Zaunreiterin

Welcome!

"Zaunreiterin" (hedge rider) is a possible meaning of the Old High German word hagazussa, from which in later centuries the word "Hexe" (witch) developed. The hedge rider is the border crosser between worlds: between civilization and wilderness, the known and the unknown, inside and outside, this world and the other world. But she actually stands in both worlds at the same time, with one foot on this side of the hedge and one on the other.

This also applies to the "shamanic practitioners": on the one hand, there is the familiar interaction with the spiritual worlds and their inhabitants; the fundamental belief that these other worlds are at least as real as the material, visible world, and that one can act in these worlds and also bring about things that in turn have repercussions on the material part of the world. On the other hand, there is the anchoring in the worldly sphere, in everyday life. The latter also contributes to the grounding without which shamanic work is essentially impossible. Those who have no roots cannot grow, but run the risk of taking off and losing their footing.

"Some of us want to let go and awaken the power that lies buried within us. To do so, we must live on the edge, between the lines, somewhere between matter and spirit, male and female, darkness and light, leader and follower, stillness and movement. Like rope dancers, we venture over the abyss of the unknown."
(Gabrielle Roth: Totem. Gelebter Schamanismus, München 2000, S. 19, retranslation)

And so I also see myself as a rope dancer - or rather, a hedge rider.

I would like to share the thoughts and experiences that have emerged from my own exploration of shamanism - as a historian and scholar on the one hand, as a shamanic practitioner on the other. I am not presenting a universal or even exclusive truth, but my own personal and fragmentary view, which is still subject to constant change. Kenneth Meadows, my first shamanic teacher, said at a beginners' seminar in the early 1990s: "Shamanism is what works for you, at that moment, towards love and harmony." Everyone who follows the shamanic path develops their own unique and personal personal way of working over time, guided by the spiritual worlds and not by any set recipes. And shamanic work always requires an attitude, a clear intention that is focused on healing and wholeness.

Shamanism is a worldview, a way of life, a technique, a tool, a path to wholeness. Shamanism is earthy and anarchic. Shamanism is not light-and-love esotericism, nor is it guruism. Shamanism is not a theory, but something that is alive, experienced, and actually lived. Shamanic elements can be found in many religions, even in Christianity; but shamanism itself is not a religion, except in the literal sense of a re-ligio, a reconnection to the forces and energies that surround us and are within us.

Our world urgently needs this kind of reconnection, such a new - and at the same time ancient - way of seeing things. I would like to do my small part to bring shamanism back into our world.

Next dates

Psychedelic integration circle: Monday, June 23rd, 2025, online
Trommelabend: Freitag, 27. Juni 2025, in Schwabing-West
Psychedelic retreat for women: Wednesday to Monday, October 15th to 19th, 2025, near Berlin
More dates for 2025 here.