MASTERY OF SPIRITS

Shamans are sometimes distinguished from other religious or cultural leaders by their ability to control or masterspiritsor otherother-than-human persons. For example, it may be the shaman’s job to gain control of hostile beings who causeillnessby overpowering ordinary people. They maycombatbeings who causepossessionor “soul loss.” However, it is now clear thatMircea EliadeandLuc de Heuschoverstate the distinction between shamans who master spirits and their clients and members of “possession cults” who are mastered by spirits. InSiberia, theArctic, Greenland, and many other places, shamanicinitiationandperformancerequire a degree of control byotherworld helpers. It is more useful, then, to consider the empowering relationships between shamans and other-than-human persons to be reciprocal to some degree.