shamanism in fiction
Explore the mystical world of shamanism in fiction with our curated list of books. Discover captivating novels where shamans, spirits, and ancient rituals shape unforgettable stories.
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Land Without Evil
by Matthew J. Pallamary
When European beliefs and customs meet those of the Guarani of South America 250 years ago, a struggle ensues. Join the Guaran, people as they leave behind all that is familiar and set out upon a quest in search of their mythical earthly paradise, the land without evil, a quest that brings them, untenable heartache and incredible joy. A quest which culminates in the demise and ultimate triumph of an indegenous people.
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Flight of the Goose
by Lesley Thomas
"Flight of the Goose" is an award-winning novel set in a remote village of the Alaskan Arctic, in a time of great cultural and ecological change. "The story took my breath away. I wept my way through it, identifying profoundly with both protagonists. (Thomas) has a fine grasp of the complexity of human relations and culture in such a village. She also writes beautifully. A remarkable book altogether." Jean L. Briggs, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and author of "Never in Anger" "Memorable...One of the best novels of Alaska that I have read. With the author's unerring knowledge of anthropology and social and environmental issues, it could fit any rural Alaskan village." Dorothy Jean Ray, author of "A Legacy of Arctic Art," and "The Eskimos of Bering Strait 1650-1898" 1971, the Alaskan Arctic. "It was a time when much was hidden, before outsiders came on bended knee to learn from the elders. Outsiders came, but it was not to learn from us; it was to change us. There was a war and a university, an oil company and a small village, all run by men. There was a young man who hunted geese to feed his family and another who studied geese to save them. And there was a young woman who flew into the world of spirits to save herself..." So relates Kayuqtuq Ugungoraseok, "the red fox." An orphan traumatized by her past, she seeks respect in her traditional Inupiat village through the outlawed path of shamanism. Her plan leads to tragedy when she interferes with scientist Leif Trygvesen, who has come to research the effects of oil spills on salt marshes - and evade the draft. Told from both Kayuqtuq's and Leif's perspectives, "Flight of the Goose"is a tale of cultural conflict, spiritual awakening, redemption and love in a time when things were - to use the phrase of an old arctic shaman - "no longer familiar." "Flight of the Goose" is recommended in Cultural Survival Quarterly, Shaman's Drum Journal, First Alaskans Magazine, Tundra Drums, Seattle Post Intelligencer and Sacred Hoop Magazine. It has been studied at North Slope School District, University of Washington, University of Alaska, Boston University, Sterling College, by Sandra Ingerman at Medicine for the Earth - and is read by book clubs worldwide. "Flight of the Goose" won first place in several literary contests. See more at www.lesleythomas.com
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Reindeer Moon
by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
This novel talks about the ice-age, where a handful of human creations struggle to stay alive, and it is the power and wonder of this story that their struggle is our own.
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The Teachings of Don Juan
by Carlos Castaneda
"Published by arrangement with the University of California Press."--T.p. verso.
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In Search of the Drum
by Ailo Gaup
Fictional story of Jon's adventures to locate one remaining Sami (Lapp) shamanic drum, based on dreams directing him to make the "roots" search through northern Norway. History relates that Sami culture was almost destroyed when nearly all shamanic drums were burned. Jon, along with his wife, Lajla journey to physical landscapes containing real & mystical qualities & beings, some helpful, some malicious. Jon's task: return the ancient wisdom of the drum to his tribal people.
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Solar Storms
by Linda Hogan
From Pulitzer Prize finalist Linda Hogan, Solar Storms tells the moving, “luminous” (Publishers Weekly) story of Angela Jenson, a troubled Native American girl coming of age in the foster system in Oklahoma, who decides to reunite with her family. At seventeen, Angela returns to the place where she was raised—a stunning island town that lies at the border of Canada and Minnesota—where she finds that an eager developer is planning a hydroelectric dam that will leave sacred land flooded and abandoned. Joining up with three other concerned residents, Angela fights the project, reconnecting with her ancestral roots as she does so. Harrowing, lyrical, and boldly incisive, Solar Storms is a powerful examination of the clashes between cultures and traumatic repercussions that have shaped American history.
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A Fall to Grace
by Sandra Ingerman
An teaching story that follows the shapeshifting journey of C. Alexandra as she is catapulted into another world as the result of a stress-related illness. In her travels she meets shamanistic teachers in both animal and human form who help her remember who she truly is and how to bring harmony, balance, and meaning back into her life. She retrieves her own soul from the Land of the Dead, learns how to live in harmony with nature, explores the meaning of fear and separation, and falls in love with a man, thus beginning her adventure with true love.
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Valley of Bones
by Michael Gruber
Miami detective Jimmy Paz returns and explores the nature of faith and madness in Gruber's brilliant follow-up to his debut thriller "Tropic of Night."
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The Quest for Merlin
by Nikolai Tolstoy
Using evidence culled from diverse and rare literary sources, the author concludes that Merlin is an authentic historical figure who, as a druid and a prophet, lived in the lowlands of Scotland during the sixth century
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The Way of Wyrd
by Brian Bates
Sent on a mission deep into the forests of pagan Anglo-Saxon England, Wat Brand, a Christian scribe, suddenly finds his vision of the world turned upside down. The familiar English countryside is not what it seems- threatening spirits, birds of omen and plants of power lurk in this landscape of fallen terrors and mysterious forces. With Wulf, a sorcerer and mystic, as his guide, Brand is instructed in the magical lore of plants, runes, fate and the life force until finally he journeys to the spirit world on a quest to encounter the true nature of his own soul.
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Medicine Woman
by Lynn V. Andrews
A fascinating Castaneda-like spiritual journey into the wilderness of Manitoba, where Lynn Andrews meets Agnes Whistling Elk, the Native American "heyoehkah," or shaman, who will change her life.
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Fantasies of the Master Race
by Ward Churchill
Chosen an "Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights in the United States" by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights. In this volume of incisive essays, Ward Churchill looks at representations of American Indians in literature and film, delineating a history of cultural propaganda that has served to support the continued colonization of Native America. During each phase of the genocide of American Indians, the media has played a critical role in creating easily digestible stereotypes of Indians for popular consumption. Literature about Indians was first written and published in order to provoke and sanctify warfare against them. Later, the focus changed to enlisting public support for "civilizing the savages," stripping them of their culture and assimilating them into the dominant society. Now, in the final stages of cultural genocide, it is the appropriation and stereotyping of Native culture that establishes control over knowledge and truth. The primary means by which this is accomplished is through the powerful publishing and film industries. Whether they are the tragically doomed "noble savages" walking into the sunset of Dances With Wolves or Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, the exotic mythical Indians constitute no threat to the established order. Literature and art crafted by the dominant culture are an insidious political force, disinforming people who might otherwise develop a clearer understanding of indigenous struggles for justice and freedom. This book is offered to counter that deception, and to move people to take action on issues confronting American Indians today.
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Mission Child
by Maureen F. McHugh
Young Janna has lived her fourteen years on the icy northern plains of a world that has forgotten its history. Now the arrival of Earthers -- descendants of the humans who first settled the planet many centuries before -- has violently upset the fragile balance of a developing civilization. The offworlders' advanced technologies and cruel indifference to local life have brought despair and destruction to Janna's home, robbing her of family, husband, child, and self. Haunted by a dead past -- mysteriously altered by the gift of three alien artifacts -- Janna must now redefine herself on a devastated planet she no longer recognizes, as she embarks upon a remarkable, transcendent journey into an uncertain future; moving steadily through this strange new world toward a startling realization about her role in the great cosmic order.
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Sorceress
by Celia Rees
The spellbinding sequel to "Witch Child" reveals what happened to Mary Newbury through a young, modern descendant with an uncanny connection to the past.
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Shaman Pass
by Stan Jones
“In a robust sequel to White Sky, Black Ice, this Alaska state trooper is still burdened by his urban upbringing and his aversion to ice and snow . . . Active maintains his awe of the vast Alaskan tundra, a forbidding region that Jones renders in all its bone-chilling beauty.” —The New York Times Book Review State Trooper Nathan Active was born in the Inupiat village of Chukchi, where he is now stationed, but he was adopted and raised in Anchorage. Now he must investigate the murder of a tribal leader who was stabbed to death with an antique harpoon that was recently returned to the community under the Indian Graves Act.
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The Shaman's Knife
by Scott Young
In this riveting new thriller Inuit Matteesie Kitologitak, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police inspector, investigates a brutal double murder in a tiny Arctic village. He finds that to solve the murder he must come face to face with the "old ways" and a native holy man whose help may hold the key. Young is the author of more than 30 books, including several Canadian bestsellers.
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The White Shaman
by C. W. Nikoru
An accurate portrait of Eskimo life, this mystical tale of conflict set in the isolated reaches of the Arctic vividly portrays the magnificence of the frozen wilderness and the harsh realities of arctic life
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The Cloud Atlas
by Liam Callanan
In a richly inspired debut reminiscent of "Snow Falling on Cedars" and "The English Patient," this stirring novel, set against a magnificent Alaskan backdrop, reveals one of the most closely guarded secrets of World War II in a tale that is both a heart-quickening mystery and a unique love story.
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Shaman
by Noah Gordon
Robert Jeremy Cole, the legendary doctor and hero of "The Physician," left an enduring legacy. From the 11th century on, the eldest son in each generation of the Cole family has borne the same first name and middle initial and many of these men have followed the medical profession. A few have been blessed with their ancestor's diagnostic skill and the "sixth sense" they call The Gift, the ability to know instinctively when death is impending. The tragedy of Rob J.'s life is the deafness of his son, Robert Jefferson Cole, who is called Shaman by everyone who knows him. Shaman's life is difficult. First, he must learn to speak so that he can take his place in the hearing world, and then he must fight against the prejudices of a society where physical differences matter. As Shaman struggles to achieve his identity, the Coles, along with the rest of America, are drawn into the conflict between the North and the South.
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Shaman King, Vol. 1
by Hiroyuki Takei
Yoh Asakura has spent years training for the Shaman Fight, an epic tournament to determine who will become the Shaman King and shape humanity's future. Unfortunately for Yoh, every shaman in the world is vying for the same prize… To most people, ghosts are the stuff of horror stories and nightmares. But to Yoh Asakura, a transfer student at Shinra Private Junior High, they're his friends! Yoh Asakura is a shaman--one of the gifted few who can speak to spirits. by channeling ghosts into his body--like the long-dead samurai Amidamaru--he can allow them to possess him and use their powers. But a modern-day shaman faces great responsibilities, because spirits--and the people who work with them--can be very dangerous indeed.