Review: Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade

Shamanism [1951/64] – ★★★★

Mircea Eliade’s book is a fascinating, albeit dated, account of shamanism that focuses on the application of the tradition in different world regions.

Shamanism is by Romanian historian and author Mircea Eliade (1907 – 1986), and is considered to be one of the first proper attempts to approach shamanism systematically and scholarly. From costumes and drums to spirit animals and dreams, Eliade elucidates one of the most misunderstood practices/traditions in the world. The great thing about the book is that it talks about shamanism as it is applicable in different regions of the world, from Siberia and India, to South America and Oceania, attempting to draw parallels between them and talking about their general concepts, including similarities in initiation processes. 

The book starts with the definition of shamanism, differentiating the shaman from the medicine man and the magician: “the shaman specialises in a trance during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld” [1951/1964: 5]; “the shaman is the great specialist in the human soul; he alone “sees” it; for he knows its “form” and its destiny” [1951/1964: 8]. The book then talks about how shamanic powers are usually bestowed, such as through initiation rituals. A person usually has to undergo a ritual “death” through some kind of (symbolic) suffering and reach “resurrection”: “Like other religious vocation, the shamanic vocation is manifested by a crisis, a temporary derangement of the future” [1951/1964: xii]; “the shaman begins his new, his true life by a “separation”…by a spiritual crisis” [1951/1964: 13]. The author focuses on symbolism, dreams and visions to explain how shamanic powers could be gained: “…pathological sickness, dreams, and ecstasies, [there] are….so many means of reaching the condition of shaman….[and they] in themselves constitute an initiation…they transform the profane, pre-“choice” individual into a technician of the sacred.” [1951/1964: 33]. In particular, shamans can seek their instructions in dreams where “the historical time is abolished and the mythical time is [restored]” – this allows the future shaman to witness the beginning of world [103].

Eliade then goes on to explain the beliefs, traditions and practices of shamanism thoroughly across different cultures and regions. For example, “the shaman’s costume itself constitutes a religious hierophany and cosmography”; “it discloses not only a sacred presence but also cosmic symbols” [90]. Eliade also points out that the shamanic drum helps the shaman to journey to “the centre of the world”, the seat of the cosmic tree, and, by drumming, the shaman flies away to the cosmic tree. The language of shamans derives from animal cries [1951/1964: 98], and is “equivalent to the ability to communicate with the beyond and the heavens”. Spirit animals of shamans can be their alter egos, and the author often notes that “the ecstasy is only the concrete experience of ritual death…of transcending the profane human condition” [1951/1964: 95]. The author talks about the link between shamanism and nervous disorders; compares shamanism to rituals of secret societies, and illuminates the primary role of shamans in a community.

“The shamans have played an essential role in the defence of the psychic integrity of the community….they combat not only demons and disease, but also the black magicians….shamanism defends life, health, fertility, the world of light, against death, diseases, sterility, disaster, and the world of “darkness” [1951/1964: 509].

Chapters 8 and 13 are probably the most fascinating in the book. In Chapter 8, Eliade talks about shamanism and cosmology, saying that “the pre-eminently shamanic technique is the passage from one cosmic region to another – from earth to the sky or from earth to the underworld” [1951/1964: 259]. The author is a strong believer in the mystical experience, and, naturally, thinks that the soul of the shaman in ecstasy can fly up or down in the course of his celestial or infernal journeys. Chapter 13 is all about parallel myths, symbols and rites, and Eliade talks about the “dog and horse” symbolism, for example “the horse” “enables the shaman to fly through the air, to reach the heavens, and it is also associated with the ecstatic dance” [1951/1964: 468], “psychopomp and funerary animal, the horse facilitated trance, the ecstatic flight of the soul to forbidden regions” [470]. The symbolism of a shamanic flight, as well as the relationship between shamans and smiths are also talked about.

“It is consoling and comforting to know that a member of the community is able to see what is hidden and invisible to the rest and to bring back direct and reliable information from the supernatural world”; …he can contribute to the knowledge of death…little by little, the world of dead becomes knowable, and death itself is evaluated primarily as a rite of passage to a spiritual mode of being” [1951/1964: 347].

At certain times it is a little difficult to take this book seriously – but, one of the great things about the book is that it always uses concrete examples from different cultures, such as from Siberian shamans and their practices. As a result, the book becomes a sufficiently objective, thorough and lucid account. One of its main theses is that shamanism represents the abolition of human condition and the recovery of the situation of the pre-fall of Adam and Eve – this includes friendship with animals and knowledge of their language – so that there is a re-establishment of the “paradisal” situation [1951/1964: 99].

📿 Shamanism employs a tad overly dry and scholarly approach to the fascinating topic, and the translation could have been better. However, it is a good book in a way it provides an overview of shamanism around the world, trying to systematise the study of shamanism, making the point that it is a universal practice. The book tries to demystify many things associated with shamanism and explains its origins, beliefs, practices and misconceptions, thereby remaining an important treatise/historical study to this very day.