Learning Shamanism

As I write on Thursday the 30th April in Oxfordshire at 12.40 it is absolutely slashing down with rain. We have had a week of unusually hot, dry weather which made everybody think Summer was on it's way - but no - it is April and it is Spring. The growing plants desperately needed the life giving rain. If memory serves me well it nearly always pours with rain in the southern UK at this precise time of year. For some reason the Monday nearest to May 1st is always a "bank" holiday in the UK and people set about having Spring Fairs and Fetes - and they are always a washout because it pisses down. I guess people never learn. But, joking apart, there is a genuine reason for the Spring Festival. It is more agricultural than hunter gatherer but it certainly pre-dates the Christian religion by many centuries. It is one of the 8 pre Christian festivals that Witches, Druids and Heathens celebrated when humanity was still (just about) in tune with nature and the natural cycle...

There are many things that the shamanic community will disagree on depending on their personal perspective and the tradition of the lineage they have chosen to follow. One of the most controversial subjects is - can you learn shamanism online? Well, apart from two obvious exceptions (soul retrieval and psychopomp - yes they are real things, look them up), I believe there is a lot to be gained from having some form of online teaching platform. Modern shamanism is a form of personal and spiritual development - some might even say it is a form of psychotherapy that you can work with by yourself. So, as a lot of modern world individuals have very limited or no access to genuine shamanic teachers in a live, workshop type setting - online teaching and an online community can fill a gap and help people to progress along their path. I am sure you will find numerous people offering online shamanic services if you look hard enough. I can only mention two such services here because they are o...

As I have mentioned in my previous posts - when you decide that you want to learn how to be a "Shamanic Person", it can be tricky deciding which path to go down. First thing to mention - You are NOT going to learn how to be an actual Shaman by going to workshops, going on retreats and doing online lessons. These will all help you to gain a shamanic view of the world and help you to grow and develop into what I call a "Shamanic Person". This is a person who has been born and raised in the industrialised, technological, agricultural, so called "civilised" world but doesn't really feel "at home" in it. To be a real Shaman you would have to serve a long, intense apprenticeship with a genuine shaman from a genuine indigenous tradition - not something that would be readily available to most of us. So, here is the first thing you have to beware of - don't be sucked in by any charismatic individual with a glossy website who claims to be a ...

So, why do you want to learn Shamanism? Might seem a dumb question as you have taken the trouble to read a blog called "Learning Shamanism" but I think the question is relevant to your quest. People have many different ideas about what Shamanism is - and indeed, it can be many different things. But if you are going to tread the path you ought to have a rough idea where it leads to and why you want to get there. Do you want magical powers, psychic awareness, knowledge of medicinal plants, experience of "non ordinary reality" or just plain old "enlightenment" - do you want to know the truth, the secret of life? It doesn't really matter which path you choose but you must be certain that it is a path with "heart" - it has to "feel" right for you. Rely on your intuition. For me the answer to the question was always a bit difficult - I really didn't know what I wanted from Shamanism. To begin with I didn't even know if it was ...

So, what is Shamanism? Well, despite having an "ism" on the end of it - it is NOT a "religion". Nor could you say it is a philosophy. So what is it? The answer will probably depend on where you learn about it and who you learn about it from - cryptic or what! I like to think of Shamanism as a "way of knowing" - a way to know the truth. Traditionally the Shaman was the "medicine man or woman" of an Animist tribe of hunter gatherers. He or she was "the wise one" - the healer, the teacher, the guide, the prophet and the one who could "talk" to the unseen spirit world. So to start with we have to look at Animism. For maybe 200,000 years all humans on planet Earth were Animists - they knew they were part of the natural world and they knew that all "things" had a certain level of consciousness. Stones, trees, animals, rivers, mountains, insects, clouds, fish, plants - everything was "conscious", everything ...

Hi there. Welcome to Learning Shamanism. This blog is going to document my learning journey into the world of Shamanism, Animism and related subjects. I have spent a lifetime studying spiritual subjects and spending hours in meditation. I have studied Buddhism (various schools), Vedanta, Taoism, Christianity, Raja Yoga and Sufism. Now it is the turn of Shamanism - I am retired from the rat race, so I have plenty of time to learn new things. But don't let the fact that you have a job or kids or other commitments put you off - anybody can incorporate the Shamanic way of thinking into there daily lives. I first learnt about Shamanism through the works of Carlos Castaneda many years ago but there was no practical way to learn the subject in those days unless one went to live with an indigenous tribe somewhere and got lucky enough to be accepted as a student by the local Shaman. These days it is very different and Shamanism is becoming almost "mainstream". This blog is m...