Category: Shamanism

Sacred Hoop 1) Sacred Hoop Neo-shamanic journal based in Great Britain and established in 1993 by Nick and Jan Wood, offering “a network magazine for…

Sabina, Maria (1888–1985) – Mazatec Indian curandera who was “discovered” in the 1950s by the ethnomycologist Gordon Wasson. Wasson held Sabina’s veledas (healing ceremonies involving…

Saami(Sámi) – Also known as Lapps. Indigenous to northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and northwestern Russia, the Saami’s primary traditional mode of subsistence is reindeer herding.…

Runic John – A British Heathen neo-shamanic practitioner and the author of The Book of Seidr: The Native English and Northern European Shamanic Tradition (2004)…

Rudgeley, Richard – Independent British scholar of archaeology, anthropology, and religious studies. Rudgeley’s volume The Alchemy of Culture: Intoxicants in Society (1993) revived interest in…

Rouget, Gilbert – Ethnomusicologist of the Musée de l’Homme, Paris. Rouget is best known for his book Music and Trance (1985), in which he argues…

Rock Art – Paintings (also known as pictographs) and engravings (also known as petroglyphs) on rock surfaces in caves or rock shelters and on boulders…

Ripinsky-Naxon, Michael – Scholar whose interest in shamanism concerns the use of psychoactives, the origins of religion, and the nature of religious experience. In line…

Rhythm – Shamans in many cultures make use of rhythmic music, songs, chants, dances, and movements. Instruments as varied as drums, rattles, and bells are…

Resource management – A significant role for shamans in many indigenous cultures, part of their mediatory and political functions. Shamans may engage with particular animals,…