I think the common experience is that modern shamans are called by the spirits; we just don’t have a collective belief system or community that recognizes the calling for what it is.
Children arrive animists. They learn about life, themselves, and empathy by imagining the liveliness of everything they come into contact with.
Healing stories are magickal tales born from personal tribulation and victory, which are then shared.
When I say ‘practice’ I don’t mean repeating an act until you get it right. In this use, it means to instill regular discipline to accomplish a specific task, ritual without which we feel incomplete, or that our experience of each day is less.
A racist notion found in neoshamanic circles is placing high value on indigenous wisdom but not on indigenous people.
Even in woo woo circles, shamanism is the fringe of the fringe.
Phrases such as "I'm beside myself," "I was frightened to pieces," "I feel lost," "I feel like part of me is missing," originated from a sense of soul loss.
