The biggest question is on whether or not...
Germanic and Celtic Paganism do have shamanic traits and if this could tell us about its ancient origin. The answer to that lies in the question on whether or not the Indo-European migrations brought their spirituality and rituals with them, or if they also exchanged spiritual practice with the early farming cultures of “Old Europe”. Anthropologists use the term shamanism in order to refer to indigenous cultures and a set of practices, involving drumming, singing, chants and the use of plants in order to establish contact with the spirit world. In a traditional shamanic worldview, the human spirit can establish contact with the trees, animals, rivers, oceans, with the Universe and its many realms and dimensions itself.
The word “shaman” (“one who is moved, excited”) derives from the Tungus culture located in Siberia, and is deeply animistic in essence. “Animism” is another term, referring to the belief in non-local consciousness within nature, animals and the universe. Everything is alive, nature has a soul and consciousness.
Contact with these Otherworlds, healing through the spirit world points to a deeply animistic worldview and practice, which is characteristic for many nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures around the world. Personally, I consider these cultures to be the most fascinating to me. Traditional cultures like the Sami of Fenno-Scandinavia, the Evenki and other various Paleo-Siberian and Native American cultures have a long, ancient history of shamanic practice and a deep, loving bond with their surroundings and the elements.
Many types of shamanism occur throughout Eurasia, from Mongolia to the Southeast of Asia and while they all share some similarities it is important to understand that when we talk about Shamanism, we essentially mean their techniques to alter and change their consciousness at will in order to communicate with the Other- and Underworlds of their Spirits, their Gods and Ancestors.
“Shamanism” is a term that Anthropologists use in order to describe the spiritual practice of hunter-gatherer cultures. It’s not a term that these cultures themselves use. Once upon a time, though, it might have been that such practice also existed in Central and Northern Europe. The German word “Zauberei” for sorcery might be a small hint. According to Tacitus, Mercury and Wotan seem to be the same deity, share a common origin and they both have shamanic elements to them, like guiding souls to the Underworld amongst other functions.
It is important to understand that to be a traditional shaman, one needs to be chosen from the tribe and born and raised into such a culture. Today, we don’t really know how such practice would have looked like amongst western and northern European cultures.
Today, the western interpretation of shamanism is somewhat different from the East. Shamanism as I speak of would be the practice and techniques of altering the state of consciousness of the practitioner in order to communicate with the spirit world.
And this is where the belief in magic stems from: Ancient animistic cultures.
Although, the practice of shamanic techniques was an occupation and activity, instead of a doctrine. How old shamanic techniques and beliefs are, who really knows? We know that Paleo-siberian tribes, Native-Americans, even Aborigines in Australia all have shamanic and animistic traits in their set of belief and medicine system.
Here at The Wicked Griffin we’d like to put emphasis on traditional cultures that practice ancient types of shamanism. We are aware of the fact that the terms “shamanism” and “shaman” often distorts the cultures of indigenous cultures. This is not our intent. We do believe that such a practice also existed on the European continent. The Wicked Griffin wants to encourage the sincere study of traditional cultures with a shamanic worldview that have practiced such techniques for thousands of years around the world. In some cultures, the initiation in order to become a shaman takes as a long as 30 years with hardships and challenges, thus we are aware the title “shaman”, or “one who knows”, is not to be taken lightly.
Shamanism is not so much about a doctrine as it is about the content of what their beliefs are about, but of course there are similarities. It would be hard to ignore that. We don’t know just how far back in time “pagan” beliefs really go. They could be as old as paleolithic hunter gatherers, perhaps even older than that. We don’t know when and how it began. More about that in my Article “Paleo Rituals”.
