Since the initial wave of Western interest pushed shamanism to the fore, it has seen a massive rebirth as well as many modifications.
It has drawn innumerable spiritual searchers as well as increasing attention – and acceptance – from anthropologists, medical practitioners, psychologists, physicists, biologists, and therapists as it has grown more urban, global, and digitally linked.
Many westerners started to bring back what they had learnt from indigenous shamans, mostly in South America, and practice shamanism themselves in the 1970s and 1980s, conducting courses and workshops and establishing schools, centers, and foundations.
We now have a second generation of shamanic instructors all across the Western world thanks to these institutions.
- Traditional shamans and teachers from Mexico and South America began to travel to the United States and Europe to spread their teachings, while Hopi, Lakota, and Navajo elders and teachers sent increasingly urgent ecological messages to the world, attracting seekers and inspiring foundations, schools, and courses in the United States and Europe.
- In the 1990s, publications like Luisah Teish's Carnival of the Spirit, which exposed the world to the Yoruba sacred traditions, and Malidoma Somé's writings on the Dagara people brought African shamanism to the fore.
- Shamanism from the Far East, Tibet, and Nepal, which includes fascinating Buddhist components, has made its way into mainstream modern shamanism in the past 20 years or so.
- Australian Aboriginal instructors may now be found on social media and at conferences, while shamans and their teachings have grown more widely available in Mongolia and Siberia.
Parallel to this, many Western shamanic practitioners and instructors have been bringing groups of seekers to study from traditional shamans in different areas of the globe, while traditional shamans have been opening their doors to a growing number of individuals.
- This has now nearly reached the level of mass tourism, particularly in Mexico, the Amazon, and the Andes.
- We are now witnessing shamanism being incorporated into different movements and fields in diverse ways, adding to the mind-boggling variety.
- Shamanic cosmology has been integrated into the awareness movement.
- Ethnomedicine is becoming more popular throughout the globe. Shamanic ideas of human consciousness have been integrated into strands of transpersonal psychology.
- The Earth-based components have been widely embraced by the ecology movement.
- The modern world's interconnectedness is mirrored in contemporary shamanism's mixes and combinations, the intertwining of the ancient and the new.
Contemporary shamanism's characteristics
Because modern shamanism is such a mixed bag, it's difficult to describe it exactly, but we may compare it to traditional shamanism and learn about the parallels and contrasts, as most literature does.
- Western shamanic practitioners and instructors are not shamans in the classic sense (I prefer the word "shamanic practitioner" instead).
- They are neither descended from shaman lineages, nor have they undergone the deep initiation rituals and lengthy training periods that traditional shamans have through.
- They aren't part of traditional indigenous groups, therefore their work isn't grounded in "location and custom."
Western shamanic methods are more focused on the growth and healing of the individual, in accordance with the shift away from groups and toward the individual.
Despite this, much of the ancient shamanic methods' worldview, goals, and instruments are shared by modern shamanic approaches.
- They strive for completeness in the same way as traditional shamans do, concentrating on the integration of the mind/body with the soul/spirit and the entire person with the larger field of spirit.
- They also labor for the community, but in a broader sense or by establishing communities with a particular purpose, such as the numerous circles that exist locally across the Western world.
- They also use altered states to create a portal between realms, expand our awareness, and help us comprehend our own nature, all while returning us to a soul-centered way of existence that is linked to Earth, spirit, and the holy.
- In terms of working with spirits and spirit allies, as well as the usage of a wide variety of tools established within traditional shamanism, contemporary shamanism is similar to traditional shamanism.
- It incorporates myths, tales, and archetypal symbols, as well as trance dancing, vision quests, wilderness camps, lucid dreaming, natural hallucinogens, different energy healing methods, medicine wheel teachings, and other techniques.
Traditional shamans and contemporary shamanic practitioners and instructors both recognize that the teachings ultimately originate from spirit.
- Even if they are competent in their trade, excellent practitioners will always work with the aid of spirit, and effective teaching will enhance the student's spirit connection.
- We can use the vast knowledge that is increasingly being passed on to us by traditional shamans for our own healing and development, as long as we understand that shamanism is about spirit, soul, Earth, connection, consciousness, and community.
- The teachings and practices developed over millennia belong to us all, as they are derived from Earth and spirit, and we can use the vast knowledge that is increasingly being passed on to us by traditional shamans for our own healing and development.
- Contemporary shamanism is about discovering our own methods of integrating those important, timeless, and universal lessons into our life.
Our lives grow more enchanted, meaningful, purposeful, and genuine when we engage in shamanic practices, and we assume our proper positions as positive co-creators in the evolving flow of life, linked to and in harmony with spirit – and our own spirit.
You may also want to read more about Shamanism here.
Be sure to check out my writings on religion here.
