Opening the Word-Gate: The Innovative Style of a Korean Shaman

Abstract

This article provides a detailed description of a Korean shaman’s life story and her performance of a Spirit Marriage ritual that was designed to resolve two families’ experiences of conflict, bad fortune, and suffering. The shaman, Pak Jung-Suk, lived and practiced in South Kyongsang Province of the Republic of Korea. She recounts her life experiences of tribulations and suffering during World War II; a youth marked by family conflict, inexplicable illnesses, psychological distress, and spiritual turmoil; embarkation on spiritual searching; continued conflict with parents and a husband she was pressured to marry; and finally initiation as a shaman and resolution of her shamanic initiatory crisis. She explains the divination process that led two families to agree to hold a Spirit Marriage ritual that would complete two marriages between couples, including spirits of deceased, whose families were experiencing bad fortune due to the untimely deaths and unresolved pain of family members. The ritual took place in a small cove between ocean and mountain. It involved practices that combined Buddhist and shamanic elements and performers. Percussion music accompanied the shaman’s trance dancing, channeling of the spirits’ messages, conducting of the marriage ceremonies, and returning of the spirits to peaceful rest in the afterlife.