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Unit number: SMC
204
Unit title: Shamanism,
Witchcraft and the Otherworld
Credit value: 3 credits
Description: This unit presents the thesis that European witchcraft has widespread shamanic roots. Inspired by the work of Ginzburg and Eliade, the author of the key text set out to uncover the shamanic base of European mythology and folklore. Shamanism, based upon contact with the Otherworld, is the world’s oldest spiritual practice and survived Judeo-Christian religion both by persisting in its own forms and by combining with Judeo-Christian culture. The old gods took new names and were disguised as mythic and folkloric figures. The study takes us up to the period of the witch trials of medieval, Renaissance and Reformation Europe, and the rise of the “scientific spirit” that at the same time marked the “soul loss” of Western civilization and the resurgence of new forms of shamanism. This unit includes an optional set of neo-shamanic exercises or “otherworld journeys” aided by the Jungian technique of “active imagination.”
Key textbook: Johnson, Kenneth. North Star Road: Shamanism, Witchcraft and the Otherworld Journey. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1996.
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Amendments may be made to the details and provision of units at any time.
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