Resources: Books on Shamanism
Following is a list of shamanism-related books with descriptions and comments. Some of the more important or unusual books are more fully reviewed on separate, linked pages.
Shamanista Book Shop at Amazon
To view a list of Shamanista-recommended books (without comments) and purchase them from Amazon, via shopping cart, check out the Shamanista book shop. Some of the books listed there are not yet reviewed here. This list there will continue to grow as this site grows.
Shamanism
This is the short list. It includes only the books White Cranes and others in our group have found most useful over the years. (For a greater selection of books that we like, see the Shamanista Amazon Book Shop.)
Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power by Thomas E. Mails. I don't think anyone ever called Frank Fools Crow a shaman, at least not in his lifetime. (He died about 20 years ago.) But witnesses, including Mails, a Lutheran pastor, saw Foos Crow walk in and out of the spirit world. Fools Crow taught us so much about healing, about humility, about how to live, and about how to interact with the spirits that his books are essential reading for anyone who journeys.
The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming by Michael Drake. This excellent book on how to do shamanic drumming includes concise information on ceremonies, smudging, animal spirits, and much more. It was completely revised and enlarged in 2002. Highly recommended!
The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner is one of the best introductions to shamanism. This is the classic book that introduced shamanism to modern Europeans and Americans. The author, Michael Harner, Ph.D., is an anthropologist who studied shamanism in the Amazon basin and founded the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.
Cleansing and Protection
Psychic Self-Defense by Dion Fortune clearly explains how energy protection works, why you need it, and how to do it. Though not about shamanism, it is filled with examples from the author's own experience, provides great information, and is interesting to read. Fortune was one of the most influential magic-wielders of the 20th Century.
Animals
Animal Spirits: An Illustrated Guide by archeologist Nicholas J. Saunders is one of the best introductions to animal spirits in animism and shamanism. It is a well-written and beautifully illustrated small book that conveys a sense of the awe with which ancient peoples regarded the animals.
Cult of the Cat, also by archeologist Nicholas J. Saunders, is an amazing introduction both to the former huge territories of the great cats and to the ancient and modern reverence for them.
The Tribe of Tiger , by field biologist Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, documents the culture of undisturbed lions in the wild and goes on to describe the behavior and biology of other large cats, such as tigers and pumas.
Indigenous/Animist/Shamanist Cultures
The Harmless People by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. Thomas was one of the first Westerners to live with the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Her account of these nomadic hunter-gatherers, whose way of life had remained unchanged for thousands of years, is a ground-breaking work of anthropology and scholarship, with a novelistic grasp of character. From field trips in the 1980s, Thomas updated her original book, The Old Way, to show how industrial civilization, including theft of property rights, wage labor, and alcohol, has affected the Bushmen. It is a powerful, loving look at an endangered culture and a provocative critique of our own.
The Old Way: A Story of the First People , by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. At 19 years old, Thomas went with her family in 1950 to live among the Ju/wasi bushmen, the San people of the Kalahari desert. This book documents their now-vanished traditional way of life. (You may not need this book if you read The Harmless People.)
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