Therapeutic Shamanism is a branch of Michael Harner’s core shamanism. It keeps core shamanism’s culturally neutral foundation and its journeying method, and builds on them what Paul Francis’s GuidesGuides. The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman’s power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. More about this have taught him, the tools of psychotherapy and the principles of original animism. Unlike traditional shamanisms it follows no single culture or lineage, and it judges a practice by whether it works, not by how old it is.
What is core shamanism? #
Core shamanism is the approach developed by the anthropologist Michael Harner, best known from his book The Way of the Shaman (1980). Studying shamanic cultures, Harner found that beneath each people’s cultural dress lay practices and beliefs common to shamanic cultures worldwide, and “Harner sought to distil out what is common and nearly universal in terms of shamanic practice worldwide”.1 Because it belongs to no one culture, core shamanism is open to anyone, and Harner’s book and teaching are largely responsible for the current rebirth and renaissance of shamanism now seen in the West.
Much of the shared vocabulary of Western shamanism comes from Harner. The names of the three realmsThree realms. The Upper-World, the middle-world and the Lower-World: the cosmological map of shamanic reality. Rooted first in the Lower-World, then the Upper-World, and only then the middle-world. Read the full answer are his: “when Michael Harner was piecing core shamanism back together, he had to come up with some words to refer to the three realms. He chose to call them the ‘Upper-WorldUpper-World. The realm of Father Sky and of Spirit: spacious, rarefied and clear, layered in tiers, offering not escape but perspective. Not better than the Lower-World: we ascend rooted, and bring the gifts back down. Read the full answer’, the ‘middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer’, and the ‘Lower-World’.”2 So is the respectful custom of keeping the word ‘shaman’ for people in indigenous cultures and calling Westerners shamanic practitioners. See Who was Michael Harner, and what is core shamanism?
Is Therapeutic Shamanism the same as core shamanism? #
No, but it grows out of it. Therapeutic Shamanism is a branch of Core Shamanism, and keeps its foundations: the three-realm map, journeying to the drum, a practice drawn from no particular indigenous culture and open to anyone, and the rule that healing work on another person needs their consent. The debt is acknowledged warmly: Harner’s work gave Paul the tools and confidence to discover and explore for himself the rich and beautiful shamanic realms.3 Colonialism and industrialisation had left shamanism on its knees, in danger of being all but lost, and by seeing its core as belonging to no particular culture, Harner gave it back to everyone as a birthright.
What it adds is substantial. Therapeutic Shamanism “draws upon many things aside from Harner’s work. Above all else, Therapeutic Shamanism comes from what has been shown and taught to me directly by my shamanic Guides over many years.”4 To that it adds an account of what domesticationDomestication. The process by which, in domesticating other species, we domesticated ourselves. When dated precisely, Domestication begins with the Neolithic era, before the Fall proper, which begins with the first city-state cultures around 4000 BCE. What rewilding works to undo. More about this and the FallThe Fall. The catastrophe at the root of the whole diagnosis: the shift from animist, egalitarian hunter-gatherer life to owning, agricultural Taker culture. In domesticating other species we domesticated ourselves, cutting ourselves off from Mother Earth (Power-loss) and from parts of our own nature (soul-loss). When dated precisely, the Fall begins with the first city-state cultures, around 4000 BCE (Domestication begins earlier, with the Neolithic). A sickness, not our true nature. ‘Fallen culture’ is used interchangeably with Taker culture; the Great Rupture is a looser alternate name. Read the full answer have done to the human psyche, the tools of psychotherapy, and Core AnimismCore Animism. The culture-neutral core of animism: the aspects of animist teaching that are (near-)universal rather than specific to any one culture: the Original Instructions, fierce egalitarianism, respectful right relationship with the other-than-human people, equal respect for the masculine and the feminine, treating all as sacred, living as a Leaver rather than a Taker. The parallel of Michael Harner’s ‘core shamanism’, and its necessary root: shamanism is a branch of animism, so a culture-neutral shamanism has to be grounded in a culture-neutral animism, with no borrowed regalia required. More about this, the culturally neutral core of animist teaching beneath shamanism itself.
How is a Power Animal understood differently? #
More precisely, and as a committed relationship. The term ‘Power AnimalPower Animal. The Oversoul of a wild species, met as a single Lower-World being and bonded with in a deep, committed, usually lifelong soul-bond of unconditional love. The practitioner’s first and foremost Guide: Panther, not “my panther”. Read the full answer’ “is often used very loosely by modern shamanic practitioners and in new-age circles”; in Therapeutic Shamanism it always means a Lower-World Oversoul, the whole species, written with capitals (Panther, not a panther).5 The relationship is chosen and committed to. Some practitioners claim many Power Animals, or one that keeps changing, whereas Therapeutic Shamanism encourages people to choose one and bond with it; there are no absolute rules, but a bond that is chosen and tended is likely to be lifelong. Above all, the Power Animal’s love is not conditional or transactional: “By contrast, your Power Animal loves you unconditionally.” See What is a Power Animal?
Why does Therapeutic Shamanism start in the Lower-World? #
Because a practice, like a plant, needs roots before it reaches up. Many contemporary practices are “top-heavy”, putting too much emphasis on the Upper-World at the expense of the Lower-World, and others that see themselves as traditional are “much too ‘middle-worldy’”, led by the practitioner’s own agendas or by middle-world spirits.6 Therapeutic Shamanism builds a strong Lower-World connection first, then the Upper-World, and only then turns to the middle-world, and it puts great emphasis on reaching the actual Lower-World of wild nature, free of human-made imagery. See Is shamanic journeying safe?
How is it different from traditional shamanism? #
Traditional shamanisms are rooted in a particular people, place and lineage. Therapeutic Shamanism has no lineage, and answers the charge that this makes it ‘plastic’ by saying that it confuses traditional with authentic: “I think doing so is to confuse ‘traditional’ with ‘authentic’.” Its test is a different one: “The only valid test as to whether it is authentic that I apply is, quite simply, ‘does it work?’” For a Spirit-led practice, “Spirit-led and Spirit-taught always wins hands-down over human tradition.”7
There is a second reason. Virtually all surviving shamanic societies are agricultural or herding peoples, changed to some degree by the Fall, so ‘traditional’ does not automatically mean healthy. Therapeutic Shamanism looks instead to the principles of pre-agricultural, pre-Fallen shamanism and translates them for the present, whilst honouring the indigenous peoples who kept shamanic knowledge alive (see Where does shamanism come from? and What are pre-Fallen, Fallen and post-Fallen shamanism?).8 It borrows no culture’s ceremonies or regalia. A culture’s ceremonies and rituals are its own application of the core, not the core itself. Two shamans from opposite ends of the earth would have different rituals, but beneath them the same body of knowledge and practice. Lower-World Guides teach “Shamanism, not shamanism that belongs to any one middle-world human culture. As such, this teaching from Human belongs to all humans.”
Why does Therapeutic Shamanism add psychotherapy? #
Because traditional shamanism was never designed for the modern psyche. Hunter-gatherer shamans never faced the vast under-world of repressed material that domestication and the Fall have created, so “Traditional shamanism on its own will not be enough to save us, as it is not designed or equipped to deal with the psychological and other middle-world changes that the Fall has brought.”9 Some old practices also work differently now and have had to be adapted. That does not make Therapeutic Shamanism a therapy with some shamanism added: “There are certainly psychotherapy practitioners who do practise a watered-down version of shamanism. But that is categorically not what Therapeutic Shamanism is about.” It is shamanism first, led by Spirit. See What is Therapeutic Shamanism?
Why does it add Core Animism? #
Because shamanism is a branch of animism, the experience that everything is alive and conscious. Core Animism stands to animism as Harner’s core shamanism stands to shamanism: the culturally neutral core, with no borrowed regalia. This is where, from a Therapeutic Shamanism point of view, Harner fell short: he concentrated almost entirely on the shamanic side of the practice, and its animist background got lost; Core Animism is the return to those original animist roots. It includes the Original Instructions for living in right relationship, non-hierarchy, respect for the other-than-human Peoples, and treating everything as sacred. Without that animist ground, shamanism risks becoming a set of techniques bolted on to the very ways of thinking that caused the damage, and the college’s name, Therapeutic Shamanism and Core Animism, puts the two side by side. See What is animism?
Is Therapeutic Shamanism a new shamanism? #
Yes, openly so, and in that it does what shamans have always done: “take the core principles and practices of shamanism and pragmatically adapt them to make them applicable to the environment and times in which they live.” Developing a shamanism for the modern world means doing “the same thing that our ancestors have always done before us”.10 It is grounded, and critical of New-Age shamanism, which tends to add shamanism on to existing beliefs: for most Westerners, shamanism is usually something they ‘bolt on’ to Taker cult thinking. See What is neo-shamanism, and how does it differ from traditional shamanism?
