Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul

An in-depth look at the role of plant spirits in shamanic rituals from around the world

• Shows how shamans heal using their knowledge of plant spirits as well as the plant’s “medical properties”

• Explores the core methods of plant shamanism--soul retrieval, spirit extraction, and sin eating--and includes techniques for connecting with plant spirits

• Includes extensive field interviews with master shamans of all traditions

In Plant Spirit Shamanism, 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 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 the Amazonian tradition of pusanga (love medicine). They explain the techniques 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 ex-plore the world of plant spirits and make allies of their own.

• Plant Spirit Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness
• Plant Spirit Medicine: A Journey into the Healing Wisdom of Plants
• Sacred Plant Medicine: The Wisdom in Native American Herbalism
• The Way of the Shaman
• Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers
• Evolutionary Herbalism: Science, Spirituality, and Medicine from the Heart of Nature
• The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life
• The Shamanic Journey: A Practical Guide to Therapeutic Shamanism
• Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth
• The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature