The Role of the Shaman

Though most societies have entered into a post-shamanic period, there are still some small communities in North America, South America, Africa and Asia that believe in Shamanism and the powers that their shamans hold. The shaman fills many roles in these communities. Most shamans serve as masters of ecstasy to their people and it is less common to see a shaman fill a specialized role such as that of a healer. If there are no professional clergy present in the community, the shaman will fill roles such as that of the psychopomp. Rare shaman specialties include the abilities to control fire or wind.

Master of Ecstasy

One of the key roles of any shaman is to serve as the master of ecstasy. A shaman wields complete control over his consciousness, which allows him to enter into a trance-like state of ecstasy. While in this trance, a shaman can either travel upwards towards the heavens, downwards towards the underworld, or into a parallel universe in order to communicate with spirit healers who reside there. Spirit healers can cleanse the spirit of the shaman and give gifts of wisdom before the shaman returns to the plane of the living.

Lucid Dreamer

A shaman also develops the technique of entering into lucid dreams. Unlike entering an ecstatic trance, which is an outward journey, lucid dreaming allows the shaman to explore the inner realms of her own spirit. This ability is not as helpful as an ecstatic trance when it comes to serving those who seek the counsel of the spirit healers. Lucid dreams are known as out-of-body experiences by most people in modern times.

Healer

The role of a healer is a role that only some shamans have the ability to fill. This ability does not include modern methods of healing. Rather, a shamanic healer will specialize in retrieving the lost spirit of a person who is ill or injured and decides to seek his help. If a shaman successfully retrieves the injured or ill person's spirit, then standard medical or herbal healing practices will be more likely to succeed, and will work faster to bring the person back to full health.

Counselor

A very common role of the shaman, even in societies with post-shamanic traits, is as counselor. In this role, the shaman will often use her ability as the master of ecstasy in order to consult the spirit healers in the most appropriate realm to answer the concerns of those seeking counsel. Other times, there is a very fine line between a normal tribesperson and a shaman. At these times, those who are informally known as shamans will counsel others by using their exceptionally expansive knowledge of the community's history and myths.

Psychopomp

In most shamanic communities without the presence of professional clergy, the shaman will also take the role of psychopomp. The shaman as a psychopomp guides recently deceased spirits from the land of the living to the spirit world by entering into his state of ecstatic trance. In some communities, the psychopomp takes the form of an animal when guiding spirits to the spirit world. The shaman will sometimes dress in ways that resemble the animal that he will take the form of as a psychopomp before entering into his trance. This is a way of respecting the animal guide for allowing him to temporarily take the image of the animal's spirit.

References

• Music and Trance in the Shamanic Universe; Brian Christman; 1993
• Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy; Mircea Eliade; 1989
• International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and Alternative Modes of Healing; Independent Scholars of Asia; 1994