In the North, shamanism has been practiced since the dawn of our known world.
Finland has for centuries been renowned for its shamans, sages, and wise folk. The traditional values of the shamans have endured from ancient times to the present day, carefully preserved by skilled practitioners who pass their knowledge and craft on to future generations.
Northern shamans are healers, seers, and caretakers of the soul. They walk between worlds, restoring balance wherever life’s harmony falters. They move through existence perceiving the golden glow of animals’ spirit bodies, healing this vital life force by guiding both humans and animals.
The shamans of the North blend ancient Sámi and Lapland traditions with a touch of modern psychology, drawing deep inspiration from the wellspring of nature. We, the shamans of the North, offer workshops, drumming circles, forest journeys, and shamanic initiations to all who come to us as fellow travelers on the path.
THE SHAMAN
A Northern shaman is above all deeply attuned to the invisible web of life force that connects all living things. The shaman can feel and see the luminous aura that surrounds every being, sustaining life and linking it to the whole of existence.
Shamanism is the world’s oldest spiritual worldview. Northern shamans have woven together the ways of ancient hunter-gatherer cultures with modern neo-shamanism, using trance techniques to deepen self-awareness and strengthen the psychological understanding of human experience.
The shaman’s world is divided into three realms: Upper, Middle, and Lower. These are spiritual planes always present around us, though most people cannot perceive them in ordinary waking consciousness. Yet anyone can journey there during a drum journey. The steady, rhythmic beat of the drum alters the state of consciousness, allowing a person to enter the spirit world much like slipping into the dream world during sleep.
THE WORLD OF SHAMANS
The spirit world of shamanism is divided into three, the Lower World, the Upper World and the Middle World
- The Lower World lies beneath the earth, reached through tunnels or caves. Its power is healing, and it offers help for tangible ailments. Here one may encounter a spirit animal, ancestral spirits, or other beings of the underworld. The symbols of the Lower World often mirror the human subconscious, revealing solutions to problems through symbolic meaning.
- The Upper World begins beyond the cloudlands, where one may meet spiritual teachers who offer wisdom, guidance, and insight. It can be reached by flight, by climbing the world tree, or by leaping through a cloud. This is the realm of winged beings, and many guiding birds are found here.
- The Middle World is the spiritual dimension of our everyday reality. It requires no special passage—only a shift in awareness. In this realm one may meet nature spirits, animal spirits, or the spirits of the dead.
All realms are filled with life energy, which can be used, guided, transformed, transferred, or brought into balance. The shaman’s worldview embraces a vast variety of spirit beings—earth folk, gnomes, plant and animal spirits, ancestors, and deities—yet the shaman remains firmly grounded in everyday reality.
Among the living, it is only the shaman who can cross from the sunlit side of waking consciousness into the inverted, hidden realm beneath—the realm of death, the night folk, earth spirits, staalo beings, forces of nature, deep knowledge, and sacred darkness. Only the shaman’s awareness and perception have expanded beyond the limits of the physical body, senses sharpened to the utmost, allowing travel between worlds to bring back the elements needed for healing and restoring balance.
