Shamanism is on the Rise in the United Kingdom

Census data has revealed an unlikely religion is on the rise in England and Wales: shamanism.

Census results published by the Office for National Statistics show that less than half of people in the two British nations, England and Wales, identify themselves as Christian. The announcement has also reportedly renewed calls to end the Church of England's role in parliament and schools.

Notably, the people were asked what their religion was rather than about their religious practices or beliefs, a question which is optional since 2001. The number of people who identified as Christians were down from 59.3 per cent in 2011 to 46.6 per cent in 2021. On the other hand, people who said they do not have a religion grew from 25 per cent a decade ago to 37 per cent, last year.

Shamanism is expanding faster than any other religion, with the number of people saying they practice it rising from 650 in 2011 to 8,000 in 2021 in England and Wales. The result might prove controversial, as the Shamanism UK website asserts "it is not a religion, more an authentic expression of mankind’s spirituality."

Pagans and wiccans are also becoming more established. Pagans, who number 74,000 people (up from 57,000 in 2011) and who gather most in Ceredigion, Cornwall and Somerset, and wiccans, who number 13,000. Wicca is sometimes described as a witchcraft tradition whose roots lie in pre-Christian religious traditions, folklore, folk witchcraft and ritual magic.

There was a small rise in numbers of Buddhists. Despite the growth in mindfulness meditation practice over the last decade, the number of people following Buddhism, from which the practice derives, saw just a modest increase of 0.1 percentage points, from 249,000 to 273,000 people identifying as such in England and Wales. The highest concentration of Buddhists was again found in Rushmoor in Hampshire -- home to the Aldershot Buddhist Community Centre -- where the census counted 4,732, up from 3,092 a decade ago.

The Crestone End of Life Project

At 8,000 feet in elevation, Crestone is a small, unique community nestled in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of south central Colorado. Both beautiful and isolated, Crestone is a spiritual center that includes an astonishing array of sacred sites. Within walking distance of this international village are ashrams, monasteries, zendos, temples, chapels, retreat centers, stupas, shrines, medicine wheels, labyrinths, a ziggurat, and an outdoor cremation pyre.
 

The Crestone End of Life Project (CEOLP) operates one of the only legal, open-air cremation sites in the state of Colorado. Steeped in Hindu, Sikh, and Christian tradition, open-air cremations are rare ceremonies that bring an ancient tradition of disposition to western culture. This ancient and inspirational end-of-life choice returns the body to its original fire and air elements. The process involves a pyre, a half-cord of wood, a wooden stretcher and a shroud. The family or friends of the deceased work together with CEOLP staff to plan the ceremony, and various teams from the organization are trained to produce a deeply meaningful context for marking the passage of a loved one into death.
 

CEOLP offers a non-sectarian, community-driven ceremony where your body can be cremated outdoors in a fiery pyre. Conducting an open-air disposition begins with wrapping the body in a natural fabric shroud, which is placed on a wooden stretcher on a steel grate atop an outdoor hearth. Each member of the procession places a juniper branch on the body.
 

The fire reaches temperatures of over 1,500 degrees, consuming the body. What remains is about three gallons of ashes. The process of dissolution takes three hours, but more than 18 hours for the ashes to be cool enough to collect. Unfortunately for out-of-towners who want to have an open-air cremation, CEOLP's services are only available to local residents of Saguache County. Despite having a population of just 6,000 county residents, CEOLP still performs multiple open-air cremations every year for those who want a disposition ceremony performed by family, friends and community.

Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden

In her new book Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden, Maria Rodale takes the reader on an unusual autobiographical journey through her life. Rodale combines her love of nature and gardening with her experience in shamanic journeying, embarking on an epic adventure to learn from plants, animals and insects--including some of the most misunderstood beings in nature. Maria asks them their purpose and listens as they show and declare what they want us humans to know. From Thistles to Snakes, Poison Ivy to Mosquitoes, these nature beings convey messages that are relevant to every human, showing us how to live in balance and harmony on this Earth.

Rodale is the former CEO of now defunct Rodale Publishing, famous for magazine titles such as Men's Health, Runner's World, and Prevention, and also books including Al Gore's blockbuster, An Inconvenient Truth. Her approach to storytelling is fascinating and unique. She tells us at one point that her original intention was to write a straightforward book about plants, animals and insects, but somehow somewhere along the way she took a different path. The book is less of a single narrative than a series of episodes. In her garden, she periodically slips into a shamanic state of consciousness and communes with nature beings like bat, vulture, mosquito, mugwort, aspen, dandelion and milkweed. This allows her to transition easily from a mundane activity like weeding into a serious topic such as the genocide of Native Americans.
 

This is a beautiful book by a thoughtful author whose writing is both humorous and uplifting. However, it can be uneven at times. Some of the creatures she gives voice to are so preachy as to feel contrived--like the fireflies pleading against the use of pesticides and forever chemicals. At other times her thoughts flow so fast and free they are difficult to follow, like where she jumps from feminism to overpopulation to mosquitoes laying eggs in car tires. But overall she skillfully weaves together snippets of science with thoughts of nature and human existence in the future and episodes of her own life. She also gives voice to some of nature's most overlooked organisms with a wonderful imagination.
 

Rodale is hopeful and optimistic about the future. As she concludes at the beginning of her book, "I now believe it's possible to create a new Eden where knowledge is not a sin, desire is recognized as part of our human purpose, and love and understanding are the original blessings to be nourished and cultivated in the garden of our lives." To learn more, look inside Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden.