In short: Animism is the worldview — everything is alive and worth relationship. Shamanism is the practice built on that worldview — the specific technology of trance and journeying used to engage directly with that living world. You could hold an animist worldview without ever journeying; shamanism is what happens when that worldview is turned into a practical method.
It helps to think of animism as the map and shamanism as a way of travelling on it. Every shamanic culture is animist, but not everyone who holds an animist worldview is a practicing shamanic practitioner — plenty of people across history and today relate to the living world as animists without ever entering a formal trance state.
Every shamanic culture is animist, but not everyone who holds an animist worldview is a practicing shamanic practitioner.
Therapeutic Shamanism works with both halves deliberately: the animist worldview reshapes how you relate to yourself, other people, and the wider world day to day, while the shamanic practices — journeying chief among them — give a direct, repeatable method for deepening and testing that relationship.
Sources:
- Courses: First Steps Course
- Books: The Shamanic Journey
- Books: Rewilding Yourself
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