Shamanism Accessories: Essential Tools for the Modern Shamanic Practitioner

What Is Shamanism?

Shamanism is arguably the oldest spiritual practice on earth, with evidence of shamanic ceremonies and tools dating back at least 40,000 years. The word "shaman" comes from the Tungus-speaking peoples of Siberia, where saman (or schaman) refers to the practitioner who moves between ordinary and non-ordinary reality to bring healing, guidance, and power to the community. Despite originating as a specific Siberian term, anthropologists have applied it to broadly similar practitioners found in Indigenous cultures on every inhabited continent.

Mircea Eliade, the Romanian historian of religion whose 1951 work Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy remains the scholarly foundation of the field, defined the shaman as "a technician of the sacred," someone who deliberately induces altered states of consciousness in order to interact with helping spirits and invisible forces on behalf of the community. The core defining feature across all shamanic cultures is not the specific tools used or the cosmology articulated but the shamanic journey: the practitioner's ability to enter a non-ordinary state and move intentionally through other dimensions of reality.

Michael Harner, an anthropologist who trained with multiple Indigenous shamanic teachers across South America and North America and documented his findings in The Way of the Shaman (1980), developed what he called Core Shamanism: the extraction of the core practices common across world shamanic traditions, presented in a form accessible to Western practitioners. Core shamanism focuses on the shamanic journey to the Lower World (to meet power animals), the Upper World (to meet teacher spirits), and the Middle World (to work with local land spirits and retrieve lost soul parts). Harner's Foundation for Shamanic Studies has trained thousands of practitioners worldwide, making this one of the fastest-growing contemporary spiritual practices in the West.

The Shamanic Drum: Core Tool of Journeying

The shamanic drum is found in virtually every indigenous shamanic tradition worldwide, from the Siberian saman's single-headed frame drum to the Native American hand drum, the Saami noaidi drum of Scandinavia, the Korean mudang's hourglass drum, and the Celtic bodhran. Its universality across completely separate cultures is one of the most striking features of shamanism as a global phenomenon and suggests that its effects on consciousness are physiologically reliable rather than culturally conditioned.

The physiological basis for the drum's effectiveness has been documented by neuroscience. The shamanic drumbeat typically maintains a frequency of 4 to 7 beats per second (220 to 440 Hz). This corresponds to the theta brainwave range (4-8 Hz), which is associated with the hypnagogic state, REM sleep, deep meditation, and the kind of dissociated but alert awareness in which vivid inner imagery and non-ordinary perceptions become accessible. Research by Andrew Neher in the 1960s (published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease) demonstrated that rhythmic drumming at these frequencies could produce altered states in subjects even in the absence of other ceremonial elements, confirming that the drum's effect is neurological rather than purely psychological.

A traditional shamanic drum is typically a frame drum (a drum in which the membrane is stretched over a circular or oval frame, without an enclosed body) ranging from 10 to 24 inches in diameter. Historically, the membrane was made from deer, elk, horse, or buffalo hide, each animal considered to bring its own spirit to the drum. Contemporary ethically sourced drums may use synthetic membranes or hides sourced from humanely raised animals, and these work effectively for journeying. Many practitioners eventually make their own drum in a workshop setting, considering the drum-making process itself a ceremony that begins the relationship between the practitioner and the drum.

The Rattle and Rhythm Tools

The rattle is the second most universal shamanic tool, found alongside the drum in virtually every shamanic tradition. While the drum is used primarily for solo journeying, the rattle has more diverse functions: calling and attracting helping spirits, cleansing the energy field around a client during healing work (the sound is believed to break up and disperse stagnant or harmful energy), marking transitions within a ceremony, and providing rhythmic accompaniment when a drum is not available or appropriate.

Traditional rattles were made from gourd, turtle shell, bone, antler, seed pods, and other natural materials, each chosen for its energetic properties. A gourd rattle filled with seeds represents fertility and abundance; a turtle shell rattle carries the earth wisdom of the turtle; a stone rattle is grounding and connected to mineral consciousness. Contemporary practitioners create rattles from natural materials and charge them through ceremony and use.

The bell is another sound tool used in shamanic-adjacent traditions, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism, where the bell (ghanta) and dorje (vajra or thunderbolt scepter) are used together to represent wisdom and compassion. Tibetan singing bowls, though technically in the category of sound healing rather than shamanism in the strict sense, are increasingly used by contemporary shamanic practitioners for space clearing, altered state induction, and energy work.

Smudging Herbs and Sacred Smoke

Sacred smoke ceremonies are found across virtually every indigenous culture. The smoke of specific plants is used to purify spaces, practitioners, clients, and ceremonial objects; to communicate with the spirit world (carrying prayers upward with the smoke); and to create an energetic container or boundary for ceremony. Different plants carry different energetic properties and are appropriate for different ceremonial purposes.

White sage (Salvia apiana) is the most widely recognized smudging herb in contemporary Western practice, associated primarily with the Indigenous peoples of the American Southwest. It is used for powerful clearing and purification, releasing negative energy, and preparing a space or person for ceremony. Due to high demand from commercial markets, white sage is now overharvested in its native habitat, and many Indigenous teachers ask that non-Indigenous practitioners either grow their own or use alternatives like common garden sage, rosemary, or lavender for similar purposes.

Palo santo (Bursera graveolens) is a sacred wood from South America, particularly Ecuador and Peru, used by Amazonian and Andean shamans for centuries. It is burned to invite positive energy and helping spirits, and its sweet, woody scent is said to be particularly attractive to benevolent spirit presences. Unlike white sage, palo santo can only be harvested from naturally fallen trees (the essential oils only develop after the tree dies), which limits overexploitation when properly sourced.

Copal resin has been central to Mesoamerican ceremony for at least 3,000 years, used by the Maya and Aztec as a sacred offering to the gods and as a purifying and protective smoke in all major ceremonies. When burned on charcoal, copal produces a bright, clarifying smoke with a piney-sweet scent that creates a strong sense of sacred space. Contemporary shamanic practitioners often use copal at the opening and closing of ceremony.

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) has been used as a visionary herb across European, Asian, and some Native American traditions. Associated with the moon, dreams, and psychic vision, mugwort is burned as smudge or taken as tea before sleep to enhance dream recall, promote lucid dreaming, and open the inner sight. It is one of the key ingredients in traditional European flying ointments and is associated with the crone aspect of the feminine divine in many traditions.

Medicine Bags and Power Objects

A medicine bag (also called a medicine bundle, mojo bag, or gris-gris in different traditions) is a small container holding sacred objects of personal power. In Native American traditions, a medicine bundle is accumulated over a lifetime of ceremony and vision questing and is considered one of the most sacred possessions a person can carry. Each item in the bundle has a specific story of how it was received - from a dream, a ceremony, a teacher, or a significant encounter in nature - and carries the spirit and intention of that origin.

The bag itself is traditionally made from natural materials: buckskin, buffalo hide, or a soft natural fabric, held closed with a drawstring and worn on the body or kept on the altar. The contents vary by tradition and by individual, but commonly include: crystals or stones received during ceremony or journey, small animal bones or feathers that came from the natural world without harming an animal, dried herbs, sacred earth from a meaningful location, small figurines or symbols of helping spirits, and personal items of deep significance.

The power object concept also appears in the Western magical tradition as the talisman (an object charged with magical intention through ceremony) and in Hoodoo as the mojo bag or root bag. These convergent forms across unrelated traditions again suggest a universal understanding that physical objects can serve as vessels for spiritual intention and power, functioning as anchors between the visible and invisible dimensions of reality.

Power Animal Representations

Power animals are spiritual helpers in animal form that work with the shamanic practitioner as protectors, guides, and sources of power and medicine. They are encountered through shamanic journeys to the Lower World and are considered genuine spiritual presences, not simply psychological projections or symbols. Each power animal carries specific qualities: the bear brings strength, introspection, and healing; the eagle carries vision, freedom, and connection to the upper worlds; the wolf brings loyalty, the intelligence of the pack, and fierce protection; the serpent brings transformation, earth wisdom, and the kundalini force.

Physical representations of power animals are commonly placed on the shamanic altar as a way of honoring the relationship with the helping spirit and keeping that spirit's presence active in the practitioner's space. These may be photographs, small figurines, animal skulls or bones (sourced ethically from naturally deceased animals), feathers, fur, or artwork. The representation is not the power animal itself but a physical anchor for the spirit's presence in ordinary reality.

Crystals in Shamanic Practice

While crystal healing is today associated primarily with New Age practice, the use of crystals and stones in shamanic and indigenous healing has deep roots across cultures. Australian Aboriginal healers used clear quartz crystals (which they called "solidified light") in initiation ceremonies and healing work for tens of thousands of years. Native American traditions use crystals in healing bundles and medicine wheels. In Tibetan shamanism (Bon), crystals are used as spirit catchers and power objects. The Aztec and Inca both venerated obsidian, a volcanic glass, as a mirror for spirit vision and a material from which sacred ritual objects were made.

Clear quartz is the primary shamanic crystal across most traditions. It is associated with amplification, clarity, and the ability to store, focus, and transmit energy. Shamanic practitioners use clear quartz crystals as spirit catchers (to house helping spirits temporarily during healing work), as amplifiers placed on the altar to strengthen ceremony, and as personal power objects that accumulate the energy of practice over time.

Obsidian (especially black obsidian and apache tears, a translucent form of obsidian) is associated with protection, truth, shadow work, and the ability to see clearly into darker dimensions. It was used by Mesoamerican shamans to make divination mirrors and ritual knives for cutting energetic cords, and is today used by practitioners for shadow work, psychic protection, and the integration of denied aspects of the self.

Labradorite is sometimes called the shaman's stone because of its optical property of labradorescence (an iridescent play of color that shifts as the stone moves) and its traditional use by indigenous peoples of Labrador, Canada as a stone of protection and inner vision. It is used in shamanic practice for protection during journeying and for accessing the liminal spaces between worlds.

Setting Up a Shamanic Altar

A shamanic altar is a physical representation of the practitioner's relationship with the spirit world and a focal point for ceremonial practice. Unlike many religious altars that face a fixed direction determined by tradition, a shamanic altar typically incorporates all four cardinal directions, representing the completeness of the shamanic cosmology.

The Shamanic Journey: A Practice Guide

The shamanic journey is the central practice for which all the tools above are preparation. In a journey, the practitioner lies or sits comfortably, activates the altered state through drumming (live or recorded), and intentionally enters the imaginal space of the three worlds to seek guidance, power, or healing. The experience is vivid, consistent, and responsive to intention in ways that distinguish it from ordinary daydreaming, though the phenomenology varies between individuals.

Ethics, Appropriation, and Respectful Practice

The rapid spread of shamanic tools and practices into mainstream Western markets raises genuine ethical questions that any sincere practitioner should engage with honestly. Much of what is sold as "shamanic" product has been stripped from its cultural context and packaged for consumption without acknowledgment of its origins or compensation to the cultures from which it comes.

Practical steps toward respectful engagement include: studying with teachers who have genuine lineage in the traditions they teach (not just weekend certifications); purchasing tools from Indigenous artisans and paying fair market value; being transparent about your practice context rather than claiming indigenous identity you do not have; studying the history and context of the traditions you practice; and making financial contributions to indigenous cultural preservation organizations.

Sandra Ingerman, a former student of Michael Harner and one of the most respected Core Shamanism teachers, consistently emphasizes that the work is about genuine service to life rather than personal power or status. In her book Medicine for the Earth (2000), she writes: "Shamanism is not about power. It is about service." This orientation provides the ethical foundation within which all the accessories and practices described above find their rightful purpose.