Shamanism Quotes

Packed with interwoven personal narratives which the author ties together to show the fragility and molding of Buryat memory and Buryat shamanism's purpose during the transition from state socialism to neoliberal capitalism in Mongolia ... Buyandelger has created an emotive, accessible, and well-researched ethnography sure to arouse sympathy and interest in readers. ~ Michael Warren

The more I work with Nature and totemism, the more church is everywhere. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

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

Healing stories are magickal tales born from personal tribulation and victory, which are then shared. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Life is not a test administered by ourselves or a higher authority, and we're not in form to learn lessons. We're here to thrive, to celebrate being our authentic selves until it literally kills us. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Loving someone but not trusting them is a spiritual emergency. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

When you consider your dreaming explorations, and
where you may be pulled within those journeys, be aware
that your daytime actions also bring consequences to alternate realms, and that there are beings who will actively waylay your voyaging awareness. To be waylaid is to waste
one's life and one's time. ~ Lujan Matus

In shamanism and certain yogas, Taoist yoga, claim very clearly that the purpose is to familiarize yourself with this after-death body, in life, and then the act of dying will not create confusion in the psyche. You will recognize what is happening. You will know what to do. And you will make the clean break. ~ Terence McKenna

In a way, this is a definition of shamanism. A shaman is a person who by some means has gotten out of their own culture. ~ Terence McKenna

Can we perceive those inorganic beings, don Juan?" I asked. "We certainly can," he replied. "Sorcerers do it at will. Average people do it, but they don't realize that they're doing it because they are not conscious of the existence of a twin world. When they think of a twin world, they enter into all kinds of mental masturbation, but it has never occurred to them that their fantasies have their origin in a subliminal knowledge that all of us have: that we are not alone. ~ Carlos Castaneda

To the non-initiate, whose experience of sexuality and bodily pleasure may be distorted by negative cultural conditioning, the introduction of sexuality into a sacred context is often mistakenly misconstrued as the ordinary pursuit of sex for recreation. ~ Zeena Schreck

Shamanism is about shape shifting. Shamanism is about doing phenomenology with a tool kit that works. ~ Terence McKenna

And what is shamanism but philosophy with a hands-on attitude. Philosophy not made around the camp fire, but philosophy based on the acquisition of extreme experience. That's how you figure out what the world is, not by bicycling around in the burbs, but by forcing extreme experience. ~ Terence McKenna

We are responsible. There is nothing being done to us apart from what we are doing to ourselves. ~ Lujan Matus

Shamanism is a kind of universal spiritual practice with indigenous cultures around the world, and one important element of it is taking care of spirits. ~ Daniel Pinchbeck

You are the one who takes the peace away from yourself. You are the one who's harming yourself. ~ Sandra Harner

If a state political organization is founded in part upon a state religion with a dogma based on one or a few 'official' prophets, then shamanism, where every shaman is her or his own prophet, is dangerous to the state. [ ... ] Shamanism, as I said, is not a religion. The spiritual experience usually becomes a religion after politics has entered into it. ~ Michael Harner

The male sphere of Norse shamanism consisted of the elite warrior groups known as the berserkir ("bear-shirts") and the úlfheðnar ("wolf-skins"). The berserkers (as we'll refer to the members of both of those groups for the sake of convenience), were shamans of a very different sort. After undergoing a period of rigorous training and initiation, they developed the ability to fight in an ecstatic trance that rendered them fearless - and, according to some sources, impervious to danger - while nevertheless inspiring a tremendous amount of fear in their opponents by their behavior, which was
at once animalistic and otherworldly. Perhaps needless to say, there was no ergi associated with being a berserker. Quite the opposite, in fact - the berserker was seen as something of a model of manliness. ~ Daniel McCoy

At its heart shamanism is an ouroboros that, regardless of
cultural or religious trappings that have crowded its path, what
remains its critically profound gift to the present lies in its
simplistic roots of the past. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Often it isn't the initiating trauma that creates seemingly insurmountable pain, but the lack of support after. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Despite its prominence now, you don't stumble onto the path of shamanism. That odd trail blazes itself to you. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

The soul is infinite, made up of aspects that come and go all the time. It's our nature for parts of the soul to travel while we meditate or dream. Through this process we grow, we learn new thoughts, thus desires, and our consciousness evolves. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

We are all but symbols of some greater thing - totems of ourselves
subject to change and growth. When we forget that metaphoric sense of ourselves, we lose sight of the overall path. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

The reason for the emphasis on shamanism and on other techniques is, you will need techniques if you go into the deep water. And they can make your life very simple and save you from unnecessary suffering. Not all suffering is necessary. Maybe no suffering is necessary. ~ Terence McKenna

When we are clear enough about our own point of view, we can find help in the methods of Eastern Christianity or in the ways of the Far East, perhaps by consulting the I Ching or through mandala contemplation; we may even find help in the ways of shamanism or Islam. If we are clear about where we stand and the direction we must take, such methods may be useful in order to follow our own way to the end. ~ Morton T. Kelsey

Homosexuality is the most beautiful aspect of humanity. For its existence is proof that altruism is natural; it is to demonstrate that the theory of the "survival of the fittest" can only apply to the species as a whole, and that reproduction is insufficient to secure our place in the great jungle of life, which means being nice is a more stable evolutionary strategy than making kids; and if the homosexual is attracted to religion or to art - or, in smaller societies, to shamanism or caring for other people's children - is this not due to his or her search for purpose? If so, then what we call purpose must be something that encompasses all modes of life. What we call love must be greater than child rearing or caring for a mate. ~ Anthony Marais

If a wound was all that was required to be a shaman, we'd all be one. If wounds were required, no one would be. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

An indigenous culture with sufficient territory, and bilingual and intercultural education, is in a better position to maintain and cultivate its mythology and shamanism. Conversely, the confiscation of their lands and imposition of foreign education, which turns their young people into amnesiacs, threatens the survival not only of these people, but of an entire way of knowing. It is as if one were burning down the oldest universities in the world and their libraries, one after another - thereby sacrificing the knowledge of the world's future generations. ~ Jeremy Narby

Learning shamanism isn't just about acquiring techniques in how to do it, but also how to incorporate and deal with the
changes it brings to everyday life. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

In Spirit, there is no such thing as indifference. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

This is in fact what shamanism is all about, what the end of history is all about, what psychedelic drugs are all about, we are edge-walking on an ontological transformation of what it means to be human. ~ Terence McKenna

The entire drug phenomenon of the 1960s happened without the concept of shamanism to help it along. ~ Terence McKenna

How can I know you if I don't know myself? ~ Lujan Matus

Shamanism is a great metal and emotional adventure, one in which the patient as well as the shaman-healer are involved ~ Michael Harner

Life can be a process of observing
what we are interfering with,
rather than interfering with
what we are observing. ~ Lujan Matus

Being healed means committing to use your resources and knowledge. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

I practice neither black nor white magic.
What I do is a technology that I use for my own individual purposes. I don't strive to be a member of a club. ~ Christopher Rankin

If a gesture is the most powerful command that you have, then words mean very little. ~ Lujan Matus

When I say 'practice' I don't mean
repeating 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 that our experience of each day is less. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Historically, shamans have always been part of the society where they lived, taking care of its problems, whenever they were allowed to operate. For centuries shamanic cultures have been persecuted in the western world until they were almost entirely exterminated. They have managed to survive in secrecy or through complex esoteric camouflage. Nowadays there seems to be more freedom and this ancient knowledge can re-emerge and be used in our own cultural context and not relegated somewhere else. The world needs shamans able to function on the roads, among the electronic equipment and engines, in the squares and markets of our contemporary society. ~ Franco Santoro

We can't turn our true selves off and on situationally and expect them to carry and sustain us. Rationing creativity results in bipolarism of the spirit. Our creativity is also our life force. When we turn it off and on like a spigot, we start to become less and less able to control the valve. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Humans are a part of creation and shamanism is our way of connecting with the whole. ~ Will Adcock

Start with a girl whose blood has been steeped in Korea for generations, imprinted with Confucianism and shamanism and war. Extract her from the mountains. Plant her in wheat fields between the Red River and the Mississippi. Baptize her. Indoctrinate her. Tell her who she is. Tell her what is real.
See what happens.
Witness a love affair with freaks, a fascination with hermaphrodites and conjoined twins, a fixation on Pisces and pairs of opposites. Trace a dream that won't die: a vision of an old woman slumped on a bench, her spirit sitting straight out of the body, joined to the corpse at the waist. ~ Jane Jeong Trenka

In the end, bless the darkness, hold the light, because the two aren't divisible. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Techno-shamanism is a sub-genre of science fiction that is not recognized. Ernest Hogan's "Smoking Mirror Blues" is a seminal work in techno-shamanism. ~ Frank S. Lechuga

Exploration is a quite legitimate purpose for a journey. You have the opportunity to learn the territories of the Upper and Lower Worlds and their assets, which you can employ as needed in the future. ~ Sandra Harner

We can only prosper where we are. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

As long as we string out the ecstasy of awe, we won't do the work required to mine its precious teachings. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

I have no pain, but he has split open my skull.
There is no matter, I mean, there is no brain in there. It, it is just a skull. And still he felt he had to open it
to let energy in there. ~ Sandra Harner

Constant renewal is the only internally vibrant point of reference that we can truly recapitulate, via the fact that we wait for it to manifest as an arrival that has wisdom encased within it, instead of a subjective injection that reflects one's wants and needs, which may be socially bound to what is incorrect. ~ Lujan Matus

Shamanism is being reinvented in the West precisely because it is needed ~ Michael Harner

Life lived in the absence of the psychedelic experience that primordial shamanism is based on is life trivialized, life denied, life enslaved to the ego. ~ Terence McKenna

Healing is active involvement in your process, ongoing. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

My arms look
as if blood is ...
And on my feet ...
It is dropping on my feet.
I now take the fruit and just
put it all over my body. ~ Sandra Harner

I am in the river now. I must have fallen. And I am in this river.
And I am just washed away
by the current of
the river.
This is not a river. It is just a small
rivulet. ~ Sandra Harner

Turtle is putting seaweed all over me. It is the big turtle. She is so big that she can regurgitate
seaweed over me. It comes out of her mouth like
coming from a spoud of a fountain, which is actually a very nice feeling. It is not sticky at all. It is just
a very nice clean feeling and it is a wonderful ocean smell
about it. ~ Sandra Harner

Mystical insight and enlightenment occur when the veil between the worlds is lifted, the worlds are bridged, the gap closes, and we cross over. ~ Tom Cowan

Our essential task is to deliver a method of stalking shadow attention so as to free humanity from that influence. ~ Lujan Matus

In the end we are the sum total of our doings and we will be faced by those doings at the moment of our death. Or is it our death in every moment that we live that faces us with what we do? ~ Lujan Matus

Have intention, sacred will travel. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Shamanism, on the other hand, is this world wide, since Paleolithic-times, tradition which says that you must make your own experience the center piece of any model of the world that you build. ~ Terence McKenna

Adaptation without corruption is the key to personal power. ~ Lujan Matus

Marcel Eliade took the position that hallucinogenic shamanism was decadent, and Gordon Wasson, very rightly I believe, contravened this view and held that actually it was very probably the presence of the hallucinogenic drug experience in the life of early man that lay the very basis for the idea of the spirit. ~ Terence McKenna

I don't believe that shamanism without hallucinogens is authentic shamanism or comfortable shamanism. ~ Terence McKenna

Life comes and goes. ... If you know that, you know it all. ~ Sandra Harner

Transformation can come in the mysterious guise of shape-shifting, or through a simple change of mind ~ C.R. Strahan

The poor are so common they're invisible, just part of the ambience of this place. I tuck a few soles under them as they sleep and walk off, feeling like a guilty tourist here for thrillseeking in a culture that's trying desperately to survive. Can shamanism help them? I wonder, as I make my way back to the hostel by moonlight. ~ Rak Razam

One of the things that's so striking about shamanism in the native context is the absence of mental illness. ~ Terence McKenna

Saints and mystics, revelations, origin myths, and heroes' journeys, as well as ethical and spiritual guidelines, speak to us from ancient times and far-flung lands and peoples. ~ Sandra Harner

Shamanism resembles an academic discipline (such as anthropology or molecular biology); with its practitioners, fundamental researchers, specialists, and schools of thought it is a way of apprehending the world that evolves constantly. One thing is certain: Both indigenous and mestizo shamans consider people like the Shipibo-Conibo, the Tukano, the Kamsá, and the Huitoto as the equivalents to universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, and the Sorbonne; they are the highest reference in matters of knowledge. In this sense, ayahuasca-based shamanism is an essentially indigenous phenomenon. It belongs to the indigenous people of Western Amizonia, who hold the keys to a way of knowing that they have practiced without interruption for at least five thousand years. In comparison, the universities of the Western world are less than nine hundred years old. ~ Jeremy Narby

The deep self has been referred to by many names over the ages. You may know it as Essence, Spirit, Soul, Source...or, perhaps by no name at all. I prefer to call it The Inner Shaman...The Inner Shaman simply waits for your sanity, that glimmer of light or recognition on your part. In short, it is waiting for your readiness to be aware of it. ~ Jose Luis Stevens

All wisdom contracts then expands, contracts then expands. That is how consciousness evolves. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Engaging spirits isn't an elitist ability or industry, it's being active in the connection with All Things. It's innate to us all. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

The communication function of modern writers is akin to the ancient role fulfilled by tribal shamans. All writers ultimately perform a shamanistic role in society; their mythmaking voices speak to us from the underworld after their passage to the other side. Writers place themselves in a trance-like state where their unconscious mind dictates to them what to write. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

We find that alchemy has to do with magicians or magic and may even have roots in the Chaldean people who lived in the land that we now call Iraq.Abraham emerged and took a flock of people with him into Egypt. They were later called the Hebrews because of the valleys that they came out of. The alchemy that they saw was a transformative power within the individuals to affect the "out there" reality - and that, of course, is the basis of shamanism and is the basis for most magical and so-called Third World belief systems. ~ Fred Alan Wolf

We can intend not to be our program. ~ Lujan Matus

The blue light is all over. Actually it is within my body. Makes my joints feel all warm.
Vulture thinks I talk too much. ~ Sandra Harner

You can experience your dreams externally, but if your scripted responses get in the way, all there will be are branches and shadows in your life, nothing more. ~ Lujan Matus

Perspective shifted on why it must 'hurt to heal', and a series of questions kept coming to mind. I found myself wondering if these medicines always 'hurt', or do they hurt so much now to show us how separate we are from nature? Perhaps these 'revelations in pain' are necessary in order for a personal apocalpyse to occur so you may have a shift in perception, and a greater understanding of your role in the whole? To realize that we are not foreign from nature, nature is where we come from and where we return to. ~ Jennifer Sodini

The healing hero, therefore, is the one who finds some creative way out, a way not already known, and does not follow a pattern. Ordinary sick people follow ordinary patterns, but the shaman cannot be cured by the usual methods of healing. He has to find the unique way, the only way that applies to him. The creative personality who can do that then becomes a healer and is recognized as such by his colleagues. ~ Marie-Louise Von Franz

Unless we can interpret that ecstatic trip in a way that better grounds our physical reality, trance isn't worth much. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

The core practice of magic is: The execution of a willed intent to create change in the material world, which either defies, hastens or purifies the consequences of natural cause and effect. ~ Zeena Schreck

Past experiences are effluvial.
Burn them.
The now is important. ~ Sandra Harner

You have to live the way you are going to end up. ~ Lujan Matus

Harner has impeccable credentials, both as an academic and as a practicing shaman. Without doubt (since the recent death of Mircea Eliade) the world's leading authority on shamanism. ~ Nevill Drury

You can discard no one feeling and the full truth of an experience be revealed. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

Our fellow men are black magicians. And whoever is with them
is a black magician on the spot. Think for a moment, can you
deviate from the path that your fellow men have lined up for you?
And if you remain with them, your thoughts and your actions are
fixed forever in their terms. That is slavery. The warrior, on the
other hand, is free from all that. Freedom is expensive, but the
price is not impossible to pay. So, fear your captors, your
masters. Don't waste your time and your power fearing freedom. ~ Carlos Castenada

They're doing a rain dance? A rain dance? In my hotel? On Waikiki Beach? A rain dance? ~ Richard Tillotson

Oh, they're always saying that. But they are only the Masters of Outer Darkness," he corrected. ~ Michael Talbot

Even in woo woo circles, shamanism is the fringe of the fringe. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

In most cases, it's not what you do but what you don't do that delivers you to a state of personal power. ~ Lujan Matus

She was the cook, the hostess, the comforter, and the keeper of all the mysterious secrets for how to do just about everything. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

The forces that we deal with have two sides: one is good and helpful and the other is dark and dangerous. Part of your training is to learn to distinguish between them, and know when to use which. (Nakoma) ~ Gala.J

It is of the first order of importance to remember this, that the shaman is more than merely a sick man, or a madman; he is a sick man who has healed himself, who is cured, and who must shamanize in order to remain cured. ~ Terence McKenna

Be within your heart.
See and feel with your heart.
Recognize your heart within another.
Speak words from the heart.
Receive the words of another,
within those precious chambers. ~ Lujan Matus

Margaret De Wys's Ecstatic Healing is a holy voyage--a remarkable testament of one courageous woman forced by her own sickness to discover the mysterious world of shamanic and spiritual healing. Her's is a journey of surrendering, a journey to faith, and a journey toward accepting herself as a healer. As in her first book "Black Smoke" Margaret writes with utter honesty, which helps us as we join her on her personal journey and question our own life journey as human beings and as healers. ~ Itzhak Beery

Being present is being connected to All Things. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

You are human, whether your ancestors come from Europe, Asia, Africa, or wherever, shamanism once existed there. We are just attempting to go home to our spiritual roots before the state religions, the agrarian centralized religions rose up with autocratic government and said, 'This is what you're going to believe, these are the official revelations, take it from us, you can trust us, we got it.' ~ Michael Harner

If we didn't have shadow we'd just sit around loving the light, likely doing nothing with it. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

The Old Religion, as we call it, is closer in spirit to Native American traditions or to shamanism of the Arctic. It is not based on dogma or a set of beliefs, nor on scriptures or a sacred book revealed by a great man. Witchcraft takes it's teachings from nature, and reads inspiration in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars, the flight of birds, the slow growth of trees, and the cycles of the seasons. ~ Starhawk