Traditional techniques for healing the soul using plant spirit medicines, as revealed by Haitian, Amazonian, Andrean, and European plant shamans. Based on extensive fieldwork by the author.
From the publisher's description:
Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing explore the use of one of the major allies of shamans for healing, seeing, dreaming, and empowerment - plant spirits. After observing great similarities in the use of plants among shamans throughout the world, they discovered the reason behind these similarities: rather than dealing with just the "medical properties" of the plants or specific healing techniques, shamans commune with the spirits of the plants themselves.
From their years of in-depth shamanic work in the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, including extensive field interviews with master shamans, Heaven and Charing present the core methods of plant shamanism used in healing rituals the world over - soul retrieval, spirit extraction, sin eating, and other techniques for connecting with plant spirits - as well as the Amazonian traditions of ayahuasca (the legendary Vine of Souls) and pusanga (love magic). They explain the procedures shamans use to establish connections to plant spirits and provide practical exercises as well as a directory of traditional Amazonian and Caribbean healing plants and their common North American equivalents so readers can explore the world of plant spirits and make allies of their own.
Excerpt
Since the beginning of human experience, plants have played a role in the evolution of our species, not only in the provision of food and medicine but in our deepest spiritual experience and the development of consciousness. Their form, beauty, enchanting scents, their healing and emotional qualities, have all provided a gateway to the Great Mystery of Nature, which our Celtic forebears called “The visible face of Spirit”.
Though our lands are no longer forested as they were, we try to recreate a sense of their beauty and tranquillity in our gardens, parks, and the green spaces in our cities, giving us at least a taste of Nature with which we can sustain ourselves against the soulless backdrop of the steel and concrete jungles that are our homes today. For many people, plants are still the messengers of divinity, harmony, and beauty. They are also the source of our health and wellbeing, not just as medicines but in their ability to relax, refresh, or excite us.
Some deep part of us knows that the healing power of plants is inherent in what they are as much as what they do. Flowers have a role to play, for example, in all of our most primal celebrations of life and death – birth and birthdays, comings-of-age, marriages, illnesses, funerals and deaths. They are there at the first ‘I love you’, and they are there for our endings too. Even after death our connection to the natural world continues and our spiritual destination in many religious myths is some form of paradise which is often symbolised as the “Heavenly Garden”, or the Garden of Eden.
Archaeology shows that plant spirit shamanism has been part of our healing experience for thousands of years, predating other practices by millennia and going back to a time when healers worked in harmony with Nature.
Plant shamanism is - and always has been – a person-centred approach and incorporates, in a holistic way, practices such as herbalism, energy work, aromatherapy, and counselling to provide a unique blend of therapies that is most needed by each individual client, based on the healer’s attunement to the state of balance or otherwise of that client’s soul. But it is also fundamentally spirit-centred, and all traditional healers – from the Curanderos of the Amazon to the ‘folk magicians’ of Ireland – regard plants as sentient, aware, intelligent, alive, and as ‘doctors’ in their own right.
Plant shamanism involves practices for meeting these spirits, such as shamanic journeying, soul retrieval, rituals using flowers and fragrances, offerings to Nature, floral baths for protection, and the use of visionary plants to find purpose, clarity, and new directions in life. All of these, to the shaman, are implied by the term ‘healing’.
Professional Reviews
Timothy White, founding editor of Shaman's Drum magazine, reviewed in issue 73
"An informative introductory look at spiritual uses of plant medicines derived from various shamanic traditions... a stimulating potpourri of short segments describing many ways of working with plant medicines...
"One of the most interesting features of this book is its inclusion of short interviews with practicing plant shamans. For example, an Andean curandera speaks about divining with coca, and a Shipibo shaman comments on the origins of ayahuasca. A San Pedro maestro speaks of how, in Peru, tobacco juice is imbibed nasally to help focus and enhance San Pedro visions and he also describes how to make seguros (charms) - bottles containing sacred waters, perfumes, and special healing and spiritual plants - which are used to attract wealth, good luck, and love relationships. An Amazonian perfumero (perfume healer) describes the preparation and uses of pusangas (love potions), [and] a Haitian medsen fey ("leaf" doctor) talks briefly about the use of herbal baths in Vodou.
"One of this volume's most useful features is that it introduces readers to many plant medicine terms and concepts that may come in handy for those starting to work with plant medicines... Moreover, interesting insights into some old familiar folk terms are scattered throughout the text. For example, while explaining how to make a 'mojo bag' - a bundle of plants and consecrated items made to bring luck and protection - the book points out that the word mojo comes from the West African mojuba (prayer) and denotes a method of directing spiritual energies to similar effect. Understanding the origins and meanings of plant medicine terms can be helpful because they call attention to key concepts of working with plant spirits.
"Plant Spirit Shamanism offers a readable melange of information, insights, and viewpoints on spiritual plant medicines. I feel comfortable recommending this volume to readers interested in magical herbs, as well as to those beginning to work shamanically with plant spirits".
Bonnie Cehovet, Angelfire
"This is an incredible book, a book with depth that speaks to the soul… [It contains] a wealth of personal wisdom on the subject of Plant Spirit Shamanism, as well as bringing in important information from indigenous shamans around the world. I truly enjoyed the section on the use of pusangas and perfumes, not only for love within relationships but to bring an individual to "wholeness". From there the author moves into the subject of floral baths, the knowledge of which I feel should be a staple for everyone who wants to be proactive in their life… This is a well-written book, based on solid experience and study, featuring interviews with shamans from diverse cultures, and presenting techniques that the reader can use to access plant spirits and work with them in his or her life. The knowledge in this book could very easily be put to good use in everyday life, which makes it a 'keeper' for any healer's library"
Leo Rutherford, author of The Way of Shamanism and Your Shamanic Path
"Plant Spirit Shamanism takes readers into realms that defy rational logic and scientific theory, showing graphically that we humans are not the only intelligent life on this planet. This book is both a fascinating read and a considerable challenge to the orthodox mind."
Are you still angry at God for having lost a loved one due to sickness or unexpected circumstances? This book will give you a better understanding of death, God’s role in it, and what decision is before each of us that would allow us to see them agai
A guide and challenge to Christians who want to live a life of true discipleship. It explains why worship is fundamental and how a life of true worship transforms one to Christ-likeness.
The world calls us to improve and promote ourselves. Is this
A guide and challenge to Christians who want to live a life of true discipleship. It explains why worship is fundamental and how a life of true worship transforms one to Christ-likeness.
The world calls us to improve and promote ourselves. Is this
