Shamanism and Ecology

This is the title of a book, which was published in 2018 by Laurent Huguelit and Roland Urban, the managing Director of the European branch of Michael Harner‘s Foundation for Shamanic Studies.

This subject takes into account that shamanism as an instrument that always considered the needs of the local indigenous culture hosting it, nowadays also is confronted with global issues like polution of the environment and climate change. The book starts with a Michael Harner quotation: „Like ... Eliade points out, the shamans ... are the last humans who can talk to animals. I would add that they are the last ones to talk to all of nature, including the plants, the streams, the air and the stones. Our ancient hunting and gathering ancestors recognized that their environment has the power of life and death over them, and considers such communication as essential to their survival.“ (Harner, The Way of the Shaman, 1990, Find more information on the website of the FSSE.)

An attempt to address this issue to international committees was made by the Kogi people, settled in the Mesoamerican state of Colombia. Already at the end of the last century a group of them travelled to New York, to give a speech in the United Nations Building about global ecological problems that, according to the Kogi, are mirrored in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a mountain region they call their home since precolumbian times. Another public event with them took part in Montreal, Canada, where they addressed their issues to a group of several hundred people, part of them also of indigenous descent. Among them the Kogi find people of conscience. One of them says „Here in Canada, the forests are being destroyed. We Canadian indigenous people do everything we can to prevent that. We have built dams to protect the trees and forests. Almost all who have done so are in jail.“ (Éric Julien, Der Weg der neun Welten, ISBN 3-89060-322-X, original titel „ Le Chemin des Neuf Mondes“, Editions Albin Michel, Paris 2001) (See also on YouTube or related video in German.)

Not only the Kogi people are concerned ... three Peruvian Q'ero shamans e.g. visited Berlin end of June 2019 in order to have their indigenous ceremonies with about 200 participants and recruit new „Earthkeepers“. (See also http://schamanendaemmerung.de/2019_06_Alberto_Villoldo