‘The Hermit Next Door’: The Role of Eremitism/Asceticism in Contemporary Shamanic Healing Practices in North-East Scotland

Based on an ethnographic study of ‘Western’ forms of contemporary shamanism in North East Scotland, the article discusses the significant role that eremitism plays in folk healing systems, particularly in shamanism. The tendency to live an isolated life is not only a key feature of traditional shamanic healing practices, but it can also be found in contemporary manifestations of them. Two such cases are discussed in this article. Terry Mace and Norman Duncan are two contemporary shamanic healers who live and offer services in the wider region of North East Scotland. For different individual reasons, they have self-consciously decided to isolate themselves geographically, living simply and self-abundantly, and leading an eremitic way of life away from materialism and socialising. The article thus focuses on examining the role of eremitism in the life of these two healers in an attempt to highlight the significance of the phenomenon in contemporary shamanisms.

Esotericism in Botswana

The article argues that “esotericism” can usefully be applied to a number of religious currents in Southern Africa. With a focus on Botswana, we survey a range of practices, from traditional “shamanic” healing to Pentecostal NRM s to New Age spiritualities and neoshamanism, some presented here for the first time. The term esotericism is useful for analysing the religious situation in Southern African contexts for three reasons. First, through a typological understanding of esotericism as initiation-based knowledge systems, we define one part of the landscape (usually termed “shamanism”) as constituting a form of “indigenous esotericism”. Second, through the European colonial expansion, this indigenous esotericism faced a violent rejection campaign that parallels the construction of “rejected knowledge” in Europe. While this forced many practices underground, they have resurfaced within Southern African Christianity. Third, “western” esoteric currents have recently been imported to Southern Africa and enter into dialogues with the “indigenous” forms.

An annotated translation of the ‘eye disease incantation’ in Dongba script

The ‘eye disease incantation’ is a special category of manuscript recorded by the Naxi Dongba for the purpose of healing through the power of incantation and meditation. Up to now, very few Dongba texts with incantations have been discovered or published, and Dongba texts which record incantations as well as depict scenes of meditation are even more rare. There are three ways to record Dongba script found in these texts: record the language completely; express the meaning via pictures; and create an expression that combines meaning and sound. The structure of the glyphs is characteristic of an early writing system which was mainly composed of pictographs and associative compounds. However, the high rate of phonetic loan glyphs and the appearance of pictophonetic glyphs show the characteristics of a mature writing system. This type of manuscript has value for studying the evolution of the relationship between Dongba language and script, and shamanic healing culture.

Animism is Applied Ethnobotany: A Shamanic Healing Ritual with the Dayak Benuaq Ohookng / East Kalimantan

The Dayak Benuaq Ohookng people believe in many and diverse territorial ghosts/spirits (wook) who exist in the environment, some of which have the power to remove the soul (juus) of a human body part or organ and, at the same time, implant disease. Consequently, this body part or organ gets sick. The mission of the shamans (pembeliatn), as mediums to the spiritual world, is to identify the ghost/spirit responsible during nocturnal rituals and to submit all of the diverse ritual offerings possible, including making an exchange of a “soul” (kelakar) made from ironwood (Eusideroxylon zwageri). To get rid of the disease, the patient smears some of his/her own saliva onto a carved statue (sepatukng silih), depicting the ghost/spirit concerned, after the shaman activated it. Later, this statue is taken to the forest. The shaman can also extract the disease from the sick body part by help of a thinly spliced banana leaf (telolo). The disease can also be attached to the statue or put into the blood of sacrificial animals. In order to finally find and identify the lost soul of the patient’s sick body part, the shaman performs a vigorous dance and then falls into a trance, during which he receives a message about where to catch the soul. To discover the soul and capture it, he uses a bamboo stick filled with boiled rice (tolakng tintikng). The captured soul is then massaged into the sick body part of the patient. To perform this ritual, a great number of traditional and institutionalized plants are essential. They are arranged around the altar (balai sianca jadi) and used for ritual objects. White rice and rice colored with black, red, yellow and green dyes plays an important role in attracting and satisfying the ghosts.

Why the Sponsorship of Korean Shamanic Healing Rituals is Best Explained by the Clients’ Ostensible Reasons

Various scholars have suggested that the main function of Korean shamanic rituals is the change of the participants’ feelings. I elaborate what these scholars potentially mean by “function”, challenge what I take to be their core claim, and argue that at least in the case of Korean shamanic healing rituals their sponsorship has rather to be explained based on the clients’ ostensible motivational and belief-states. Korean clients sponsor such rituals because they want their beloved ones to be healed and because they believe that the shamanic ritual can potentially accomplish such healing. I underpin this thesis by two representative actual Korean shamanic healing rituals.