You may notice as you peruse our site that one of our herbal blends is a shaman herbal smoke sourced from a shaman in Nepal. The practice of shamanism runs deep in Nepal, where it has probably been practiced longer than either Hinduism or Buddhism. While the other two philosophies have been integrated into and practiced alongside shamanism in many areas of Nepal, this traditional form of spiritualism is by far the most widespread among the mountainous country’s diverse ethnic groups. The tools of the Nepalese shaman include a bowl, ceremonial objects such as bones and feathers, and of course, various medicinal plants which are often inhaled as incense to aid the shaman in accessing alternate spiritual realms.
The position of shaman is an important one in many ethnic Nepalese communities: shamans are responsible for healing people of spiritual (rather than purely physical) ailments, restoring the balance of the natural world when it gets out of kilter, and establishing a connection the three worlds that compose the universe in Nepalese animism. Shamans in Nepal will often say that they did not choose to become shamans. It is a difficult life, requiring practitioners to maintain daytime occupations while also making themselves available for healing or divinatory work at the “transition times” of dusk and dawn. Instead, Nepalese shamans will talk of being called to the vocation by dreams or prophetic visions in childhood. Members of the Newari ethnic group believe that future shamans are “abducted” as children by Ban Jhakri, the primordial shaman of the tribe. Children who have such waking visions or interactions with Ban Jhakri are destined to be shamans once they mature.
Shamans in Nepal must enter a trance in order to perform healing work or interact with deities of the three worlds to obtain prophecies and advice. Most achieve the trance state using a combination of drumming, chanting, and burning herbal smoking blends to generate various psychoactive effects. Although incense burned on a traditional charcoal burner is the most common method for consuming visionary herbs in the Nepalese tradition, shamans may also smoke or ingest different plants such as woodruff, mugwort and wormwood to induce a trance state.
Incense from Nepal has become hugely popular around the world as a meditation aid and natural aromatic; you can find plenty of online incense wholesalers peddling incense in powder, stick, cone or braided rope form. Most of these incenses, while aromatic, are inert and do not contain the visionary herbs used to induce a trance state (although their invigorating odors may still help focus your mind if you intend to use them while meditating). For shamanistic purposes, you can expect an incense blend to include some rather more unorthodox ingredients that are included not for their scent so much as their medicinal or visionary properties. For instance, a shaman might have one of his or her patients inhale a special incense as aromatherapy to treat a spiritual ailment.
So what might you find in a Nepalese shaman herbal smoke blend? A few of the commoner ingredients are virtually the same as those in conventional incense, and include spices that exude pleasing odors when they’re burned, such as cinnamon, sandalwood and cypress. It would be telling to reveal all of the medicinal ingredients that gives a Nepalese shaman blend its potent visionary properties, but one important visionary plant is drooping juniper. You can very easily make an incense of drooping juniper’s leaves by rubbing them, and both its leaves and resin have psychoactive effects when they are burned and inhaled into the lungs--- useful for the jhakri who needs a reliable way to enter a trance. In his comprehensive 2005 Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, Christian Ratsch records the traditional use of juniper incense in Nepalese shamanism in this passage: “It was striking that the shaman (jhakri) began the exorcising activities by bending over an incense bowl filled with glowing juniper needles… and clumps of resin and deeply inhaling the smoke before drumming himself into trance with the aid of a large lama drum”.
In Nepal, shamans use incense synergistically with ritual objects, drumming and chanting to connect to the different spiritual realms they must visit as part of their spiritual vocation. While you don’t have to be a shaman to derive an enjoyable experience from our Nepalese Shaman and Petalaya blends, for those spiritual seekers so inclined these blends can provide powerful synergistic effects when used as part of a meditation routine or other spiritual practice. Just put a pinch of our blend on a charcoal burner or incense receptacle of your choice, pour a glass of light red or pink wine, and close your eyes as you inhale deeply. That sense of relaxation and inner peace you feel is completely natural.