Shamanic Work

I have always had complicated feelings about shamanic work.

I was formally introduced to shamanism around 2014–2015. However, as I learned more about it, I came to realise that shamanic influences had already been present throughout my early childhood. In Chinese communities, shamanism is often translated as “薩滿教”. This label, however, is misleading.

Shamanism is not a religion in the conventional sense. In fact, it predates organised religion entirely. It emerged long before religious institutions existed, when different tribes developed their own practices and healing modalities in response to their environments and lived realities. At that time, there was no concept of modern medicine; healing was inseparable from culture, land, and communal knowledge. As a result, shamanic practices varied widely across regions and peoples, with no single doctrine or unified system.

Religion, as it later evolved, tends to emphasise unity, discipline, and fixed structures. While this can provide social order, it often struggles to accommodate difference. In many cases, religion has overridden local cultures rather than preserved them. Shamanism, by contrast, does not erase culture — it exists within it. It adapts, evolves, and reflects the values and needs of each community.

Because of this flexibility, shamanism has historically been perceived as threatening to systems that seek control. When power is concentrated in the hands of a few, practices that encourage personal authority, adaptability, and direct experience become difficult to regulate. It is therefore unsurprising that, during the medieval period, political power and religious institutions became closely intertwined, leading to the suppression — and often elimination — of those who held alternative worldviews.

Although we often assume we live in a fully democratic world today, history suggests a more complex reality. Systems of control continue to favour uniformity over plurality. Shamanism, which embraces diversity rather than dogma, struggled to survive within such rigid structures and, at various points in history, was driven close to extinction.

To reopen these modalities now is, for me, a conscious return after a period of stepping away — an invitation for people to see shamanism not as something mystical or threatening, but as a cultural and healing practice that once existed simply because humanity needed it.

My Shamanic Work Practice Includes:

• Shamanic divination

• Soul retrieval (retrieval of lost or fragmented soul aspects)

• Shamanic healing

• Extraction of spiritual intrusions

• Work with spiritual and energetic influences

• Ancestral and lineage-related healing

For enquiries, please DM on Instagram: @liliasoultarot 

South Africa 2023