How do you Become a Shaman?

I’d like to talk about how one becomes a shaman, but I have to clarify something first. In my tradition, one does not call oneself a shaman. When I refer to myself, I mostly use the phrase “shamanic practitioner” as I truthfully am a person who practices shamanic spiritual techniques.

I also want to make clear that indigenous shamanic cultures are extremely varied. How they select and/or train people who take the role of the shaman is different culture by culture. While I have extensive training, I am not an anthropologist and don’t want to speak about cultures I am not familiar with.

I will do my best here to draw out some commonalities.

Choosing Who is a Shaman

In some cultures, the role of the shaman is hereditary. A person is selected and trained by parents or grandparents. In other cultures, a shaman is born with certain signs, perhaps a birth defect of some sort. In others, one has to have passed through a traumatic ordeal, like being struck by lightning.

Ultimately, I believe that spirit chooses. Whether you are born into a certain family, or struck by lightning, or born with birth defects in the cultures that use these selection criteria, spirit is nudging those it chooses onto the path.

Today, almost anyone can sign up for a basic course in shamanism. However, those who do not have a spiritual predisposition for the path, do not wind up sticking to it. I’ll talk about why in the next section on initiation.

A Shaman’s Initiation

Shamanic initiation is no easy ride. I have referred to it as putting your whole life into a snow globe and then putting that snow globe into one of those paint mixers at Home Depot. It’s going to shake things up.

It’s important for me to draw a distinction between initiation and an initiation ceremony here. I have participated in many different initiation ceremonies, all of them are very powerful. Some of them were intense and even frightening. But these were ceremonies that all had set beginning and ending points. They were also led and supervised by advanced practitioners - so there is a measure of safety.

But initiation on the shamanic path is an ongoing process conducted by spirit. It never gets easy. My take is that it is spirit breaking down old parts of you that are no longer useful so that you can become the proverbial “hollow bone”. Think of the way indigenous people traditionally made canoes by burning and scooping out the centers of logs.

For me, initiation involves facing parts of myself hidden away in the shadow, having my life turned upside down from time to time, and reexamining my relationship to everything.

There’s a scene in Empire Strikes Back where Luke fights Darth Vader in the swamp of Dagobah. Luke tells Yoda, “I am not afraid.” Yoda responds knowingly, “you will be.” When Darth’s helmet is struck open it reveals Luke’s face underneath. This is a great representation of the shadow aspect of the self, experienced during shamanic journeys.

Ultimately, just as spirit chooses the shaman, spirit initiates the shaman. Even if outward ceremony is involved, spirit is doing the real work.

Shamanic Training

I think I have laid out a good case of why someone can’t just take a class or read a book and be a shaman. However, training is necessary to practice shamanic healing.

Indigenous shamanic cultures will each have their own way of conducting training. Some have an apprentice model, some training is conducted by elders or family members.

My own path involves extensive training. I have completed a year-long apprenticeship in shamanism, a two-year initiatory program, specialized topic training, and am about to start two years of advanced teacher training. For me, the learning never stops.

For my own students, I recommend they don’t take on clients without completing a year of apprenticeship, and training in soul retrieval. Even then, a practitioner may run into things he or she hasn’t trained for and would need to refer to another practitioner

If you’re interested in shamanism and feel called to the path, I recommend starting with an Intro to Shamanism and Journeying class. This is normally an in-person class given over a weekend that will give you a taste of shamanic practice and teach the basic skill of journeying. It’s also a prerequisite for an apprenticeship and some other classes.