Abstract

This article offers phenomenological contemplations on shamanic enchantment and its potential pathway toward belonging and planetary inclusion. Experiences of planetary inclusion derive from a life orientation of planetary citizenship, where the entire circle of human and other-than-human life of the planet is experienced as an inclusive wholeness. It can affect ethics, sense of morality, and responsibility toward solving global and societal problems. Similarly, the shamanic lifeworld is thoroughly based on the sense of planetary inclusion and aims toward the balance of nature. The main hypothesis presented in this article is that experiences of enchantment support the sense of existential feelings and planetary inclusion and influence each other reciprocally. The deep-time and global dimensions of shamanic trance experiences and practices create an inclusive ground to research its applicability toward the deep-ecological and cultural foundation of planetary citizenship. In this article, enchantment is approached as lived, embodied, and tradition-based shamanic experience through autoethnography and collaborative ethnography in the North Karelia region in Finland. Ethnographic collaboration is shared with shamanic tradition-keeper Miika Vanhapiha.