In this post, as you’ve done in the past, you touch on our own culture as Americans and how that relates to shamanism. I’ve been thinking more lately about our own culture and how a shaman would fit into it (especially for those of us who aren’t psychologists!). Don’t have any answers yet, but surely there is a way. Surely there are cultural traditions and rituals that can somehow be adapted in order to become a more “authentic” American shaman. Seems it would help us avoid appropriating other cultures in order to fill in those gaps. It’s probably all right under our noses anyway, but we’re just too close to see it.

However, that doesn’t mean you aren’t or can’t be a shaman. I mean I would personally be pleased if I hadn’t gone through some of the devastating illnesses I have had.

Another aspect of a shaman, especially in a “Celtic Shamanism” mindset (I am not acknowledging whether or not Celtic Shamanism is authentic or not, merely examining the paradigm) is not the shaman sickness, which seems to irrelevant, but instead being taken to the otherworld, initiated there, and also being kind of an outcast, on the fringes of society.

You might find that if you look to Northern European “shamanism” that your experience will fit more closely. Despite the fact that you are American–I think these things can still inform.

I have not seen much in the way of illnesses being prescribed for Northern European shamans.