Hey, you people quit messing with muism. Just don't even think about it. And members of NAFPS, please be careful to not point anyone to muism either. You aren't koreans and all white people will want is to steal Korean peoples cultural properties similar the way the newagers have done to mocking native traditions with their newage silliness.
As my relatives and older friends tell me, Muism has changed extremely even within the last generation. Many simply take it up as a more pagentry-based practiced, to preserve a culture property, and some even to just dupe people or for other reasons. That is ofcourse not to say that there arent still true mudang who work with the ancestor spirits, because there are.
And there are extremely many variations, because Muist lineages incorporate thousands of years of influences from various traditions of Dao, Buddhism, and traditional Korean old-style legends about the Celestial Kings, the traditions of the 'Han Bear Tribe' culture, and other beliefs about the Korean ancestors in general.
My mother and my aunt lived w/ a mudang part of their young lives, even dancing in rituals and helping out etc. My mother was told she called to become a mudang and apprentice as her 'spirit daughter'. However, my mother, having a sensible head on her shoulders, wanted to just live a normal life and have a family. The mudang claim that when you reject your calling, based on the lineage of teachings, various bad things can happen, from worse sickness, to deaths in the family, etc. I don't buy into that stuff though, because my mom is a happy person. (Though we have been bothered by some old spirits who have followed the family, and we are still accompanied by some of our deceased family members). Well, after I was born, there were many experiences, visions, and illness, things that were scary and undeniable for myself growing up. My parents said the calling had most likely passed to me. But myself also, have no interest to ever take up the tradition, so I would never try to become a mudang. It takes being reborn spiritually, and alot of crazy and intense stuff, such as possessions, channeling, etc to conduct kut and channel the ancestors, etc. I have no interest in that whatsoever, or to become any sort of 'shaman' or spiritual worker, but I will openly state there is a need to oppose it if any new ager attempts steal our ancestral traditions, or if there becomes white people who start seeking out mudang for shaman stuff.
Because of how my mother was raised, my family still honors the ancestors, and we keep alot of the good Muistic ideas in our lives, even though we arent 'Muists'. We do not bother with mudang or depend on their intepretations of cause and effect, but my parents used to visit mudang, and were in fact informed many prophetical things that later happened in life. But they also tell me, that nowadays, nobody needs a mudang truly. Some mudang just want you to think you need their help, but that is because they get paid for ceremonies and services. So the more ceremonies, the more problems, etc, the more job security. This is part of why Shamanism (Muism) is lower than Dao, Seon (Korean Zen), etc, as a path, and it is just a 'lower religion' from the perspectives of more sophisticated branches of Korean traditions. Mu-ism is more essential for some very serious problems though, but the customers will know what is a serious enough problem to pay for a ceremony and trust a Shaman's visionary understanding. If you ask the shamans, chances are they would just say what they can to get your faith, and money, if they could not truly see to the heart/root of whatever the issue.
However, I will ask that anyone here with a mind to steal our traditions, belittle them, americanize, or any other way taint Korean people's ancient and majestic inheritance with their white devil hands, just leave it alone. We don't need it. And aside from that, you are not going to find the true authentic mudang with websites. They are working with Korean people with legitimate Korean ancestors, or they are off in the hills honoring the San-Shin (Sacred mountain spirits), and the ancestor 'gods'. Not worrying about some devil westerner who wants to come ruin every things. Stay the hell out, devils.
It's bad enough what happens in Amerikkka with native pseudo-'shamanism'. Just leave Mu-ism alone, seriously. My people have fought for thousands of years to keep the ancient cultural traditions amidst colonial attacks constantly from all sides, so it's not time for some devils to come taint it.
This is what I can share about Muism. Korean traditions are vast, and there is endless information that I do not have, but I ask that westerners leave it alone becaus I can see what you will do to it. The same thing you do to every culture you put your filthy hands on.
