Shamans: The Visual Culture of Animism, Healing and Journeys to Other Planes

by Max Carocci

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published September 16, 2025

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a stunner, it looks great and the slightly heavier weight paper feels nice as you read it, it is jam packed with so many pictures, I probably spent more time exploring the detail of these than I did reading the words. If you do get yourself a copy of this book, I recommend you get a magnifying glass as some sections of the book will give you a photo of artwork or sculpture and describe elements of it in detail, the magnifying glass really helps to see all those tiny details.

The book is split into three elements of a Shaman’s world, Animism, Healing and travelling to other planes, Carocci gives us an introduction to the subject, covers the history, clothing, tools and brings us up to date with Shamanism in the modern era. The writing is clear and unbiased, the use of images does well to engage the reader….often I have to use google when reading non-fiction but not this time…and Carocci comes across as very knowledgeable, the writing feels like his own work and not just quoting from other sources.

As somebody with zero knowledge of Shamans and their work this was a great introduction which has left me with plenty of questions to find out about in more books.

Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2026...