Shamanic Ritual at World Economic Forum: ‘What Spirit Rules in Davos?’

During the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where entrepreneurs, government leaders and representatives of civil society gather to discuss economic priorities for the current year, the shaman Putanny Yawanawá – the first woman of the Yawanawá tribe in the Amazon to become a shaman – performed a shamanic ritual. During Wednesday’s plenary session, entitled “Climate and nature: a necessary systemic response”, after having uttered some invocations while rubbing her hands, the indigenous representative blew on the heads of the participants, including the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF ), Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank President Ajay Banga, IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin, and billionaire André Hoffmann. Having learned of the events, the priest Jesús Silva Castignani, incardinated in the archdiocese of Madrid, questioned himself on the spiritual context that governs the World Economic Forum, sharing some questions in this regard on his social networks: Would they ever think of inviting a priest to recite a prayer? Do we know which spirits the lady invokes? Christianity is obscurantist, but aren’t Indians fanatics? What spirit governs Davos?”. The presenter of the event justified the presence of the shaman Putanny by saying that “to look to the future we must look back and see what our ancestors wanted“. Before performing the shamanic ritual, Putanny emphasized that “we can join our hands, unite our hearts, unite our thoughts in the same direction, for the healing of the planet and spiritual healing”, ensuring that “when we unite in our thoughts and in our hearts, our ’Mother Earth’ will listen to us.“ At the end of the ritual, the shaman encouraged the participants to hold their hands and raise them in unison.