One of the main types of evidence for shamanic beliefs in Britain is burials with gravegoods. The fact that the ancient Britons buried their dead with accompaniments is suggestive of the belief they took their belongings with them into an Otherworld which was seen to be very much like Thisworld. 

The earliest is the so-called Paviland Red Lady (who was actually a male warrior). His bones were stained with red ochre and he was laid out with ivory rods and sea shells. Later burials in burial mounds have been found accompanied with weapons, jewellery, cauldrons and eating and drinking vessels, games, chariots and horses. 

Another type of evidence is ritual depositions in liminal places which provided access to the Otherworld. Many of these are watery – we find weaponry such as swords and spearheads deposited in lakes, rivers, springs, pools and bogs. Deposits were also made in places leading underground such as caves, crevices and beneath the roots of trees (such as bog oaks here in Lancashire). Ritual pits and shafts were also dug purposefully for depositions of coins and pottery. This demonstrates the Britons had a reciprocal relationship with the spirits of the Otherworld.

Wooden idols which might represent threshold guardians who oversaw the boundaries between the worlds have been found across Britain. These include the Ballachullish Goddess, the Kingsteignton Idol, the Dagenham Idol and the Somerset God Dolly. The Roos Carr Figures, eight wooden warriors with quartzite eyes and removable phalluses and their serpent-headed boats may have been modelled on mythic figures who made voyages to the spiritual reality.

In Deal, Kent, a remarkable chalk figurine was found in a chamber at the bottom of a ritual shaft suggesting communion with an Otherworld Deity.

At Starr Carr, in North Yorkshire, 21 antlered frontlets dating to around 9,000 years ago were found. It has been suggested they were used in a shamanic ceremony to bring luck in the hunt before being deposited as offerings to the deer spirits.

Across the world cave art is cited as evidence of shamanic experiences. Here in Britain our oldest example is from Cresswell Crags, dating back to 13,000 – 11,000 years ago with carvings of a deer, a bison, a horse and birds and bird-headed figures.

Writing at the time of the Roman Invasions (we have no written evidence from the Britons themselves because they wrote nothing down), Julius Caesar, said the Gauls, whose traditions derived from Britain, believed ‘the soul does not die but crosses over after death from one place to another.’

We find a possible reference to a native British shamanic tradition that survived into the 1100s in the writings of Gerald of Wales. He records the existence of ‘soothsayers’ known as awenyddion, ‘persons inspired’ who are possessed by ‘ignorant spirits’ or ‘demons’ and who speak in ‘nugatory’ ‘incoherent’ language (ie. the language of prophecy as they give voice to the spirits of the Otherworld).

In medieval Welsh literature we discover the name of the British Otherworld, Annwn, from An ‘very’ and dwfn ‘deep’, again suggesting it lies underground. There are many stories about human interactions with Annwn and its spirits and Deities. In The Mabinogion, Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed mistakenly allows his hounds to feast on a stag which has been killed by the hounds of Arawn, a King of Annwn. To make up for his misdeed he takes Arawn’s place in Annwn for a year and a wins his battle against his rival, Hafgan, and wins Arawn’s favour. Someone who does not behave so respectfully is King Arthur. In ‘The Spoils of Annwn’ he voyages to the Otherworld, steals its magical animals and treasures, including the King of Annwn’s cauldron, and kills the cauldron keeper and, potentially, the King of Annwn himself. Annwn was later known as Faery and we have many stories from the Victorian times until now of sightings of the fairies and people lured into their dances and into their realm.

Within the Welsh bardic tradition, Taliesin, a shapeshifting bard is viewed to have shamanic qualities. Bards to this day channel the spirit of Taliesin and his forebears. 

The British witchcraft tradition is also deeply shamanic with its records of spirit flights and pacts and relationships with familiar spirits (although some stories were projected on women, often Catholics, who did not participate in such practices.)

Sadly, within the shamanic communities here in Britain, much of this evidence remains little known and explored and it is more common for people to look to other traditions, going abroad to take ayhuasca, or looking to the indigenous shamanic cultures of other lands, rather than exploring the lands and lore that are on our doorstep.

*Antlered frontlet courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.