazine. He has followeda shamanic path since he was a teenagerbut this became more formal when he methis first human teachers in 1985, when hewas 27. He has received teachings andceremonies from Native Americanmedicine people, Mongolian, Buryat andTuvan shamans and from Tibetan Buddhistand shamanic traditions. He is now deeplyapprenticed to his own spirit helpers. [email protected]


Shamanism is nota path of personalgrowth or personalhealing. Sure both aregoing to happen to youalong the way, but that’sa by-product. Primarilya shaman’s job is to helptheir community - howeveryou define that term

Above: Buryatshaman drums

in the smokeof a sacred fire

Buryat shamandrums in thesmoke of a sacred fire



hamanismwhereas the mongols and buryats call them bugeor bo, the koreans mudangor baksu, the tartars...

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