Adventures In Shamanism

09/10/2025

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by don Jose Ruiz

09/08/2025

🍃💖 Celtic Shamanism: Walking Between Worlds

Celtic shamanism is a contemporary “term” for the way of honoring the spiritual lifeways of the ancient Celtic peoples, those who lived in deep relationship with the land, the seasons, and the unseen realms. And a way of honoring the ancestral wisdom of the Celtic peoples and those who walked between worlds.

Though the modern day word “shaman” isn’t native to Gaelic culture, however the essence of the shaman role or archetype, “journeying between worlds for healing, insight, and connection” was carried by many figure types in Celtic culture; healers, seers/oracles, faery doctors, poets/storytellers, and keening women, each serving the community in their own sacred way, and serving as a bridge between the human and spirit realms.

This tradition teaches that everything is alive with spirit. Stones, rivers, trees, and animals are not just symbols, but kin. The Otherworld isn’t distant, it’s woven into the fabric of daily life, offering wisdom and guidance to those who listen. Even as Christianity spread through the Celtic lands, the reverence for nature and the divine presence within all things remained strong.

To walk this path is to live with attentiveness and awe. The Celts believed the greatest music was the music of what is happening, a call to be present, to honor the sacred in each moment. Whether greeting the sun, tending the hearth, or listening to the wind, daily life became a ritual of gratitude and connection.

This way of seeing continues to inspire modern seekers. It invites us to slow down, listen deeply, and remember that spirit is near, always ready to walk beside us.

🌿 Ritual Invitation: A Breath Between Worlds: Step outside or face a window. Place your hand over your heart. Say aloud: “I greet the spirits of land, sea, and sky. I walk with reverence. I listen. I remember.” Take three slow breaths, one for the seen world, one for the unseen, one for the thread between. Offer a quiet thank you to the moment.

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09/04/2025

This introductory online workshop in shamanism is based on the classic work of anthropologist Michael Harner. The workshop introduces Core Shamanism, a powerful methodology consisting of the common and universal features of shamanism that are not culturally-specific. The online format of the workshop is convenient, accessible, and effective.

The workshop focuses on the shamanic journey: a remarkable visionary practice used to access nonordinary reality for healing, problem solving, obtaining knowledge, and building spiritual power. Aided by shamanic drumming, a safe and effective means of altering consciousness, workshop participants will embark on shamanic journeys to explore other worlds and meet compassionate helping spirit teachers and power animals.

https://www.shamanism.org/workshops/the-shamanic-journey/

09/02/2025

“Ritual is how we tend the soul of the land and the land tends us in return.”

🍃 This quote is a beautiful articulation of the reciprocal relationship at the heart of Celtic shamanism and animist practice. In Celtic tradition, the land is not just terrain, it is a living being with spirit, memory, and emotion. Ritual becomes a way of offering care, attention, and reverence to that living soul. Whether it’s lighting a candle at a sacred well, leaving offerings at a hawthorn tree, or simply walking with intention, these acts are not symbolic gestures. They are relational. They say: I see you. I honor you.

🍃 Ritual is how we feed the spirit of place. It’s how we acknowledge the stories held in stone, stream, and soil. It’s how we keep the bond between human and landscape alive. When we engage in ritual, the land responds. Not always in dramatic ways, but in subtle shifts: a sense of peace, a sudden insight, a feeling of being held. The land becomes a healer, a teacher, a companion.

🍃 In Celtic shamanism, this reciprocity is sacred. We tend the land, and the land tends our spirit. It’s not transaction, it’s communion.

💖 Invitation: Ritual of Reciprocity with the Land

🍃 Time: Any quiet moment, dawn, dusk, or midday stillness

🍃 Place: A patch of earth that feels alive to you, a garden, forest edge, field, or even a single tree

🍃 Steps: Arrive with intention. Step onto the land slowly. Pause. Breathe. Whisper: “I come to tend, and to be tended.” Offer something simple. A pinch of oats, a strand of hair, a song, or a heartfelt breath. Place it gently on the earth and say: “This is for you.” Listen. Sit or stand in stillness. Let your senses open. Notice the wind, the birds, the scent of soil. Ask inwardly: “How do you tend me?” Let the answer come in feeling, image, or silence. Close with gratitude. Place your hand on the earth. Say: “We are in relationship. I remember.” Walk away slowly, as if leaving a sacred space because you are.

08/30/2025

Wow!

08/28/2025

In the heart of shamanism, including Celtic Shamanism, the idea that the world is not inert, but alive with presence, memory, and meaning.

“When you walk with Spirit…” implies moving through the world in a state of reverence, attunement, and relational awareness. It’s not just physical walking, it’s soul-walking. It’s the kind of movement where your senses are open, your intuition is listening, and your heart is in dialogue with the land.

“…even the stones become storytellers.” suggests that when you’re in that state of spiritual attunement, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Stones, often seen as lifeless, reveal themselves as ancient beings, holding memory, myth, and messages. They become part of the conversation. A stone might whisper of ancestral footsteps, echo the pulse of the earth, or mark a threshold between worlds.

In essence, when you walk with Spirit, the world responds. Everything becomes animate. Everything speaks.

08/27/2025

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08/26/2025

The Raven Who Carried the Dawn

Long ago, when the world was covered in endless twilight, the people of the forest struggled to live. The rivers froze too quickly, the trees bore no fruit, and the children grew weak in the long night. The Elders prayed to the spirits, calling for light to return, but only silence answered.

It was then that Raven appeared—his wings carved with the memories of ancestors, his feathers carrying the marks of every spirit he had spoken to. The people say he perched high upon the cedar, listening to the earth’s cry. When he opened his wings, he revealed not only his strength, but also the secrets written into him by generations: the circles of the sun, the heartbeat of the moon, the pathways of stars.

Raven flew into the darkness, seeking the lodge of the Sky Chief, who kept the Dawn locked inside a cedar box. With trickster’s wit and warrior’s courage, Raven broke the box and stole a piece of the Dawn. As he soared back over the forest, the first rays of light spilled from his wings, painting the river silver and awakening the trees.

The people welcomed him with songs and drums, knowing that Raven was not only a messenger, but a reminder: light is never truly gone—it waits for those brave enough to seek it.

From that day, when the forest awakens in morning mist, the people remember Raven. They say his wings are still etched with the patterns of both shadow and light, for he carries the memory of night and the gift of dawn.
🎨Artist and the storyteller : Solis Hue
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08/25/2025

08/24/2025

Êkwa nîtisânak — come close, sit near, for this story is not about far-off places, but about the heart of every child.

There was once a little one, we will call her Mîkwan, which means Feather. She was light in spirit, gentle in her ways, like the feather that drifts upon the breath of the wind.

One day, another child, carrying storms inside, struck Mîkwan without reason. Like a branch snapping in the wind, she fell, her knees kissed by the stones, her eyes wet with sorrow. She did not understand. Why should my soft feather be torn by another’s storm?

Mîkwan walked to the forest, where the birch trees whispered and the river stones glistened. She sat beside a great stone, one that had sat since the beginning of the world. The old ones said such stones know how to listen.

She laid her hand upon it and spoke softly:
“My heart has been hurt. My body is scraped, but it is my spirit that is bleeding. Tell me, Grandfather Stone, how do I carry this pain?”

The stone answered not with words, but with stillness. Its silence was deep as the sky at night. And in that silence, Mîkwan remembered the teachings:
• The Bear who roots himself in the earth teaches us strength.
• The Wolf, who walks with his pack yet stands brave alone, teaches us courage.
• The Eagle, who rides the high winds, teaches us to lift our prayers above the weight of this world.

Mîkwan breathed with the stone. She felt her tears soak into the earth, and the earth received them without judgment. Slowly, her spirit grew steady again. She saw the truth: the one who had struck her carried a heavy stone of their own — sharp, jagged, hurting them from the inside. That was not her stone to carry.

The next day, Mîkwan rose like dawn and returned to her people. She saw the child who had hurt her. She did not lift her hand in anger, nor did she bow her head in shame. She stood like the pine, rooted and tall, and said:

“You tried to place your heavy stone in my bundle. But I will not carry it. I choose to carry only my own spirit, light as a feather.”

The other child had no answer. Their eyes lowered, for they felt the weight of their own stone more clearly.

And so, my grandchildren, Mîkwan learned what our old ones always knew: when others act with harm, we need not take their darkness into our lodge. We breathe, we call upon the Bear, the Wolf, and the Eagle, and we walk in kindness, carrying only what is truly ours.

—Kanipawit Maskwa
ᑲᓂᐸᐏᐟ ᒪᐢᑿ
John Gonzalez

08/24/2025

I took this workshop in the 90's and highly recommend it as a starting point.

This is the classic introductory workshop in shamanism, developed by anthropologist Michael Harner decades ago and now experienced by tens of thousands of students worldwide. The workshop introduces Core Shamanism, a powerful methodology based on common and universal features of shamanism that are not culturally-specific.

The workshop focuses on the shamanic journey: a remarkable visionary practice used to access nonordinary reality for healing, problem solving, obtaining knowledge, and building spiritual power. Aided by shamanic drumming, a safe and effective means of altering consciousness, workshop participants will embark on shamanic journeys to explore other worlds and meet compassionate helping spirit teachers and power animals.

To learn more and to see listings by region, follow https://www.shamanism.org/workshops/the-way-of-the-shaman/