For many, Wicca is a Shamanic Path. As a religion that draws on ancient Goddess-based spirituality, it will naturally pick up the ancient spiritual practices that go along with these.
A Shaman is a spiritual leader, teacher and healer within an ancient tribal society. He or she presides over all the rites of passage from birth to death, heals the sick, divines the fates of his or her people, counsels, and is the tribes connection with the Divine.
A person usually becomes a shaman after a traumatic childhood incident or sickness. He or she demonstrates some sort of psychic or supernatural ability such as a 6th sense or visionary dreams. The elder or shaman will then take him or her under their wing and teach the student the secrets of magic and power passed down from shaman to shaman as a sort of apprenticeship.
The shaman's power comes from secret magical practices and ecstatic rites where they visit other planes of existence and speak with spirits. By doing this, they heal members of the tribe through soul retrieval from the other worlds or by exorcising the negative energy in them. This, combined with training in herbalism, crystal healing, totemic worship and prayer allows them to aid others around them.
Wicca is similar to Shamanism in its spiritual work, its emphasis on community aid, and in its training through apprenticeship and study.
However, Wicca differs because, unlike Shamanism, Wiccans usually work in groups and have ritual practices that include other witches. Also, much of Wiccan practice comes from ceremonial traditions with emphasis on philosophies such as Alchemy, Hermeticism, and more (which we will cover later on).
In the Correllian Wiccan Tradition, Shamanism is taught separately from the traditional path and 3 Degree systems. It is a 1 year study, much like a year and a day study for an initiate. The studies with this school focus on divination, psychopomp, soul retrieval and shamanic history rather than the traditional teachings of Wiccan ceremony, ritual, and methods. In this way Wicca is more like High Magic when compared to Shamanism though both can go hand in hand.
Damon and I incorporate some Shamanic activities in our ritual practice such as ecstatic music with changing, drumming, singing bowls, rattles, bells and even dancing. We also use drumming in meditation, to go within, much like a spirit journey to other planes to receive information as a Shaman would.
Bibliography
The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner
Wicca: A Year and a Day by Timothy Roderick
Circle of the Sacred Drum School http://sacreddrumcircle.org/school-of-shamanism.html
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