Be Mythical The calls & pitfalls of the growth of shamanism - Nicholas Breeze Wood
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Nicholas Breeze Wood. Nicholas has practiced shamanism for over 40 years, combining it with the 'earthier' end of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as with 'medicine' teachings from Native North American peoples. He has worked with many gifted medicine people and shamans over the years, and is deeply apprenticed to his own spirit helpers, whose teachings never fail to awe and surprise him.
Nick’s shamanism is a fusion of traditional Himalayan and Mongolian forms, combined with teachings from his own spirits. He works especially deeply with ritual objects - such as bronze shaman's mirrors, phurba daggers and many other Mongolian and Tibetan shamanic and Buddhist ritual objects - for which he holds traditional teachings and, where required, traditional initiations.
Despite being a ‘rather uneducated Buddhist,’ he is an ordained Tibetan Buddhist lama, a type called a ngakpa, whose role is similar to a shaman’s. Ngakpas are non-monastic, non-celebrate lamas who live in the community, specialising in ritual and magic for people within their community.
Nick is the editor of Sacred Hoop Magazine - a leading international magazine about shamanism - which has been published since 1993. He is also a musician and artist.
He is the author of several books including, 'Walking with the Tiger,' 'Sacred Drums of Siberia,' 'A Little Book of Revealing,' 'Voices From The Earth,' 'The Book of the Shaman,' 'The Shaman Box,' and 'The Resplendent Other'.
He runs the large Facebook group 3Worlds Shamanism, has done a podcast called the 3Worlds shamanism podcast on and off since 2006 and also has a somewhat neglected YouTube channel, also called 3Worlds Shamanism.
In this episode, Lian and Nicholas explore what it means to walk the path of shamanism in the modern West. Together, they trace the winding threads of Nicholas’ life… from the windswept fields of his Midlands childhood to the birth of Sacred Hoop magazine, through encounters with medicine wheel teachings, Mongolian and Himalayan shamans, and the long shadow of Castaneda. What unfolds is not a how-to or a prescription… but a living braid of animism, discipline, and devotion.
Nicholas reflects on the unexpected gift of dyslexia and how neurodivergence shaped his initiatory path, as a different kind of perception… one that enabled a direct, embodied relationship with the unseen. He and Lian explore the tension between psychotherapeutic frameworks and authentic shamanic practice, and the danger of mistaking surface form for deep structure. What makes a shaman, he says, is not sensitivity or interest, but being chosen by the spirits themselves.
Woven through the conversation is the question of lineage. What does it mean to carry teachings from other lands onto this one? How do we honour both the transmission and the soil we stand upon? From the cosmology of the medicine wheel to the pitfalls of cultural appropriation, from core shamanism to the necessity of cosmological bone… this episode offers a rare encounter with an elder who has walked the shamanic path for many decades.
We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage.
What you’ll learn from this episode:-
Why the word “shaman” is often misused… and how understanding deep structure versus surface form can clarify what is truly sacred.
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How neurodivergence can shape perception in ways that become part of our gift, especially when navigating the unseen or the unknown.
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What it might mean to birth a Western lineage… one rooted not in imitation, but in integration, initiation, and real relationship with land and spirit.
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Visit Nick’s websites:
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