What is a Shaman?

A shaman is an individual who is called through various means to train in specific traditional practices to be a healer and teacher and act as an intermediary between the healing spirit worlds and mankind. Traditionally an individual may be guided through dreams, a specific lineage, or even illness to follow this sacred path. It is a powerful calling and the shaman will have many spirit helpers to guide and assist in the work. There are many skills a shaman will employ. These include journeying to find and return a lost soul part, extracting foreign and intrusive energies, finding a person’s spirit and tutelary guides, as well as healing karmic and ancestral wounds. Drums, rattles, chanting, feathers, and other traditional tools may be used to facilitate the healing process.

What is Shamanic healing?

An individual’s mental, emotional and physical health is seen as compromised when imbalances occur on any or all of these levels. The approach to healing is wholistic and comprises a set of tools to restore harmony. The shaman uses many energetic techniques such as journeying in the invisible worlds to find and restoring dissociated soul energies, extract foreign intrusive energies, rebalance chakras, and even engage and heal karmic or ancestral wounds effecting the client. When the individual is made more whole energetically all aspects of their health and wellbeing are positively affected.

Is Shamanism a religion?

Although academics heatedly debate the issue, many would say that shamanism cannot really be considered a religion because it has no dogma, no organization, no sacred book, and no recognized leader nor does it have a single founder. Shamanism organically arose around the world through the needs of ancient peoples to relate to Nature and the invisible worlds as a means of survival. While people of many religions practice shamanism, Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, and Jews, not all shamans are members of an organized religion.