The term shamanism is used to refer to a set of creeds and customs that are tradition, it affirms the competence to dictate and cure the sufferings of human beings and in some regions it also has the disposition to provoke it. Those in charge of applying these customs and beliefs are called shamans who claim to have contact with the world of spirits and come to have a special connection with them, which allows them to have different capacities such as being able to control time, power decipher the meaning of dreams, have access to the upper and lower worlds, among others.
The functions that a shaman must fulfill may vary depending on the locality where they carry out their rites, however the main acts of a shaman are healing; preserve customs through the use of actions and stories as a tool; ability to see future and past events; act as a guide for those souls that have not yet found their way to the other world, there are cultures where shamans must fulfill several of these functions in a single individual. They are considered by people as communication bridges between the world of spirits and the world of the living. There are cultures where there may be shamans who can fulfill functions other than those already described, since for example there may beshamans specialized in certain spirits or also according to the realm of the world of said spirits with which the shaman interacts most frequently.
With regard to health, shamans have the role of healers, since they are given the task of studying and obtaining knowledge and powers after crossing the axis mundi (connection between earth and sky), also obtaining knowledge of the heavens. Also in western cultures, this practice is represented by the use of the caduceus symbol as the symbol of medicine. It is common for the shaman to have or must acquire one or more entities that help him in the world of spirits; These entities are generally represented by forms of animals, medicinal plants, or even by those already deceased shamans.
