What is Shamanism?
Probably, you’ve heard the term shamanism, but you’re not entirely sure what it means. Maybe you’ve heard it’s a healing practice, and that’s true. And it is so much more. At its core, shamanism is a practice that seeks to engage and collaborate with a reality that cannot be apprehended with our five regular senses.
This reality is often described in metaphoric and mythical terms as the dreaming or the mystery. There, shamans perceive the underlying matrix of creation that gives rise to all things. That matrix is imbued with life force and consciousness. Sometimes it is described as the Spirit that lives in all things.
There is nothing in creation that is not an expression of this Spirit. Nothing. Not the mountains, not the rivers or seas. Not the stars or planets. Not a single animal or living creature. Not a single human. We are all part of the great weaving that is life; we are part of the great cycles and rhythms of life.
Many shamanic cultures believe that this realm of dreaming is as real, or perhaps, more real than our current existence. That we are born from that place and when we die, we return there. And when we need help or guidance, we can shift our attention and connect with sources of wisdom, guidance, healing, and curatives energies are available to us.
In this world, they describe a great web of life or matrix that connects us all. In this realm, all life has a spiritual counterpart where each part collaborates for the good of the whole. Each part contributing its individual gift and medicine for the strength and health of the entire system.
When shamans travel in the realms behind the veils, meetings with animal and nature spirits are common, as are encounters with great beings and teachers. Partnerships are formed between the shaman and these beings so that healing, guidance, wisdom, and curative energies can be brought into this realm.
Over many millennia, shamanic cultures developed many methods to travel into the mystery, such as dream practices, ceremony, prayer, vision quest, and a variety of techniques to enter into trance states to get into touch with these other realms. The descriptions of these realms differ across cultures and individual experiences. But many describing meeting animal guides, beings of light, or the ancestors. For others, the experience of the natural world is heightened where the winds begin to speak, and trees offer profound teachings.
And when we connect to these realms either ourselves or through the work of a shamanic practitioner, something profound begins to happen. Listening to the wisdom that comes from these deeper places helps us live on the planet in a good way and live in harmony with all creation. You begin to remember your place in creation and live in a meaningful and purposeful way.