Communal Shamanism

By Nixiwaka Stirling, for Kosmos Online

On Shamanism

One of the most ubiquitous and over-used words in modern times is shaman. Before we try to unpack the concept and better understand why it seems to be such a relevant and sticky idea, I would like to propose the following distinctions within the terminology: A shaman is a person born into an Indigenous society, who has the gift of communicating with the Spirit world in an altered state, using any array of techniques available to achieve this state. A shaman directs and moves energy to restore harmony within the individual, between the individual and the community, and between the community and the Spirit world.

Shamanism is a Western, conceptual construct developed to describe an understanding of the noticeable parallels between modern practices similar to the practices of a traditional Indigenous shaman. Shamanic is an adjective used to draw attention to noticeable cultural elements such as myth, folklore, art and spiritual activity that can be associated with various motifs found among the diverse peoples of the world in various forms of shamanism.”

The fact is that the most authentic tribal shaman would not know that he was practicing a thing called ‘shamanism’, a word invented by Western academics, to classify the least comprehensible practices of Indigenous Peoples. Shamanism is a modern Western conceptual construct, developed out of comparative anthropology. Surviving Indigenous ‘shamanic’ traditions will continue interacting with Spirits in their own unique ways, whatever arguments may transpire in the academic world about how a certain Siberian word, shaman, may apply to them. Being asked to describe shamanism is like being asked to describe the impossible or the unknown.

Very few modern healers will define themselves as ‘shamans’, simply because they are aware of the historical and socio-cultural background consorted by the term. However, they realise that there is some kind of equivalence between their own practices and those of shamans from ancient times. They realise that they are the grandchildren of the early ancestors and may access the same knowledge pool through what Rupert Sheldrake called the morphogenic field, or what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious. The experiential shamanic ceremonies and rituals being held today, by guides, ceremonial leaders, sangomas, medicine men/women, curandeiros, curandeiras, pajes etc. in many parts of the world use the same tools as were used many generations ago. These tools are timeless. They are tools handed down through many lineages from person to person.

Although an aspect of shamanism is accessing altered states, one obviously does not have to be a shaman to access an altered state. The place of the shaman is to understand the altered state and be able to travel there at will, using techniques made available to him in his particular setting on this planet. This may be drumming, dancing, ingesting plants, singing, or an array of other techniques. He seeks to teach the individual how to heal themselves, by observing the moment, by being able to see alternate realities that may be affecting the individual. An important observation about shamanism is that the shaman knows that we are not alone. This means that when one human being compassionately works to relieve the suffering of another, the spirits are interested and become involved.

Since shamanism is not a religion as such, but rather a spiritual practice or method, it cuts across all faiths and creeds, reaching deep levels of ancestral memory. As a primal knowing system, which precedes all established religion, it has its own symbolism and cosmology, inhabited by deities, gods, and totems. Shamanism is not a belief system. It is based on experiential ceremonies conducted to heal, to get information, or do other things. It is a knowing system. The shaman works with what he knows, what he experiences, not what he is told to believe. He interacts with the spiritual deities. He does not have to believe in them, he knows them and co-operates with them to bring healing to a specific situation. They do not control him. This is very important to understand because shamanism is not a system of faith.

Probably all formalised religions began from ancient shamanic roots and still carry the shamanic threads of profound connection to the divine in all things. Shamanism is a group of activities and experiences shared by shamans in cultures around the world. The practices are adaptable and co-exist with different cultures. Shamanism has always adapted to suit the particular society it serves. It is not an ancient system, although it existed in ancient times. It is a system that works now as well as it did when our ancestors practiced it.

Is Shamanism Relevant to Today’s Crisis?

My introduction to shamanism was through a series of dramatic events in my life, which cracked my existing belief system and opened me to understanding the world from a different perspective. It was more a journey of unfoldment than an introduction. Self-knowledge is achieved through experience and effort. It took a long time to shift my assemblage points from the system that I had been indoctrinated into by my Western schooling and surrounding influences of my peers. It took time to even understand that the practice that I was being drawn to was not a belief and thus not a religion. My interest in the path of shamanism was provoked by the disintegration of my personal life as I knew it, and a reconstruction of my reality from experience. This is a common motif among those awakened to the path of shamanism.

So what do we achieve in shamanic type gatherings such as drumming, sacred dance, sweat lodges, vision quests, fire ceremonies, sacred plant ceremonies, traditional sangoma practices, Native American rituals and many other earth- and plant-based technologies of producing altered states of awareness? How is it beneficial to us? Why do we do it?

Having participated in many ceremonies and rituals I can speak from experience that these types of ceremonies are helping to shift the consciousness of humans, non humans and the planet at large in significant ways. One of the most important ways this is happening is through the healing and balance that ceremony brings to the community or group of people who gather together. As organized religion also understands, the act of congregation allows congeals common ideals and purposes. It also allows for community dialogue and the deepening of relationships and spiritual bonds. This happens within container of deep personal healing for the individuals involved. When one has the space to still the mind and focus on oneself, we are able to heal traumas from our childhoods and other karmic entanglements.

The group also grows in strength with experience. As members of a particular shamanic group grow to know and trust one another, so the power of their healing ability for one another in ceremonies is increased. Relationship and reciprocity of relations is integral to this cosmology and way of life.

A foundation of shamanic knowledge is that we are caretakers of the Earth and that we have to return ourselves to an Original Wisdom that is already within us. A key aspect of this is that part of our purpose is to achieve healing within the sacred container of ceremonies for the benefit of all sentient beings, all our relations and the planet itself.

This is especially true in the face of our modern existential crises of ecological destruction, climate change, mass poverty, skyrocketing inequality, perpetual war, corporate capitalism, hyper-consumption and the on-going imperialism of dominant nation states. The Cree Nation and many other First Nations of Turtle Island (now called North America) saw the root of these behaviors in a mind-virus that was transferred from the colonialist cultures of Europe to the rest of the world. Martin Kirk and Alnoor Ladha describe the wetiko nature of our modern operating system as such: “Its insatiable hunger for finite resources; its disregard for the pain of groups and cultures it consumes; its belief in consumption as savior; its overriding obsession with its own material growth; and its viral spread across the surface of the planet. It is wholly accurate to describe neoliberal capitalism as cannibalizing life on this planet. It is not the only truth—capitalism has also facilitated an explosion of human life and ingenuity — but when taken as a whole, capitalism is certainly eating through the life-force of this planet in service of its own growth.” They then go on to point to the solution: “A key lesson of meme theory is that when we are conscious of the memetic viruses we are less likely to adhere to them blindly. Conscious awareness is like sunlight through the cracks of a window. Thus, one of the starting points for healing is the simple act of ‘seeing wetiko’ in ourselves, in others, and in our cultural infrastructure.”

This is part of the reason why shamanism is such a critical path and toolkit for widespread healing on this planet. It is an approach that helps us reclaim our relationship to ourelves, to our community and to Mother Earth simultaneously, helping to dispel the wetiko virus. It conjures up the antidote spirits. The very spirits and deities that assist the shaman in the ceremonies are part of the benevolence forces of this planet, and when done with honor and care, the spirits, plants and animals join forces in helping to create the New Earth.

Communal Shamanism

One of the shadow sides of shamanic work can be the lionization of the host or facilitator, the shaman becomes hero. I believe that the type of shamanism that relies on a single, charismatic, usually male, alpha figure has the tendency to replicate the same type of hierarchy, patriarchy and commodifcation that has created our collective civilizational crisis. What is required is a new type of approach that embraces the entire community, sees all of those involved as healers, and provides a safe container for inner and collective transformation.”

Every person who participates in a ceremony is an intricate part of the evolutionary process. Rather than approaching the shaman as the sole healer, it is the communities unity and focus together with the ceremonial host that produces healing, as the group achieves heightened states of awareness with the support and assistance of their peers. This is the core of Communal Shamanism, and I believe this will be one of the key antigens to the wetiko mind virus that has mutated into late-stage capitalism.

Shamanism has a way of making complicated things quite simple. The solutions to many of our seemingly complicated problems – both collective and personal – are actually very simple. Take care of your body, take care of the Earth, take care of your family, friends, children and relatives, honour our ancestors, be useful, be generous, accept abundance as the nature of things, trust the universe, and strive to be conscious and aware of the fact that we co-exist on this planet with a multitude of other beings on the physical and spiritual levels.

In a shamanic view the future will unfold to create the past in the present as it has for millennia and no human, ancestor, demi-god or god will change that. The being that we label as God with a capital G is better described as a living being that is the cosmos, the Great Spirit, the life force of all beings, and it is unfolding through us. As Ram Das says, “The Universe is perfect, including my desire to change it.” We are the evolutionary process unfolding through itself and unto itself. And although our culture and superstructure have made us all carriers of wetiko to a certain extent, we are also all carriers of an ancient way of knowing that is increasingly being remembered one community at a time with every ceremony and with the calling of every sacred circle.

Aho Mitake Yasun (To all my relations)

Nixiwaka Stirling is a Sangoma, a traditional African healer trained in the Zulu and Xhosa traditions. He also works within the Red Path of North America and Amazonian medicine traditions. He is the co-founder of Pachamama Forest Healing Center in Knysna, South Africa, where he is based.

An original version of this article appeared on Nixiwaka.co.za in April 2014.