Tom Cowan — The Ancestors Haven't Gone Anywhere
In shamanic traditions and tribal cultures,
death is not seen as just the end to everything.
Most shamanic traditions would say
that the soul doesn’t just disappear completely.
Shamans always feel connected to the people who have lived before,
because the ancestors really haven’t gone anywhere.
Their spirits are still around,
or can be around if we call upon them.
As people who practice shamanism,
the work we do is, in many ways, preparation for death
and dealing with the question of what comes next.
When you ask people who have been working in shamanism a long time
how has it changed their lives,
one of the things that has come up over and over again
is that they feel less fearful of the universe and,
therefore, less fearful of death.
The “something” that happens after death
is a part of the other world that the shaman journeys into
and comes back with information and stories about.
It’s not quite as unknown
as it is to people who are not involved in this kind of work.
Shamanism can provide hope for people
that death is not as disastrous or as final as it might seem.
And if the shaman can cast some new light
on the questions of life and death,
that might be one of the greatest contributions anyone can make.
Tom Cowan
Quoted in
Hilary S. Webb
Traveling Between the Worlds: Conversations with Contemporary Shamans