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Traditional Techniques For Healing The Soul
Destiny Books 2006 ISBN #1-59477-238-9 This is an incredible book, a book with depth that speaks to the soul. Ross Heaven specializes in personal development, healing, and shamanism. Howard G. Charing is a director at Eagle Wing's Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. Both gentlemen are hands on workshop leaders. Together, they bring a wealth of personal wisdom to the subject of Plant Spirit Shamanism, as well as bringing in important information from indigenous shamans around the world. Plant Spirit Shamanism explores the use of plant spirits as a major allie in the shamanic work of healing, seeing, dreaming, and empowerment. One of the observations that led to this book was the discovery that shamans around the world use plants in a very similar manner. The reason that this occurred was that these shamans connected with, and worked through, the spirit of the plant. They were not concerned with its medicinal properties, nor were they concerned with specific healing techniques. Based on their extensive work in shamanic healing in such disparate areas as the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, including extensive field interviews with master shamans, the authors present here the core methods of plant shamanism: soul retrieval, spirit extraction, sin eating, and the Amazonian tradition of pusanga (love medicine). The book begins with a separate preface done by each author, allowing us to see how they began their journeys into the world of shamanism. In the introduction, they talk about nature, and the inherent healing power that nature holds. Sad to say, we are moving away from any understanding of how to access plant spirit medicine. One of the core concepts of plant healing is that nature herself will tell you what a plant is to be used for. The quality of a plant, and its spiritual power, comes to shamans through the study of the color of the flowers, their perfume, the appearance of their leaves, where and how they are growing, and their cultural/mythological placing. The authors indicate that the "signature", or outer form of a plant, shows that nature is alive, aware, and has the ability to communicate with us. The key approach of shamans in studying plants is to journey with them in a trance state. The soul of the shaman leaves his body so that he can communicate with the spirit of the plant. The procedure for doing this is presented int he book, so that anyone who wishes to take this journey may do so. According to the shamans, we must feed energy to any plant that we wish to work with, to give them the energy that they need to help us. The next step is spending the time that it takes to get to know your plant, and the ways in which it wishes to be used. Plant energy can heal us, and it can also bring balance to us. The process of opening the practitioner further to the use of plant spirit energy is called the Shaman's Diet. Certain actions need to be taken, and certain restrictions need to be put in place on the behavior of the "shaman to be", so that the plant's spirit is thoroughly understood, and to strengthen themselves physically, psychologically, and spiritually. In some cultures this involves the singing of sacred chants, and ingestion in some manner of the plant itself. The authors also discuss plants of "vision" - i.e. plants with hallucinogenic properties. The use of hallucinogens helps to break through the trance of "social dreaming" into a world of infinite possibilities. In this manner, the sacred is experienced in a very powerful manner. Disease, from a shamanic viewpoint, comes generally from one of two forms of energetic imbalance: (1) Spirit Intrusion (where forces that are external to the individual find their way into the individual's energy system), and (2) Soul Loss (where traumatic events cause a severe loss of an individual's life force). One of the points that the author's make is that a key reason that we lose our personal power is that we become disconnected from nature. There is a wonderful discussion of how different cultures deal with the imbalance of power (dis-ease) within an individual. I truly enjoyed the section on the use of pusangas and perfumes not only for love within relationship but to bring an individual to "wholeness". Fragrance carries magic with it - something that we "know", but do not always think about, or apply in creative ways. From there the authors moved 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). The authors made a interesting point in this chapter, in that floral baths can indeed be used to cure nightmares. We all suffer from nightmares from time to time, and having the ability to "resolve" them gives us great personal power. A separate chapter has been devoted to the Mandrake plant. Anyone who has ever seen Harry Potter, or read the Harry Potter books, will instantly recognize this plant, with its human-body like roots, and the scream that it emits when pulled from the soil. There is an in-depth appendix that lists selected Haitian herbs, along with their direct Western counterparts, or their analogues, for plants that are more easily found. The scientific name, medicinal use and magical attributes are listed. A second appendix lists the same thing based on Peruvian herbs. A third appendix lists various HooDoo oils, listing their components, what they are used for, and how to use them. 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 is his or her life. There is a wonderful section of color photo's, showing the authors, some of the shaman's referred to in the book, and some of the shamanic "tools of the trade". 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.
Bonnie Cehovet
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