r/Shamanism

Two owls, sitting on a post, caused quite a stir between my mother and I, who were fighting as she insisted on taking the photo of them and we are in a rush. Her sister died yesterday. I felt that the owls were her parents. My mom and I yelled at eachother, I instinctively looked at the owls and said “what!?”. Then left. Hours later we drove home, owls still there. I took my mom over to photograph the owls, she was happy about that. The owls just watched.

What kind of spirits do you prefer to work with, and to what end? What makes them ideal for your work compared to others?

I have something negative in the backyard, and I also have something in the house that feels kind of neutral. Is there a way to protect myself from these entities? I wear a tigers eye bracelet, I cleanse the area sometimes, call on guardian angels/spirit guides, and I imagine a bubble around me and I say only love and light is allowed in. I just don’t like the feeling of these things around, and I don’t know if there is anything else I can do. I feel the neutral thing watch me when I sleep, and I just want peace. Please help! TIA!

Looking for book recs

I've been called to research more into divination and trance work lately. I'm a follower of Asatru/Norse Paganism and I've had divinational dreams my whole life. I feel like there is something calling to me and I have this intuition that trance work and divination are my paths to reach it.

Books on trance work, dream work, and divination are preferred, but any recommendations help, I love to read. Thank you, Blessed Be

It is generally recommended to not respond when your name is being called and no one is there. Has anyone who has heard their name being called responded? What came of it?

Thought this was an interesting read.

If so, how?

• A recent study documents medicinal plants used by Indigenous communities in West Sikkim, linking traditional healing to the conservation of sacred groves and monastery forests.
• The sacred groves in this region are reservoirs of medicinal plants, sustained through cultural and spiritual traditions.
• Researchers recorded plant-based remedies with local healers, though experts caution that such practices are mostly social in nature and not easily reduced to scientific metrics.

The sacred groves of India’s Himalayan region are home to a vast repository of medicinal plants. These culturally safeguarded spaces function as informal conservation areas, preserving medicinally important species while reinforcing community-led stewardship of biodiversity. Yet, despite their importance, both the ecological base and the knowledge systems associated with these groves remain largely undocumented and are increasingly vulnerable to erosion.

A recent study by botanists at Sikkim’s SRM University documents 70 medicinal plant species used by Lepcha, Bhutia, Nepali, Limbu and Tibetan communities to treat 35 ailments. Conducted between July 2022 and June 2024, the study recorded the ethnomedicinal practices of Indigenous communities and traditional healers across West Sikkim.

Biswajit Bose, the corresponding author of the study and Associate Professor of Botany at the university, says the documentation shows how culturally protected forest patches such as sacred groves, Gumpa forests and monastery Gumpa forests function as community-led conservation units for medicinal plant diversity in West Sikkim district. The village commons that preserve these groves demonstrate how traditional knowledge systems operate as conservation reserves. He adds that the study also offers “a baseline dataset for future pharmacological research”.

https://india.mongabay.com/2026/03/sacred-groves-anchor-traditional-healing-study/

I want to get to know more about it but I don’t really know how: where should I get more information? In books, videos? When do I know I’m ready for the meditations and practices?

I know this have been asked many times before but I cant get good answer from all of them.

I don't mean portal in the sci-fi sense (unless you think you have done, in which case go right ahead and share...) but rather encountering one of those natural pockets where you pass through and it feels like you're in another weird dimension or something - and whoever you're with at the time can usually feel it, too.

Being on drugs and thinking you've entered a portal doesn't count...

Most shamanic cultures believe these thresholds exist and you can inadvertently wander through them... some say you can intentionally find and enter them.

Anyway, if you know what I'm talking about, we'd love to hear the deets!

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What books or resource material would you recommend in order to give me a better in-depth practice. I am looking mainly for meditation and dream techniques.

I meditate and pray daily but im guessing there are some good shamanic meditation techniques that would help strengthen my practice and connection with spirit

I am extremely new to shamanism and really, what it is for me is animism but being able to make contact either the spirits.

My following questions overall will be regarding if i have to follow a set of existing practices or instructions or if i can reinvent.

I know there are well established animist shamanic tradition in places like Tuva, Altai and such alike but i am an european of eurooean heritage and there is no shaman tradition in my country or region, and i want to fontact the spirits of my land.

There are pagan traditions but i believe that paganism is just evolved animism, esentialy you invite spirits of something into a dedicsted statue and the spirits inhabit the statue or totem. But over time people started worshiping the statue as a whole, giving it a name(no problem with that but) personality aswell, making a story for the chsracter and the atributes of the spirits making only an aspect of the god…. If this makes sense.

Now you understand that there is no surviving european tradition that maintains its animism, and my question now is,

Do i reinvent and through intuition fabricate rituals and ways ro venerate and communicate with the spirits, or get inspired to a degree, if so, to which degree to maintain the systems nativity.

Would be glad for anyones opinion or even if someone had the same problem, if you could share the solution for inspiration.

P.S. I have no problem with the traditions in asia or the people at all to make that clear, i just think that every culture and every spirits have different practice so i would like to keep it that way rather than robbing other indigenous people of their culture.

Have a nice day and thank you for any answers!

Hello, I am hoping to gain some insight on what to make of some experiences I've been having, and advice on how to proceed. I don't follow any specific spiritual tradition or practice, and I don't know how to begin trying to discover a meaning for these experiences.

The experiences in question: Within the span of about 4.5 weeks, I came across bones from four different animals outside, mostly in areas that are familiar to me and that I walk around in often. It was three skulls or partial skulls, and one sternum. I had never come across animal bones at all before this except for a skull one time last year, so each of these (including last year's) feels really significant on their own. The fact that it has happened so many times in such a short time period intensifies those feelings, and it's starting to feel a bit ominous, or at least possibly urgent.

Mostly I'd like to ask for perspectives on what you personally might do to derive or look for meaning if you have experienced, or hypothetically were to experience, something like this. Is there a particular individual or tradition you would seek guidance from? I have read about ways to possibly ask the animals for guidance myself, and that honestly feels most "right" to me. But since I don't have a teacher or tradition, I'm very hesitant to try and go about that on my own. I don't know how to go about looking for a teacher or tradition, either, and would appreciate any advice on that as well.

I don't want to make this too long but I might write a bit more in the comments if this gets posted.

Thank you in advance for any engagement with this post, I appreciate your time reading and thinking about this!