Twelve Myths Of Modern American Shamanism- Part One
Perhaps it is my rebellious spirit warrior nature that questions everything. I don’t know if this is an asset or a detriment, but I do know that it often puts me out of the status quo of whatever circle I find myself in. I tend to think this questioning of authority, of the prescribed beliefs within our culture, is an emerging trend, motivated by deeper impulses to evolve, preserve human kind, and make the world a better place to be. The shamanic impulse is a big part of this emergence, and as we tear down structures and systems that are no longer working for us, we must find a way to build new ones. The temptation for some is to be suspicious and even critical of those things that challenge the 'way things are’, and as the shamanic impulse becomes stronger and more apparent in modern cultures, it’s not surprising that resistance and misunderstandings arise. Even within the shamanic community itself I have encountered a lack of understanding and an oppressive spirit that seems to want to tamp down the shamanic impulse. What’s motivating this is an entirely different essay. But for now let’s just assume that the shamanic impulse resurged in the United States only about 60 years ago. This is both 60 years young, and 60 years old. It’s not enough time to have clearly established an accessible authority and lineage, but is enough time to see generational change, a changing of the guards, and all the conflict that this potentially causes- the archetypal struggle of the individuating adolescent and the controlling parent.
While we will forever be grateful for those pioneers who heeded the shamanic impulse and faced all sorts of backlash from the over-culture to make the way for us, we’re also still sifting through to keep the pearls while allowing the less pure elements burn off. Some of those less pure elements are showing up here within the Twelve Myths of Modern American Shamanism.
Before I jump into the ‘Twelve Myths of Modern American Shamanism’ I need to point out that I am fully aware that the term “shaman” likely was derived from a very specific culture and language in North Asia. How I am using the term here is to speak of a universal archetype of the shaman, but within the specific context of how that role plays out exclusively in American (non-indigenous) culture. These myths are multi-layered, inter-related, and so complex. Please bear with me as I flush them out. Because I am not as succinct with language as I wish to be and I know time is a valuable commodity in American culture, I am going to break the twelve myths up into two articles.
1. “Real shamans” are rare.
Anytime I see the word “real” in front of a personal noun I know I’m likely dealing with a projection. I don’t really know what a “real shaman” is, because the “real” is always qualified by an individual’s own ideas about how that is defined. There has been a lot of talk and accusation about “plastic shamans”, who are people who allegedly appropriate the title of “shaman” for personal gain or advancement but haven’t really earned the title, or they’ve adopted practices from cultures other than their own and claim them as their own. I can’t deny this does happen, but it’s fairly easy to spot, and I am not convinced it occurs to such a degree that the majority of people calling themselves shamans are in this category. As long as we keep promoting this idea that shamans are rare, shamanism is not going to flourish. We need to empower and support the shamanic impulse, or it will indeed be rare. In fact, I don’t believe shamans are rare at all. I think we’ve just oppressed them for so long and to such a degree that they’ve gone into hiding, or may not even know that what they are experiencing is the shamanic initiation.
2. Shamans are mentally ill.
The Internet has undoubtedly shaped our modern culture, and has been used to spread information and ideas that have both been revolutionary and archaic, healing and injuring, sacred and profane. There’s a recent and profoundly influential article titled “What A Shaman Sees In A Mental Hospital”, by Stephanie Marohn. She cites the work of Dr. Malidoma Patrice Somé, who has long been a staple in soulful men’s communities. And if you’ve arrived at this article, you’re likely familiar with Stephanie’s article. Thousands of people have read it, discussed it, shared it. And it is a powerful article. Like much of Dr. Somé’s work, it exposes the Shadow of American over-culture in how it has treated it’s shamans, how we collectively have lost our soul. But a common misperception is that shamans are mentally ill. This may be a matter of semantics, but it’s necessary to be concise here because there is a crucial intersection between Western allopathic psychiatry and shamanism that is only going to become more pointed as time goes on.
A shaman doesn’t come from mental illness. They aren’t ‘born out of’ mental illness. Rather, there are distinct signs one is a shaman, symptoms if you will, and these can be misunderstood and mislabeled in modernized cultures as being “mental illness.” Furthermore, if not properly channeled and put to use, with the oppressive and downward social and cultural pressures on shamanic types, they can literally “go mad”, which is a pathological state of failed initiation. It is different than what most call “mental illness.” This is the shaman sickness. It comes from not following one’s soul path. In this way of understanding it is the not the shaman who is sick, but the culture the shaman is in.
3. Shamans don’t exist in non-indigenous America, or white Americans can’t be shamans.
This idea seems to come from the belief that “real shamans” can only live in indigenous or animistic cultures and that anything different from that is “less than” and “not as powerful.” This idea both influenced and was perpetuated by Lisa Aldred’s article published in The American Indian Quarterly in 2000 (“Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances: New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality”). The argument is that European immigrants (‘white people’) who claim to be shamans are nothing more than ‘New Age’ wannabes who perpetuate a false shamanism of ‘love and light.’ I’ll address the accusation of cultural appropriation below, as it’s intricately related, but we need to first come to understanding about this idea that no one from a white European ancestry can be a shaman.
One fundamental myth of this argument is that all Western shamans are coming from a ‘New Age’ belief system and do not understand shamanism, but are just using the title in a trendy culture of spiritual exploitation. I have sat in many shamanic circles with genuine people who by all signs have experienced profound shamanic initiations. I will speak to this within some of the other myths, but I would argue that in every segment of society, in every system and path, there are individuals who are frauds, who are exploitive, who are hypocrites. So I would expect to find these types in the shamanic culture as well. But I suspect these people are actually rare, and there are far less of them than the genuine thing. Judging an entire movement or group by one or two obvious imposters is never a wise thing to do.
I also suspect part of this argument is motivated by this idea that Americans, as the great melting pot of the world, have a break in ancestral lineage that has been significantly tainted by colonialism. Indeed, in our current political climate the ‘white man’ has been called out as the enemy of humankind. But if the very wound of American culture is a loss of ancestral connection, and the soul of American identity has been tragically sold out to colonialism, capitalism, consumerism, then it makes little sense why we would not encourage healing through a reconnection to our ancestral roots and a resurgence through our shamanic lineages. To say American culture is flawed, dis-eased, poisoned, but then to criticize efforts to heal and restore is not in the spirit of the sacred- it actually seeks to make and keep American culture profane.
The truth is, non-indigenous America as we know it today is a young 250 years. Culturally, we are new kids on the block, still in our infancy. Yet, as with all of North America, we have a painful history of individual and cultural atrocity in our colonialist conquest. We are still clearing the karma from this, collectively. But as individuals we must do the work within our own ancestral lineages. It is through this work and through our restoration of our relationships with the First Peoples that healing can be manifest. In this way, as Malidoma Somé’s revelation of how American culture treats it’s shamans was a powerful revealer of our cultural Shadow, Standing Rock proved to be a powerful revealer of the Shadow in how we treat the indigenous people, and revealed the complete rejection of the archaic impulse that colonialism indoctrinated us into. The two things- the shamanic impulse and the archaic impulse- are like two sides of the same coin. And so as Western shamanism resurges, it’s expected that these sociopolitical issues will emerge and the Native American cultures will backlash.
But this myth in particular seems to be intricately tied to the Shadow side of the First People’s cultural wound. It promotes an anger, an unforgiveness, a profane view of the white man as being incapable of having a soul or of reclaiming the soul in a way that is sacred and honorable. One of the things Standing Rock potentially offered us was the common meeting ground, where holy men, elders, shamans, from all cultures could come together in unity against the oppression and toxicity of the colonialist mindset. We just need to continue in this work and resist the temptation to stereotype individuals and even subcultures on the basis of the over-culture narratives. We still have healing to do. And let us have grace with one another in this process.
4. Native Americans are the only shamans in America and if you’re not Native you’re culturally appropriating.
This myth sounds so similar to the last one that they could almost be the same. Except that the underlying assumption of this myth is that Native Americans comprise a single culture and that they have the role of shaman. The First Peoples are represented by many, many tribes, each with their own language, culture, ceremonies. To clump them all into one is not honoring of them. And while nearly all the Native American cultures were animistic, they didn’t necessarily have shamans. The tribal chiefs and elders are often misrepresented as shamans. Or the 'holy men' are confused with shamans.
Cultural appropriation happens, and when it does it’s a grievous offense. But we have to be honest here- there’s a difference between stealing something that isn’t yours to pass it off as your own, and adopting something because it resonates with you and you want to honor it. Again, the further I travel down my own shamanic path the more this distinction between the sacred and the profane becomes obvious. Being on a shamanic path I have had the opportunity to experience a variety of ceremonies representing many different cultural traditions, some facilitated by individuals native to those cultures, and some facilitated by non-natives who learned from natives, and some handed down through multiple translations. It was all sacred, because WE are the sacred.
In the United States we have lost a lot of our ancestral ceremonies, our traditions. It was the sacrifice our immigrant ancestors made so they could integrate into their American lives. And yet bits and pieces of these traditions remain, and collectively start to meld and take on their own quality. There’s no more visceral example than looking at an American food menu- it’s decidedly American yet has obvious roots in many different cultures. So I would suggest that the lines of cultural appropriation come down to intent, respect, and honor. And in shamanic work, where the mundane and profane is made sacred, it’s difficult to find any real cultural appropriation going on in my opinion. There’s question about who owns culture anyway, and why people become offended that a non-native is gleaning certain aspects of their culture and reinterpreting that. I understand there’s a desire to keep traditions pristine, the lineage strong. But the culture of America is that of a melting pot, and as politically unpopular as my insight is, I think America is not all bad in terms of how we integrate. Our way of integrating and accommodating many cultural traditions to create something new is remarkable, and the more we promote rigidity in our distinct cultural expressions, the less unity we may be likely to achieve. Coming from a lineage of Irish immigration, I personally find it quintessential American that on St. Patrick’s day my first-generation Mexican immigrant neighbors are throwing back some green-tinted cervezas.
And so should American shamanism look or feel any different than American culture? Some would argue that St. Patty’s Day, like most American celebrations, is disconnected from it’s roots, and has become a profane example of American consumerism. And maybe so. But remember, it is we who are responsible for making the profane sacred. So if the shamans in the United States who have Celtic lineage or interest in Celtic shamanism want to gather to celebrate Samhain, or honor St. Patrick in ceremonious ways, why shouldn’t they? Let them teach us to restore the sacred. Denying this work on the basis of cultural or racial identity would be contributing to maintaining the profane. Promoting the belief that only Native Americans can be shamans is not promoting a path of healing. And integration can be a painful process. Let us undertake it with dignity, grace, and an eye on the sacred.
5. There’s no lineage for shamanism in the West.
I addressed this briefly above, but this deserves more refined understanding, because it’s a popular myth that shamanism can only come from an unbroken lineage, handed down, and that there’s no lineage in America. The problem is that if we adopt this belief, then we must believe there can never be shamans in America because shamans aren’t made in vacuums. In truth, a broken lineage does not mean a non-existent lineage. It simply means we must identify and restore the lineage, and also respect that it will be uniquely American. Because America is the melting pot we have an incredibly rich heritage of tradition, and this can be refined even down to historical era and village. With open access to DNA testing and ancestry research services we can easily trace our DNA ancestry back for centuries. And then there’s the soul DNA, which is an entirely different matter. While the belief in reincarnation is not universally shamanic, connecting with the Spirits is. And so whether one is experiencing “past lives”, or elders and ancestors, or spirit guides, information and teaching can come through that is not necessarily tied to the material DNA lineage. This way of learning is directly from the Spirits, and is distinct from the learning that comes from ancestral research or learning from an elder in a particular tradition. I’ve had many experiences in the spiritual realms of regional African shamanism, of regional South American shamanism, insights into Native American cultural traditions and animistic ways of being, into Chinese and Japanese warrior cultures, which I didn’t learn through academic study and wasn’t pursuing through a known physical DNA line. So ultimately, whatever culture a shaman is in, it’s the Spirits who are the teachers, and the Spirits don’t care about “broken lineages.”
But the culture a shaman is in acts like a lens through which the work is filtered. And it’s hard to disentangle from that. In American culture I would suggest we do have a universal lineage, or lens. Our lineage for understanding shamanism, the role of the shaman, the process of initiation and elderhood includes powerhouses like depth psychologist Carl Jung. This lineage speaks to the ‘hero’s journey’, the quest to individuate, and to know “self.” It is distinctly western, and it forms and directs the archetypal shamanic expression in American culture. There are other strong branches in the western shamanic tree, which have formed the shamanic cosmology, and provide structure to the practice of shamanism in America. Many of these branches have been suppressed or made occult.
I have many shamanic elders/mentors, some of whom do not even know who I am. Hopefully this will change as the shamanic impulse increases and there will be enough shamans in America to offer one-on-one apprenticeships. But the point is, the lineage is there. And the idea that shamans can never exist in America because there’s no lineage or framework for the role in American culture is a myth.
6. The tribe chooses the shaman.
This myth is again tied to culture, and comes from the understanding of how a shaman is selected within tribal societies. In some cultures the shaman is chosen through lineage. In other cultures through specific external signs and proclamations of what those signs means. In some cultures it is the elder shaman who decides who the apprentice will be. In some cultures it is the chief, or tribal leader. In some it is the midwives. In some it is the collective community. And some use a mixture of these confirmations. So shamanistic cultures are incredibly diverse and there is no single way a shaman is identified. However, one thing that is distinctly different in tribal cultures is that there tends to be a distinct community process in deciding and/or confirming a shamanic initiate.
There are several things we have to keep in mind when we’re trying to fit a tribal model to our nuclear family model. First, our over-culture has not yet established the legitimacy of the shamanic role in our communities. In many tribes not having a shaman is like a death sentence. So someone has to be the shaman. This isn’t so in America, and many shamans in America are struggling to achieve legitimacy of their roles. Secondly, we don’t live in communal or tribal arrangements. Our community roles are not delineated with the community mindset, but are motivated out of our self-individuation. A teacher becomes a teacher because she has identified this is how she wants to serve, and she has put in all the effort to achieve that status. The system collectively validates this through defined processes, but it’s all an externalized confirmation. American culture is devoid of the connection with Spirit and soul. In many tribal societies things are decided by ‘signs’ and how these intersect with the Spirit world. In these cultures it isn’t just the exclusive work of the shaman to be connected with Spirit, but all the people in the tribe have connection and understanding. We have to acknowledge this important distinction between animistic and rational materialist cultures. There is no way in a rational materialist culture that is driven by self-determination that shamans will be identified by the same processes used in animistic tribal societies. If shamans in America wait around for others in their communities to confirm for them they are shamans, it may never happen. And so again, perpetuating this myth only ensures that the shamanic impulse gets squashed down before it can manifest itself into a path of service.
For Part Two of this article click here.
