Across many shamanic traditions, certain tools recur because they help shift consciousness and mediate contact with the spirit world. Sound instruments are especially central: frame drums and rattles create rhythmic patterns that support trance and spirit communication, while bells, chimes, flutes, and whistles are used to purify, call, or guide spirits and to maintain ritual focus. These instruments do not merely provide background sound; they structure the entire energetic field of the ceremony and mark transitions between ordinary and altered states of awareness.

Alongside sound, a wide range of ritual objects serves to direct and embody spiritual power. Feathers are used to cleanse subtle energies and to guide or “brush” power where it is needed, and staffs or wands function as conduits for energy and as emblems of shamanic authority. Crystals and stones are treated as repositories and focal points of power, used for protection, diagnosis, and healing, while medicine bundles or bags gather together herbs, stones, bones, and other items that collectively hold and transmit spiritual force. Masks, animal skins, and specialized garments, often adorned with symbolic elements, allow the shaman to take on or channel the qualities of spirits, particularly animal allies.

Plant materials form another essential dimension of shamanic practice. Non-psychoactive herbs such as sage, cedar, sweetgrass, and palo santo are burned for smudging and purification, cleansing both people and spaces and inviting benevolent presences. Other plants, including ayahuasca, peyote, and certain mushrooms in specific cultural contexts, are regarded as powerful medicines that open visionary states and facilitate deep healing and insight. Tobacco and various medicinal herbs are offered in prayer, used in remedies, or incorporated into ritual to address both physical and spiritual dimensions of illness.

Divination and diagnosis draw on their own set of tools, which translate subtle messages into visible signs. Bones, stones, and shells may be cast and interpreted as oracles, while reflective surfaces such as mirrors or bowls of water are used for scrying and visionary seeing. Fire, smoke, and embers can also be read for patterns and omens, and in some settings cards or other symbolic objects help structure and clarify the guidance received. These practices are usually anchored in a consecrated space: altars, medicine wheels, sacred fires, and other arrangements of objects and directional markers create a stable ritual center where offerings are made, spirits are invited, and healing or divination unfolds in an ordered, meaningful way.