Shamanism is an ancient form of spirituality practiced by tribal societies and indigenous cultures. It predated all forms of organized religion and was (and still is) practiced on every continent in the world.
Our forebears lived close to the earth, deeply in tune with her cycles and seasons, the elements and nature. In this connection, they found their spirituality. They believed that every living being – not just people, but also animals, trees, stones and plants – had a spirit. They commonly traveled into the spirit realm to communicate and interact with power animals, spirit guides and nature spirits.
In the 1970s, an anthropologist named Michael Harner studied shamanic cultures around the world. He noticed core beliefs that all of these cultures had in common. He distilled these down into what he termed “core shamanism.” (For more on this, read his book The Way of the Shaman.) Core shamanism is the style of shamanism taught most frequently today in the U.S., including classes available through the organization he founded, the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.
Foundations of the core shamanic belief system:
· Everything has a spirit – not just people, but also rocks, trees, plants, birds and animals. The term for this belief is animism.
· We are energy, and as energy, we are connected to all other energetic beings. The universal energy that flows through us is the same energy that flows through our brothers and sisters the animals, the plants, and the stones.
· This connection makes it possible to interact and communicate with all other beings, both in the physical world and in the spirit world.
· We can use a trance-like state called a shamanic journey to communicate with the spirit world. We speak of this as leaving ordinary reality and traveling to non-ordinary reality. The shamanic journey is invoked through the use of repetitive sound such as drumming or rattling.
· The spirit world is composed of three realms – the Lower World, the Middle World and the Upper World.
o Lower World – the Underworld, the subconscious and shadow realms. (This is not the Christian version of hell.) The realm of Mother Earth and power animals and often ancestors.
o Middle World – the spiritual realm of our physical world. The realm of nature spirits, animal spirits and stones.
o Upper World – the higher conscious and divine realms. The realm of ascended masters, angels and divine compassionate beings such as Kwan Yin and Jesus Christ.
· Divine compassionate beings such as power animals, spirit guides, nature spirits and helping spirits exist in these spirit realms, and they readily interact with us and share their wisdom. When requested, they also conduct healing on behalf of ourselves or a member of our community.
· In the spirit world, time is circular. In contrast, here in the physical world, time is linear. We believe in the chronology of time – first A happens, then B, and finally C results. We follow the thread of past, present and future. In the spirit world, all time exists at once, and we can conduct healing that results in changes backwards and forwards in time.
· Shamanic cultures honor the earth and feel a close connection to the natural world, the elements, and the seasons.
· Shamanic cultures interact with their environment to receive messages and information from helping spirits.