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Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism
A spiritual crisis sent Orthodox rabbi Gershon Winkler to remote regions of the Southwest, where he studied with Native American healers. From them he began to recover the long-lost wisdom of what he calls “Aboriginal Judaism”: the religion’s tribal roots. This book tracks his personal journey and draws from a dazzling mix of sources to detail the surprising connections between two seemingly unrelated religions.
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 10, 2003
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July 28, 2011Gershon Winkler was a devout Jew living in New York with his several children and his wife. Then one day a change occurred. He is still a Jew and his spirituality is still Judaism, however , he has chosen to get closer to nature and live in New Mexico. He has since studied Native American Shamanism and I believe that it has strongly influenced this current book being examined.
Do not fool yourself into thinking that he has gone ahead and done a cheap combination and made up his own Native_American form of Judaism. Everything written in this book can be supported by such traditional texts as the Talmud, Tanach, Zohar and other books. This stuff is legitimate.
Many would never think of Judaism as being a Shamanistic religion. It used to be. Shamanistic religions are connected to the land. Judaism as practiced by the ancient Israelites was connected to the seasons and land of their kingdom. Being exiled away from their land has caused the Jewish people to lose their Shamanistic connection to the land and spirituality.
To find holiness or kedusha one need not astral travel to the heavenly realms in order to experience divinity. Divinity can be found in our every day lives right here in the earthly realm. In fact it is in the earthly realm that we are meant to find find God. Of course this has been long forgotten.
During their exile in Europe the Christian leaders oppressed those who followed shamanistic path. In fact if you were not Christian you would get killed or worse. As Shaman and witches and Jews were being persecuted the Jews silently shelved their mystical practices. Yet if one scours the Kabbalistic works and the Talmud carefully enough those mystical practices can be found.
In the succeeding chapters the author tells one how to make an altar with appropriate accouterments. Healing rituals are discussed and one is instructed on how too make their own circle. The author discusses the invocation of the four arch angels and it is different somewhat from the angel invocation of the Lesser Pentagram banishing ritual in Ceremonial magic.
Contained with in Judaism were totems and various symbology for different animals and their correspondences to the different tribes of Israel. Everything had a life force and everything could be used for healing including stones, herbs plants and animals. Judaism is replete with respect for animals and stressed numerous times the importance of treating animals in a humane fashion. Animals are holy.
According to the Kabballah there are four different world and we exist on those world simultaneously. The Worlds are as follows:
1. Atziluth (אֲצִילוּת), or World of Emanation. On this level the light of the Ein Sof (Infinite Divine or literally translated "without end") radiates and is still united with its source. This supernal revelation therefore precludes the souls and Divine emanations in Atzilus from sensing their own existence.
2. Beri'ah (בְּרִיאָה or alternatively[3] בְּרִיָּה) or World of Creation. On this level is the first concept of creatio ex nihilo however without any shape or form. This is also where the Highest Ranking Angels are to be found.[citation needed]
3. Yetzirah (יְצִירָה) or World of Formation. On this level the created being assumes shape and form.
4. Assiah (עֲשִׂיָּה) or World of Action. On this level the creation is complete; however, it is still on a spiritual level. At a later stage there is the 'physical Assiah' comprising our physical Universe with all its creatures.
Back in Medieval times Jews were known to be sorcerers par excellence with expertise in occult matters. The most obvious manifestation of Jewish Occult power is the creation of the Golem. Even back in Talmudical times these human like figure were created from clay but since they were not full humans they were unable to speak. They were created with incantations and the writing off the word emett on on their forehead which meant truth.Erase the aleph an the word became meant dead. The Golem would disintegrate after that. The most famous Golem was the Golem of Prague created by Rabbi Loewe to protect the Jewish people from persecutions.
Jewish occultism recognized that the spirits of the dead could be ccontacted and that there were obviously angels but what about demons? Most people think that shedim are demons. In reality they are half human and half spiritual. Some are good and some are bad. King Solomon harness them and used them for his own purposes. When working with shedim one had to be careful.
Chanting a mantra or even a different name of god or an animal using a vibrational tone was essential in unlocking the spiritual power of that name. Vibrations in geeneral unlock powers. This underscore the power of speach and words. Abracadabra means as I speak I create.
Read this book and enjoy creating your own spiritual harmony with God. The book is a good starter but certainly not the end of your journey. There were a couple of flaws with the book. One was the author's alternative translations of certain human words. I realize that he is trying to get us to think differently but he would have done well to include translations and meaning that most reader are familiar with. Some times it seems that he is trying to make a native American version of his faith. I would give it a good recommendation and a 7.5 out of 10.
Do not fool yourself into thinking that he has gone ahead and done a cheap combination and made up his own Native_American form of Judaism. Everything written in this book can be supported by such traditional texts as the Talmud, Tanach, Zohar and other books. This stuff is legitimate.
Many would never think of Judaism as being a Shamanistic religion. It used to be. Shamanistic religions are connected to the land. Judaism as practiced by the ancient Israelites was connected to the seasons and land of their kingdom. Being exiled away from their land has caused the Jewish people to lose their Shamanistic connection to the land and spirituality.
To find holiness or kedusha one need not astral travel to the heavenly realms in order to experience divinity. Divinity can be found in our every day lives right here in the earthly realm. In fact it is in the earthly realm that we are meant to find find God. Of course this has been long forgotten.
During their exile in Europe the Christian leaders oppressed those who followed shamanistic path. In fact if you were not Christian you would get killed or worse. As Shaman and witches and Jews were being persecuted the Jews silently shelved their mystical practices. Yet if one scours the Kabbalistic works and the Talmud carefully enough those mystical practices can be found.
In the succeeding chapters the author tells one how to make an altar with appropriate accouterments. Healing rituals are discussed and one is instructed on how too make their own circle. The author discusses the invocation of the four arch angels and it is different somewhat from the angel invocation of the Lesser Pentagram banishing ritual in Ceremonial magic.
Contained with in Judaism were totems and various symbology for different animals and their correspondences to the different tribes of Israel. Everything had a life force and everything could be used for healing including stones, herbs plants and animals. Judaism is replete with respect for animals and stressed numerous times the importance of treating animals in a humane fashion. Animals are holy.
According to the Kabballah there are four different world and we exist on those world simultaneously. The Worlds are as follows:
1. Atziluth (אֲצִילוּת), or World of Emanation. On this level the light of the Ein Sof (Infinite Divine or literally translated "without end") radiates and is still united with its source. This supernal revelation therefore precludes the souls and Divine emanations in Atzilus from sensing their own existence.
2. Beri'ah (בְּרִיאָה or alternatively[3] בְּרִיָּה) or World of Creation. On this level is the first concept of creatio ex nihilo however without any shape or form. This is also where the Highest Ranking Angels are to be found.[citation needed]
3. Yetzirah (יְצִירָה) or World of Formation. On this level the created being assumes shape and form.
4. Assiah (עֲשִׂיָּה) or World of Action. On this level the creation is complete; however, it is still on a spiritual level. At a later stage there is the 'physical Assiah' comprising our physical Universe with all its creatures.
Back in Medieval times Jews were known to be sorcerers par excellence with expertise in occult matters. The most obvious manifestation of Jewish Occult power is the creation of the Golem. Even back in Talmudical times these human like figure were created from clay but since they were not full humans they were unable to speak. They were created with incantations and the writing off the word emett on on their forehead which meant truth.Erase the aleph an the word became meant dead. The Golem would disintegrate after that. The most famous Golem was the Golem of Prague created by Rabbi Loewe to protect the Jewish people from persecutions.
Jewish occultism recognized that the spirits of the dead could be ccontacted and that there were obviously angels but what about demons? Most people think that shedim are demons. In reality they are half human and half spiritual. Some are good and some are bad. King Solomon harness them and used them for his own purposes. When working with shedim one had to be careful.
Chanting a mantra or even a different name of god or an animal using a vibrational tone was essential in unlocking the spiritual power of that name. Vibrations in geeneral unlock powers. This underscore the power of speach and words. Abracadabra means as I speak I create.
Read this book and enjoy creating your own spiritual harmony with God. The book is a good starter but certainly not the end of your journey. There were a couple of flaws with the book. One was the author's alternative translations of certain human words. I realize that he is trying to get us to think differently but he would have done well to include translations and meaning that most reader are familiar with. Some times it seems that he is trying to make a native American version of his faith. I would give it a good recommendation and a 7.5 out of 10.
April 21, 2017
Loved Loved Loved this book!
Gershon correctly dovetails Judaism with Native American shamanism. The roots of both are the same.
Extremely knowledgeable in Kabbalah, Torah, Mishnah, Talmud as well as endless philosophy and other religions, gershon weaves a reality that needs to be understood by the thinking & seeking human being, and especially for Jewish people wanting to delve very deep into what Judaism really is about.
Gershon correctly dovetails Judaism with Native American shamanism. The roots of both are the same.
Extremely knowledgeable in Kabbalah, Torah, Mishnah, Talmud as well as endless philosophy and other religions, gershon weaves a reality that needs to be understood by the thinking & seeking human being, and especially for Jewish people wanting to delve very deep into what Judaism really is about.
May 29, 2017
In the Foreword, Gabriel Cousens describes Winkler's thesis: "Jewish spirituality has less to do with religion and more to do with direct, open, ecstatic free experience of wonderment of creator through creation." This might describe "spiritual-but-not-religious" for people of any religious background; in his introduction, Winkler gets more specific about Judaism as having "ancestral roots as a tribal, earth conscious people engaged in an intimate relationship with the land." So, for example:
He claims that Jewish shamanism is basically like any other shamanism, complete with drums and herbs, plus roots in Jewish scripture and culture and with a specific history of suppression by Christian authorities. He claims that the Hebrew verse usually translated as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" really means that you shouldn't overpay for a sorcerer's services. "Let him get a job like everybody else," Winkler writes, "and perform his magic out of the goodness of his heart and in recognition of the sacred gift he possesses." (p. 3)
My initial impression was that the early part of the book was intriguing but that the later part — detailing earth-centered rituals, taking inventories of metaphors, and relying on scripture for proving its point and/or conferring validity under a Jewish lens — was less relevant for me. Something about the later part seemed to take itself too literally for my tastes. It was providing a lot of details for exactly how to practice Earth-Centered Judaism when I had neither signed up for the retreat weekend nor subscribed to the hybrid worldview.
A couple months later, after reading Nilton Bonder's Our Immoral Soul: A Manifesto of Spiritual Disobedience, I returned to Winkler's Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism.
What jumped out at me on the second reading was not the question of whether there is anything particularly Jewish in "jumping and chanting under the stars at the first sliver of the new moon phase" — yes, there is Judaism and there is shamanism and maybe sometimes they are the same thing, but none of that feels of urgent concern to me. Rather, what grabbed me was Winkler's personal process, as he described it briefly in his introduction: "In my previous paradigm...I was then a saintly ultra-Orthodox rabbi living in Brooklyn, New York, and married to a saintly ultra-Orthodox woman with whom I had fathered three saintly ultra-Orthodox daughters....Then, suddenly and mysteriously, a volcano erupted deep inside of me, spewing endless torrents of ash and lava through the expanse of my universe. What had once been black-and-white now turned a blurred gray, and what had once been purely absolute now became recklessly relative. In the secular world they would call this a mid-life crisis. I was thirty-two at the time, and for me it didn't feel like a crisis but an oasis, an oasis forced upon me by inevitable changes taking place in the unfolding of my soul as I helped others to unfold theirs." He says this journey is described more fully in his Travels with the Evil Inclination . The question is how we ever flip from Paradigm A to B, or, to use Bonder's word, how we know when to "betray" the old familiar tradition because we no longer see it as the best tradition for ourselves and others, at least not for our time and place. On that note, Winkler quotes the Babylonian Talmud, Tamid 32a: "Alexander the Great of Macedonia asked the elders of the south: 'If one wishes to live what shall he do?' Replied they: 'He should die.' Asked Alexander: 'And if he wishes to die, what shall he do?' Said they: 'He should live.'" For Winkler's purpose here, this is about "how one makes way for the other. If you refuse to die, to let go, to release, then nothing new can ever emerge; then your life will in essence be more dead than death itself." (p. 47)
"...watching the Indian medicine people perform their ceremonies, I experienced déjà vu and became increasingly conscious of the shamanic traditions of my own people. I would for instance be watching them sprinkle corn meal here and there, praying into the four directions, lifting up the corn meal, setting it down, etc., and my vision would blur and behold a kohain of ancient times doing the same, or Jews in Brooklyn (myself included) shaking palm branches, willow and myrtle branches in all four directions, reciting prayers into the four winds, albeit completely unaware of the aboriginal element to what we were doing. Suddenly, the rites of the otherwise boring Hebrew scriptural book of Leviticus took on a whole other meaning for me: the dead bird/live bid ritual, or the ritual of the water that held ashes of a red heifer along with a cedar twig wrapped in wool and painted with the dye of a worm, and so on."
He claims that Jewish shamanism is basically like any other shamanism, complete with drums and herbs, plus roots in Jewish scripture and culture and with a specific history of suppression by Christian authorities. He claims that the Hebrew verse usually translated as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" really means that you shouldn't overpay for a sorcerer's services. "Let him get a job like everybody else," Winkler writes, "and perform his magic out of the goodness of his heart and in recognition of the sacred gift he possesses." (p. 3)
My initial impression was that the early part of the book was intriguing but that the later part — detailing earth-centered rituals, taking inventories of metaphors, and relying on scripture for proving its point and/or conferring validity under a Jewish lens — was less relevant for me. Something about the later part seemed to take itself too literally for my tastes. It was providing a lot of details for exactly how to practice Earth-Centered Judaism when I had neither signed up for the retreat weekend nor subscribed to the hybrid worldview.
A couple months later, after reading Nilton Bonder's Our Immoral Soul: A Manifesto of Spiritual Disobedience, I returned to Winkler's Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism.
What jumped out at me on the second reading was not the question of whether there is anything particularly Jewish in "jumping and chanting under the stars at the first sliver of the new moon phase" — yes, there is Judaism and there is shamanism and maybe sometimes they are the same thing, but none of that feels of urgent concern to me. Rather, what grabbed me was Winkler's personal process, as he described it briefly in his introduction: "In my previous paradigm...I was then a saintly ultra-Orthodox rabbi living in Brooklyn, New York, and married to a saintly ultra-Orthodox woman with whom I had fathered three saintly ultra-Orthodox daughters....Then, suddenly and mysteriously, a volcano erupted deep inside of me, spewing endless torrents of ash and lava through the expanse of my universe. What had once been black-and-white now turned a blurred gray, and what had once been purely absolute now became recklessly relative. In the secular world they would call this a mid-life crisis. I was thirty-two at the time, and for me it didn't feel like a crisis but an oasis, an oasis forced upon me by inevitable changes taking place in the unfolding of my soul as I helped others to unfold theirs." He says this journey is described more fully in his Travels with the Evil Inclination . The question is how we ever flip from Paradigm A to B, or, to use Bonder's word, how we know when to "betray" the old familiar tradition because we no longer see it as the best tradition for ourselves and others, at least not for our time and place. On that note, Winkler quotes the Babylonian Talmud, Tamid 32a: "Alexander the Great of Macedonia asked the elders of the south: 'If one wishes to live what shall he do?' Replied they: 'He should die.' Asked Alexander: 'And if he wishes to die, what shall he do?' Said they: 'He should live.'" For Winkler's purpose here, this is about "how one makes way for the other. If you refuse to die, to let go, to release, then nothing new can ever emerge; then your life will in essence be more dead than death itself." (p. 47)
September 9, 2024
ufffffff buenísimo, interesante, diferente, auténtico, una mirada provocativa, temas prohibidos como la brujería, ritos que me pusieron la carne de gallina, conexión hermosa con la tierra
tuve mis momentos de "ay mamita", esto se puede? otros de total comunión
alguien me dijo que lo leyera con cuidado, con ayuda de textos bíblicos, con ayuda del Talmud
lo leí con precaución y pregunté lo que me incomodó
al final, me quedó con citas hermosas y una mirada nueva del judaísmo, una más, que me ayuda a enriquecerme mucho
hasta abracadabra viene del hebreo "creo mientras hablo"
wow
tuve mis momentos de "ay mamita", esto se puede? otros de total comunión
alguien me dijo que lo leyera con cuidado, con ayuda de textos bíblicos, con ayuda del Talmud
lo leí con precaución y pregunté lo que me incomodó
al final, me quedó con citas hermosas y una mirada nueva del judaísmo, una más, que me ayuda a enriquecerme mucho
hasta abracadabra viene del hebreo "creo mientras hablo"
wow
March 19, 2020
One of my now ~ decade long favorites into the indigenous and magical of Judaism.
January 5, 2022
glad i read this, though i’m not 100% on board w all of winkler’s theology. it’s well researched and interesting, though a bit dated in terms of new age spirituality jargon. this was DENSE, kind of a slog to get through, but valuable nonetheless!
February 17, 2021
This is a difficult book to really accurately review, because parts of it spoke deeply to me, but parts of it were incredibly...well, woo-w00. Which is not a bad thing, but it's not a vibe I connect to in my faith.
September 24, 2013
this book is fabulous!
October 12, 2016
Noooooooo
February 11, 2023
The first half of the book was pretty good. He lost me towards the end. And by the last chapter he writes nonsense like, “So even if you were a pimp but you were a compassionate and caring pimp, you could actually be a great mystic and not even know it, replete with kosher supernatural powers” Umm...no. I don’t know why the five-sin pimp’s prayer was answered(according to the Talmudic story), but I’m pretty sure Torah is clear about blessings and curses. He wasn’t blessed for his “compassion and care.” Yikes to all the 5-star reviews.
April 30, 2020
Magic of the Ordinary picks some interesting moments from Jewish history to put together unusual practices for the reader. His take on a magic circle, involving simple props and the summoning of the Archangels, is fascinating, and I'd say the book is worth it for that alone. He doesn't dive deep into Kabbalah but he does also talk about the use of the One's holy names, which might also be interesting for some mystically inclined Jewish readers.
April 27, 2022
Studying the Kabbalah for non-Jews and Jews alike in a study group brought me to this book. I thought it resonated with me very deeply. I thought it was well written and complex but enjoyed so much of it. Love the idea God is not a judgemental creator but a loving power surrounding us all, and all things found in nature, and all things found in our Universe. Loved the study and conversation around it.
March 25, 2025
This is an incredible book. As someone who was Wiccan before they converted to Judaism (and who comes from a shamanic line), I almost wish I had seen this first as it would have made my conversion even easier to some extent as I wouldn't have had to completely attempt to banish my lineage.
I think this would be excellent as a required or recommended book in a history of Kabbalah class, a cross cultural shamanism class, or a cultural anthropology course.
I think this would be excellent as a required or recommended book in a history of Kabbalah class, a cross cultural shamanism class, or a cultural anthropology course.
January 11, 2024
I've read this book a few times over the years, most recently with a chevruta partner. If recommend reading through it once just straight through, and then go through a second time by looking up every reference mentioned in the text and endnotes. Sefaria has most of not all of the source texts that are mentioned online for free in the original and translation.
June 21, 2025
Cliff notes on Kabbalah would be helpful! This book is a great companion to Ecology and the Jewish Spirit and a segue to nature based Judaism. The author mixes pre-Rabbinic concepts with Rabbinic stories and parables making it far more accessible than it otherwise would be.
November 23, 2025
I have tried for several times to understand Judaism by other books, and it didn’t work, it was super complex to me.
Lucky with this book I don’t have that problem, I loved how well explained it is, also it teaches and gives good lessons
Lucky with this book I don’t have that problem, I loved how well explained it is, also it teaches and gives good lessons
January 25, 2021
This book was a gift to me from Jeff. I know very little about the subject. I feel like the essence of the book is very simple but I was confused by much of the writing.
May 8, 2023
Absolutely love this book! Get it. I grew up Orthodox and the perspective he gives on Judaism is fascinating.
If you want a deeper meaning in the מצות this can give you a couple tips.
If you want a deeper meaning in the מצות this can give you a couple tips.
April 17, 2024
A poetics into the past of the Hebrew magic.
November 3, 2024
Change the way I felt about the Old Testament but seemed to do most of it's talking about why shamanism is part of Judaism rather than appealing to emotion and describing what to do
December 28, 2020
Rabbi Gershon Winkler's erudition is astonishing. Many Jewish practices and beliefs are not easy to comprehend from a rational perspective. Many of the rabbinic commentaries however present explanations that seem so contrived or forced, you have to take a sledgehammer to make them fit. R. Winkler's presentation of the waving of the Four Species, for example, make it sound like an obvious practice to follow. His chapter "The Sanctity of Darkness and the Dangers of Light" is the closest thing I've ever read to explaining the meaning of life.
Rabbi Winkler writes clearly, with a sense of humor and deep understanding. This book has given me a much deeper understanding of where Judaism is coming from, and hence a deeper understanding of where it really is.
Rabbi Winkler writes clearly, with a sense of humor and deep understanding. This book has given me a much deeper understanding of where Judaism is coming from, and hence a deeper understanding of where it really is.
June 22, 2015
Definitely an intriguing premise! Winkler maintains that "Judeo-Apache" makes more sense than "Judeo-Christian," and this book provides the evidence. An incredible resource for anyone interested in experimental or Earth-based Judaism.
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