Is It Okay for White People to Practice Shamanism?

This loaded question came up recently in the Medicine Work class I teach. We were discussing America’s version of the Holocaust: the extermination of millions of Native Americans at the hands of colonial immigrants, political leaders, and military forces. Merciless and far-reaching, the war on Indigenous Americans lasted over four hundred years, and persecution at a lesser but still insidious scale continues today.

So what gives us the right to participate in activities such as sweat lodges, vision quests, and sundances?

There is no uncomplicated, correct answer. No right or wrong. There are as many opinions as there are people, and many emotions behind those opinions. Leaders such as Leonard Crow Dog, Frank Fools Crow and others believed including white people in their ceremonies would allow sacred rituals to live on during a time when the people had largely forgotten them. Others believe the opposite; that white people do not belong in ceremony, do not have the right to participate in the spiritual gatherings of the people.

We All Have Shamanic Ancestry

Herbal Magick was Practiced by Many Ancestors

My own ancestors practiced what is now known as witchcraft and were persecuted for it in their time. Healing with herbs, taking advice from spirits, listening to trees and plants, and working with the energies of birth and death were all considered regular parts of a folk healer’s work. Interestingly, these people were often called “wise women” or “cunning folk” and their work called the “cunning craft” in many European countries, regardless of the language. In Aboriginal Australian culture, a medicine man is called a “cleverman.” The Inuit word, “angakoq,” indicates the intellectual and spiritual head of the community. It’s no coincidence that the word “shaman,” the most widely used term for what we think of as a medicine person, originates from the Tungus word “saman,” meaning “one who knows.”

As for myself, I use “intuitive” or “shamanic practitioner,” since I am not Indigenous, to avoid cultural appropriation. As for the question of whether we have the “right” to participate in sacred rituals: it is an honor, one that’s accorded by the community that holds the rituals. An invitation is either extended or not, and when we take up the invitation, we enter sacred space and must conduct ourselves accordingly; not as ones who have a right to be there, but as guests.

Chase Iron Eyes, a Native American activist, attorney, politician, and member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, points out that Native Americans have just as much impetus to share their culture, traditions and religion as any other group of people. If Buddhism, Christianity and even yoga have made it this far around the world, why not the cosmology of the Lakota, for example? Why not the shamanistic tenets of the Navajo? He posits that perhaps it is a choice and a calling to share wisdom with other cultures; that the religions of Indigenous Americans have something helpful to share in a time of crisis.

How We Approach Our Work Matters

Master the Art of Listening

Regardless of culture or color, our duty as shamanic practitioners is to honor that root word, “one who knows,” and to lead a life of continuous learning. This means we must first master the art of listening more, speaking less, and approaching our work and the animate world with an open and humble heart. Every human being holds the genetic ancestry of many thousands of years of shamanistic culture. Our ancestors walked the plains and forests of Earth without shelter, and what kept them alive was their ability to listen. They not only believed, but knew, that spirits walked alongside them. They knew the plants and trees could and did speak to them and told them things they needed to know in order to live. They understood the changes in weather, the rumblings in the earth, and the language of the stars. There are things we used to know that we do not know now but are able to re-learn if we listen.

So, is it okay for white people to practice shamanism? It is not only okay, but necessary if we are to survive. We must re-learn how to treat the world with respect; to remember that we are not the masters of the earth nor the most important beings here, but the youngest and most recent cousins to come along. We must treat the plants, animals and waters as elders instead of subjects, caring for them as we would a beloved relative. Only then do we have a prayer of healing what has been hurt, of putting back together what has been broken apart. When guilt or fear or unworthiness arise, treat them as messengers from a time ruled by polarization, a time that is passing. Let them have their say, show them out the door, and keep practicing.

“Humans are a part of creation and shamanism is our way of connecting with the whole.” -Will Adcock, Shamanism: Rituals for Spirit Journeying and Sacred Space