Shamanism and Healing: A Personal Perspective
Katherine MacDowell, D.Th, MA, M.Ed. (continued)

Like McClenon the healing effects of shamanic ritual are typically located at the level of psychology. As a health psychologist, I readily agree with this psychosomatic interpretation of why shamanic rituals are effective modes of healing and creating healthier self-identity in individuals and why many researchers have found the shamanic narrative and the ritual structures underlying most world religions. I’ve seen this psychosomatic process at work in my students and myself. However, as a theologian and an actual shaman, this only goes so far as to allocate “illness” at the material level, which shamanistic traditions and practitioners vehemently reject. It neglects the actual cosmological beliefs and the visions of shamans and individuals participating in shamanic experiences and their certitude that reality extends outside the positivist, material philosophy that dominates Western Academia. This leaves me in a strange position of a foot in both sides when I evaluate the healing methods in my tradition. On one hand, I know they work and that they work along this psychosomatic pathway; however I also feel a spiritual certainty and welcoming that they work because, as Hamlet states, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (how ironic that Horatio’s name can be broken down to a linguistic linkage with “ratio” or “rational” or “measurement”!). As such, I also believe that they work because they reflect an underlying architecture of a reality that is far more complex than simply the mind and body.

So what does a shamanic healing ritual look like? Within my tradition one of my favorite rituals is known as the Blessing Ritual. The Blessing Ritual is a simple healing method that begins by taking a walk outside to locate a power stone—any stone that catches one’s eye and feels powerful upon the touch. Optionally, my husband and I, who engage in this ritual on a continuous basis, have set aside specific stones we consistently utilize for this ritual. Through this mindful connection with a stone spirit, one also begins to experience a wider sense of self-in-relation-to the Earth and thus begins to expand their consciousness outside their own personal bodily awareness—entering into the first step of an altered state of consciousness. Once the stone is selected, it is held to the heart (the bodily location of the Nurturing Pillar, which reminds us of our innate capacity to support others, while also maintaining a healthy boundary so as not to enmesh ourselves with others and thus take-in any unwanted energy from that individual). As the stone is held to the heart, we begin by spiritually asking whether the individual would like the ritual or not. If we sense an affirmative, we then proceed to chant the sacred phrase, uumå’båså’poonå (pronounced: oo-mah-bah-sah-poo-nah), which roughly translates to mean “In demonstration of my gratitude and love for your essential beingness, I extend my energy to you so that you may flourish.” As we engage in this repetitive process we allow and experience our energy flowing into the stone (which typically begins to heat up—the more one does this ritual the hotter the stones become). The ritual is complete when we feel an internal stopping point that the stone is full. At which point we take the stone back outside and leave it in an undisturbed area of nature where it slowly divests itself of the energy and directs it toward the individual receiving the blessing. Does this ritual work? I myself believe so and know that those who have utilized it have reported positive outcomes in the individuals (including nonhuman species and entire ecosystems) they have blessed. It is unlikely this is psychosomatic healing, as the healer never comes in contact with the individual being healed and often the individual does not consciously know of the process being conducted. If the beneficial outcomes are more than coincidental, it would support the complex interdependent spiritual landscapes that shamans, whether within my tradition or elsewhere, traverse.

Dr. Katherine MacDowell holds multiple graduate degrees in theology and psychology. She is the author of several books on Neopagan religion and the founder of Ocean Seminary College, an interfaith graduate seminary program. She currently teaches the initiatory 9 Pillar Traditions at no cost to students interested in learning and most recently unfurled a Pillar Seiðr tradition for women. Additionally, she is a published poet and a professionally produced composer and playwright.

References

Campbell, A. T. (2003). Submitting. In G. Harvey (Ed.), Shamanism: A Reader (pp. 123–144). New York: Routledge.

Eliade, M. (1964). Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Furst, P. T. (c. 2000). Visionary plants and ecstatic shamanism. Expedition, 46, 26–29

Keller, M. (2002). The Hammer and the Flute: Women, Power, & Spirit Possession. Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins University Press.

Lewis, I. M. (2003). Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession (3rd Ed). New York: Routledge.

McClenon, J. (2002) Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion. Dekalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press.

Ogembo, J. M. (2005). The Persisting Conflict of Interpretations of Shamanism. Reviews in Anthropology, 34, 197–210

Price, N. S. (2001). An Archaeology of Altered States: Shamanism and the Material Culture Studies. In N. Price (Ed.) The Archaeology of Shamanism (pp. 3–16). New York: Routledge.

Vitebsky, P. (2001). Shamanism. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.

Webb, H. S. (2004). Traveling between the worlds. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Co.

Winkelman, M. (2004). Shamanism as the original neuroethology. Zygon, 39, 193–217.
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Volume 2, Issue 2, 2010