Shamans have an incredibly important role in healing the living. But that important role extends beyond the realm of healing just the living.

A shaman (as I define them) is a person who alters their state of consciousness (such as through repetitive drumming) and most often takes spirit journeys. You can read more about shamans and the practice of shamanism in my introductory article on the subject.

Shamans helped (and help) their communities survive through their healing work. But that healing may also be necessary in a community member's time of dying, or even after death.

The way that shamans heal the dying and the deceased is through psychopomp work. The word "psychopomp" comes from the Greek term psychopompos, which means "leader or conductor of souls."

There are many expressions in the field of psychopomp work. These include:

Healing the Dying:

Shamans can be wonderful sources of support for dying persons.

Shamans are very often those who had a near-death experience (NDE), or a life-threatening illness and crossed over to the "other side." Having been there, shamans have learned something about the nature of after-death experiences.

Another way in which shamans can heal the dying is by teaching them how to take spirit journeys (shamanic journeys) to their own helping and divine spirits. There is a different protocol for teaching a dying person how to journey from how my colleagues and I might teach students in our basic shamanic workshops to journey; this protocol is covered in our advanced Death and Dying trainings.

In getting dying people in touch with their own spirit allies through the journey, not only do they become more familiar with the journey out of the body, but their spirits may actually cure them of their life-threatening condition. The spirits may also be a comfort to them, or help them on their transition into after-death - into spirit life after human life.

Important to note here is that shamans are not dead-set (no pun intended) on keeping people alive at all costs, far beyond the threshold of their quality of life at the financial and emotional expense of living relatives - they know that, sometimes, the next step of the healing process is living. And sometimes, the next step of the healing process is death.

Healing the Wandering:

After a person dies, the shaman may be asked by a relative to go and check on them. Where did they go after death? And how are they doing?

World-renowned shamanic teacher Sandra Ingerman, MA has shared that most deaths go “right.” From a classic shamanic point of view, in the three worlds of the Spirit Reality, we want to transcend to either the incredible love and unity of the Upper or Lower Worlds after death (bear in mind that the Lower World is not the same as the concept of Hell or a hell realm).

However, sometimes, when a person died a sudden or tragic death (such as from substance overdose, homicide or murder, environmental disaster, terror attack, accident, and so on), or if they have a personal issue that is keeping them here (such as not wanting to leave their loved ones or aspects of their life behind), things need help in “going right,” as the soul may stay in our world - the Middle World - and not make that journey to a transcendent realm. The term we often use for these souls is “ghosts,” but I also use the term “wandering souls.”

These wandering souls can be found haunting homes, battlefields, hospitals, office buildings, and beyond, and can cause a number of startles and troubles for the living inhabitants of that space. You may well have had an experience of this yourself! As heart-centered shamanic practitioners and people, we have such deep compassion and care for these souls, as they are people, just like you and I. And, just like many of our living associates, we do not necessarily wish them to be co-inhabitants of our living spaces!

Beyond the trouble that they can cause in a space, these souls may also cause trouble in "attaching" to living people, which brings us to another aspect of what the shaman can heal in psychopomp work...

Healing the Possessing:

"Spirit attachment" is one term for what, in shamanic parlance, we can call “possession.” Possession is when a wandering soul moves into a living person whose “spiritual immune system” is lowered, as can happen in partial soul loss. 

Understandably, two human souls sharing the same field of energy as they do in possession can cause a range of issues; for example, through shamanic eyes, possession can be connected to the having of multiple personalities.

Whether working with the soul as wandering or possessing, a well-trained shaman or shamanic practitioner can work heart-fully and safely with their spirit allies to help these souls cross into a transcendent realm. This may be done by counseling the soul personally, helping to resolve what is keeping them earthbound and having them handed off to the appropriate ancestral spirits who can “take them from here,” or any number of other methods. The particulars of this counseling - and all of this psychopomp work - are discussed in my in-person and online public and private/one-on-one Shamanism, Dying, and Life After Life training (originated by Ingerman), and are, of course, very far beyond what can be safely, ethically, deeply, and effectively covered in an article.

In aiding the dying, and counseling and crossing the challenged dead, the shaman sets the space for not only the health and healing of the deceased - now they're surrounded by their own departed loved ones, in realms of love and brilliance - but the healing of the living, by helping the families of those who are transitioning to receive spiritual knowledge and closure, freeing our homes, offices, global collective, and even our own selves of deceased souls so that we may have a "clean” home in the realm of the living, and strengthening our spiritual immunity so that we are not as susceptible to taking on such souls going forward.

Through the shaman’s healing work of psychopomp, the dying can have a more comfortable, informed, and beautiful journey home, the living can live our lives more fully, and the departed may enjoy the radiance of their lives after life.