Shaman refers to medicine men or women who are sages, teachers or healers. Shamanism is an ancient practice, over 28,000 years old (some say over 100,000 years old), found throughout the indigenous cultures of the world. The word, Shaman, originated from an Evenki word from Siberia. It means, one who “sees” or “penetrates to the source”. Shamanism is an ancient practice of spiritual, ceremonial, and healing practices that is nature and energy based. Shamanism is not a religion and is not regional. It is found on every continent of the world and is cross-cultural. There are many different names for Shaman around the world, including medicine man or woman, teacher, grandmother or grandfather, healer, Kahuna, sorcerer, magician, oracle, priest or priestess, he who walks between worlds, and others. 

Shamans believe that we are not alone, we are all one, that everything is connected. Everything has spirit and everything is energy. Everything that can be known is already known and can be accessed. We live in the web of life, the Field, the Divine Matrix.

Shamans believe that there are three common causes of illness. A person may have lost his or her power. A person may have lost part of his or her soul or essence. A person may have taken on or attracted misplaced energy that becomes lodged in or attached to their energy field (the energy body).

Each person has a luminous energy field, soul, spirit, essence, referred to as the energy body. It is within the energy body that Shamanic practitioners work. The energy body holds the original blueprint, template or map for our body, our health. It encodes how we live, how we age, how we heal, and how we may die.

The energy body is continually informed by our life and the experiences we have. Some experiences are very traumatic and can create an imprint in the energy body. An imprint carries information about the circumstances surrounding the original experience or wounding. These imprints can be carried over from a past life, a childhood incident, or a belief system that has been planted by a parent, relative, or teacher (such as “you’re not good enough”…) or ancestral in nature. Many times the original wounding is not in the conscious memory. It is buried deep within the subconscious.

Shamanic practitioners work outside of ordinary or linear time. This is called non-ordinary time or non-ordinary reality. Energy is everywhere and energy is in everything. Energy is not limited by time or space. The session may include a mystical journey during which the practitioner enters a meditative state and journeys to another realm or dimension. At times, something unexpected may occur or be revealed. Some of the tools that may be used include a drum, rattle, essential oils, incense, stones and crystals, candles, sage sticks, and others. 

There are many shamanic healing techniques and each practitioner has their own method of performing the technique. Some of the techniques are soul retrieval, extraction, cord cutting, chakra clearing, death rites, and others.