How one shaman helps others discover therapeutic and that means in a contemporary world

It’s the day earlier than the ceremony and forty individuals from completely different elements of the world will converge in Copenhagen to expertise a shamanic ceremony facilitated by 46-year-old Helena Soholm, a Korean American shaman, referred to as mudang in Korean.

In eager to know extra about shamanism, I got here throughout Helena’s work. Now we’re collectively in North Zealand, Denmark, together with conventional Korean musician Dong-Received Kim, 58, who will accompany Helena throughout the ceremony.

After we arrive on the seashore, it’s nonetheless a bit overcast and the earth is frozen underneath a thick, white carpet of snow. Dong-Received appears to be like out and declares, “The ocean welcomes us.” I say to Helena, “Sorry, I wished to do extra analysis about shamanism earlier than the journey, however I simply did not have time.” She responds, “Arin, that is a colonial means of shamanism. You find out about it by experiencing it.” Helena and Dong-Received bow to the 5 instructions throughout a pre-ceremony ritual. Middle is the fifth course.

Left: An providing of Korean soju, apples and mineral water throughout a pre-ceremony ritual in Dronningmølle, Denmark. Proper: Helena holds a fan and bells, shamanic instruments, to name the spirits throughout the pre-ceremony ritual.

Arin Yoon

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Arin Yoon

When Korea was an agrarian society, villagers would march to neighboring villages, taking part in their distinctive music to assist one another work throughout the harvest season. In accordance with Dong-Received, “Working in rice fields is back-breaking work, and so singing and drumming have been concerned. Because the labor bought harder, the drumming would get sooner and extra thrilling. And that was the primary second I discovered the idea of empathy in music.” He begins taking part in a 200-year-old gong and all of a sudden the sky opens up.

Trendy healer

Helena is a transpersonal psychologist along with being a shaman. In her work, she integrates Western theories of psychology with Indigenous programs of information to facilitate therapeutic and development in fashionable, technologically superior societies.

Helena poses for a portrait in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Arin Yoon

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Left: Knives, shamanic instruments, are used to chop unfavourable power. Proper: A hand drum adorned with photographs of a bear and her cub, was painted by Stone, an artist from the Squamish Nation.

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Shortly after her initiation as a shaman in 2018, she says she acquired a imaginative and prescient the place she noticed the ancestors of Korean adoptees who had been adopted into Western nations, longing to attach with their descendents. She says she believes “clearing and honoring ancestral power is achieved via the restoration of the Indigenous thoughts, which may deepen an individual’s connection to self, others and land,” and so she facilitates ceremonies and pilgrimages for adoptees and others wanting to attach with their ancestral roots.

Helena is married to a Dane and has developed many connections in Denmark. She says her village is now international, “so wherever we go, my philosophy is we’ll create sacred house.”

Individuals

Among the many adoptees to take part on this ceremony in Copenhagen is Jannie Jung Westermann, 45, who introduced the providing for the intestine ceremony on behalf of Korea Klubben, an affiliation of Danish Korean adoptees. She was one of many first individuals concerned in gathering info for the investigation into the corrupt practices behind the worldwide adoptions of Korean youngsters, which amounted to a billion-dollar business between the Sixties and Nineteen Eighties.

In 2001, Jannie labored with a Korean social employee to do a household search. She discovered that adoptees are sometimes not given their full recordsdata. Jannie was capable of find her beginning mother and father despite the fact that her preliminary data indicated that she had been deserted. Years after assembly her organic father, she labored with a personal detective and located her organic mom.

Jannie Jung Westermann, the president of Korea Klubben, an affiliation of Danish Korean adoptees, poses for a portrait.

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On a visit to South Korea, Danish Korean adoptee Mai Quickly Younger Øvlisen, 41, heard Korean conventional music for the primary time. “I heard that voice of ache and of the individuals’s historical past and previous, as a rustic, and it was, like, ‘That is my voice. My voice is Korean.’ ” Now, she incorporates conventional Korean people music and shamanism into her musical observe together with her band, Meejah, which suggests “medium.” On discovering her beginning mother and father, Mai says, “I simply make room for it and open house for it to come back collectively, if it needs to.”

Mai Quickly Younger Øvlisen, 41, a Danish Korean adoptee, poses for a portrait.

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Unethical and unlawful adoption practices have been a systemic downside in lots of different nations, together with Greenland, which was colonized by Denmark. Kâlánguak Absalonsen, 53, was taken from her organic household after her father dedicated suicide when she was 3 years outdated. Her mom signed adoption papers with out realizing that she was giving up her youngster as a result of, in her Inuit tradition, there isn’t any phrase or idea for adoption, considering, “when the snow disappears, they are going to come again.” However her youngsters didn’t come again. She despatched Kâlánguak letters, however her adoptive mom hid them from her. After I ask Kâlánguak what she remembers of Greenland, she speaks concerning the sound of snow: “When it is actually chilly, it has a particular sound.”

Kâlánguak Absalonsen, 53, poses for a portrait.

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Tom Pyun, 46, a Korean American author and consumer of Helena’s, flew from Los Angeles for the ceremony. His father died when he was 13, and his mom handed away all of a sudden in 2021 from COVID-19. He had been in search of different strategies of therapeutic when he got here throughout Helena’s work: “There was no likelihood to essentially say goodbye or get any closure, and I assumed that perhaps a shaman would possibly assist me discover closure — what might have been mentioned or ought to have been mentioned.”

Tom Pyun, 46, a Korean American author, poses for a portrait holding photographs of his mother and father.

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Anne-Marie Hansen, 44, is a Danish professor of design whose household lineage in Denmark may be traced again to the 1400s. She is interested in rituals and discovering extra about her connection to Nordic pagan tradition. She mentioned she hoped the ceremony would assist her get well conventional data, revive cultural reminiscence and join with nature.

Anne-Marie Hansen, 44, a Danish professor, poses for a portrait.

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Ceremony

On the day of the ceremony, many members put on one thing from their native cultures to assist join them with their ancestors. As they trickle in, many add particular objects and mementos to an ancestral altar. Materials in crimson, blue, white, yellow and inexperienced, representing the 5 instructions are laid out. Everybody selects a couple of items of torn cloth and, in a sluggish procession, transfer to the rhythmic drumming of Dong-Received and Hendrikje Lange, a Western shaman initiated within the Korean custom, towards a tree on the entrance of BaneGaarden, the positioning of the ceremony. In accordance with Helena, “Since there are lots of people there who’re from completely different cultures, we’d like some sort of exercise to drag us collectively so that everyone’s already setting themselves up, at their unconscious stage, to set off one thing deep in our minds.”

Anne Merete Gaup, a Sámi lady from Norway, prepares for the ceremony.

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Within the Indigenous circle, Aká Hansen sings a standard Inuit tune.

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Helena creates a circle with white cloth and invitations completely different teams of individuals in, beginning with adoptees. They begin leaping to enter a trance-like state. There are maternal cries of longing, deep ache and remorse. Within the Indigenous circle, the power and air shift. When the phrases, “Aya, aya,” come via Helena, Aká Hansen, an Inuit filmmaker from Greenland, bursts into tune. With the European group, Helena has a tough time getting via, so she asks the opposite members to ship their power to this group. Many shut their eyes and place their palms. “There’s quite a lot of blockage right here. Plenty of masculine power,” Helena says. Lastly, a small group of diaspora members enter the white circle and there may be speak about damaged desires. On the finish, everybody jumps collectively and Helena blesses every individual. The ceremony is adopted by a dialogue the place we be taught that the tune Aká sang was the primary time she had ever sung it. It’s a tune of Aká’s ancestors.

Kâlánguak is getting in contact together with her Inuit roots via bead artistry. In her palms, she holds a pair of earrings that signify her two fathers — her adoptive father and her organic father.

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Helena spends time with every participant. As she holds Kâlánguak Absalonsen, the Inuit ancestors say, via Helena, “Fly excessive, don’t allow them to drag you down.”

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The day after the ceremony, I ask members how they’re processing their experiences. Kâlánguak speaks of maternal power within the adoptee circle: “It was enormous to listen to the moms calling after us, ‘It is okay. I am right here. I like you. I like you. I like you.’ And, for me, it was a launch. I’ve heard all my life that my mom could not handle me. However that was not the case. Helena opened my coronary heart to obtain my mom with love.”

“I’ll take into consideration the ceremony for a very long time,” says Mai Quickly Younger. “It gave me a way of not being alone.”

An ancestral altar is roofed with objects introduced by the ceremony’s members. 

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Helena Soholm closes the ceremony with a blessing.

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This reporting was supported by the Worldwide Girls’s Media Basis’s Lauren Brown Fellowship.

Arin Yoon is a Korean American photographer based mostly in Kansas Metropolis. See extra of her work on her web site arinyoon.com and her Instagram @arinyoon.

Picture edit by Grace Widyatmadja. Textual content edit by Zachary Thompson.