Entering the Crack Between the Worlds: Symbolism in Western Shamanism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i2.184Keywords:
Shamanism, Michael Harner, Carlos Castaneda, symbolismAbstract
This paper will explore shared symbols in Western shamanism, their meanings and signification. Shamanism is a contested and multivalent term, so first there will be a theoretical delimitation of what is meant by Western shamanism. The definition presented is a religious practice found in contemporary Western society. Symbolism will then be analysed through three main categories. The first category of symbols will be the use of darkness/light metaphors, and their meaning and importance in Western shamanism. Then the symbol of soul loss and retrieval will be analysed, and the image of the journeys and what this is supposed to achieve. Finally, the practice of symbolic appropriation will be tackled by analysing the use (and abuse) of symbols from other cultures. What this will demonstrate on the one hand is the Western origin of the shared symbols used in Western shamanism and on the other hand how this origin is concealed with non-Western symbols, used as a strategy of legitimation.References
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Stuart, R. “Ayahuasca Tourism: A Cautionary Tale,” Maps, xiii, no. 2 (2002): 36-38.
Trietel, Corinne. A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
Vitebsky, Piers. “Shamanism.” In Indigenous Religions: A Companion, edited by Graham Harvey. London: Cassell, 2000.
von Stuckrad, Kocku. Schamanismus und Esoterik: Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Betrachtungen. Leuwen: Peeters, 2003.
Wallis, Robert. Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasy, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans. London: Routledge, 2003.
Williams, Mike. Follow the Shaman’s Call: An Ancient Path for Modern Lives. Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn, 2010.
Znamenski, Andrei A. The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and the Western Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Brown, Terence, ed. Celticism. Amsterdam: Rodolpi, 1994.
Buxton, Simon. The Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters. Rochester, Vt: Destiny Books, 2006.
Castaneda, Carlos Journey to Ixtlan. New York: Washington Square Press, 1991.
———. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968.
Cohen, Erik. “A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences,” Sociology 13, no. 2 (1979): 179–201, doi: 10.1177/003803857901300203.
Cowan, Tom. Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993.
Crabtree, Adam. From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
Crowe, Catherine. The Night Side of Nature, or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers. London: T.C. Newby, 1848.
Deloria, Philip. Playing Indian. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998.
Deloria, Vine, Jr. God is Red: A Native View of Religion. Golden, Colo.: North American Press, 1994.
de Mille, Richard. Castaneda’sJourney: The Power and the Allegory. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Capra, 1970.
———. ed. The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Ross-Erikson, 1980.
DuBois, Thomas A. An Introduction to Shamanism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Translated by Willard R. Trask. London: Arkana Penguin, 1989 [1964].
Ellenberger, Henri F. The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books, 1970.
Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973.
Hammer, Olav. Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
Hanegraaff, Wouter. “A Woman Alone the Beatification of Friederike Hauffe née Wanner (1801-1829).” In Women and Miracle Stories: A Multidisciplinary Exploration, edited by Anne-Marie Korte, 211–47. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Hardman, Charlotte. “ ‘ He May be Lying, But What He Says is True’: The Sacred Tradition of Don Juan as Reported by Carlos Castaneda, Anthropologist, Trickster, Guru Allegorist.” In The Invention of Sacred Tradition, edited by James R. Lewis and Olav Hammer, 38–55. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985.
Heaven, Ross, and Simon, Buxton. Darkness Visible: Awakening Spiritual Light Through Darkness Meditation. Rochester, Vt: Destiny Books, 2005.
Howe, Ellic. The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: a Documentary History of a Magical Order, 1887-1923. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
Hutton, Ronald. Shamanism: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination. Hambledon: Continuum, 2007.
Ingerman, Sandra. Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
Johnson, Paul C. “Shamanism from Ecuador to Chicago: A Case Study in New Age Ritual Appropriation.” In Shamanism: A Reader, edited by Graham Harvey, 335–54. London: Routledge, 2003.
King, Serge Kahili. Urban Shaman: A Handbook for Personal and Planetary Transformation based on the Hawaiian Way of the Adventurer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
Lee, Pali Jae. Ho’opono. Honolulu: Night Rainbow Publishing, 1999. Lewis, Ioan M. Ecstatic Religion: A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession. London: Routledge, 1989 [1971].
Lewis, Sara E. “Ayahuasca and Spiritual Crisis: Liminality as Space for Personal Growth,” Anthropology of Consciousness, 19, no. 2 (2008): 109–33, doi: 10.1111/j.1556-3537.2008.00006.x
Mesmer, Franz Anton. Précis historique des faits relatifs au magnétisme animal. Paris: Bollen, 1781.
———. Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal. Paris: Didot, 1779.
Mesteth, Wilmer Stampede, Darrell Standing Elk, and Phyllis Swift Hawk. “Declaration of War against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality.” 1993. http://www.aics. org/war.html.
Noel, Daniel. The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities. New York: Continuum, 1998.
Perry, Campbell, and Kevin M. McConkey, “Benjamin Franklin and Mesmerism, Revisited,” International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 50, no. 4 (2002): 320–31, doi: 10.1080/00207140208410108.
Pukui, Mary Kawena, and Samuel H. Elbert. Hawaiian Dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.
Rothstein, Mikael. “Hawaii in New Age Imaginations: A Case of Religious Inventions.” In Handbook of the New Age, vol. 1., edited by Daren Kemp and James R. Lewis, 324-39. Leiden: Brill, 2007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/ ej.9789004153554.i-484.110.
Shaw, Rosalind, and Charles Stewart. “Introduction: Problematizing Syncretism.” In Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: the Politics of Religious Synthesis, edited by Charles Stewart and Rosalind Shaw. London: Routledge, 1994. http://dx.doi. org/10.4324/9780203451090_Introduction.
Smith, Jonathan Z. To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Stuart, R. “Ayahuasca Tourism: A Cautionary Tale,” Maps, xiii, no. 2 (2002): 36-38.
Trietel, Corinne. A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
Vitebsky, Piers. “Shamanism.” In Indigenous Religions: A Companion, edited by Graham Harvey. London: Cassell, 2000.
von Stuckrad, Kocku. Schamanismus und Esoterik: Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Betrachtungen. Leuwen: Peeters, 2003.
Wallis, Robert. Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasy, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans. London: Routledge, 2003.
Williams, Mike. Follow the Shaman’s Call: An Ancient Path for Modern Lives. Woodbury, Minn.: Llewellyn, 2010.
Znamenski, Andrei A. The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and the Western Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Published
2013-01-14
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Section
Articles
How to Cite
Crockford, S. (2013). Entering the Crack Between the Worlds: Symbolism in Western Shamanism. Pomegranate, 13(2), 184-204. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i2.184
