Shamanism is an ancient form of energy medicine and spiritual practice that has spanned the globe for more than 40,000 years and is still actively practiced among indigenous tribes today.  In recent times it has seen a huge resurgence in the west – an answering cry to a dispirited world.

While the actual word shaman originates with the Evenki tribe of Siberia and translates as ‘the one who knows’  or ‘sees in the dark,’ in the modern lexicon, shamanism has come to denote a common vein of spiritual practices and healing modalities that can be found cross-culturally – traces of which were existent even here in the west.  It may have gone by different names at different times, but we all have shamanism in our ancestral roots.

Shamanism is not a religion but it is founded on an animistic world view.  Put another way, shamans consider everything in the universe to be imbued with spirit and to have an animating life force all of their own beyond the physical dimension.  For the shaman there is the ordinary, material and rational world in which we all operate on a daily basis and then there is the unseen energetic world of spirit – that which lies behind the veil.

It is the work of the shaman to bridge these dimensions, to see, move and mediate between the ‘ordinary’ and ‘non-ordinary’ realms, between the physical and the energetic and spiritual dimensions.  They do so by entering  into an altered state of consciousness, a liminal trance state, from which they are then able to offer healing and guidance.

In this they are aided by compassionate Spirit allies.  Theirs is a sacred partnership and all shamanic work, is fuelled by the symbiotic relationship that exists between spirit ally and shaman.

For the role of the shaman is multiple – at any given moment they may act as seer, healer or guide .  Their work is to mediate between the living and the dead, the natural world and the human world, through the ancestral lineages and even across the different parts of a person’s psyche.  In doing so they look to redress any imbalance and bring about resolution and healing.

The shaman moves to the beat of the drum, the sound of the rattle and the song of the spirits.  In any given session they might extract energies, cut cords, unravel ancestral patterns or curses, remove entities or possessing spirits, retrieve soul parts or power animals and repair the energetic body.

With Natural Shamanism Natalya looks to offer a form of natural, intuitive shamanism appropriate for our times and lives. Gathered from the fires of the ancients but moulded to the times and places we live in and from which anyone can draw inspiration.