The Shaman

The Shaman was a very helpful and personal description on what it means to be a shaman, historically and in later Ojibway culture. The first hand accounts are concise and direct. I found the pictures of the midewiwin and petroglyphs particularly helpful when I was wrting my own novel, Neitherworld Book One Akiiwan. If the casual reader has trouble understanding the ancient Ojibway (or Ojibwe) culture after reading the shaman it is not the author's fault - it is instead because paleo-American culture is really so foreign to later Euro-American culture. Remember while reading the Shaman, that the Shaman's power derived in large part from the belief of his audience in him/her. Without that, the stories are detached and even unsatisfying. It is thus in every culture, of course, including ours.

Thourough account of shamanism in the Ojibwe society, but applicable to the phenomenon as a whole. A great researcher, Mr. Grim provides perspectives from other areas of the world such as Siberia to exhibit similarities of human experience both in the shamanic realm and in the human psyche.

The author wisely places the practices of shamanism within the cultural context. At no point does the author make the mistake of reducing the shamanic practices to deities and such but correctly emphasizes the "forces" and movements of nature of which the shaman is an "expression." Excellent read for anyone generally interested in shamanism or specifically in the Ojibwe practices of the Mide society.