NORTHERN EUROPE

Northern Europe: translation

Shamanistic themes have been identified, with some speculation, in the pre-Christian paganreligions across northern Europe, the “Old North.” While it is likely that prehistoric communities in the region had shamanistic practitioners, identifying these individuals or their traditions as specific examples is controversial. The oldest evidence is that ofEuropean Paleolithic caveart, particularly in France and more recently northern England, some examples of which contain geometric shapes known asentopticsthat are held to be specifically derived from somealtered states of consciousness, as well as anthropomorphic images including therianthropes thought to depict shaman–animalcomposites ortheriomorphism.From the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age), a find of perforated antler frontlets at the site of Star Carr in Yorkshire, England, may have comprised part of a headdress, perhaps used in shamanic rites. Therock artofNeolithicand Bronze Age structures has also been examined vis-à-vis entoptic phenomena, with the Neolithic passage tombs of Ireland receiving the most attention. The Northern religions of theCeltic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and related peoples have also been cited as shamanistic, primarily due to the style of theirartas well as recurrent mythological themes in various literary sources that were written in the Christian era but may refer to earlier pagan traditions. Key examples here are the Celtic practice ofAwenyddion, described by Gerald of Wales, in which apriestmay enter atrance, and a detailed description of aseidrséance in the Saga of Erik the Red, according to which a seeress communicates withspiritsin order to divine supernatural knowledge for a Norse community inGreenland. The Germanic godOdinand goddessFreyjamay display shamanic themes: theHávamálin the Poetic Edda records Odin’s self-initiation, in which he hangs from a tree for nine nights, pierced by his own spear, in order to receive thevisionof the runes, and Freyja is said to have taught Odin the practice of seidr, for which he is accused ofergi(unmanly behavior). Such examples as these have inspired a number of contemporary Paganneo-shamanicpractices and beliefs, including the notion of a shamanic “Old Religion” among someWiccans, derived in part fromMargaretMurray’s thesis that medievalwitchcraftreaches back to the Paleolithic era. The recentDruidicreconstruction of Awenyddion has been pioneered byPhilip“Greywolf”Shallcrassof the British Druid Order. The better-knownHeathenreconstructions of seidr began with the work ofDiana Paxsonand the Hrafnar group in California, but there are now manifestations in Great Britain, largely due to the work ofJenny Blain, and elsewhere in Europe. Such innovative revivals and reconstructions attest to the vitality of neo-shamanisms in the early 21st century.