Reconnecting to (one’s own-)Nature through Consultations with Horses: An Ethnographic Study of Neo-Shamanism

Recent ecological concerns have triggered renewed interest for spirituality related to nature, namely neo-Pagan and neo-Shamanic practices. Most of these practices prone a reconnexion with primary elements (water, earth, air, fire) as well as with fauna and flora and see the development and healing of the self as the first step toward this reconnexion. While shamanism has traditionally intertwined human beings, animals and supernatural beings, some forms of neo-Shamanism reactivate and appropriate these relationships to animals as new allies for individuals’ self-development. In this communication, I present the fieldwork my team and I have carried on with a shamanic therapist who draws on Michael Harner’s transcultural shamanism to offer consultations with horses as a form of spiritual accompaniment. I show how, following Jungian notions of archetypes, the connection between animal and human being builds on the perception of a common experience of subjugation and quest for freedom that makes the project of rehabilitating the self go through the rehabilitation of animals. Drawing on new trends for interspecies studies as well as Animal Studies that give importance to animal experience and agency, I discuss the roles, status and conditions upon which mutual healing can occur and explore how this compares to traditional shamanism’s relationship to animals.