The first task of Shamanism is to address The Great Forgetting in European culture, that we belong to the natural world. It began several thousand years ago with ancient Greek rationalism, and continued with the Old Testament dominion over nature given to man, along with Christianity's assigning of the world to the Devil.
This divide was inherited by Science, and remains with us today in the form of the mind-body split. Its resolution is not so much an intellectual problem, as an experiential quest. Sheer time in nature is one way. Trance Dance, in which the body yields ecstatically to the spirit, is another way. Sweatlodge, that immersion in the elements in the context of community and prayer, is another.
CORE SHAMANISM and THE GOD-SHAPED HOLE
There are a number of criticisms of the use of the word 'Core' in 'Core Shamanism', which you can find on ChatGPT. My criticism is that it tends to reduce Shamanism to a set of techniques, because there is no supporting cultural context, no deeply rooted mythology in which it would find its place. Such a mythology is centred around ultimate realities, around the Great Spirit, ‘the holiest of everything’, as Frank Fools Crow translated it.
We do not have such a mythology. But we can still come into deep relationship with the Great Spirit, with the Chaos, through paying attention to what gives life meaning and having the courage and resolve to live it. It is this that is truly ‘core’. Without this foundation well in place, your healing work will be superficial, and you will tend to try to create an identity out of being a healer, to fill the ‘God-shaped hole’ in your life.
