Newsletter 05/12

Shamans-Real Life Can Be Good For Fantasy

When people hear the word Shaman, they typically think of certain things. Maybe a rain dance. Maybe an aborigine with a blowgun. For some reason, shaman rarely invokes an image of a dancing Korean woman in long multicolored dresses, as just one example. Shamanistic beliefs and rituals exist in many forms and in many cultures, and a fair number of shamanistic traditions are still in practice today. The aforementioned Korean woman might even be registered with her government as a practicing shaman, although many go unregistered today. The point is, shamanism can be a lot more than people's normal images.

There are certain things that typically set shamanism apart from other kinds of religious endevors, all of which you can use in your fantasy stories. First of all, shamans tend to be polytheistic, worshiping many gods. Actually this is a misattribution. Generally shamans do not consider the beings they worship gods, at least not in the same way most other priesthoods do. Shamans typically venerate spirits, and treat them on more of a partnership basis than the traditional supplicant-omnibeing relationship. Shamans perform their rituals to keep the spirits happy so they can get favors. They don't perform them because the spirits tell them, "Do this or else!"

The spirits venerated by shamans are generally more terrestrial than gods. The most common type seems to be the ancestral spirit, a guardian of a family. Spirits of natural formations are also common as are animal and even plant spirits. The spirits tend to have personalities that match the phenomenon they personify. Ancestral spirits care for their family, but not much else. A mountain spirit tends to be aloof and forbidding, but patient and slow to anger. Water spirits, typically of rivers or lakes, are mercurial. Their moods change with the water itself. Animal spirits are generally concerned with their own species and its needs.

The spirits often do not quite live in phase with the rest of the world. This leads to a second commonality among shamans, ecstatic rites. Generally, in order to properly communicate with the spirits, a shaman must attain a different level of consciousness. Some cultures will use herbs to attain this state. Others will perform exhausting dances to achieve the proper frame of mind. Maybe another group will perform chants and pass a rubber ball from hand to hand. (Okay, I'm not aware of any real world shamanic tradition that uses that one, so feel free to borrow.) It doesn't seem to matter what they do, what matters is the effect it has on the mind, bringing the shaman to the spirit world.

Of course being in tune with the spirit world is important to the shaman, because spirits are busy. In most shamanic traditions, spirits are responsible for just about everything. Illnesses, bad harvests, storms, earthquakes, boils, all could be the work of malicious, or sometimes just plain irked, spirits. The shaman is important to the culture because it is the shaman that can commune with the spirits and find out why they're so ticked off. Shamans can also recommend ways to make the spirits happy again. If you want a successful business, ask a shaman what to do to make the spirits around your office happy. I have witnessed shamanic blessings of schools, taxis, warehouses and many other modern contrivances, so your fantasy world can do much the same.

In conclusion, to a shamanic culture, man's relationship to the spirits is vital. If you wish to portray shamans in your stories keep these themes in mind. A little library research can give you a world of information for the creation of unique shamanic traditions and rituals that will keep your readers absorbed for page after page.