Shamanism
~ Remembering our relationship with the larger web of life ~
What is shamanism?*
Shamanism is a sacred path of healing and spiritual practices rooted in deep relationship with Nature, Spirit, and the unseen dimensions. It’s a path of direct experience and revelation that sees everything as alive and part of the one web of life.
At its foundation, shamanism is about an intimacy with creation, both inner and outer. Engaging in intentional healing and spiritual practices from this kind of intimacy can bring about powerful shifts in perspective, healing, and enlivenment. It helps us experience the deep beauty and magic within and around us, seeing our true selves and the alive nature of the universe.
Shamanic traditions are not a single universal tradition. The word “shaman” comes from the Evenki people of Siberia and was later adopted more broadly to reference not just that culture, but also shaman-like spiritual practitioners and traditions found in diverse cultures around the world.
Shamanic practices can support healing on many levels - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and relational. They offer ways to heal not only personal but also ancestral and cultural burdens, restoring our connection with our bodies, souls, Spirit, Nature, community, and the larger web of life. Shamanic practices can help us release what no longer serves us, recover vitality and creativity, deepen our sense of belonging, and reconnect with deeper wisdom, wholeness, and aliveness.
While most people can benefit from shamanic practices, not everyone is called to become a shaman or shamanic practitioner. That path involves a sustained commitment to spiritual practice, personal transformation, and service, often through profound experiences that continually reshape one’s relationship with oneself, Spirit, and the world.
What are some shamanic practices?
Shamanism is not a religion and has no universal doctrine or prescribed belief system. While different shamanic traditions have their own teachings and practices, at its heart shamanism invites direct experience, personal discovery, and an evolving relationship with Spirit, Nature, and the unseen dimensions of life. You do not need to subscribe to any particular religious or spiritual beliefs to explore shamanic practices.
Shamanic journeying
Using rhythmic drumming, rattling, dancing, or other ways to enter an expanded state of consciousness to open to unseen realms energetically and spiritually. This can bring about new perspectives, wisdom, healing, and relationships with helping spirits, ancestors, and Nature.
Nature-based practices
Experiencing Nature not simply as scenery or a resource, but as a source of relationship, wisdom, nourishment, and healing.
Working with spirit guides and allies
Developing relationships with compassionate and wise spiritual allies.
Ancestral work
• Exploring the ways ancestral patterns, wounds, and gifts may live within us.
• Bringing healing to ancestral burdens we carry.
• Developing relationships with well ancestors.
Ritual and ceremonial practices
These practices create intentional sacred space for deeper connection, healing, and balance. They are often done to mark an important life transition. Ceremonies may include practices that help shift consciousness such as drumming, chanting, or dancing as well as offerings, prayer, storytelling, and symbolic acts that support the deeper intention.
Other healing practices
Other shamanic healing practices include soul retrieval, release of burdensome energies, energy healing, sound healing, and more.
My own path with shamanism
Shamanism did not begin for me as a professional modality. It entered my life through my own healing. During my first career as a psychiatrist, I felt called to explore mindfulness meditation which began opening something inside of me and led me to explore other kinds of healing and spiritual practices. This included Holotropic Breathwork which is a powerful practice of entering non-ordinary states of consciousness for healing and deep self-exploration. This impacted me in a profound way, including awakening me spiritually, which deepened as I trained for 3 years in Grof Transpersonal Training to become a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator. It was a transformative journey.
It was there that I heard about shamanism and felt called to begin training with The Foundation of Shamanic Studies in core shamanism. From there I was guided to other teachers and healers over the years in the US, South America, and Africa.
The healings, trainings, initiations, and ceremonies I experienced brought profound healing and transformation, reshaping my worldview and fundamentally changing my relationship with myself, Spirit, and the world around me. This eventually led to my leaving psychiatry to fully follow a shamanic path professionally as well as personally.
Because my path has led me to teachers and practitioners from different cultures and traditions, I focus on the deeper essence of shamanism rather than a single tradition. In addition, my work is informed by other modalities I have trained in: hypnosis, transpersonal psychology, past life regression, Gestalt therapy, Internal Family Systems, and Systemic Family Constellations.
*A note on perspective and cultural humility
Shamanism is defined by different people and cultures in different ways. This is my perspective on shamanism from many years of learning and experiencing shamanic healings, teachings, initiations, and ceremonies with teachers and practitioners from multiple cultural traditions. I acknowledge the limited perspective I may have as a non-indigenous person and also the privilege I carry from being a white middle class cis woman in the US. I hold deep gratitude for this path, for all those who have shared their wisdom with me, and for the ways it continues to transform and deepen my life.