Awaken Your Inner Viking Shaman - Beginner Level [certified]

Why learn about shamanism? Shamanic work provides energy and insight for daily life challenges and is designed for self-empowerment, peaceful re-centering, and clarity of mind. At a time when many people feel stressed from all sides and perhaps experience a lack of meaning or grounding, shamanic practice is a wonderful way to relax, reset, and reinvigorate.

Through this course, you will learn, step-by-step, basic shamanic practices such as taking a mindful nature walk, going on drumming trance journeys with spirit helpers, and setting up an alter and using music and song to establish a “container” that expresses your personal style, gifts, and needs.

By the end of the course, you will relate to nature and your unconscious in a new way. You will be able to lay out an altar, invoke spirit helpers, go on 20- or 30-minute drumming trance journeys with (or without!) a rattle or drumming track, and return with memorable stories, energy, and insight to carry you through your week, and beyond.

What does the course involve? You will get a concise and comprehensive course. Each lesson is 10 to 30 minutes long and takes you on a journey of understanding and discovery.

Beyond the six hours of video lecture and demonstrations, we encourage you to do the exercises multiple times. Go on several medicine walks and drumming journeys to really get a feel for the limitless nature of these techniques. You will also find pithy reading material, advice from a diverse set of participants, and reference handouts that you can print and refer to at a glance. There are short self-tests to help you absorb the finer points. Also, if you are musically inclined, there are songs you can play or sing.

Ideally, allow a week to complete the course even though a few days is doable. And after you earn the certificate, consider practicing and reviewing for several more weeks to deepen your understanding.

Why the Norse Flavor? This Beginner course has a Norse flavor, with songs and themes related to Norse cultural and cosmology. As known through sagas and historical artifacts, the Norse deities, beliefs, and practices provide a treasure trove that adds richness, beauty, vigor, and a beating heart to shamanic practice.

The course is not religious in nature or require you be of a particular ethic background. Nor does the course aim to be accurate to Norse heathen or pagan beliefs or rites. Anyone can learn, practice, and enjoy the benefits. That said, we do our best though our courses to stick with established Norse ideas. We do not shy away from darker themes as “shadow work”.

This course is the foundation for the Intermediate and Advanced courses, which delve more deeply into the Norse cosmology and historical practices, such as Seidr, as an incredibly rich scaffold for advanced shamanic work.

What's Shamanic Journeying? A drumming journey is a core shamanic practice. By following the repetitive sound of a rattle, drum or chant, and focusing on a select memory and mission, you enter an altered state of consciousness. This relaxes the ego, which can get stuck in an unsatisfying mood and mindset. Once relaxed, the process allows in helpful material from the unconscious. It is far more than visualizing or dreaming. A shamanic journey taps your inner healer and inner storyteller and engages your whole self for therapeutic benefit.

Each journey you will take will build on the others or opens new vistas. Over time, you will gain spirit allies that bring greater perceptiveness, peace, purpose, power (energy), and prosperity into your life.

Shamanism is very much about getting more connected. You will learn to see, hear, and feel more closely in alignment with nature, with your inner self, other people in your life, your breath and body, the divine or spirit realm, and a rich ancestral and cultural heritage.

This work requires no specific gift or talent. Anyone can form good relations with spirit helpers. Even if you are skeptical, you can consider the spirits as unconscious elements that are taking on a relatable form in your conscious mind. And, you can add elements of these practices into other aspects of your life, whether counseling, martial arts, musical performance, or whatnot. Even if you are among those persons who find it more challenging at the start, know that practice and patience will pay off.

What Else Will You Get? Your lead instructor, Dario, is an award-winning university teacher of the year. His, Avi’s, and Judah’s backgrounds span multiple cultures and, taken together, include neuroscience, psychological assessment, coaching, game design, rock climbing, video production, martial arts, and military service. While you may not directly hear much about all of these things within this course, know that they inform what we bring to you.

Shamanic practice is probably as old as humanity itself. It is how we cultivate the wonder of nature and life’s powerful moments to stay in touch with the spiritual beings that we are. You will experience a connection to that total timeless experience.

How do we use the slides? For your convenience, most of the lectures have an on-screen visual guide (slides) to what content is being covered. The same slides are attached as a PDF to the course. Thus, if you wish, you can either pause and zoom in to the visual guide or you can download the slides and have them handy to follow along with the lecture. Alternatively, since the slides are summaries, you can ignore them.

Bonus Certificate: When you complete the course, you can get an additional, official certificate from Radiance House (in addition to the Udemy certificate). This requires you attend at least one of our live (and usually free) group sessions. Contact us for details.

Disclaimer: Shamanic work is not intended as — nor can it replace — a proper medical, psychological or therapeutic diagnosis or treatment from a licensed healthcare professional. We encourage individuals with a history of psychological concerns to seek professional guidance as they normally would. Also, in the event that shamanic practice evokes challenging psychological material, we encourage seeking such services.