Category: Shamanism
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Amazonian Shamanism, Part Three: Easter
In the past few days I have been thinking about a story told to me by my teachers Bernardo and Jenny. The story is this: Maybe twelve hundred years ago a teacher appeared in he Amazon basin. This teacher traveled throughout Amazonia, including Peru. He is said to have had scars in his side and…
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At the Symphony
It’s the first full day of spring, and snow has fallen, often heavily, for much of the day. The ground is warm, thanks to several days of temperatures in the fifties and sixties, and sun, so little snow has stuck. Last night we went to the symphony. The Vermont Symphony Orchestra (VSO), a “gem” of…
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Shamanism and the IMF
I’ve been reading Laura Kendall’s new ethnography of South Korean shamanism, Shamans, Nostalgias, and the IMF. Traditionally, Korean shamans have been mostly women, rural, and low in social and economic standing. In the second half of the Twentieth Century, they were often regarded as backward, and as representing a rapidly retreating, agrarian past. By the…
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Amazonian Shamanism, Part Two
Several years ago I spent a couple of weeks with friends and teachers on the Rio Negro, in northwestern Brazil. One day we were visited by a local healer and her daughter. The healer spoke to us about her practice, then went into a trance lasting two or three hours. During that time, she channeled…
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