ABSTRACT
This chapter explores various facets of the historical shaman, including their call to vocation, their wound or illness, their special relationship with animals, and their role as the first artist and spokesperson for the mythopoetic psyche in human culture. The shaman’s immediate contacts with the spirit world are pictured in various drawings on the walls of ancient caves, such as Lascaux, where, for example, a man with a bird mask may portray a shaman taken over by an invading animal spirit. The shaman’s ‘illness’ is described as a special ‘gift,’ as initiatory vocation and not pathological. Differences between the shaman and the spiritual healer are elaborated. The shaman’s rapport with the spirit world and the animal world and their role as a ‘technician of ecstasy’ are described, and the work of Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade are cited as they explore the various functions of shamanism in ancient culture. Finally, the shaman as the first individual and carrier of emergent psychic reality in the evolution of consciousness is articulated.
