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Thanks for trying to revive this forum, as this is a great subject. Here are a few of my thoughts on this.
Old-School Shamans
Since it is such a community-based path, to really learn it, it seems the best way is to get in good with a certain culture to work with an authentic shaman. But bear in mind, even people from
that culture will have great difficulty working with their own shamans. True shamans will put wanna be students through many, shall we say, "endurance tests" to see if they're really serious about committing to an apprenticeship. You don't just walk up to one and say, "Teach me stuff." They'll be like, "Why should
I waste
my time when you're just going to hit the road as soon as the going gets tough with me (and it
will get tough with me)?" Shamans are
not known to handle their students with kid gloves. They are rough on them because shamanism isn't a cutesy, fluff bunny path. So, even people from their own cultures have a hard time getting a shaman to commit to teaching them anything (unless it is that shaman's own family member). You have to earn your way into working with a real shaman, and then, you'd
better stick to your word, or they will get angry that you wasted their time.
Also, most shamans aren't taught to have this "white magic" "black magic" mentality prevalent in most Western neo-pagan paths today. That has been a recent invention. Sometimes, shamanism involves working with some pretty dark, powerful spirits which could kill you, or kill the person you're trying to help, or
both. It could get tricky, much like dealing with the
jinn of the Middle East. So, a shaman learns to have a healthy respect for dark energy and live in peace with it. I am somewhat acquainted with a woman who thought shamanism was so neat that she proceeded to ingratiate herself with the Lakota nation tribe members in her region (by sleeping with one of its spiritual leaders, lol, but anyways...). She got in over her head, nearly killed herself in a sweat lodge incident involving
entities she didn't have the proper grounding and experience to deal with. Yeah, sleeping with the head shaman didn't give her the free pass in the spiritual world she apparently hoped it would, haha. Shamanism isn't for dilettantes.
Shamans study for decades, through much trial and error. They devote their entire lives to it as it is considered by most cultures to be a "family line" kind of thing, not something you just wake up one day and choose to "be," like an accountant or something. In fact, many shamans go through a near-death experience, known as "
shaman sickness," and that's how they discover it is their soul purpose in this lifetime to work as a shaman. Sometimes they get struck by lightening, no joke. For some reason, getting struck by lighting, and/or getting deathly ill from a mysterious illness no doctor could heal --and then surviving it, are worldwide hallmarks of being called to shamanism, in totally different cultures. Maybe that's why true shamans tend to favor giving others endurance tests before accepting them as students. Perhaps they remember their own "initiation" by the universe into shamanism, and misery loves company, lol.
Contemporary Shamans
Today, traditional shamans are also dying out fast. So, good luck finding one. But there are "weekend workshop shamans"-a-plenty, so those are easy to find (and become). I don't know where you live, but they are just a Google search away here in America, around
every corner. A lot of them here will say, "Well, I was a
real shaman in my past life, so I don't have to study that hard to be one in this life. It just comes automatically to me." All I'll say is, you get what you pay for, and by "pay" I mean if you are taught by one of these types you will get exactly what they "put into" their shaman title, which ain't much.
Now, anthropologist/psychologist, Alberto Villoldo, spent a lot of years living and studying with native shamans, in his case those of Peru. So, I respect his work and what he has to say, though I find his
Four Winds Society just a little too New Agey (and expensive) for my taste. But, he
did put forth a lot of effort to learn shamanism authentically and that says a lot. Michael Harner and Sandra Ingerman also have made significant contributions toward research and dissemination of shamanic information, as well. There are a few others. The trouble is, all these guys have to spread their teachings via mass media, so you lose the valuable experience and personal touch of working with a real teacher. Shamanism has always been a hands-on-teaching path.
Basically, I think if you accept the limitations of how shamanism is taught and learned today, what with the dearth of authentic shamans available and the geographical (and financial) limitations involved to reach the ones who still are, you should be able to enjoy what you learn and find it somewhat fulfilling, maybe even help a person here and there along the way with what you've learned.
Anyway, those are just my two cents for what it's worth, lol. As to your original questions,
AnaisStar wrote:Has anyone done any work with a Shaman? Or trained with a Shaman? How did you find this person, and what was the experience like for you?
I haven't been struck by lightning or anything yet, thank goodness, so no, that would be a negative at this time.
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I had a friend recently who went on a yoga retreat and part of it was they worked with a Shaman who did a mediation with them, and then a ritual blessing and cleansing. So got me thinking if anyone else has had experiences.
