Riding Windhorses

SHAMANISM In traditional Mongolian-Buryat culture, shamans play an important role maintaining the tegsh, the "balance" of the community. They counsel a path of moderation in one's actions and reverence for the natural world, which they view as mother to humanity. Mongolians believe that if natural resources are taken without thanking the spirits for what they have given, those resources will not be replaced. Unlike many other cultures whose shamanic traditions were undermined by modern civilization, shamans in the remote areas of southern Siberia and Mongolia are still the guardians of the environment, the community, and the natural order. Riding Windhorses is the first book written on Mongolian and Siberian shamanism by a shaman trained in that tradition. A thorough introduction to Mongolian/Siberian shamanic beliefs and practices, it includes working knowledge of the basic rituals and various healing and divination techniques. Many of the rituals and beliefs described here have never been published and are the direct teachings of the author's own shaman mentors. SARANGEREL, which means Moonlight in Buryat, was trained in the traditional Mongolian and Buryat shamanic traditions by native teachers who are free to practice again following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She was the foreign outreach representative of the Golomt Center for Shamanist Studies and the Mongolian Shamans' Association. Born in the United States after her family had been forced to flee Siberia following the Russian Revolution in 1917, she returned to her ancestral homeland in the Tunken region of southern Siberia in 1991 to rediscover the shamanic knowledge of her ancestors.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction: Mongolian Shamanism and World Culture

1. Mongolian Cosmology
2. The Natural World
3. The Spirit World
4. The Shaman
5. Healing and Protection
6. Fortune-telling and Dreams
7. Mongolian Shamanism Today
8. Postscript: Applications for Shamanism in the Twenty-first Century

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index