The Spirit of Place

Over the past several years I have been visiting indigenous cultures that still hold on to a shamanic tradition. In the upper Amazon I watched as the Huaranai shaman Mengatohue went into trance and asked the spirit of the Jaguar to guide his embattled tribe. In Mongolia I stayed up all night watching Namid a 70year old Darhat shaman chant and drum until the mountain spirit helped her with the care of a pregnant mother. In Siberia near the Amur River I visited the last four remaining shaman in the Nanai and Ulchi tribes-all women in their late eighties and early nineties who routinely called upon earth spirits to guide them in their work as healers.

At one time we were all deeply bonded to the place where we lived. Our survival was dependent upon our knowledge and relationship to our immediate environment. This relationship was deepened by a two way communication with the spirits of the animals, forests, lakes and mountains. It was a spiritual connection seen to be vital for maintaining both the health of the community and the well being of the individual.

During the Enlightenment this spiritual communication fell out of the favor. Label as superstitious, primitive, and 'of the devil', the people that worshipped and talked to earth spirits were ridiculed and systematically exterminated. There are only a few traditional cultures remaining who spiritually communicate with their environment. Today we refer to these people as animists and their spiritual leaders as Shaman.

Here are some of these people who still believe the natural world is animated with powerful spirits that can nurture or destroy depending upon the respect they are shown. People for whom the environment still holds a sacred enchantment.

...people who still know The Spirit of Place.

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