Paper Short Abstract:

Based on recent ethnographic research, this presentation will focus on how a contemporary folk healer from Scotland organises annual pilgrimages to the Inner Hebrides with the aim of bringing his spiritual groups closer to the local nature and the local myths connected to it.

Paper Abstract:

Based on ethnographic research from 2015 to 2020, this presentation will showcase how a contemporary Scottish folk healer with shamanistic knowledge organises annually pilgrimages for his spiritual groups to the Inner Hebrides, and specifically to the islands of Iona, Mull and Staffa, and the Isle of Skye. This neo-shaman/healer aims to connect his followers to the local nature as well as to the local myths associated with it. During the pilgrimages, the healer leads the group to "sacred sites", narrates stories about local heroes, the Fae Folk, and the local deities, while also leads magical ceremonies alongside them. The paper aims to highlight how contemporary folk healers manage to connect the natural and the supernatural, and how this interplay manifests itself in their own individual beliefs, approaches and practices. It will focus on the importance that spiritual practitioners, such as the one examined in this paper, give to local "sacred" places and the profound spiritual relationships that are developed between these places and their practices through time. The presentation will also focus on how this interplay is interpreted by some of the attendees at the pilgrimages as well. Issues of identity, the role of sites of high spiritual value in supernatural practices, as well as the reconstruction/reinvention of past local practices will be among the issues discussed in the paper.