What's your spirit animal?

Shamanism was at one time, and still is a thing in Estonia. This tradition of entering an ecstatic trance to enter the spirit world extends across northern Eurasia. The practice is, or was known among speakers of Uralic languages (especially Samoyedic) as well as non-related Siberian languages.

A shaman once lived at Triigi on the island of Saaremaa, and a friend took Greg to visit him in 1989, but he was not home. What Greg did see was a small hut on a raised platform in a pine forest, and various other buildings and gardens round about, and lots of people working in them. Vigala Sass had passed to the spirit world by the time of our 2023 cycle trip, so again out of luck.

Neo-paganism has been gaining force in Estonia. According to a 2015 study, more than half the Estonian population believe in a spirit world, including the prospect of communicating with an unseen reality. “The practice of shamanism in Estonia can be traced throughout its history, under the commonly referred-to term of nõid, who was a person that basically performed similar tasks to shamans in rural communities.”

What sort of tasks? Estonian Mythology for the Beginner (2023) says a shaman can heal people by channelling certain spirits to remove disease from the body. A nõid can also apply healing powers to existential crises such as declining ecosystems, societal ills, and pandemics. Another writer suggests neo-shamanism has re-emerged in the last two centuries as minority groups’ reaction to political oppression.  

Wikipedia says the trance states induced by dancing, hallucinogens, and other triggers may have an amplifying effect on thinking ability. “With this, the shaman can better predict the movement of animals, resolve group conflicts, plan migrations, and provide other useful services.”

Karen Armstrong reminds us that shamanism originated among hunting societies during the Palaeolithic (20,000 BCE – 8,000 BCE), and that this tradition has persisted to the present day (A Short History of Myth (2005)).

“The shaman was a master of trance and ecstasy, whose dreams and visions encapsulated the ethos of the hunt, and gave it a spiritual meaning. It was thought that he had the power to leave his body and travel to the celestial world.

“During his training, a modern shaman sometimes lives with animals in the wild. He is supposed to meet an animal who will instruct him in the secrets of ecstasy, teach him animal language and become his constant companion.”

Nowadays you can hunt for things on google, so my daughter found a spirit animal app. She put me through a quiz, a bit like a psychometric test when applying for a job. The app spat out “heron”, which strikes me as a singularly uncommunicative creature. I would have to spend hours in a swamp to watch one spear a frog or fish in the hope of enlightenment.

Alternatively, one could indulge in the Estonian passion for mushroom gathering. This is fun, especially if finding chanterelles, and the hunt for them seems best done in mossy floored spruce forests. Sauted in butter, and then cooked in white wine and cream, seasoned, and enhanced with garlic and chopped parsley, a kukeseenekaste could be said to inspire a state of ecstasy, and, who knows, spiritual healing as well.