Shamandome and its circle of shamanistas has a mission: to help restore humanity’s right relationship with the world through the universally ancestral connection to spirit known as shamanism. Our philosophy is that every person expresses this relationship to spirit in a unique way, whether through healing modalities, creative expression or compassionate service.
We are shamanic because we are living creatures. All the energies of Mother Earth resonate in us, through us, all the time. Shamanic practice opens circle and holds space for allowing those energies, along with all loving spirits, to heal us.
Our heart's desire is to be a catalyst for healing in those we serve as clients, each other, and ourselves.
Shamandome is based in New York City - there's info on joining our NY journey circle here.
The camp we manifest in Black Rock City is an exercise in karma yoga -- selfless action offered without regard for results or reward. It is our gift to the city, and to you.
If you're interested in joining Shamandome Camp for 2025, click here: How do I join Shamandome? or visit the Our Camp page by clicking the button below.
OUR VISION STATEMENT
Shamandome is an inclusive, collaborative, cooperative collective of diversely skilled and compassionate healers, shamanic and spiritual practitioners, body workers and mediums honoring all spiritual traditions and coming together in a ceremony-centered community to learn, grow, heal and serve.
We help people heal themselves by putting them in touch with the energies that are already working through them, and by showing them how to “live in ceremony” through the direct experience of various modalities, rituals, workshops and rites of passage which facilitate a re-centering of the ancestral mind and its connection to all life.
Our growing circle is aligned with spirit, spontaneity, service, and mutual respect. We work together, play together and facilitate the Great Turning by helping people give birth to their whole humanity. We are a transformational tribe that aids in the evolution of mindful cooperation.
Our practice is Core Shamanism, as described by Michael Harner. Our intention is to lead by the example of a peaceful, balanced, loving, wise, intentional community, with a commitment to our own individual spiritual development and practices.
"...the most valuable action anyone can take to heal the environment right now is to teach shamanism to everyone, to reconnect us to our true nature, to Pachamama, and Burning Man has the potential to be a catalyst for this work to go global." - Tukuillapa, Quechua indigenous practitioner
WHAT ARE SHAMANS AND SHAMANISM?
"Shamans are the keepers of a remarkable body of ancient techniques that they use to achieve and maintain well-being and healing for themselves and members of their communities. These shamanic methods are strikingly similar the world over, even for peoples whose cultures are quite different in other respects, and who have been separated by oceans and continents for 10's of 1000's of years . . . Shamanism is a great mental and emotional adventure, one in which the patient as well as the Shaman-healer are involved. - Your shamanic experiences will prove their own value. In Shamanism, the maintenance of one's personal power is fundamental to well-being. . . The techniques are simple and powerful. Their use does not require "faith" nor changes in the assumptions you have about reality in your ordinary state of consciousness. Indeed, the system usually does not even require change in your unconscious mind either, for it only awakens what is already there."
- The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner
Shamanism is a path of knowledge, not of faith, and that knowledge cannot come from me or anyone else in this reality. To acquire that knowledge, including the knowledge of the reality of the spirits, it is necessary to step through the shaman's doorway and acquire empirical evidence. - Michael Harner
This is in fact what shamanism is all about, what the end of history is all about, what psychedelic drugs are all about, we are edge-walking on an ontological transformation of what it means to be human. - Terence McKenna
Glossary of Terms
SHAMANISTA : Traditionally, the title "shaman" is bestowed by the community a healer serves. As a form of respect, we reserve the term for indigenous practitioners or those who have a life-long-practice in shamanic healing. Shamanista is a term coined in the seminars of Dr. Barnaby Ruhe to denote a contemporary student-practitioner of shamanism. Shamanista incorporates a sense of freedom to improvise a tool, a protocol, or a healing modality, in a positive relationship with spirit which respects ancient traditions. Shamanista is when we as individuals take the initiative to combine our art and expression with our concept of spiritual healing and transformation -- in practice and in our everyday lives.
CIRCLE : A human gathering, large or small, formed around a common intention. Being "in circle" is the experience of our collective presence - physical, intentional, and spiritual. In a true circle, all participants can see each other without shifting their heads. This creates trust. Circle includes us, surrounds us, supports us, and protects us. It holds space; it creates family and allows spirit to work through us. Circle is community, Burning Man, Earth. Ultimately, circle is also Self. A shamanic circle gathers around an altar which includes elements of fire, earth water and air. Circle "opened" by calling in the spirits of the Four Directions (actually seven: North, South, East, West, Father Sky, Mother Earth, and the Heart/Center/Void) to support and protect the circle's work. We experience individual, paired, and group journeys, healing sessions, etc. through circle -- even a circle of one or two people and the spirits, gathered for healing. Forming circle is creating shamanic space and setting intention in the act of checking in with spirit. It's the manifestation of the seventh realm of spirits upon whom we call: the spirits of the heart, the infinite soul, the possibility of circle.
JOURNEY : Shamanism acknowledges three distinct metaphysical worlds: the non-ordinary Lower World, which is the collective energy resonating in Mother Earth - the presence of being alive, animal instinct, all knowledge of physical reality, what is; the Middle World, the "ordinary world" which we experience through our physical form, bound by our perceptions of what appears to be tangible; and the non-ordinary Upper World, an ethereal place of all possibility, all wisdom, all. A Journey to the Lower or Upper world happens in an Altered State of Consciousness (ASC). This ASC is naturally induced by the mind's focusing on a drumbeat or rattle, and may be augmented by the use of sacred plant medicine.
The Core Shamanic Modalities of Michael Harner
POWER ANIMAL : A metaphysical ally which usually appears as an animal in the Lower World,This spiritual collaborator has been with you since you were born. It will protect you and guide you on journeys through Non-Ordinary Reality in the Lower World. Many practitioners collect a team of Power Animals -- some for healing, some for protection, some for other modalities.
PAIRED JOURNEY : A practitioner-client healing modality. The practitioner journeys on behalf of the client, and asks their power animal to work for the client, to answer a specific question posed by the client.
(For the past few years, in our practice, the practitioner journeys without knowing the client's question. The answers our Power Animals reveal for our clients have become more clear and direct since we initiated this adjustment.)
SOUL RETRIEVAL : In this healing modality, a shamanic practitioner journeys to the Lower World, where their Power Animal helps them find "soul parts" the client lost or left behind during a traumatic event, usually represented by objects which metaphorically characterize the soul parts or the event. Soul parts can break off during or just before any trauma: violence, abuse, a car accident, surgery, even a bad break-up (co-dependency often displaces soul parts). The practitioner returns to the Middle World and blows the soul parts into the client, returning the client's soul to its fresh state before the trauma.
EXTRACTION HEALING : The shamanic practitioner journeys to meet with their power animal. During a brief diagnostic journey through the client's body, the practitioner perceives stuck energy, bad vibes, nasty little hitchhiking manifestations, anger or frustrations as inanimate (or even animate) objects. The practitioner can then remove whichever ones are ready to be released. We all need a clean out!
