Shamanic Christmas: Tracing Ancestral Roots, Indigenous Foundations, and Decolonizing Our Traditions
A Journey to Ancestral Roots
Was Santa Claus originally a Nordic shaman? Did it all begin with a sacred mushroom, later reshaped into a symbol of consumerism by Coca-Cola? How did we end up here? And how can we walk back? Let’s embark on a cross-cultural journey and approach these topics with curiosity, knowing that the story of Christmas spans thousands of years and encompasses many different cultural, spiritual, and religious threads within its rich tapestry. This article will focus on just a few aspects of something so vast that it’s impossible to cover in a short piece. But let's give it a try—let’s begin.
The story of Christmas is one of the most well-known to humanity but what most people may not realize is that much of what we celebrate today has ancestral roots, including shamanic and pagan origins. Let us take a walk through the human timeline, meeting different cultures and perspectives, exploring what resonates, and perhaps even decolonizing our current narratives. By freeing ourselves from consumer culture narratives, we can reconnect with our own ancestral roots and customs. This journey may be a slow, gradual process of remembering, or it might feel sudden—sparking, electrifying, or even disorientating—as we rethink how we relate to this annual time and festivity. Let us approach this with gentleness—toward ourselves and toward each other.
Christmas, celebrated worldwide as the birth of Jesus Christ, carries a rich tapestry of traditions that actually long predate its Christian associations. Actually, the actual birth date of Jesus is not confirmed in any biblical texts, some Christian writers suggest his birth was in March, April or May. Because winter solstice has been widely celebrated in the native cultures it is known that religious leaders placed the celebration of the birth of Jesus on this time window to replace these non-christian, pagan festivities.
The Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year, falls around December 21st or 22nd in the Northern Hemisphere. The solstice is in fact the first opening portal to the Dreamtime (Rauhnächte), the liminal time between the years and with this, of course also the first opening moment at the entrance of the Christmas season. This celestial event marked a turning point: the gradual return of the sun and the promise of longer days. The lives of ancient peoples were closely tied to agriculture and seasonal changes which is why the solstice was such a key moment and literally a portal to cross. Read more about the Winter Solstice in this Blog Article. If you are curious to learn more about this in an experiential, embodied way with ritual, meditation and reflection, join the Invisible Worlds Study Program called Dreamtime, which is a guided journey through the liminal time between the years.
But let us go on, discovering more layers of the origins of our Christmas celebrations.
Indigenous and Localized Traditions : Decolonizing Christmas
I think the first step to decolonizing Christmas is to recognize how deeply entwined we are in a consumer culture that overshadows the true origins of this celebration: a reverence for nature and its cycles. While we may not be able to change the course of this cultural tide overnight, especially amidst the complexities of family dynamics, perhaps we can begin by cultivating a little more awareness. Every small shift in perspective matters.
Decolonizing Christmas doesn’t mean rejecting it; it means remembering its origins.
It’s about honoring the cycles of nature that inspired the celebration of light during the darkest days. It is also about recognizing the wisdom of Indigenous and local traditions that celebrated renewal, community, and reciprocity long before religions, globalism and capitalism took hold. Lets reclaim the season as a time of humility, altruism, transformation, and collective hope - in whichever way one may celebrate it. This is a chance to reimagine how we can live in harmony with each other and the world within and around us.
Let us have a look into the different original threads of Christmas and discover the rich tapestry of what has been alive for cultures for millennia. May this help us to remember and to even awaken our own indigenous origins. Across Europe, the rich tapestry of indigenous traditions played a significant role in shaping pre-Christian winter celebrations, many of which were seamlessly woven into the fabric of modern holiday customs.
Odin and his Entourage: The Wild Hunt
Odin by Rudolf Maison
An intriguing aspect of Norse winter mythology is the Wild Hunt, a spectral procession of spirits led by the god Odin, who soared through the winter sky on his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir.
This imagery may have influenced the concept of Santa Claus, who is similarly depicted traveling through the skies with his reindeer. Odin, known as a shamanic figure and a guide of souls, represents the liminal space between worlds, resonating with the shamanic roots of solstice traditions.
Odin also plays an important role in the Rauhnächte (the Dreamtime) between the years as he is the messenger between the dimensions, and between the visible and invisible worlds. We explore the myths around Odin and his role in the Dreamtime Study Program of Invisible Worlds.
Reindeer Mysticism and the Sámi people
I took this picture in the museum of European Culture in Berlin, which dedicated a special exhibition to Sámi culture, while also mentioning the impact and burden colonization had on them.
In the far north, the Sámi people, indigenous to the Arctic regions of Scandinavia and Russia, celebrated the solstice within their deeply shamanic worldview. Central to Sámi life and spirituality were reindeer, which not only provided sustenance but also held symbolic significance as intermediaries between the physical and spiritual realms. Sámi shamans often used reindeer in their rituals, including drumming ceremonies and vision quests. The reindeer’s migration and ability to navigate harsh winter landscapes were seen as a reflection of spiritual journeys through challenging times. The connection between reindeer and Santa Claus’s sleigh, pulling him across snowy landscapes, carries threads of these ancient beliefs in animal-guided shamanic travel.
Another photo that I took of an image at the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin
The Sámi people, Indigenous to northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, have endured centuries of colonization. Their lands, Sápmi, were exploited for resources, while forced Christianization, suppression of languages, and stigmatization of shamanic practices sought to erase their culture. Traditional livelihoods like reindeer herding were disrupted by land seizures and industrial development. Despite this, the Sámi have shown remarkable resilience, reviving their languages, traditions, and knowledge while advocating for land rights and self-determination against ongoing colonial impacts.
At the Core of the Myth: A Magic Mushroom?
Tatiana Urkachan, a traditional Siberian Shaman with an Amanita muscaria. The photographer of these popular photographies remains unknown.
Isn’t that fascinating? Shamans, deeply attuned to the natural cycles, traversed dimensions with the help of a seasonal, local mushroom—Amanita muscaria— and offer gifts in the form of wisdom, healing, and spiritual insight to their communities. Over time, these journeys were reshaped by consumer culture, transforming the shamanic figure into the iconic Santa Claus, soaring through the sky and delivering material gifts down chimneys. A questionable reinterpretation of ancient, sacred rites—urging us to ask: what are we truly celebrating during these days?
And then there is, of course, a very essential, magical, and key aspect that reveals the literal connection between the shamanic, pagan origins of Christmas and the way we celebrate it today. All of this is unveiled through the spirit of the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria)! This remarkable being grows in the late summer and early winter forests of the Northern Hemisphere and beyond. It is a hallucinogenic mushroom deeply tied to the Sámi people, where it played a vital role in their spiritual practices. Its vivid red-and-white appearance and ability to induce altered states may have inspired the modern depiction of Santa Claus in his red suit, as well as his fantastical sleigh ride across the night sky.
It’s a complex, multi-dimensional story, and while it is tempting to want to trace with absolute certainty which modern aspects stem from specific animist or shamanic origins, it’s not that linear. One thing I can say for certain: the journey of uncovering this cross-cultural tapestry is utterly enchanting.
Christian Adaptation and Syncretism
Does today’s Santa Claus reflect the commercialization of Indigenous and (pre-)Christian traditions?
The Christianization of Europe led to the incorporation of many pagan traditions into Christmas celebrations, a process known as syncretism. As Christianity spread, it absorbed and reinterpreted local customs to ease the transition for converts. Symbols like the evergreen tree, holly, and the Yule log were retained, but with Christian reinterpretations. The feasting and gift-giving practices of Saturnalia were carried forward, blending into the Christian ethos of charity and joy.
What began as a mix of Indigenous and pre-Christian winter customs eventually evolved into the modern Christmas traditions, and since the past century it got largely influenced by 20th-century American consumer culture. Before this transformation, however, the 4th-century bishop Saint Nicholas played a pivotal role in shaping Christmas customs. Known for his generosity, especially toward children and the people in need, Saint Nicholas likely replaced earlier pagan figures, such as Odin, the Norse god of Yule, and the Wild Hunt, a mystical procession of spirits.
It’s a thought-provoking story to imagine that Christmas originated in the presence of the Amanita muscaria, whose hallucinogenic properties facilitated altered states of consciousness. While this connection can not be fully proven, the parallels are compelling, and there is an evident relationship between these ancestral origins and the traditions still present today. Shamans “traveled” through the spirit world, a concept mirrored in Santa’s mystical sleigh ride and red-and-white suit. In Indigenous European traditions, particularly those rooted in animism and shamanism, like the Sámi in the far north, midwinter figures acted as mediators between the earthly and spiritual realms.
By the 1930s, Coca-Cola had reimagined Santa as a plump, jovial figure, solidifying the image we know today. Yet beneath the consumer-driven narrative lies a deeper story: Santa’s roots are tied to shamanic journeys and ancestral cosmologies, reminding us of a time when winter celebrations honored the connection to the invisible worlds.
REMEMBERING THE ANCESTRAL THREADS.
The Rauhnächte—the mystical “twelve nights” between December 24th and January 6th—are an ancient European tradition steeped in pagan and shamanic roots, far older than the Christmas we celebrate today. I like to call this time the DREAMTIME and each of the Rauhnächte (the rough nights) I prefer to call the Holy Nights in English. These nights were seen as a liminal time, when the veil between worlds thinned, allowing connection with the spirit realm, divination, and reflection. People honored the cycles of nature, cleared away the old year, and set intentions for the new one.
The origins of Christmas draw heavily from these ancestral traditions. The focus on light in the darkest time of the year, the gathering of family and community, and the themes of renewal and rebirth all echo the practices of the Rauhnächte. Over time, Christianity adapted these rituals, transforming them into the nativity story and aligning Christmas with existing solstice celebrations. Today, as consumer culture dominates Christmas, the Dreamtime offers a way to reconnect with the sacred, reflective energy of the season. It invites us to pause, dream, and honor the natural rhythms that have guided humanity for millennia.
By honoring the original spirit of Christmas—whether through quiet reflection, celebrating the Dreamtime (Rauhnächte) meaningful gift-giving, or a renewed connection to the cycles of nature—we can bring balance to a holiday that, for many, has lost its way amidst the glitter and tinsel. Indigenous and localized traditions across Europe and beyond reflect the universal human need to make sense of the cycles of nature, particularly during the profound stillness and darkness of winter. These traditions remind us of a time when humanity was deeply attuned to the rhythms of the earth, finding meaning and guidance in the interplay between light and dark.
JOIN THE INVISIBLE WORLDS EPISODE // DREAMTIME //
For the turn of the year
25.12.2024 - 22.01.2025
Based on pagan mythologies of the liminal time between the years
The days and nights at the end of one year and the beginning of the next have always been a time of transition, introspection, and vision seeking. According to pagan tales and myths, during this period, the boundaries between worlds dissolve, veils to the "unseen" and the invisible worlds lift, and a space opens for reflecting on the past and dreaming of what is to come.
It is the moment to consciously weave the threads of our future. What wants to emerge in your personal unfolding? What does the world need? Let me accompany you on this journey so that your vision for the new year is clear and your actions and thoughts intertwine with the greater web of life.
JOIN THE EXPERIENCE!
Cultural perspectives on pagan rituals
Nature mysticism
Conversations about the qualities of this time
Fairy tales and myths, pagan origins of this tradition
contemporary reflections for navigating this treshold time
Dreampractice and aesthetics
>> REFLECTIONS
Dreamwork and journaling
Integration of the closing year
Reflection and integration of the past year through various exercises
Formulating and refining a vision for the new year
>> THE FORMAT
3× Zoom meetings for community, exchange, and deep dives
3× Zoom yoga and meditation classes
Self paced journey through weekly content with extensive videos, instructions, texts, and literature on the week’s theme
Community chat for the entire group, for those who want more exchange and inspiration
As part of this journey, you’ll also receive a DREAMTIME JOURNAL with daily prompts and reflections
Bonus material for further exploration