Question by hey: Pagans what is shamanism?
What is shamanism and can someone who is a wiccan be a shaman at the same time?
Best answer:
Answer by Val
A Wiccan believes in gods and goddesses, but I’m the first to admit I don’t know much about this new religion.
A Shaman uses totems as a means to describe the nature of an energy. A Shaman can journey to the dream world to gain otherwise hidden information. Most Shamans are healers who understand the basic principles of how energy works and manifests. And as such can control and direct the energies without using their own force. ie they ask nicely not demand with spells. 🙂
Practicing Shaman… quantum physics rocks.
What do you think? Answer below!
Shamanism refers to the ancient tribal priesthood of primitive cultures. Shamans would ‘travel’ to the otherworld (called dreamtime in Aboriginal culture, other names in other cultures) to ask questions and act as a proctor for his Tribe. In general though, Neoshamanic techniques (i.e. often taken from the Harner “way of the shaman” book) are used in Wicca, Druidism, and many other Neopagan religions, but adjusted so they work in the modern world, and for personal spiritual goals, rather than group/tribal ones.
Did Val just claim that Wicca is a “new” religion????? >< Also, all Wiccans do not believe in multiple gods and goddesses. Some believe in Deity that is comprised of both male and female attributes as far as our mind can try to comprehend it. The different names used are just ways of addressing a different aspect of Deity. The way Christians use the terms Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Wiccans might use the terms, Maiden, Mother, Crone. It's just our simple human minds trying to comprehend something way bigger than ourselves. And yes, you can use energy as a Shaman and Wiccan. In fact, some forms of Wicca is actually dirived from Native American spiritualism. They are already very closely connected to Deity and respect for the earth.
A shaman is a spiritual leader who uses the act of “journeying” for contact with the spiritual world. It is a practice found all over the world.
Journeying is the act of putting yourself into a trance by the beat of a drum or rattle ( 4 cycles/beats per second). I find it more a gate way into your subconscious, but many will say they travel elsewhere in there minds. Shamanic practitioner’s fall into the pagan category & is an excepted practice by many pagans.
I highly recommend this book on the subject:
Shamanism, as a spiritual practice for daily life
Tom Cowan
)O(
Shamanism was a primitave tribal thing involving
everything from healing to metaphysics….but as
practiced today in the modern high-tech countries
it mostly implies holistic healing and self-inspired
metaphysical workings without dependence on any
specific deities.
There is very little fixed definition, so it could
really mean just about anything the practitioner
wants it to.
Jean