Core Shamanism is without a doubt the most popular form of transcultural Shamanism in the Western world. But what is Core Shamanism and what are its main practices and beliefs? You’re just about to find out.
Hello everyone, I’m Angela and welcome back to my channel. In this video we will talk about Core Shamanism, how was it born and the main practices of this form of Shamanism. First of all, let me premise that the information contained in this video will be mainly drawn from the primary sources which are listed in the infobox and enriched by the secondary sources which are also listed down below in the infobox. In case you’re not familiar with this distinction; a primary source is a book, a document, an article or any other source of information produced by the community of practitioners or one specific practitioner. In this case, you will be Michael Harner, Sandra Ingerman and so on and so forth. A secondary source is an academic study or analysis of the movement of a philosopher or specific practice object of the inquiry.
So now that we’ve clarified that let’s move on to it shall we?
Core Shamanism is the shamanic tradition created by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, whose founder was the anthropologist Michael Harner. Michael Harner, born in the U.S. in 1929 and deceased in 2018, first founded the Center for Shamanic Studies in 1979 and then the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in 1980. Harner in his anthropological career had conducted a substantial amount of fieldwork, mainly in the Ecuadorian Amazon among the Jivaro Shuar and Conibo. His experiences and studies on Shamanism led him to believe that there were some core elements shared across different forms of Shamanism and that such elements could somewhat be gathered in one tradition, not linked to any geographical place or hereditary tradition that could be made available to Westerners for whom it would be otherwise impossible to practice and from engaging in shamanic practices.
There are a few main traits and elements in Core Shamanism; the first one is that it is often defined as the pact of direct revelation which means that there is no intermediary between the person, the practitioner of Shamanism and the spirit world or the non-ordinary reality which you enter in contact during your shamanic practice. Another element is that they believe that this is accessible to anyone, basically, anyone can practice Shamanism and anyone can enter in contact with the spirit world and the non-ordinary realities. Also, it is believed to be a way to reconnect with nature and the true higher self as well as a way to gain power and healing and knowledge in order to benefit yourself and other people. In Core Shamanism you find the underlying belief that there is a difference between the ordinary reality and the non-ordinary reality. The first one who talks about this distinction was Castaneda, in his books. Whereas Michael Harner and in Core Shamanism they tend more to distinguish between an ordinary state of consciousness versus a shamanic state of consciousness but these two concepts are connected. So the idea is that there is an ordinary world or state of consciousness in which we live on a daily basis and another level of consciousness or level of reality that you can enter through your shamanic practice which is a non-ordinary one or a shamanic one. And this is what allows you to get in contact with the spirit world and gain power and knowledge.
So, since key is to enter this larger reality or the shamanic state of consciousness, in the case of Core Shamanism, the core element here is the shamanic journey. So the shamanic journey is what puts you in connection, in contact with that non-ordinary reality. The shamanic journey is a practice that through visualization and the monotonous sound of drums and rattles allows you to enter this altered state of consciousness. So that you can basically, according to them, travel to a non-ordinary reality where you can have a dialogue and interact with the spirit world. Shamanic Journeying is believed by Core Shamanism to be a transcultural practice. They believe that you find this form of practice across different Shamanisms and that it’s not really linked to any specific culture or any specific place but anyone can practice it.
According to the cosmology, that we find in Core Shamanism, there are three worlds that you can travel to; the lower world, the middle world, and the upper world. The lower world is the first one they will teach you how to travel to and it is usually entered by visualizing a hole in the earth or, for example, a crevice in a tree trunk and by entering and moving downwards you will, through the visualization and the monotonous sound of the drums, you will access this lower world. The kind of spirits that you find in the lower world are animal spirits, power animals, and usually they believe you would travel to the lower world to get healing So they believe it’s the best of the worlds to get healing. It is also believed to be good to begin because they say it’s nurturing and supporting.
The middle world is basically the word that mirrors our daily life on a spiritual level. It is where you would go to, according to them, to travel to the past and the future, to communicate with people you know on a spiritual level or to communicate with an object or a plant. They would suggest you go to this specific world if, for example, you want to heal a relationship. So you would travel to the middle word and find an encounter and communicate with the spirit of one specific relationship.
The upper world is the hardest to get to and it is entered by visualizing yourself climbing upwards on a rainbow or a tree or something else that allows you to move upwards. Usually, they will teach you that you may find the barrier that you have to overcome in order to enter this upper world. This is the most ethereal world, they say and it is the place where they believe you can communicate with angels, entities made of light or even deities. This is the world, they believe you would travel to if you wanted an answer to the bigger questions in life like, for example, the meaning of your life or the purpose of your journey. These are the three worlds that make the founding cosmology that we find in Core Shamanism.
This concludes our preliminary overview on Core Shamanism. Let me know what you think in the comment section down below and whether you’d like me to go more in that on one specific element or one specific aspect of those that I have just covered.
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REFERENCES
PRIMARY SOURCES
Harner, M. (1984) The Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls, New Ed edition., Berkeley, University of California Press.
Harner, M. (1992) The Way of the Shaman, San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco.
Harner, M. J. (ed.) (1973) Hallucinogens and Shamanism, 1st Edition edition., London, Oxford University Press, USA.
Harner, M. J. (2013) Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Spirits and Heavens, Berkeley, Calif, North Atlantic Books, U.S.
Ingerman, S. (2008) Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide, Pap/Com edition., Boulder, Colo.; Enfield, Sounds True Inc., U.S.
Ingerman, S. and Wesselman, H. (2012) Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, Sounds True.
SECONDARY SOURCES
Atkinson, J. M. (1992) ‘Shamanisms Today’, Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 21, pp. 307–330.
Harvey, G. (2003) Shamanism: A Reader, Routledge.
Jakobsen, M. D. (1999) Shamanism: Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to the Mastery of Spirits and Healing, Reprint edition., New York, Berghahn Books.
Townsend, J. B. (2004) ‘Individualist Religious Movements: Core and Neo-Shamanism’, Anthropology of Consciousness, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 1–9 [Online]. DOI: 10.1525/ac.2004.15.1.1.
Wallis, R. J. (2003) Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans, 1 edition., London, New York, Routledge.
First uploaded 30 Nov 2019