Shamanic traditions are the living spiritual practices of peoples who work with spirits, trance and ceremony to heal, guide and keep their communities in balance. They exist on every inhabited continent. They are not one religion with local dialects. They are hundreds of distinct cultures that arrived at something similar, each in their own way, and each with their own rules about who may practise and how.
This overview walks through the major living traditions, what makes each one particular, and what they genuinely share. It also names the part most overviews skip: which of these practices are open to outsiders, and which are not.
What are shamanic traditions?
Shamanic traditions are culturally specific systems in which a trained practitioner enters an altered state of consciousness, usually with a drum, rattle, song or plant, in order to work with spirits on behalf of others. The work is almost always done for someone else. That is the quiet detail that separates a shamanic tradition from a personal spiritual practice.
The word itself comes from one place. Šaman belongs to the Evenki language of Siberia, and Russian travellers carried it west in the seventeenth century. Everyone else had their own word: angakkuq in Greenland, curandera in Mexico, sangoma in southern Africa, noaidi among the Sámi. When we say “shamanic traditions” we are using a borrowed Siberian term as an umbrella. It is useful shorthand, and it is worth remembering that it is shorthand. You can read more in our brief history of shamanism.
Which shamanic traditions still exist today?
All of the major regional traditions are still practised, though several survived periods of severe suppression and have been rebuilt from what elders kept alive privately. The table below gives an orientation, not a complete map.
| Region | Practitioner | Signature practice | Open to outsiders? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Siberia and Mongolia | Böö, kam, oyuun | Drum journey, spirit possession, clan ancestor work | Rarely, usually by lineage |
| Sápmi (northern Scandinavia) | Noaidi | Runebomme drum, joik singing | No, Sámi led revival |
| Amazon basin | Curandero, vegetalista, onanya | Plant dieta, icaros, ayahuasca ceremony | Partly, with long apprenticeship |
| Andes (Peru, Bolivia) | Paqo, altomisayoq | Despacho offerings, mesa work, mountain spirits | Often, through recognised teachers |
| Mesoamerica | Curandera, sobador | Limpia cleansing, egg and herb diagnosis | Partly, community based |
| North America | Varies by nation | Closed ceremonial systems | No, by explicit request of many nations |
| Southern Africa | Sangoma, inyanga | Ancestor divination, bone throwing, ukuthwasa calling | Only through formal initiation |
| Korea | Mudang | Gut ritual, music and dance, spirit descent | Rarely, hereditary or called |
| Nepal and Himalaya | Jhankri, dhami | Drum, trembling trance, mountain deities | Through apprenticeship |
| Australia | Clever man, ngangkari | Songlines, Country based healing | No, closed |
What do shamanic traditions have in common?
Five things recur across almost every tradition, despite thousands of miles and no shared history. Mircea Eliade called the pattern “techniques of ecstasy” in his 1951 study, and Michael Harner later built his core shamanism method on the overlap.
- A layered cosmos. An upper, middle and lower world, or some close variant, with the practitioner as the one who travels between them.
- Helping spirits. Animals, ancestors, plants or place spirits who do the actual work. The practitioner asks. They do not command.
- A calling, often unwanted. Illness, a lightning strike, a breakdown, a dream that will not stop. Many traditions consider a willing volunteer slightly suspect.
- Sound as the doorway. Drum, rattle, bell, song. The rhythm carries the practitioner across and carries them back.
- Service to the community. The healing belongs to the person who asked for it, not to the one who journeyed.
How do the traditions actually differ?
The differences matter more than the similarities, and they sit mostly in three places: what gets you into trance, who the spirits are, and how the role is passed on.
A Siberian böö and a Shipibo onanya both work with spirits, but one travels out on a drumbeat while the other invites the spirit of a plant in, after months of restricted diet. A sangoma is called by ancestors who are specifically her own family, and no amount of training substitutes for that bloodline. A Korean mudang may inherit the role or may be seized by it in a sickness that only ends when she accepts. These are not stylistic variations. They are different theories of how the world works.
Sound is one place you can hear the difference clearly. The Amazonian icaro is received rather than composed, and it directs the medicine. A Siberian drum, by contrast, is a horse. It carries you somewhere. Same function, entirely different logic.
Which practices are open, and which are closed?
Some traditions welcome respectful students, some require initiation through a specific lineage, and some have asked outsiders plainly to stay out. Honouring that request is not political correctness. It is the first test of whether you can follow instructions from spirit workers, which is the whole job.
A workable rule: if a practice requires you to claim an identity you were not born into, or to use ceremonial items from a nation that has publicly objected, it is not yours to take. If it is a universal human technique, such as drumming yourself into a light trance and asking for help, it is available to anyone willing to learn it carefully. Most of what is taught in the West as core shamanism falls into the second category, which is precisely why Harner stripped the culture-specific material out.
Mexican limpia cleansing is a good middle case. It is widely taught, it is not secret, and it is still somebody’s grandmother’s practice. Learn it from someone who names their teachers.
Where does this leave you?
I trained in core shamanism because it was the honest door available to me. I am German. I have no Siberian clan, no Amazonian dieta behind me, no ancestors calling me to throw bones. What I do have is a drum, a practice, and twenty years of sitting with people who needed something brought back.
Over those years I have also learned to say plainly where a technique comes from, and to stop when a tradition says stop. That has never once made the work smaller. It has made it cleaner. The spirits that show up for a person practising honestly within their own limits seem entirely unbothered by the absence of a borrowed costume.
If you want to begin somewhere real rather than reading about it, the 30 Days of Shamanism challenge gives you one fifteen-minute ritual a day, including the journey to your power animal in week three. One candle, thirty days, no borrowed traditions.
Frequently asked questions
Is shamanism a religion?
No. Shamanism is a set of practices, not a belief system with doctrine, scripture or a founder. It exists inside religions rather than alongside them. A Mongolian böö may also be Buddhist, a Mexican curandera is usually Catholic, and neither experiences a contradiction.
Which shamanic tradition is the oldest?
Nobody can say honestly. Siberian practice is often called the oldest because the word comes from there, but that is an accident of European travel writing. Cave art in France and Australian rock art both suggest similar practice tens of thousands of years back, on opposite sides of the planet.
Can I practise a tradition I have no ancestry in?
Sometimes, and only on the tradition’s terms. Andean and Amazonian teachers often accept outsiders through long apprenticeship. Sámi, most North American and most Aboriginal Australian traditions are closed. Ask the tradition, not the internet, and accept the answer.
What is core shamanism?
Core shamanism is the method Michael Harner assembled in the 1980s from techniques that appear across many cultures, with the culture-specific material deliberately removed. It is what most Western training teaches, and it is the least appropriative route into the work.
Do all shamanic traditions use plant medicine?
No, and this is a common misunderstanding. Plant medicine is central in the Amazon and parts of Mexico, and largely absent in Siberia, Sápmi, southern Africa and Korea, where drum, song and dance do the work. The majority of shamanic traditions worldwide use no psychoactive plants at all.
Can shamanic work replace medical treatment?
No. Shamanic work sits alongside medical and psychological care, never in place of it. Traditional practitioners in most cultures refer people to doctors without hesitation. If you are unwell, see a doctor, and let the spiritual work support what the medicine is doing.
About the author. Carolin Mallmann is a shamanic practitioner, coach and NLP trainer, and the founder of One Shamanism. She has worked with the drum for over twenty years and teaches core shamanism online and in Portugal, with respect for the traditions she did not inherit.
