My connection to the Amazon and the vibrant contemporary shamanic culture there started almost accidentally. Prior to the late 1990’s, I was familiar with the term ‘shaman’ but my interest was primarily of North American indigenous spiritual and cultural practices and my own tenuous connections to them. My own spiritual practices were developing organically and I wasn’t looking too far beyond those connections for inspiration. I had learned to make hand drums and had made a few for myself, friends and family, including some men who I held a regular weekly sweat lodge with. At one point, one of ..read more

The world is ‘on fire’. We are losing species at an unprecedented rate. Scientists agree we are going through the world’s sixth known mass extinction. Something must be done. A proposed solution to this crisis comes from the global group, High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People. The campaign named ‘30×30’ is supported by over 50 countries who have pledged to turn 30% of the world’s land and ocean into protected areas for nature by the year 2030, with a further target of 50% by 2050. These protected areas will be reserved entirely for wildlife and thus free from human development, f ..read more

Even when it is anticipated at the moment the great ‘huntress’, as death is sometimes spoken of, touches us on the shoulder to claim us, she comes as an unannounced visitor. Can we really imagine a world without us? From the moment we are born we step into the world and our life unfolds breath by breath, as a result with each breath we naturally come closer towards death – both are inevitable. Our Death is a natural part of life and one we are destined to meet as the circle of our life completes. Our own physical death is one of the very few certainties that we carry around this circle. I have ..read more

It is with the deepest regret and sadness that I have to share that Jan Van Ysslestyne passed away unexpectedly in early June this year. Jan’s devotion to the Ulchi people and her determination to create ways for their history to be retold and remembered was ‘beyond passion’ as evidenced by her amazing book Spirits from the Edge of the World as well as her articles. Indie Shaman was fortunate in publishing Jan’s fantastic article Spirits in a Foreign Land in our April 2021 magazine (Issue 48) as well as an interview with Jan and her article Shamanism of the Ulchi in edition 40 back in 2019. Ja ..read more

Using a single headed frame drum to beat a repeated rhythm in an attempt to connect to the spirit world is something which has been done for many hundreds if not thousands of years in many cultures all around the world. In fact, recent archaeological discoveries in Greenland identified the remains of two drums of the Saqqaq people, which date back 4500 years. These were almost identical in height, thickness and cross-section to those collected by a Danish Polar explorer by the name of Knud Rasmussen who collected drums from the Inuit in the 1920s. Going further back in history, just outside th ..read more

It is with great sadness that I write about the passing of our friend and colleague, Martin Pallot, this July. Martin became proof reader for Indie Shaman in 2013, we first published his poetry on the back cover of issue 21 in 2014 and more recently he had also taken on the role of sub-editor. But he is probably best known as ‘The Storyteller’; publishing his first story for Indie Shaman, A Deer Hunt, in our 10th anniversary edition back in 2016. And we are fortunate that he always kept me well supplied with stories ‘in advance’ so I can continue to share these with you for a year or so. I fir ..read more

Image Note: This image is a public domain collage showing the cultural assimilation of Native Americans, dressed in European attire. With respect and in honour … Dates: 1868, 1877, 1905, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1919, 1924. Comanche man, Name – George Cable; Cheyenne elder, Name – Nawat (Left Hand); Creek woman, Name Unknown; Creek woman, Name – Apuega (Woman); Creek man, Name – Lo-Cha-Ha-Jo (The Drunken Terrapin); Cherokee woman, Name – Jariuk Uklenk or Rose Hilderbrand; Cheyenne man, Name – Katiawa-Iano (Blue Hawk) or Milton Whiteman; Iroquois woman, Name – Caroline Hewitt; Choctaw man, Name – Faun ..read more

“I would like the white people to hear our words and dream about all they say: if the shamans’ songs stop being heard in the forest, white people will not be spared any more than we will.” Davi Kopenawa in ‘The Falling Sky – Words of a Yanomami Shaman’ Davi Kopenawa is a shaman and spokesperson for the Yanomami people, one of the largest relatively isolated tribes living in the Amazon forest on the border of Brazil and Venezuela, the greatest area of rainforest under indigenous control anywhere in the world. Dubbed the ‘Dalai Lama of the Rainforest’, Davi is a global ambassador for his people ..read more

Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa warns that uncontacted Yanomami in Brazil “could soon be exterminated”. Miners and loggers now using the coronavirus pandemic as a chance to invade uncontacted tribes’ land in Brazil; the situation is dire. In March this year Yanomami leader and shaman, Davi Kopenawa, made an urgent statement warning that a group of uncontacted Yanomami “could soon be exterminated” if the Brazilian authorities do not act now to remove gold miners working illegally on the tribe’s land. The group, known as the Moxihatatea, are in grave danger having already fled many times. Davi sai ..read more

Davyd Farrell, talks to Dr Patrick MacManaway The study and art of the relationship between people and place is called geomancy, an almost forgotten aspect of human consciousness in the West, which works with the intelligence in the landscape. In this fascinating interview, Patrick discusses how we can be in communication and co-creation with the spirits of place, of the land and of nature for our own wellbeing and that of our environment. Davyd I’d like to introduce to you Dr Patrick MacManaway; one of our own teachers, international jet setter, world renowned geomancer and land healer and al ..read more