Lux Ferre

Psychonauts – A term sometimes applied to neo-shamans, Chaos Magickians, techno-shamans, those ingesting entheogens, some Pagans, and other contemporary Westerners exploring the realms of altered states of consciousness. Where astronauts travel into

Psilocybin – A hallucinogenic or entheogenic alkaloid (4-phosphoryloxyN, N-dimethyltryptamine) of the tryptamine family present in many species of fungi, the best-known being the genus Psilocybe, including Psilocybe cubensis and Psilocybe semilanceata (Liberty

Protection – A significant role of shamans in many indigenous communities is to provide protection from enemies of various kinds, including sorcerers, witches, predators, enemy shamans, annoyed ancestors, illnesses, and even deities.

Price-Williams, Douglass – Professor emeritus in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has, as part of his research into psychological anthropology and cross-cultural cognitive studies, written extensively on shamanism,

Price, Neil – Archaeologist whose exhaustive analysis of Norse–Saami relations in The Viking Way (2002) indicates that there was much creative cultural exchange. In particular, Price attends to the practice of seidr

Pretty Shield (1856–1944) – Medicine woman of the Apsáalooke (“Children of the Large-Beaked Bird,” often now called Crow) during the 19th-century transition to reservation life. She told her life story to Frank

John Pretty on Top, – Cultural director and speaker for the Crow/Absaroke Nation who succeeded Thomas Yellowtail as medicine man and Sun Dance chief in 1985. He was chosen for this role

Predation – A significant theme of many Amazonian cultures is that there are basically two kinds of beings—predators and prey— each of which is divided into three major groups: spirits, people, and

Pragmatism – Indigenous shamanisms tend to disrupt the binary sacred–profane boundary imposed by Western observers, avoid transcendentalism, and embed practice in pragmatic day-to-day community (human and other-than-human) relations. The relationship between shamans

Power Animals – A significant portion of the practice of neoshamanism, including almost all early workshops in the style of Michael Harner’s core shamanism, involve guided visualization or meditation—sometimes glossed as “journeying”—in