The Shaman: a Healer for the Modern World.

Shamanism is a spiritual practice that is indigenous to almost every region in the world. While the word shaman owes its origins to the Manchu-Tungas shamanic tradition, shamanism in its broader sense of the term has been practiced the world over for centuries. Northern European practitioners of seidr, native American medicine men, as well as fakirs, sages, and ascetics the world over, have all made use of meditation, trances, and spiritual ecstacies to expand their consciousness and cultivate greater spiritual understanding. It is this broader sense of the word shamanism that I wish to elucidate in terms of worldview and spiritual practice.

In the modern world, institutional religious practice and almost ideologically organized rituals have displaced much of the authentic spiritual practices associated with shamanism. This fact is very much apparent among the major Abrahamic faiths where traditional dogmas and hierarchies often take primacy over the authentic spiritual practice. As a result of this, practices linked to shamanism are marginalized, and practitioners shunned by mainstream society. With this said, there has been a resurgence in interest in shamanic practices and the spiritual roots of humanity in recent years. Likewise, the concept of the shaman and the necessity of it as a social role has been rediscovered.

The modern-day shaman stands at the crossroads between worlds: past and future, mind and spirit, divine and mundane; it is their knowledge of these aspects of life and their ability to traverse…