Italian Shamanism
A living Priestess tradition
Before Rome, the Italian peninsula was a crossroads of Etruscans, Illyrians, Celts, and Samnites — each carrying their own rites and reverence for the divine feminine. When the witch-hunts came, these Old Ways went underground. Goddesses wore Catholic names; healers became “folk magicians.” What looked extinct was only disguised, waiting to be remembered.
Out of this hidden current flows one unbroken matrilineal line:
Michela Chiarelli
Seventh-generation Priestess. Last hereditary Shaman/Medicine Woman of her house.
Born with second sight and initiated first by the four Elements themselves, Michela was trained by her grandmother, Nonna Malva — a village healer who prayed to Isis behind a Marian veil. She later learned from scattered Priestesses from Calabria to Greece, each guarding fragments of the ancient Mediterranean Mother cult.
Michela carries formulas, songs, and bone-healing rites untouched by academic reconstruction or modern reinterpretation. In her family, the title only ever passed to women. As the last of her line, her books are now the vessel that keeps this wisdom alive.
Michela’s practice is recognized by contemporary academics: she is acknowledged as a living practitioner of Italian indigenous shamanism in Dr. Angela Puca’s 2024 monograph Italian Witchcraft and Shamanism: The Tradition of Segnature.
Why It Matters Now
The West is rediscovering the Goddess — but often through pop iconography or imported traditions.
Italian Shamanism offers:
A European indigenous practice — rooted in the same soil that shaped Western civilization.
A living female lineage that survived in silence, proving the Goddess never left.
A medicine for cultural amnesia.
Much of today’s Goddess culture celebrates empowerment and archetypes but often overlooks the devotional, earth-based roots these traditions once held. The Goddess was not just a symbol — she was a lived presence, honored through daily rituals, offerings, and ancestral memory.
At IN HER GENIUS, we return to these origins: embodied, rooted, and alive. Through Michela Chiarelli’s writings, we share not just stories, but transmissions from a living, unbroken priestesshood tradition.
Explore Michela’s books → SHOP
