Reenchanting nature: modern western shamanism and nineteenth-century thought

In the second half of the twentieth century there emerged in North America and Europe a complex phenomenon on the fringes of anthropology, science, and the so-called New Age that is often referred to as ''neoshamanism''. Part of a larger discourse of nature-based spirituality, contemporary western shamanism is deeply rooted in European and North American history of thought. It can be analyzed in the light of a dialectic process of ''disenchantment'' and 'resacralization'' of the world. After having scrutinized neoshamanic concepts of nature, the article discusses paradigmatic examples for the existence of currents that contest disenchantment and fight the tendency within modern western culture to desacralize nature. It is shown that the nineteenth century must be considered the formative phase of contemporary neoshamanic nature discourse.