One cannot be sufficiently addressed today without taking the other into account. Though the most acute cross-cultural differences in shamanism tend to be found in initiation rites and experiences, a universal or archetypal patterning is found woven throughout. Eliade noted the three major themes of initiatic patterning as suffering, death and resurrection. This same patterning is discernible in many of the personal and global events of our times, suggesting that the world crisis we find ourselves in may indeed be a form of collective initiation process. Exploring shamanic initiation in more depth reveals other clues.
Shamanic initiation is an extremely rigorous process.
It may span a period of weeks, months, and in some cases, years. Among other reasons, but perhaps none more important, the process is meant to help dissolve addictive psychological patterns and limited, overly egocentric sense of self. It is only through the dissolution of these limiting patterns that a new, more universally-concerned person may be born capable of assuming the complex demands of the shamanic vocation. This calling may come through a specific ritual, family inheritance, or spontaneously through an ecstatic experience, a dream, vision quest, illness, or an affliction of some kind that produces a healing crisis. Oftentimes the call to power is accompanied by a sense of growing despair.