What is Shamanism - Spirit Medicine

What is Shamanism?

Shamanism has come to mean both traditional and contemporary earth-based spiritual and healing practices. In traditional cultures, the shaman is the person who specializes bridging the world of spirit and the world of the physical so that others can come into alignment and harmony with the natural world, with themselves and with others. Shamanism recognizes the world of spirit, honours all the worlds of Grandmother earth and shows us how to bridge these two worlds. Shamanism is the ancient knowledge of how to live: in balance – in all of our five aspects; in harmony – within and without, and; in beauty – of our shining and our dream. In contemporary societies, shamanism can be a spiritual path, a path of healing and an alternative to psychotherapy.

What are the Core Beliefs of Shamanism?

Everything is energy. Everything is alive. Everything has spirit.

Spirit precedes the physical.

Everything is part of an intricate puzzle that we call the universe. Everything is interrelated and interdependent.

We are spirits in bodies. This means that that our essential nature is as spirit. The body is the temple that holds our spirit while we are on the earth-plane. This does not make the body simply the container for our spirit but also the vehicle for our evolution.

Shamanism recognizes and celebrates that we live in a cosmos where everything is alive and a form of manifest spirit. We are all part of an intricate puzzle, and together with all the worlds of grandmother earth, we make a whole.

You have a sacred dream. You are a unique individual who brings to this world a distinctive gift (notice I didn’t say special or better). No one can replace you nor your gift. The world needs your special gift and if you for whatever the reason don’t find or give the world this gift, the world is seriously lacking for it. It is one of the true purposes of your spirit incarnating at this time to find and manifest this gift.

What does shamanism mean to you?