You've probably come across the word "shaman" somewhere. Maybe in a film, on a wellness account you follow, or tucked into the name of a workshop or retreat. It's a word that shows up in a lot of places, which makes it easy to assume you already know what it means.
But the real practice behind the word is older, more specific, and more interesting than most of us realise. So let's take a proper look: what a shaman actually is, where the word comes from, and one small practice you can try today that's rooted in genuine shamanic tradition.
Where the Word Actually Comes From
"Shaman" isn't a Native American word, and Shamanism isn't a single religion, even though popular culture often treats it that way. The word originates with the Tungus people of Siberia, and was borrowed into English from Russian around 1700. From there it was picked up more broadly to describe similar spiritual specialists found in cultures all over the world, from the Arctic Circle to Mongolia to the Americas, even though each of those cultures had, and often still has, its own original word for the role.
While the roles often overlap, shamans are genuinely distinct from healers, priests, or spiritual guides, and practitioners are careful to draw that line. What sets a shaman apart is quite specific: shamanic practice always involves entering a trance-like state and journeying to other realms of existence, usually on behalf of someone else rather than for personal gain.
A Universe of Three Worlds
Traditionally, the shaman's universe is understood as three-tiered.
The Middle world is the one we already live in, the physical, everyday plane.
The Upper world sits above, generally associated with guidance, wisdom, and benevolent spirits.
The Lower world lies beneath, associated with soul retrieval and deeper healing work, and is traditionally considered the most difficult realm to travel to.
During a journey, a shaman might describe flying, riding a mystical horse or deer, or transforming into an animal such as a bird or a bear, in order to reach whichever realm the work requires. Practitioners often speak of crossing landmarks along the way, a kind of internal map that's remarkably consistent across cultures separated by thousands of miles.
What a Shaman Actually Does
Depending on the culture, a shaman's responsibilities traditionally extend well beyond what most people imagine. They include:
- Healing illness, traditionally understood as a spiritual disruption as much as a physical one
- Retrieving a soul that has become lost or fragmented
- Communicating with ancestors and nature spirits
- Offering guidance ahead of a hunt, a harvest, or a major decision
- Acting as the community's storyteller and keeper of its mythology
In fact, shamans are considered by many to be the first storytellers. The myths handed down through oral tradition for thousands of years were often inspired directly by what a shaman experienced during a journey, brought back and shared with the community.
Still Practised Today
Traditional shamanic practice continues in parts of Siberia and Mongolia, largely unbroken. Alongside it, a modern movement often called neo-shamanism has emerged, adapting these trance-journey techniques for people living in industrialised, Western societies, sometimes woven into other spiritual or therapeutic frameworks.
One Simple Ritual You Can Start Today: Entering the Silence
You don't need a drum, an animal hide, or years of apprenticeship to begin exploring shamanic practice. One of the simplest, and most foundational, techniques is something traditionally called entering the silence.
It costs nothing, takes as little as five minutes, and is a practice shamans have leaned on for hundreds of years to access clarity beneath the noise of everyday thinking.
Why bother with silence at all? When we finally get a quiet moment, the mind rarely quiets down with it. Thoughts keep bubbling up. Many of us also feel a bit guilty being "idle," so quiet time keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list, which usually means it never happens. The idea behind this practice is simple: sit in genuine stillness for long enough, and clearer thinking tends to follow on its own. You're not forcing an answer, you're just making room for one.
How to Try It
- Find a place and time where you won't be disturbed.
- Sit or lie down comfortably, spine straight.
- Feel the weight of your body where it's supported by the chair or the floor.
- Notice your breath moving in and out, unhurried.
- Enter the silence. Let thoughts pass by like bubbles in a stream, without engaging with them.
- When you're ready to finish, open your eyes and let them settle on something nearby. Feel the weight of your body again, and take a deep breath.
- Ease back in slowly. Stretch, rub the back of your neck, take a short walk, have a drink of water.
Start with just a few minutes a day and build toward around fifteen. Some sessions will feel deep and still, others restless, and both are entirely normal. Consistency does more for this practice than duration ever will. If you find this kind of stillness clicks for you, it's worth knowing that it's also the exact foundation taught in our Meditation Certificate Course, just applied more broadly beyond the shamanic context.
Where This Fits in a Holistic Picture
Entering the silence isn't just a relaxation technique borrowed for convenience. In shamanic tradition, it's considered a genuine doorway, often the first skill a practitioner builds before attempting deeper work, such as journeying to the other worlds described above. Think of it as step one: learning to quiet the noise before you try to listen for anything underneath it.
Ready to Go Deeper?
If entering the silence sparked something, the natural next step is the Shamanism Practitioner Course, where you'll learn the traditions, the three worlds, and the journeying techniques this article only had room to introduce.
From there, many students round things out with the Meditation Certificate Course (to deepen the stillness practice) and the Intuitive Spiritual Healing Practitioner Course (to build on the intuitive skills shamanic work draws on).
All three, plus 40+ other courses, are included in the All-In Pass →
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