THE ULCHI SHAMANS OF SIBERIA

Did you know that the Ulchi Shamans from Siberia use different drums rhythms according to what is happening in their journey (or 'singing' as they call it)? And that they experience our 'call-back' signal as harsh and even barbaric? And that they move and vocalise during the 'singing', and may stop and eat some food to feed the spirits they are encountering on their journey?

They do not do 'Soul Retrievals', in the sense of parts of us that have gone missing. Rather, it is the whole 'wind soul' (one of our 3 souls) that wanders off and needs to be found, and afterwards the Shaman may put it in a mountain for safe-keeping. They do not inquire after the circumstances of the wind-soul wandering off: with people living in close and extended families, to do so would be to open a Pandora's box.

Singings are preceded and followed by offerings to the spirits of the house they are working in. Before a singing, they may spend the day going from house to house in the village, socialising and building energy for the work to be done. People gather and make fun of the shamans by imitating their dances.

Shamanising is something everybody does, it is just that some people are more gifted at it, much as some musicians may be great orchestral performers.

For the Ulchi, the Lower World is the Land of the Dead, where they do not journey; after death people live in a village in the Lower World for several thousand years and may return to this world afterwards. Though Shamans after they die may go and live in the stars instead of the Lower World. Their main work is in the Middle and Upper Worlds. Their central philosophical concept is Ba, which is similar to the Tao (they live near the Chinese border.)

This book, which was only published last year, contains a wealth of information about the Ulchi. Most of the Shamans in it are women. There are not many of them, and their last shaman died a few years ago. The author spent 25 years around these people, and invited them to the US a number of times. The book is well-researched and systematically categorised into chapters such as 'Creation Myths', 'Upper World', 'Shamanic Healing and the Soul'. It is a feast.

And here is a great interview with the author: http://www.othersidepodcast.com/blog/2018/12/25/228-spirits-from-the-edge-of-the-world-shamanism-and-the-ulchi