Sjamanistisk Forbund is built on shamanism, but the heart of the association is far larger than any single tradition. It beats for everyone who feels that faith lives in nature: Wiccans, eclectic witches, Ásatrúers, heathens, nature mystics and all those who simply know that trees, mountains, rivers and stars mean more than a beautiful view. Many who belong to such paths have long felt themselves standing somewhere between the worlds: too alternative for the church, too serious for superficial "new age", and too individual to fit into rigid dogmas. Sjamanistisk Forbund is an answer to precisely that feeling – a shared roof over many spiritual rooms, where nature-based faith is what binds it all together.
A shared home for nature-based faith
Imagine a circle around the fire on a dark autumn evening. Some whisper the names of goddesses and gods from the Wiccan tradition, others greet the Æsir and the Vanir, while some call upon ancestors, spirit guides and nature spirits without any need for a particular pantheon. It is still the same night, the same moon, the same earth beneath their feet. So it can also be in Sjamanistisk Forbund: different expressions, common ground.
The association's purpose is to safeguard the right to practise nature-based faith and rituals, whether you call it shamanism, Wicca, Ásatrú or something more eclectic. Instead of narrowing down what is the "correct" faith, it emphasises freedom, respect and personal responsibility. This means you can stand securely in your own tradition while also being part of a larger nature-based faith community that is recognised as a religious community.
Shared ceremonies – individual practice
One of the great strengths of Sjamanistisk Forbund is that shared ceremonies are not meant to replace your own practice, but to support it. Seasonal celebrations, moon ceremonies and important rites of passage form a kind of spiritual underlying structure: a framework that gives rhythm and community.
For many Wiccans and witches, shared rituals will feel like a safe base – a place where you can meet other nature-faith people, form friendships, and gather strength for your own magical and ritual practice at home. An Ásatrúer can take part in a shared ceremony that honours the forces of nature and the cycles of the year, and then continue at home to make blót to Odin, Frigg or Freyja in their own way. A shamanic practitioner can use shared ceremonies as a starting point, and then do their own drum journeys, healing work and nature rituals in private.
Protection – both spiritual and social
Many who walk the path of nature-based faith know how vulnerable it can feel. There may be scepticism from family, misunderstandings in the workplace or outright prejudice in the encounter with mainstream society. Standing alone with one's faith can be heavy, even when one is strong. Here an organised religious community can serve as a form of protection.
Protection is not only about "energy" or magical boundaries, but also about the framework around your life. As a member of Sjamanistisk Forbund you no longer stand merely as an individual, but as part of a recognised religious community that works for freedom of belief. It becomes clear to the outside world that nature-based faith is not a curiosity, but a real worldview, and this provides legal, political and social protection – as well as a sense of having "the pack at your back".
A growing force with the power to influence
Sjamanistisk Forbund is growing rapidly, and has already achieved a position that means nature-faith voices can no longer be ignored. The association is approved as a religious community and has the right to perform marriages, as well as responsibility for various life ceremonies such as naming ceremonies, confirmation and funerals. This means that nature-based faith is present in life's most important transitions – not only in the church.
As the membership grows, so too does the association's political and cultural weight. More members give greater legitimacy in the eyes of authorities, media and institutions, and make it possible to take part in consultations, councils and debates in an entirely different way. In this way your single voice becomes part of a larger nature-faith movement that can actually influence politics, framework conditions and attitudes – both nationally and internationally.
The feeling of belonging
Behind all the arguments about rights and politics lies perhaps the most important reason to be a member: the feeling of belonging. For many nature-faith people, a quiet grief arises through life over "not fitting in" within the traditional frameworks. One can sit in church at a baptism or a funeral and feel that the words do not reflect one's own faith – as if something important within oneself becomes invisible.
When you enter a nature-faith religious community, that grief can gradually be transformed into pride and peace. You can stand in a ceremony and feel that the words, the symbols and the ritual are in keeping with what your heart believes in. You know that the others around you understand why you light a candle for the moon, why you place your hand on the trunk of an old tree, or why you speak with your ancestors. This gives a deeply human experience of belonging – of being at home in one's faith.
Building a nature-faith community
Being of nature-based faith is not only about what one does in rituals, but also about how one lives in the world. Shamanism, Wicca, Ásatrú and other pagan paths all – each in their own way – focus on respect for nature, responsibility for one's own actions and awareness of the connection between humans, animals, plants and landscape.
When you become part of a nature-faith religious community, you help make these values visible in society. The association can arrange ceremonies, observances, dialogue meetings and public events that show that nature-based spirituality is not just something that happens in the forest at night, but a life orientation with relevance for the environment, mental health, community and culture.
A real alternative to the church
In Norway the church has held a dominant position for many generations. Even when people no longer believe, the church is often chosen out of pure habit – because it "has always been so" at baptisms, weddings and funerals. But as nature-faith religious communities grow, an important new situation arises: there are real alternatives.
When Sjamanistisk Forbund and other nature-faith communities become more numerous and more visible, it becomes easier to choose a worldview that actually reflects one's faith. A nature-faith confirmation, a marriage under the open sky with the elements as witnesses, a funeral where the deceased is sent onward with rituals in keeping with their spiritual path – all of this makes nature-based faith tangible in people's lives. The more people who choose such ceremonies, the more clearly nature-based faith stands out as a fully fledged alternative to the church, not just something "exotic" on the side.
Whom do you support – really?
There is also a more down-to-earth side to the choice of religious community: money. In Norway, public support for religious and life-stance communities is allocated according to how many members they have. This means that your membership actually has financial significance.
If you are not a member of a nature-faith religious community, part of the funds that could have supported your faith and your values in practice goes to others, often to the church. By joining Sjamanistisk Forbund, you help ensure that the support follows your faith, not tradition alone. Even though it may feel a little dramatic to say that "if you are not a member with us, you support the church", it illustrates an important reality: the system rewards the worldviews that actually have registered members.
Membership as a choice of direction
Joining Sjamanistisk Forbund is more than a formality. It is an act that says: "I choose to stand openly in my nature-based faith." Membership is free for main members, but the value of what you help build is great. You give more people the chance to find ceremonies, community and support that reflect their faith. You help make nature-based faith more visible in the media, in politics, in the public sphere.
At the same time, you keep the freedom to practise in your own way. No one requires you to call yourself a shaman if you feel more like a witch, a Wiccan or an Ásatrúer. No one expects you to set aside your own rituals or pantheons. The association provides structure and protection, not coercion and dogma.
A place for both ritual and everyday life
The association can be with you both in the great transitions and in the quiet everyday. It can be about:
Ceremonies you take part in through the year, where you meet like-minded people and replenish your spiritual energy.
The possibility of having life rites – marriage, naming celebration, confirmation, funeral – led by ceremony leaders who understand and respect nature-based faith.
A network where you can find collaborators, friends, teachers, students or simply people to share experiences with.
In this way your faith does not become something that only lives in secret corners of your life. It is allowed to be visible, valued and accepted – both in your own heart and in the community.
The association as a spiritual ally
For Wiccans, witches, Ásatrúers and other pagans, it can be liberating to know that one does not need to start "from scratch" to gain recognition, ceremonies and a voice in the world. Sjamanistisk Forbund functions as a spiritual ally – a community that already has structure, approval and experience, and that expressly wishes to safeguard other nature-faith paths as well.
You can see the association as a great tree. The roots are shamanism, the trunk is nature-based faith – but the branches bear many different leaves: Wicca, witchcraft, Ásatrú, animism and eclectic forms of paganism. There is room for all these branches, and the tree becomes more beautiful and stronger the more there are that get to grow.
The more we become, the more clearly we are seen
In the end, all of this is about visibility. As long as nature-faith people each go their own way in the forest, without forming bonds with one another, mainstream society will continue to believe that we are few, unorganised and without significance. But when many small paths meet in a shared circle, something new arises: a community.
The more who gather in Sjamanistisk Forbund, the stronger nature-based faith stands as a real alternative to the church. The more nature-faith ceremonies people will catch sight of. The more politicians will realise that nature-based faith cannot be ignored. The more young people will dare to come forward as nature-faith, because they see that there is a community that takes them in.
By becoming a member, you do not only say "I believe in this". You also say "I want this to have a place in the world". And in the meeting point between personal faith and shared action, a nature-faith community grows forth – one fire, one circle, one ceremony at a time.
You can join here
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