Learning shamanism can be difficult when you live in a culture where it is not very widespread. I was fortunate enough to have been raised in a family that retained its shamanic heritage, but we did lose many ceremonies over the last 100 years. As a result, I too have had to "reintroduce" many practices into my spiritual life. The temptation to borrow from another culture can be great, but we MUST look carefully at each practice before we adapt them. Some of these ceremonies and rituals are rather generic, existing in many other cultures, but others are unique to specific peoples and to copy these rituals would be to violate their sacred nature.

      A while ago I got an e-mail from a fellow who was interested in shamanism. Over the course of the letter he mentioned that he and a few of his friends had recently "done a Sun-dance". The Sundance is a ceremony that requires a thorough understanding of the Plains Indian culture that cannot be completely understood by outsiders. It would take years of exposure to a culture to even begin to understand the mechanics involved, and many more before it could be fully understood. Suddenly I was angry, this guy had just gone through the motions of a ceremony sacred to another culture and he didn't have a clue about the social or spiritual meanings tied to it. He had simply heard about it and though it would be cool to do.

      All too often I see people who are just beginning to learn shamanism resort to what can only be called "Cultural Theft". Cultural theft is when a person adopts specific ceremonies and spiritual practices from native cultures and assume that we can make them our own. This is a form of cultural imperialism, not unlike commandeering land and resources from native peoples. It's not cool, its theft. A custom that requires specific theological assumptions, and social support that has developed over thousands of years cannot be uprooted and transplanted into urban life without losing the vital essence of the local land spirits upon whom that essence is derived. The act of "borrowing" these customs is an act of desecration and makes the ceremony no longer sacred.

      Bloodlines mean little where culture is concerned. Here in America most families that have been here for more than 100 years have got some native blood. This does not mean that we can use ceremonies that come from wherever our ancestors came from because we probably lack the understanding that comes from being raised in a specific culture. No matter where your ancestors come from, they've got shamanism in there somewhere. There are many spiritual practices that no culture can claim as theirs alone. Fasting, sweating, vision quests, drumming, rattling, chanting and dancing are just some examples of cross-cultural practices. We need to avoid the wanton desecration of native cultures. By developing our own practices we can enjoy shamanism without offending native people. As a general rule of thumb if you can't find another culture that has a similar custom then leave it alone and respect the uniqueness of the culture that practices it.

      There are many good books on the topic of shamanism that we can use to learn new rituals. Following are a few books that make a good starting point.

Books

The way of the shaman
Harner, Michael
Harper & Collins (1980, 1990)
ISBN 0-06-250373-1

Shamanism as a spiritual practice for daily life
Cowan, Tom
The Crossing Press (1996)
ISBN 0-89594-838-9


These should give a person a good start.

by Tache