A Christmas Story – Shamanic style

Shamanism is considered the first religion going back tens of thousands of years, and surprisingly there’s a connection with Christmas.

First some background. Ancient peoples in various parts of the world couldn’t contact one another in the ordinary way that we think of as communication. In other words, no Internet, no telephones, no mail, no telegraph. Yet, peoples around the globe conducted rituals that were very similar. They connected with power animals and spirit beings in similar ways through trance states, usually involving drumming. And they all journeyed to a Lower World, a Middle World and a Higher World.

How did they figure that out and come to the same conclusions? Possibly, through shamanism, itself. They were all interconnected at a deeper level of awareness existing beyond the everyday world, the realm of the shamanic journey.

One way that shamans traveled to the Higher World or the Lower World was by climbing or descending the World Tree or World Post. According to Michael Harner, author of Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Another Reality the shamans of Siberia envisioned the North Star or Polar Star at the top of the pole or pillar. Supposedly, that tradition is the source of the term, North Pole. The pre-Christian Germans and Scandinavians also referred to the World Tree or World Pillar, known as Yggdrasil.

Now comes the Christmas story, courtesy of Harner’s fascinating book.

“The evergreen winter solstice tree (the ‘Christmas tree’) came to America reportedly from Germany, which shares the World Tree tradition with Scandinavia. It seems like a miniature reminder of Yggdrasil, the ‘always green’ World Tree symbolized in pre-Christian Sweden by a huge evergreen tree near the pagan temple in Uppsala. The star traditionally place atop the Christmas evergreen tree echoes the Polar Star, now reincarnated as the Star of Bethlehem.

“The lights (formerly candles) on the branches, circling the tree, remind one of the stars circling the North Pole. Nineteenth-century Christmas trees had representations of angels hanging from their boughs, not unlike how the Siberian Evenki (Tungus) shamans’ spirit helpers and guardians were thought to sit on the boughs of small trees that shamans cut and erected in their dwellings to represent the World Tree.

“The contemporary American Christmas celebration of December 25th is only a few days removed from the (northern hemisphere’s) winter solstice date and seems to retain shamanistic elements. It is partially a survival of solar traditions, such as keeping a Yule fire burning to encourage the Sun to strengthen its light.”

I suppose some readers might think this is an anti-Christian story, but it’s not. It’s just a bit of deep history. The similarities between the Christmas tree and the World Tree could be related to genetic memory. Or it could be synchronicity—the coming together of two traditions outside of cause and effect. One thing is for certain. No matter what your race, culture or nationality, if you go back far enough your ancestors were most likely part of the shamanic tradition. That’s all there was before the emergence of religions.

Harner’s explanation reminded me of an experience several years ago in which Trish and I went to a shamanic cleansing ritual. It was conducted by several Qero Indians who had been brought to the U.S. by Alberto Villoldo of the Four Winds Society. We took part in this ritual in a church, Unity of the Palm Beaches. The five or six Q’ero shamans, wearing their traditional red woolen garb, sat on the floor of the stage and spent maybe 40 or 45 minutes preparing for the ritual by chanting and working with herbs and sacred stones and other materials, all the while chewing cocoa leaves. Then members of the audience came to the stage where the shamans chanted and ran feathers along their bodies, cleansing and blessed them.

A few feet away on the stage was a huge Christmas tree. It was a strange juxtaposition of traditions, one pagan, the other Christian. But now, thanks to Harner’s book, I realize that there’s a much closer tie between the Christmas tree and ancient shamanic practices.

Merry Christmas!!!