by K-ET

In May 2005, a Swedish practitioner writing as K-ET reposted a three-part essay to alt.religion.shamanism — an essay they said they had "never gotten around to add to," and still wished to expand. What survives is substantial: a practitioner's-eye view of shamanism as a continuous thread running through Swedish and Nordic history from the Stone Age to the present. K-ET begins with the first deer-hunters who arrived in Sweden twelve thousand years ago and traces totemism, the shaman's role, and the relationship between human and animal-spirit through prehistoric rock carvings (petroglyphs), through the medieval witchcult, through alchemical symbolism, and into modern spiritualist séances. The argument is that shamanism did not die — it changed costumes. The High Church fought it in every era and failed. The essay reads as both history and testimony, written by someone who understands the tradition from the inside.

K-ET was a regular contributor to alt.religion.shamanism in the mid-2000s, writing from a Swedish cultural perspective that was rare in the newsgroup's predominantly American and British voices. This essay — written in English by what appears to be a non-native speaker — covers Scandinavian rock art from Dordogne-lineage cave traditions, Sami (Saami) shamanism, Norse shape-shifting warriors, alchemical beast-hybrids (the Transmutated Mercurius, Abraxas, Ouroboros), and the persistence of rural "wise men" and quack-doctors into the early nineteenth century. The connections drawn between the psychic medium and the female shamanka, between the witches' Sabbath and totemistic rites, between alchemy's animal-human hybrids and shamanic dismemberment imagery, are argued with reference to specific Swedish folklore writers, archaeologists, and literary sources. The voice is passionate, learned, and unafraid.

Part One: The Primeval Hunters' Animal- and Spiritual Beliefs

I just felt like reposting this. It is a bit sad though that I never got around to add to it. There are so many things that could be included into this, like for instance how the totemistic paternal culture of hunters and collectors became a maternal society once the tribes settled and started cultivating the land instead of only depend on the success in hunting.

Well, it may not be too late to begin now.

For a little over twelve thousand years ago, the southern parts of the swedish coast slowly began to evolve from vast deserts of ice to tundra covered with lichen and winter-hardy moss. And then the first deer-hunters came wandering from the west and south-west, following the inland ice. It is most likely that they came from the area of Elbe and other parts of Central Europe. At Ahrensburg, near Hamburg, Germany, archeologists have found complete camps from deerhunters. And other findings in mosses, that in the primevals where lakes, has shown examples of the primitive nomads conception and worship of the forces they assumed ruled their existence.

Also on swedish soil, archeologists have found similar findings that supports the idea of our origin. These humans where nomad tribes of hunters and collectors, they had no knowledge of farming or cattle-raising. It is plausible to assume that they where the off-spring of the central-european tribes of hunters, descending from tribes in the Pyreneés and southern France. The information that has been gathered has made it possible to assume that these humans embraced a totemistic and shamanistic belief- and worldview system, perhaps once also developed in that area of the world.

Totemism assumes that a specific group of humans are biologically and genealogically related to a specific group of animal, meaning that both groups descended from the same ancestors, who appeared as half human and half animal. Evolution made them separate and evolve into pure humans and pure animal. But the humans still felt this relationship towards the aurochs, crow, ferret or steppenwolf, and because of this she naturally was not allowed to eat this animal cousin.

Totemism seeks its origin in nature reservations divided by mountain-areas, rivers, and forests into separate hunting- and settlement-grounds, which had very little in common. This method created an area divided into a kind of grid, containing larger districts of different totem-tribes, then the tribe itself where divided into smaller clans, territorial districts. The cause of this is believed to be the almost constant state of need. When the humans failed in her intent of providing proviant through hunting or by digging for eatable roots, she instead clung to the thought that the animals with their ability to find food would help her out, But, then again, why should the animals help the humans? Well, the humans said to themselves, because they are our relatives. One just had to take a look at the animals eyes, how they moved and their behavior in mating, and the strange occurrence of certain animals together with certain people.

When the human tribe where threatened to be exterminated through famine, there was nothing else to be done then start hunting and also eat their "older brothers", the animal group they where related to. But such behavior could not be done without performing certain ceremonies. The person, who knew about this things was the tribes religious expert, the medicine man or the shaman. The shaman was also involved in the actual planning of a successful hunt, when one of the tribe members was taken ill, when grazing failed or the animals disappeared from the territory.

The shaman was considered to have a special and constant contact with the spirits, not only the animal totem-spirits. He also had knowledge about the spirits in heaven or the underworlds unknown spiritual powers, that only could be seen and sensed by those "who could see", and also had the ultimate knowledge and power over animals, humans, plants, weather, sickness and health, prosperity or need, life and death.

The shaman, himself, was as powerless and common as any other human in the tribe, but because of an inherited predisposition, he had the ability to get into the spiritual world and within its endless myriads obtain one or more allies, the spiritual helpers. Without the aid of these spiritual helpers, the shaman could not function. Often it was the spirit that sought out the shaman instead. Halfdead from hunger and cold, the poor man laid for weeks in the midst of the wasteland, until he finally received his initiation and found his helping spirit.

When fully trained, the shaman was able to summon his helpers whenever it was necessary. This was done through special rites, where the shamans magic drum played an important part. And when he was travelling in the spiritworld, surrounded by his spiritual helpers, he traveled to meet the higher spiritual powers and with their aid solve the problems of his tribe.

The totemistic society seems to have been flat, unhierarchistic, and homogenous. There where no statutory, no superiority, no dictatorial heads of state or powerless slaves. If there existed any tribal chiefs, they most certainly only were appointed for a short time to lead any temporary missions. Personally the shaman only had authority within religious matters, but only as long as he was "inspired"; he had no political authority. But he most certainly was the tribes raiser of spirits, physician, primitive sacrificial priest, creator of imitative arts, oral protector of traditions, and possibly also the worlds first theatrical actor.

Part Two: Rock Carvings and Similarities in Rituals

Now, before I continue with the rituals, it is important to inflate some of the art into the picture, the veide-rockcarvings or petroglyphs found in the midst of Sweden. The word "veide" is Norwegian and the expression summarizes the totemistic cultures nutritional trades, hunting and fishing. Most of the imitative rock-paintings found in Sweden are actually carvings, using different techniques as grinding, cutting and crushing. Some are painted, and always in a red color that has been smuthed and darkened over the years, which has made it hard to interpret the figures. However there is one that looks like an imitation of a cross-stitching, and the image is a human figure with a round object hanging in rope, or similar from his hand, while there is some strange vague figure floating above the humans head.

It is believed among anthropologists that the shaman practitioner mostly performed his rituals, surrounded by the other members of the tribe. And they where not there as passive spectators, no, they where very much active, and let themselves be a part of the shamans experiences, in this way they helped create the electrifying atmosphere that was necessary for psychic phenomenons to happen, as he monotonously tapped on his magic drum until he fell into a trance, and started dancing, screaming and imitating different animal-sounds, collecting and assembling the spirit-helpers that answered his invoking inside his drum, until he exhausted fell to the ground, and in a trance-like unconsciousness began his journey to the Otherworld.

It might be possible to assume that the painting mentioned earlier describes such an event, the shaman with his drum and the helping spirit floating over his head. Another example is a rock-carving where a figure is holding a drum in his hand beating on it with the other, and above the head there is a loop formed as head with two legs, a common image of a helping spirit in paintings found in Siberia. In the same carving, there is also the image of a small shortlegged figure with horns and waving arms, perceiving an animal, maybe another helping spirit.

The dating of these totemistic carvings are difficult. The oldest might be as old as seven thousand years, although they necessarily do not have to. The youngest that has been found in the middle parts of Sweden probably are made sometime around year 1000 BC. But on the other hand, the dating is less important, since we are talking about a culture that has kept its originality for several hundred thousand years. The images are principally the same kind of imitative art, that has been found in the caves in the southwest of France, especially those in found in Dordogne. And it is in no way impossible that the earliest performers of the carvings found in Scandinavia, where more or less descendants from the cavemen living in Dordogne.

It is established that the people living in that area where forced to move from there, and head north, because of a natural disaster that occurred about 15000 to 13000 years ago. They eventually ended up crossing the English channel, then spread from England, crossing the North Sea-wasteland, that had not been turned into a Sea by then, to the middle west of Norway. The preserved findings of imitative art in England and Scotland are dated 10000–9000 BC, and the oldest Norwegian carvings and paintings are a couple of thousand years younger. Finally it seems as if the same art-form also found its way to the Northern part, or geographically speaking, the midst of Sweden.

Something odd and notable in the North Scandinavian imitative rock-art is the fact that all the animal-figures are drawn in a naturalistic way, but the humans are drawn in a very strong stylistic form. It is obvious that the humans where not important, the animals was. The animals portrayed, where mostly deer in the north of Sweden and elk in the south. In the area in between, we find both species together with images of bear, wolverine, and possibly boar. Other carvings also has images of fish, such as sturgeon and salmon. It is plausible to assume that these carvings and paintings could have been used as a mean for the shaman to invoke the spirits of the animals and in this way make the hunt for food successful.

In some carvings the images of the animals have been notably divided into separate parts, head-to-neck, the chest-piece and finally the hind quarters. Modern science has suggested that this could be connected to the shamanistic traditions of the arctic people in modern times. Because of the shamans psychic connection to the animals, he also had felt it as he, himself, had been dismembered like the images show, and then in the spiritworld been re-assembled in a more appropriate way, which would make the shaman more susceptible of the totem-spirits impulses, and in this way complete his transformation to be a great shaman.

These examples I have made will serve as an example of the swedish totemistic and shamanistic traditions among the tribes in the Stone Age. Lets not assume that all of this only existed in a distant prehistoric era and then disappeared without a trace in modern day life. Of all mental complexes that can be found in human society, religion serves as the most conservative, and also most persistent. And a world-view that has existed, almost unchanged, during so many thousands of years can not be expected to vanish because of a few measly decades of cultural refinement.

Part Three: Similarities in Rituals — Then and Now

To imagine that any kind of animal-totemism should remain today among weekend-hunters and upperclass-hunters associations is perhaps not to be expected. On the other hand it has been known to happen in societies where hunting for food has been a part of everyday life. In his novel "The red heads", 1917, the author Adolf Johansson tell us about a family of poachers with an authentic totem-spirit. It says in this story how the eldest son couldn't make himself to pull the trigger and shoot a bull elk, in spite that he had a clear shot, because the big beautiful animal just stood there and looked him in the eyes. After all they were of the same blood, him and the elk — and all the children of the family where born under the same totem-spirit.

Another famous swedish author of folklore, Albert Engström, has written about a "quack doctor" named Gaj. This man was known, not only for his ability to staunch blood, "set in joint", and retrieve stolen goods, but also for involving shamanism during hunting expeditions. He called it "collecting hares", and the "hocus-pocus", the name he used to call the ritual, had been taught to him by his father.

There's a lot of stories about the totemistic world-view of shape-shifting and humans-animal hybrids in the folklore around the world. In the medieval Icelandic myths there are stories about warriors, who turned into big ice-bears during battles, about humanoid bears having children with girls, that later gave birth to boys with the behavior of a bear-cub, about Älg-Frode, that looked like an elk from the chest-part and up, with horns and a snout-face. Other more famous members of the totem menagerie are the Sphinx, and the Gryphon, there's also a mythological beast called the Basilisk, a blend of lizard and rooster, Abraxas, a man with the head of a rooster and his legs where snakes, the monster Asmodeus, that had four heads, a human, an ox, a lion and a ram, the witchcult's Behemot, with a human body, and a head of an elephant or a hippopotamus, etc.

At large the witchcult, from the late medieval to the early 18th century, could be seen as a conglomeration of miscellaneous religious doctrines and cults, that was more or less connected to the ancient vide-cultures world-view. According to investigations about the Scottish-English witchcult in the 17th century, it seems as if the cults where more active among the poor and isolated parts of the society. In other words those people that where living more or less like slaves and dependent upon their benefactors, the landlords. These slaves where also at large the descendants of the ancient hunter-culture that had lived there before. The wizard himself, or the "sorcerer" was merely nothing else than our former friend, the shaman, with a slightly different approach, wearing his animal-customs and masks. Witches flying on their broom-sticks, smudged with aromatic ointments, was a direct circumlocution of the shaman, or the female shamanka's, spiritual journeying during the cataleptic trance. Satan — Beelzebub, was described as a man with the head of a ram, cloven hooves, and black feathered wings. The "Devils handprint" that played an important part within witchcrafting, is directly comparable to the hundreds of handprints, in red or black, found in the caves in the southwest of France.

In the same way the witches' sacred place, the Brocken, can be compared to the secret and heavily watched places used for the totemistic dance- or sacrificial rites; a place outdoors, imbedded in green foliage, preferably on or beside a mountain. The same goes for the witches sabbaths, which roots can be traced back to the intichiuma-rituals held by the totemclans, where the participants imitated their totem-animals mating rituals, and finally the festivities ended in general promiscuity. Even as late as in the early 1800s, ordinary witch sabbaths where held, involving black masses, totemism, and wife-swapping, in remote places in Sweden. Also the motive for childrens participation in the black masses held on the island Brocken, where they were presented before Satan and also sacrificed to him, has its origin in the early totemistic society's need of birth-control to survive.

Another area implementing representation complex was the world of alchemy, that existed until the end of the Napoleon era. In this field the mixed breeds of animal and human had an enormous importance, although in a more artificial context. Here we meet the "Transmutated Mercurius", a triple-headed dragon, carrying a fourth head placed in the solar plexus, with a snake's tail and human feet, as well as the crucified human snake, the Peacock-man, the Dove-woman, and Janus, the twofaced black and white figure, or the Dragon Ouroboros with a human face, the Fool with a donkey-head (also portrayed in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream), and the homunculus with his sun-head.

A remain of the old shaman is our days "wise old men", living in the country-side. These magic quack-doctors, and hocus-pocus makers, that is known to be able to help when medical science has failed, and they do this in a very similar way a shaman would, using purely psychological methods. And he is not only able to heal the unincurably ill, he also knows how to provoke unfortune or illnesses to one's enemies. He knows the secrets of scrying, predicting deaths and changes, helping people to get money or food, conjure up good hunting- or fishing, etc. To aid him in his work, he often uses his magical tarot-deck, who in a strange way recall the usage of the strange thin white silicon pebbles found in the cave Mas D'Azil in the southeast of France, the ancient "fortunecards" with magical symbols painted on one side.

Finally I will only point out some of the striking similarities between the ancient shamanic culture of hunters- and collectors, and today's popular spiritism — or spiritualism, as the followers of this belief- and cult-system prefer to call it. The psychic medium is nothing else than the female shaman (shamanka). The séance ritual is very similar to the shamanic. The psychic is separated, yet surrounded by the other participants. Like the shaman, the psychic also has spiritual helpers, sometimes her dead child, sometimes the spirit of someone that died a long time ago. The role of the higher spirits are played by the mahatmas, and the masters of different degrees. The visual effects like "ectoplasm" are very similar to the cruder animal-hides, or veiled images of animals in the visions. The spectators' active and electrifying participation is as important in the modern séances as in those of the early shamans, to create the right environment. The invoking and chants are mostly the same, only stylized as the animal-sounds in the totemism, and in the Old Norse as "vardlokkur", with a mixed chorus from dark base to high-pitched treble, and finally in the moderns spiritist séances as part-songs in high and low that is supposed to help get the medium into a trance. The psychic's main purpose during a séance is similar to the shamans during a shamanic séance. The medium "sees" into the future, helps people find means to stay out of poverty, cures illness, visits, or gets messages from the spirits, which later is passed on to the living. The main thread actually seems to go on unbroken from the habitations of caves in the Ice Age, via the Samii's hut and the Eskimo igloo, all the way to the salons of the upper-classes.

It seems safe to state that every High Church has had its struggles to try and fight the ancient primitive shamanism. In the late Nordic heathen era, the seithr and witchcraft was condemned by the official Overlord of the High Church, the sacred king acting as "Colonel Blotgode". In the late Middle Ages — Sweden's medieval period, and further on during the Baroque — witchcraft, and its practices were strongly condemned by the authority. The supposed witches were sought out in their homes, ransacked, tortured, and finally burnt at the stakes. The horror of the remaining ancient belief system became a fear of the Devil and the horrors of hellfire. This created a real hysteria of witch-hunts, where thousands of people was killed. During the 1700s, the alchemy was condemned in a similar way, and its priesthood, the goldmakers, found themselves thrown in jail, during another hunt, this time for the so-called Rosicrucians.

Overall it seems as if it was the new radical ways of Christianity, that banished the totemism and shamanism's spiritual journeying more than anything else, transforming them to be a sort of secret forbidden sphere of mysticism, and tried its best to exterminate the knowledge. It is safe to say that it was unsuccessful, at least not in times when Christianity itself has been re-written or stagnated — like nowadays. But there are still some living echoes from the aftermath's of the revival movements in the 1800s, like this one from one of Sweden's great folklore writers Albert Engström's old Fisherman's response to a question from his grandchildren:

"Say, grandpa!? In them old days there where all sorts of 'wise men' and others, who could perform magic. How come there are so few around nowadays? Why didn't they have any apprentices, who could keep the teachings alive, and spread them further."

"Well, you see, son! It so happened that this thing called religion happened, and it keeps spreading all the time, to this moment."

Colophon

Written by K-ET, a Swedish practitioner, and originally posted to alt.religion.shamanism in May 2005 as a three-part repost (Message-IDs: QGhhe.137409$[email protected], WGhhe.137410$[email protected], 0Hhhe.137411$[email protected]). The essay traces shamanism as a continuous thread through Swedish prehistory, rock-carving culture, Norse seithr, medieval witchcraft, alchemy, and modern spiritualism — arguing that the High Church failed at every turn to extinguish it. K-ET wrote with reference to Swedish folklore writers Adolf Johansson and Albert Engström, archaeological findings at Ahrensburg and in Dordogne, and comparative analysis of Siberian and Scandinavian rock art traditions. The author noted they had always meant to expand the essay and never did; what was posted is what survives.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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