When I say ‘practice’ I don’t meanrepeating 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...

A racist notion found in neoshamanic circles is placing high value on indigenous wisdom but not on indigenous people.

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.

Even in woo woo circles, shamanism is the fringe of the fringe.

Children arrive animists. They learn about life, themselves, and empathy by imagining the liveliness of everything they come into contact with.