Considering that the blurb on this paperback describes Margaret Stutley as a 'leading scholar of world religions', this book really fails to deliver. It is so poorly constructed that it is actually difficult to read. Throughout her text Stutley jumps all over the place with her references without providing an adequate framework to connect them. In her chapter on trance, ecstasy and possession, for example, she meanders from a description of the Greek worshippers of Dionysus through to a discussion about Old Testament beliefs about shedding blood and the symbolism of the Christian Eucharist. Shortly afterwards we are referred to Mohammed's vision of a ladder in a Jerusalem temple and Amon-Ra's ability to fly in the form of a goose over the primordial waters. How any of this is connected to Eurasian shamanism - the main thrust of her book - is anyone's guess.
Stutley also has a disconcerting tendency to start her paragraphs without establishing any context for her remarks. One section titled 'Vairgit spirits' begins: 'Benevolent supernatural spirits are called "beings" (vairgit).' By whom, or in what circumstances, is left to us to decide. Another section, on Koryak spirits, begins 'Koryaks have few supreme beings, probably because of the zeal of the Russian Communists.' However, the perceived relationship between the Koryaks and Communists is not spelt out. Did the Communists frighten the Koryak gods away? If they did, Stutley certainly doesn't let on.
In another paragraph, on Mongolian spirit possession, Stutley writes: 'Sometimes disease is transferred to cattle who are then sacrificed and ascend to the sky.' However she doesn't tell us how they ascend - one suddenly has a vision of levitating cattle parading through the heavens like UFOs. Presumably the cattle are in spirit-form, but Stutley doesn't say so.
There is a section on werewolves on p.65 of the book and then a separate chapter on the same subject 45 pages later - with no connecting matter in between. Stutley also follows a chapter on the shaman's paraphernalia (Chapter Three) with a chapter on deities and spirits before returning to a discussion of the shaman's costume in Chapter Five. The book ends suddenly with a paragraph that includes references to Old Prussian corpses, the Celtic Wolf swallowing the sun, and the Aztec god of the dance. There is no conclusion to the book as such - no summation to reassure us that our journey through this strange, discursive tome has been worthwhile. Indeed, the text reads as if part of the book is actually missing.
For all these reasons, this book is impossible to recommend. Even though it is littered with fascinated pieces of disconnected information, making sense of them all is the really hard part. By the end of the book you come away more confused than ever.