Case Example: Traditional Shamanic
Initiation
Strange unknown beings came and spoke to him, and
when he awoke, he saw the visions of his dream so distinctly
that he could tell his fellows all about them. Soon
it became evident to all that he was destined to become
an angakoq [a shaman] and an old man named
Perqanaoq was appointed his instructor....[After
taken to a special site, Igjugarjuk] was not allowed
to set foot on the snow, but was lifted from the
sledge and carried into the hut, where a piece of
skin just large enough for him to sit on served as
a carpet. Not food or drink was given him; he was
exhorted to think only of the Great Spirit and of
the helping spirit that should presently appear — and
so he was left to himself and his meditations.
After five days had elapsed, the instructor brought
him a drink of lukewarm water, and with similar exhortations,
left him as before. He fasted for fifteen days, when
he was given another drink of water ad a very small
piece of meat, which had to last him a further ten
days. At the end of this period, his instructor came
for him and fetched him home. Igjugarjuk declared that
the strain of those thirty days of cold and fasting
was so severe that he 'sometimes died a little.' During
all that time he thought only of the Great Spirit,
and endeavored to keep his mind free from all memory
of human beings and everyday things. Toward the end
of the thirty days there came to him a helping spirit
in the shape of a woman. She came while he was asleep
and seemed to hover in the air above him. After that
he dreamed no more of her, but she became his helping
spirit. For five months following this period of trial,
he was kept on the strictest diet, and required to
abstain from all intercourse with women. The fasting
was then repeated; for such fasts at frequent intervals
are the best means of attaining...knowledge of hidden
things. As a matter of fact, there is no limit to the
period of study; it depends on how much one is willing
to suffer and anxious to learn.
An account of the initiatory ordeal of an SCRCulik
(Caribou) Eskimo shaman, Igjugarjuk, recorded by Knud
Rasmussen in Across Arctic America. New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1927; pp. 82-84.
