Shamanism

The Huichol are a small tribe of approximately 35,000 living in central western Mexico near Ixtlan in the Sierra Madre Mountains. They are said to be the last tribe in North America to have maintained their pre-Columbian traditions. Their shamans and healers practice today as they have for generations. In part, their survival is due to the focus of their traditions, as well as their remote mountainous territory. The Dance of the Deer Foundation is dedicated to the continued survival of the ancient indigenous way of the Huichol. Brant Secunda and Don José Matsuwa founded our organization with this vision and today, we continue to support the Huichol people and their culture. Shaman • Teacher • Visionary Don José Matsuwa is the renowned shaman from Mexico who passed away in 1990 at the age of 110. He was a farmer, healer, master ceremonial leader, and a revered and respected elder throughout the Sierras. He dedicated his whole life to completing the sacred path of the shaman and it is his life and vision that are the inspirations for the Dance of the Deer Foundation. Before he died he left Brant Secunda this message: “I leave you in my place. Tell your people to pray and follow the deer all the way to their hearts.” The Huichol way of life is rich with ceremonial practices. There are specific ceremonies for the four seasons, which are intended to bring balance and harmony to each individual, the community and all of life. The ceremonies are a time for the people to come toge...

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In 1990, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating, Mongolia, long a satellite of the U.S.S.R., regained its independence. Socialism was out and free markets returned. Religion — in the form of Buddhism, shamanism, and other folk religions — became officially accepted again in Mongolian society. That, in turn, produced another unexpected change: The return of shamans, religious figures who claim to have a supernatural ability to connect with the souls of the dead. Indeed, as MIT anthropologist Manduhai Buyandelger chronicles in a new book, the revival of shamanism has shaped Mongolia in surprising ways in the last two decades. From storefronts in Ulan Bator, the nation’s capital, to homes in rural Mongolia, shamanism has become a growth industry. In the book — “Tragic Spirits,” published this month by the University of Chicago Press — Buyandelger both documents this surprising phenomenon and analyzes its meaning. The return of shamanism, she asserts, represents more than the straightforward return of a once-banned religion to Mongolia. And it is more than just a convenient method for people to earn a little income by working as shamans. Rather, she says, shamanism became more popular precisely because, in a poor country recovering from Soviet domination — where Mongolia’s occupiers had wiped away its records and the physical traces of its past — shamanic practices have offered some Mongolians a way to reinvent their own history. Shamans offer clients the supposed opportunity ...

Shamanism is a worldwide phenomenon. All across the globe, different cultures evolved remarkably similar ways of interacting with their environment and the spirit world beyond. Though the word “shaman” may be derived from a word for a Buddhist monk, it came to mean a spiritual leader among the Ural-Altaic people. From there, its use has expanded to encompass anyone of any culture with specific beliefs and methods for approaching the spirit world. What is Shamanism? Shamanism is a set of beliefs and practices that govern how humans interact with spirits. These can vary pretty widely from culture to culture — some shamans, for example, undergo a kind of deific possession during their rituals, while others do not. Shamans serve an important role in their communities. They act as healers, diviners, interpreters of omens and dreams, and maintainers of balance. People often turn to shamans to help them cope with trauma, recover from emotional, mental, or physical problems, or connect more deeply with nature and their communities. While shamanism can be part of a larger religious or spiritual framework, it isn’t a religion itself. In Tuvan culture, for example, shamanic practices are part of Tengriism or Buddhism. For many neoshamans, shamanism is part of a modern earth-centered religion like Wicca. Shamanic Beliefs While shamanic practices can have some pretty huge differences from culture to culture (and even from shaman to shaman), shamanism is marked by some pretty consistent...

Recent Examples on the Web According to co-author Ke Wang, of China’s Fudan University, one individual in Nizhnetytkesken Cave was found with burial goods like stone points, ornaments and animal claws that may indicate religious overtones and the possible practice of shamanism. — Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Jan. 2023 Comprised of singer Araceli Poma and producer/bassist Matt Geraphty, the Spanish- and Quechua-language duo embrace these traditional trademarks, all the while paying respect to millennia-old practices — like healing through coca leaves, shamanism and sacred water. — Isabela Raygoza, Billboard, 3 Nov. 2022 Drawing on the hardships of his early life, including three years of imprisonment in a Communist labor camp in North Korea, Moon fashioned a unique theology combining elements of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism and shamanism that attracted tens of thousands of followers in Korea and beyond. — Clay Chandler, Fortune, 11 July 2022 Horror story centering on shamanism. — Shalini Dore, Variety, 11 Nov. 2021 Then there’s the Jewish Entheogenic Society on Facebook, boasting close to 1,000 members, not to mention the upcoming Jewish Psychedelic Summit, where dozens of speakers are slated to present on ancient psychedelic ritual and religious frameworks, Jewish shamanism, and contemporary practices. — Madison Margolin, Rolling Stone, 23 Apr. 2021 His biggest breakthrough came not from a fellow magician but from a historian: Mircea Eliade, a Romanian ...

Noord en Oost Tartarye (“North and East Tartary”), 1785. Widely practiced in the world’s hunting A shaman who incorporates a hostile god or spirit may in alternating moments be in control of the situation, housing a raging Odyssey, In deep trances, when a shaman is oblivious to physical reality, he may undertake a “spirit journey.” In a vivid continuous visionary state, the shaman experiences himself in disembodied form, flying away from the place of the séance to a distant location to visit ghosts, spirits, or gods. The examples of shamanism and Hindu and Daoist mysticism demonstrate the difficulty in establishing a single definition of mysticism. Definitions of mysticism in terms of unitive experiences must include The location of mysticism in religion An important variable among mystical practices is the extent to which mystical experiences and ideologies are Christianity is not alone in segregating mysticism from its mainstream religious practice. In c. 6th–4th century bce), rejected the Upanishadic belief that all things are a single substance that is God and instead advanced the concept of anatta (Pali: “non-self”). His rejection of the identity of atman and brahman coincided with his sangha. Because all is unreal, unreliable, and an maya), caste and the Hindu divinity of the self may be dismissed as fallacies. The performances of shamans and Daoist priests, by contrast, are almost always conducted for the benefit of an audience. Shamans’ séances are devoted to heali...

Around the world shamans are called by many local names, among them sorcerer, healer or curandero/a, walker between the worlds, medicine man/woman, priest, transformer, psychopomp and so on. Shamans may inherit the role from their ancestors, come into it by surviving an accident or disease, display talent for it as a child, or merely seek training on their own. Both males and females function as shamans for their communities although women often raise their children first. Generally, to become a shaman requires a many years of rigorous apprenticeship with many tests and initiations along the way. Not everyone who begins their training succeeds at becoming a shaman. Some even may die in the process. Shamans are typically high functioning people-highly respected by their communities as advisors and consultants, dedicated to healing, manipulating reality, divining, forecasting, or prophesying future outcomes. They can choose to enter altered states at will to perform a variety of functions including as ceremonialists, engaging in the creation of art, trance dancing, chanting, and healing. 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. Historically, in many parts of the world, kings, queens, and emperors were always trained shamans and if not personally trained, they always e...