Twelve Myths of Modern American Shamanism- Part Two
For the sake of brevity I broke this article into two parts. The first part can be found here.
7. Shamans look or act a certain way, and Americans don’t look or act like shamans.
Again, this is another myth driven by a faulty expectation that shamans in America need to be just like shamans in other cultures. Can you imagine taking your dog for a walk in your suburban neighborhood and seeing this man walking down the street? I would be excited, but I imagine that the average American would not have those feelings. Many people, because of the Christian overtones in American culture would be fearful, and ideas around witchcraft, sorcery, witch doctors, human sacrifice, would fill the mind.
The costumery of the shaman is highly culturally specific and it communicates something. But this type of eccentricity is scarcely tolerated in American culture, nor is it necessary in our culture. Even in the American shamanic culture our rational materialist minds want to look at the above shaman and conclude that his eccentricity is evidence of his power and is a visual example of how mundane and powerless Western shamans are. In truth, this again comes down to the differences between animistic and rational materialist cultures. In animistic cultures objects themselves have spirits, are living things. So wearing jaguar teeth gives you the power of the jaguar- literally. Whereas those of us on the shamanic path in Western cultures understand our power as originating from within us, with the external being only an effigy, an outward example of the internal. I have a medicine bag. But I can leave it at home and still wield the shamanic power, because as a Western shaman, I understand the power is within me, and my bag is just a reminder, an external touchpoint that takes me back inward. I don’t need it to be able to do the work. So judging one’s shamanic power by external features alone, while it is typically American, does not reveal an accurate picture. If I truly revealed my power external to me I promise you I would scare a lot of people and would have the police called on me.
But more than just the costumery, I think it’s imperative to also discuss the traditions, behaviors, and personality constructs of shamanic types. I’ve talked enough about traditions that hopefully it’s clear how cultural these things really are and how unrealistic it is to assume American shamanism will look anything like Siberian shamanism, or Guatemalian shamanism. So now I want to turn briefly to personality type, because when we step out of the lens of cultural expression, there does remain a universal archetype that transcends culture. This archetype not only delineates the path of the shaman (initiation, descent, death, rebirth, etc.), which is likely the same narrative in every culture, it also delineates the specific personality aspects of the larger shamanic archetype and how those play out into the role. Our lack of understanding about the fullness of the shamanic archetype leads to all sorts of assumptions about what a “real shaman” is. I can’t tell you how many times people have assumed that because I am a shaman I am 1) a Native American, or was taught by one, 2) an herbalist, 3) a connection to get them ayahuasca. The truth is, there are many different types of shamans with different specialties, and different expressions. Just as no two people are alike, no two shamans are alike. And even regionally there will be differences. A shaman in the Appalachian mountains will not look or act like a shaman in New York City.
8. Shamans and healers aren’t the same thing.
This is a new one for me, as I heard it for the first time the other day. I think I understand the basis of the belief, but it seems misguided to me. If I am correct, then the assumption is that a shaman has a distinct role that is different than the role of a healer. I do agree with this. But the misunderstanding is in the seeming assumption that the outcome is separate from the process. Being a “healer” is being connected to the outcome- healing. A healer heals. And so hairstylists can be healers, tattoo artists can be healers, psychotherapists can be healers, spiritualists can be healers, or hypnotists can be healers. Of course a shaman is a healer! But yes, how a shaman works is distinctly different, and the type of services a shaman offers is distinct to shamanism. We could really say the same thing about many aspects of shamanism though- a shaman and a medium are not the same, or a shaman and a psychic, or mystic, or oracle, or channel. A shaman possesses psychic abilities, mediumship skills, acts as an oracle, a prophet, and yet has a distinct method and path that separates the shamanic path from the path of other spiritual workers.
But this idea that a shaman isn’t a healer becomes especially oppressive in a culture where a central common facet of the shamanic archetype is the Wounded Healer. Once again, the cultural prescription is evident. In communal societies individuals have very little drive towards self-individuation. So within such a culture a shaman has little sense of “self”, of “ego”, of “shadow”, and the concept of self-healing does not translate through the cultural lens. But in American culture the shamanic path is likely to involve a significant amount of self-healing as part of the initiation phase of the process, because our collective lineage is in the healing arts, in psychotherapy, and particularly in the drive towards introspection and self-analysis. In American culture it is crucial for the shaman to be “hollow bone”, or that is, significantly healed before entering into shamanic service in the community. They must be adequately individuated in order to incarnate the fullness of the shamanic archetype, because in American culture this is where the shamanic power derives from- the completed individuation and the alliances with the Spirits.
Many shamanic types end up calling themselves “healers” because the pressure within the shamanic community to NOT use the title “shaman” is so oppressive and young initiates are not yet in their power enough to know with absolute certainty what they are. So making this distinction seems misguided and isn’t in the spirit of encouraging shamanic initiates to step out into service.
9. Real shamans walk on water.
This myth is based on the deification of the shamanic power. It is a pervasive and common myth, even within the shamanic community where shamanic types are judging one another on some external factors. People erroneously assume that a shaman ceases to be a human being and adopts a super-human persona. Sentiments claiming Jesus was a shaman only reinforce this idea that being shaman means having super-human abilities, and shamans should be free from the mundane and petty aspects of human life. I am not sure where this myth originated from, because anthropological study and evidence has certainly shown that shamans are quite often caught up in revenge/assault shamanism, sexual assault, and alcoholism. Portrayals of shamans such as in Embrace of the Serpent demonstrate the often petty and human side of shamanic individuals.
In truth, Westernized cultures are incredibly complex, oppressive, and are full of sorcery. In these ways Western shamans must work harder to remain in their power and do so with integrity. We have to continuously combat the sorcery coming through every channel in our culture, to fight and hold space for the sacred, retrieve souls and anchor them in. So in a lot of ways the standards are higher for Western shamans because we are surrounded by sorcery and the temptation to fall into sorcery looms large. The initiation process can be arduous and full of many significant events and trials, all intended by the Spirits to purify and prepare the shaman. These trials aren’t meant to be neat and pretty. They are hard, terrifying, dismembering, assaultive. And human responses are expected. Shamans fall into their fear. They become depressed, burdened, lonely. They suffer injury, dis-ease. They make mistakes. Even so, miracles can and do happen through the shamanic service. But even in eldership, while the shaman may be wise, have impeccability, integrity, they’re still human and still in a learning process. The shaman is different than most people, but they’re not super-human or above human responses. If we continue to perpetuate the idea that people have to be super-human to be shamans then we aren’t going to encourage shamanism, because no one is likely to ever achieve that. In my shamanic path I have yet to arrive at a point where I said, “I have arrived and now I can stop.” I am continuously learning. And every client who honors me with this work teaches me.
10. Calling yourself a shaman is bragging.
I’ve heard a couple different arguments as to why shamans in America should call themselves “shamanic practitioners” and not “shamans.” One of those arguments is that it invites attack, and the other is that it’s considered bragging and a shaman can lose their power. As with every myth discussed thus far, this too is a belief inextricable from animistic culture. In animistic cultures a shaman doesn’t need to call himself anything. Just look at their attire- it says it all! But living in a small tribal organization, it’s not problematic to identify who the shaman are. So this idea of “bragging” comes from ideas that the shaman holds a higher position, or believes he holds a higher position than others in the tribe. Of course this would be considered offensive, even in Western culture! But the difference is that we have no designated costumery, we don’t live in small communal organization, and we don’t have a process whereby the shaman is clearly identified. So if you’re a shaman in America, how are people going to know you are a shaman unless you are identifying yourself? The self-identification generally isn’t motivated out of grandiosity or a sense of superiority, but out of a desire to be of service.
The distinction between “shaman” and “shamanic practitioner” is unnecessary. There is no difference, in my experience, between what a shaman and what a shamanic practitioner does or can do. The shamanic practitioner generally wants to appear humble and be accepted by the peer culture, which maintains this pressure over the title. But it’s my opinion that this is a false humility, because it seeks to appear humble through the strategic use of a title qualifier, when the work is essentially the same. To say one is “practicing” is to say one has not yet arrived in fullness, that one is still a student. But at which point does one decide they have arrived and are no longer a student? Does the shamanic practitioner ever graduate to become the shaman? And if we’re going to talk about power, then a shamanic practitioner who is not in his/her full power shouldn’t really be practicing anything, in my opinion. Shamanic work is serious work. If you’re not fully ready to be doing shamanic work, then you shouldn’t be doing it. Continuing this oppressive labeling and distinction between “shaman” and “shamanic practitioner” is serving to distract us from the work and has the opposite effect really because it decreases the shamanic power in the Western cultural expression of shamanism.
11. Shamanism is a career choice.
Shamanism, as expressed through a universal archetypal soul expression, is not a career choice. I have encountered people within the shamanic community who seem to approach it as if they are in a buffet line and are picking the most attractive item. Thank the Spirits this is rare! I know I run the risk of being accused of being a hypocrite here, but this is just not my experience of how “real shamanism” works. Shamans are defined by specific experiences, contexted in specific ways, and through specific signs. These signs are culturally defined, but they are essential for defining a shaman as a specific type of healer who works in specific ways. These signs and the experiences are things outside of our ordinary control. So the path is different than deciding to be a teacher and going to college to actualize that. No one actually decides to be a shaman. The shamanic path is incredibly difficult. It is full of pain, loss, trauma, dis-ease, spiritual warfare, torment. These are the very things that qualify the shaman. So these aren’t things we willingly choose, at least not on a conscious ego level. These initiations and tests are the things that shape us, teach us, prepare us. But they are more indications of a soul path than a career path. My experience of being on a shamanic path has not been like looking forward and deciding it’s what I want to be, but more like looking back and saying, “Holy shit, that’s what that was?!” I definitely didn’t choose it. It chose me. And I think this is the universal experience of shamans the world over.
That being said, I’ve also encountered the opposite myth- that attending shaman school or weekend workshops doesn’t make one a shaman. Having been in many circles in many different formats I can confidently say that I’ve rarely met a person enrolled in a shaman school who believed taking a course or workshop was going to make them a shaman. Many people are curious about shamanism, and they take a workshop or two to increase their understanding and empower themselves in their self-healing path. But they have no intention of ever being in a shamanic role, or serving in their community in that capacity. And of those who come to the workshops with the intention of serving as shamans in their communities, they come to the workshops already having endured significant initiations and they are taking workshops to build supportive community, and to gain a foundation or context for their practice. These people already know who they are. It’s not surprising that many of the people I have encountered in shamanic schools are practicing psychotherapists. I think chaplaincy and psychotherapy are the two professional careers in Western cultures that attract shamanic types, and they often end up in those roles because there was no clear path for shamanic apprenticeship. So many of these people are already on the soul path, but need the practical and technical skills to put their shamanic gifts to service.
12. Shamans shouldn’t charge a fee.
Over and over I have encountered this myth. It is based on this idea that healing should be free, and the argument is often clouded with shaming- that shamans have been freely given their gifts, so it’s unethical to charge money for services. I’ve even heard people say that we should be wary of shamans who charge because they’re impure and motivated by money. Shamanic work is incredibly difficult. It demands a high level of skill. It’s dangerous, and it’s a life path work with no real boundaries on time. Shamans don’t get to ‘clock out’, and in actuality, even sleep offers no real boundary as a significant amount of work occurs even during dream time. So one hour of time face-to-face with a client can result in four or more hours of work around that single session. In some indigenous cultures the shaman would have the patient move in with them for a 10–14 day period during which the shaman would dedicate his time to observing the patterns and behaviors of the patient, and would do the work. In fact, shamanic work is so valuable in shamanic cultures that being a shaman is a designated role- a full-time job. Again, the shamanic role is not coveted because of the difficulty of the work and the long and dangerous initiation process. But the shaman is always well taken care of within the tribe.
Money is a representation of energy. We need it as an exchange- coming in and going out. Because money is how we exist within American culture, it really only makes sense that a shaman needs to ask for money in exchange for the time and work for the client. The idea that a shaman should work a full-time job and then contain a shamanic practice outside of this schedule and offer services for free is completely ignorant of what shamans do and how incredibly intense that is.
Besides, there’s something to be said about investment. Proper exchange not only honors the work and the shaman, it seats the healing in important ways that benefit the client. So shaming shamans or discouraging people from seeking services from shamans because they are expected to pay for them only serves to delegitimize the shamanic role. It won’t encourage the shamanic impulse, and not because people are motivated solely by money, but because people can’t sustain their lives with no money and won’t be able to dedicate themselves to the shamanic path. This is why so many shamanic types end up as psychotherapists or chaplains. There’s nothing wrong with this, but a psychotherapist or a chaplain is not a shaman. They may have the impulse, the gifts, the soul shape, the distinct journey through initiation, descent, death, rebirth, etc. but if they’re not actually doing the spiritual work, they’re not really in the role of shaman. There are many, many initiates in American culture who never make it to fulfill the community role. It’s time this changes.
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