The Shaman and the Gut — Those Who Bridge Gods and People

Shamanism is one of Korea's oldest beliefs, seeped into people's lives long before Buddhism and Confucianism arrived. At its center stood the shaman who bridged gods and people. The shaman was an object of awe, yet also a consoling presence who reported the village's pain and wishes to heaven on its behalf.

The two paths to becoming a shaman

There were broadly two paths. One is the possessed shaman, who suffers the "spirit sickness" and receives the descent of a god, entering the path because the call cannot be refused. The other is the hereditary shaman, who inherits the priesthood down the family line. Either way, a shaman's life was less her own than one lived for the community.

The gut — a rite that soothes the heart

The gut was a comprehensive rite that invited the gods to pray for wishes and drive off misfortune. From a gut to heal illness, to the jinogi-gut consoling the soul of the dead, to the village gut praying for good catches and harvests — each held its own pain and longing. Woven of song, dance, and story, the gut, seen with today's eyes, was also a vast performing art.

The craft of consolation

The true power of shamanism may have lain less in the supernatural than in handling the human heart. Unbinding grievance, weeping together in sorrow, soothing anxiety about the days ahead — the gut was a place where a community purified emotion together. So the shaman was both an interpreter of gods and a physician of the heart.

The Past-Life Profession test holds the grain of such people who bridged human to human, and human to heaven. If you carry a temperament that reads and connects hearts among others, you may resemble that old place of bridging.