What does spiritual longing mean in East Asian shamanic traditions and how do I work with it?

Longing is the engine. In my poetry, I've always said the ache of seeking is where the divine lives—not in arrival, but in the reaching. East Asian shamanism understands this deeply. The shaman's ecstatic state, the journey between worlds, the drumming that pulls you out of ordinary consciousness—all of this is sustained by sacred dissatisfaction. You're not meant to be comfortable. You're meant to yearn for something truer than what you can see. This longing isn't pathology; it's alignment. In Korean shamanism, the mudang's power comes partly from not belonging fully to ordinary life. There's always a gap, a restlessness. Rather than medicate that away, the tradition asks: what is this longing calling you toward? Sometimes it's grief that needs witnessing. Sometimes it's a gift that wants to be born through you. Sometimes it's the ancestors themselves, trying to reach back. The work isn't to eliminate the ache but to dignify it—to treat it as a voice worth listening to. Sit with your restlessness this week without immediately fixing it. Write it down. Speak it aloud. Ask it what it knows that your rational mind doesn't. This is how shamanic practice begins—by honoring what won't let you rest.