This Element takes its starting point in shamanism in the Nordic countries and explores expressions and the lives of shamanic materialities in contemporary Finland and Norway. Shamans interact with spiritual powers and beings, but their religious practices unfold in a material reality. In this Element, then, we begin with the materiality of shamanism and focus on how the drum, the sacrificial site, the power animal, and a mushroom bridge the gap between the profane and the divine and create networks and dynamics in a shamanic worldview as well as in the wider society. Throughout its sections, the authors inquire into the ways the construction of the category shamanism makes shamanic materialities come to life. And, in contrast, how shamanic materialities form shamanism and facilitate constantly formative exchanges and dynamics between the local and global, past and present, secular and spiritual, time and space.

From the Andes to the Himalayas, mountains have an extraordinary power to evoke a sense of the sacred. In the overwhelming wonder and awe that these dramatic features of the landscape awaken, people experience something of deeper significance that imbues their lives with meaning and vitality. Drawing on his extensive research and personal experience as a scholar and climber, Edwin Bernbaum's Sacred Mountains of the World takes the reader on a fascinating journey exploring the role of mountains in the mythologies, religions, history, literature, and art of cultures around the world. Bernbaum delves into the spiritual dimensions of mountaineering and the implications of sacred mountains for environmental and cultural preservation. This beautifully written, evocative book shows how the contemplation of sacred mountains can transform everyday life, even in cities far from the peaks themselves. Thoroughly revised and updated, this new edition considers additional sacred mountains, as well as the impacts of climate change on the sacredness of mountains.