The genealogies of shamanism consist of an intricate assortment of conceptualisations of shamanism that travelled in and between times and places. The history of the continuously changing concept ‘shamanism’ has shaped contemporary conceptualisations of shamanism as well as contemporary shamanic practices. Building on a choice of particular shamanologies, but oblivious to their historical production, contemporary shamanic experts use their shamanisms as antidotes to modern structures. My genealogies suggest that these supposedly timeless shamanisms are, on the one hand, products of the history of the conceptualisation of shamanism. On the other hand, some of their main features are as ancient as the structures in which they were established. Conceptualisations of shamanisms have always been socially constructed and authorised within distinct social contexts. Contemporary Western shamanisms are no exception. They are parts of the long genealogies of shamanism and, at the same time, part and parcel of contemporary Western society.