Over the past year, we've spent a considerable amount of time cleaning up the subreddit and removing spammers, sock puppets, fake shamans and other predatory grifters. We've made a lot of progress and we're looking forward to making this a better place for everyone who's genuinely interested in shamanic work.

We'll be adding a more prominent 'community rules' section, since it seems that most redditors don't read them. We've also updated a few. Please note that users are responsible for reading all of these rules, including the fully expanded text.

Some of those rules include (but aren't limited to):

No self-promotion. Anyone using posts or comments to overtly or covertly advertise themselves should expect to be banned.

No 'seeking shaman' posts - We do not allow anyone to promote themselves here, and the only other people who ever respond to those posts are sock puppets. For this reason, posts like this are not allowed.

No DMs. Please, do not DM users and do not DM mods.

No posts about psychosis being a shamanic awakening, no posts about demonic possession, exorcisms, etc. If you're experiencing psychosis, you need a licensed mental health professional, not unqualified strangers on reddit. Shamans do perform exorcisms, but not why/how people seem to imagine. There are plenty of other subreddits where discussions about possession, exorcisms and similar subjects are welcome. Please use those instead.

Shamans aren't lightworkers. They work with all kinds of spirits for all kinds of purposes. If you're frightened of whatever you imagine demons to be, or if you believe evil spirits are out to harm you, shamanism probably isn't the right path for you at this time.

Please don't impose new age, neoshamanic, abrahamic or general spiritual beliefs onto indigenous shamanic cultures. And please don't conflate all indigenous religions with shamanism - most indigenous cultures are not shamanic, and most shamanic cultures aren't even north american. Shamanic cultures deserve to be understood and respected on their own terms.

Coming soon: free workshops for those who want to learn or improve their skills

We know many of you come here because you're genuinely interested in learning shamanic practices but don't know where to start. Finding reliable instruction isn't always easy and we'd like to help make some foundational skills more accessible.

For some time, we've been trying to think of a way to help members learn journeying, discernment, grounding, etc. These skills apply to any spiritual practice and any flavor of shamanism or neoshamanism. It hasn't been an easy task, since these skills require experiential learning. As such, this is what we've come up with:

Over the next week, we'll be introducing a community points system, similar to what you may have seen in other subreddits. Members will be able to award points for helpful or otherwise worthwhile contributions. Mods will also be able to award points at their discretion. Those points will be visible as flair.

(Please note that spammy, rule-breaking or trolling contributions will likewise receive negative points)

Members who reach certain point thresholds will have the opportunity to attend free Zoom workshops where the above-mentioned skills will be practiced. These workshops will always be free. Moderators will retain final discretion over eligibility, but our hope is to recognize members who contribute positively.

We're still ironing out the kinks so please bear with us. We'll make another announcement once everything's ready and explain how the points system and workshops will work.

Ofc, everyone is still welcome here, whether they wish to attend those workshops or not. Please just be sure to read the community rules before engaging.

Thank you!