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A defining scholarly publication on the past and current state of research with psychedelic plant substances for medicine, therapeutics, and spiritual uses.Certain plants have long been known to contain healing properties and used to treat everything from depression and addiction, to aiding in on one's own spiritual well-being for hundreds of years. Can Western medicine find new cures for human ailments by tapping into indigenous plant wisdom? And why the particular interest in the plants with psychoactive properties? These two conference volume proceedings provide an abundance of answers.The first international gathering of researchers held on this subject was in 1967, sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and U.S. Public Health Service. It was an interdisciplinary group of specialists – from ethnobotanists to neuroscientists – gathered in one place to share their findings on a topic that was gaining widespread interest: The use of psychoactive plants in indigenous societies. The WAR ON DRUGS which intervened slowed advances in this field.Research, however, has continued, and in the fifty years since that first conference, new and significant discoveries have been made. A new generation of researchers, many inspired by the giants present at that first conference, has continued to investigate the outer limits of ethno-psychopharmacology. At the same time, there has been a sea change in public and medical perceptions of psychedelics. There is now a renaissance in research, and some of these agents are actively being investigated for their therapeutic potential. They are no longer as stigmatized as they have been in the past, although they remain controversial. There still remains much work to do in this field, and many significant discoveries remain to be made.So, in June of 2017, once again specialists from around the world in fields of ethnopharmacology, chemistry, botany, and anthropology gathered to discuss their research and findings in a setting that encouraged the free and frank exchange of information and ideas on the last 50 years of research, and assess the current and possible futures for research in ethnopsychopharmacology. The papers given at the 2017 Symposium, organized by Dr. Dennis McKenna, represent perhaps the most significant body of knowledge in this interdisciplinary field available.About Dennis McKenna: He is an icon among psychedelic explorers, working to inspire the next generation of ethnobotanists in the search for new medicines for the benefit of humanity and the preservation of the biosphere that produces what is apparent from reading these papers – a rich pharmacopeia of medicines. Essential for academic libraries, pharmaceutical and ethnobotanical collections.

Unleash the power of animal magic into your life with this beautiful handbook featuring a directory of animals and the different roles they play. From spirit guides to power animals to familiars, both domesticated and wild, learn what role they play in our lives and the significance of the magic they offer. Powerful animal magic practices are embedded in cultures all over the world. Throughout history, generations have called upon the energy of animals to help navigate life and find inspiration. Animal Magic is an intuitive guide that teaches you how to connect with different animal energies and gives you a comprehensive introduction to their magic. Some of the animals and their magic include: Black cats and ravens hold powerful magic and are known to be shape-shifters in the magic community Bats hold lunar magic which helps with shadow magic Bears hold the energy of the night and earth, making them great assistants to protection spells and rituals Through spells, meditations, and talismans, learn to strengthen your connection to the animal world and tap into these powers. The Mystical Handbook series from Wellfleet takes you on a magical journey through the wonderful world of spellcraft and spellcasting. Explore a new practice with each volume and learn how to incorporate spells, rituals, blessings, and cleansings into your daily routine. These portable companions feature beautiful foil-detail covers and color-saturated interiors on a premium paper blend. Other books in the series include: Witchcraft, Moon Magic, Love Spells, Fairy Magic, Goddess Magic, Knot Magic, Superstitions, House Magic, and Herbal Magic.

Original tales inspired by Native American and Norwegian folklore that highlight the wisdom of the divine natural world • Shares unique stories about Earth Medicine and animal magic, inspired by the author's unusual Native American (Hopi) and Norwegian upbringing • Interwoven with ancient teachings and everyday practical applications of Earth Medicine, such as grounding and dream interpretation • Each tale is beautifully illustrated with the author's original art, which promotes spiritual understanding and the power of the Earth's healing properties • Paper with French flaps Drawing on both her Native American (Hopi) heritage and her Norwegian upbringing, renowned mystic and intuitive healer Sonja Grace shares original wisdom tales, received through her heart and soul, to take you on a journey into the magic of Raven and Bear and the healing power of Earth Medicine. Featuring Sonja's distinctive and beautiful artwork, each story is embedded with ancient teachings to inspire you to live closer to the Earth. The fables include powerful examples of animal magic and everyday, practical applications of Earth Medicine, such as simple energy exercises, dream interpretations, Earth Medicine prayers and meditations, and using medicinal plants to manage negative energies. As background to the stories, Sonja reveals parallels between Norse mythology and Native American traditions and explores the symbology of animals and the recurring central theme of the tension between light and darkness. In Norse myth, the great god Odin, for instance, is often accompanied by Ravens. These birds are considered manifestations of the Valkyries, the goddesses who brought brave soldiers to Valhalla, while in Native American traditions, the Raven is viewed as a trickster or messenger, a magical creature with the ability to shapeshift into a human or animal, yet also portrayed as a hero overcoming adversity. The Bear on the other hand can embody the healer who grounds our energy and removes illness or can represent the inner part of us that has faith. In one fable, Sonja brings Bear to life as a mythical creature singing songs to bring in the light, reflecting the powerful lesson that by using our voice and speaking the truth we can hold darkness at bay. Throughout all of the stories, Raven and Bear teach us to be responsible for our actions and develop spiritual accountability. By sharing these tales of Earth Medicine, Sonja offers not only a path of reconnection with the Earth but also medicine for the soul. She shows how the Earth works in unity within herself and provides a warehouse of knowledge for all who live upon her.

From “the Indiana Jones of the spiritual world” (Utne Reader)—a groundbreaking look at original spirituality with a unique and all-encompassing approach to life that comes from the world's most ancient religion.The Kalahari Bushmen are the keepers of the world's oldest living culture. In spite of colossal challenges and never-ending crises, they have survived for over 60,000 years with joy and peace—yet their spiritual teachings, the source of their enduring wisdom, have never been fully presented. For the first time, these ancient oral traditions have been put down onto paper taking you through the veil of original spirituality, connecting the fragments of world religions to a source that is unlike any other. Through this wisdom, you can find the deepest meaning, fullest purpose, and highest joy in life. The Bushman's Way to Tracking God is articulated through twelve original mysteries, including: activating the non-subtle universal life force (what the Bushmen call n/om), heightening emotional experience, vibratory interaction, direct downloading and absorption of sacred knowledge, extraordinary healing, activation of the ecstatic “pump,” spontaneous ways of rejuvenation, attending the spiritual classrooms, so-called telepathy, an uncommon range of mystical experiences, and last but not least, total bliss.

• Describes the initiatory stages of Kriya Yoga and Tibetan Buddhism with high-level yogis and lamas• Shares the author's experiences of spontaneous dream initiations, astral travels, Kundalini awakening, and an out-of-body journey through the Bardo to a past life—which led him to pursue spiritual studies in Asia• Reveals the profound parallels between Western Alchemy's search for the Philosopher's Stone and the Indo-Tibetan quest for Spiritual LiberationGuided by a profound series of dream initiations, astral travels, intense kundalini activation, and an out-of-body journey to a past life, Kevin Turner embarks on an around-the-world quest in pursuit of the secret fire of alchemical enlightenment.Detailing his intensive studies to discover the meaning behind his spontaneous nighttime initiations, Turner finds resonance with Goethe's alchemical quest and Descartes'assertion that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul. Turning to Eastern traditions, the author finds exact descriptions of his experiences in books on kundalini yoga and answers to his questions about death, rebirth, and the soul's Immortal Light in writings on Tibetan Buddhism—as well as profound parallels between the alchemists'search for the Philosopher's Stone and the Indo-Tibetan quest for Liberation.Realizing his calling to accelerate the evolution of the soul, Turner travels to Asia where he meets the last living disciple of Sri Yukteswar, Swami Paramahansa Hariharananda Giri, who initiates him into Kriya Yoga. In his pursuit of the Eastern alchemical tradition, he then travels to the Himalayas in Nepal to study with Shamarpa Rinpoche at Nagi Gompa Monastery. Turner then journeys to Taipei to study Taoist alchemy and Tai Chi before returning to Europe to renew his studies of Western alchemy.Deeply personal and spiritually uplifting, Turner's story of initiation into alchemical traditions of East and West offers insight into the initiatory process known as the'Great Work'and powerful guidance to others on the spiritual path toward enlightenment.

Few understand the difficult work of overcoming trauma, abuse, and addiction better than don Jose Ruiz. In My Good Friend the Rattlesnake, Ruiz, now a bestselling author and spiritual teacher, reveals the dramatic twists and turns he experienced on his own path to personal freedom and inner transformation. Through this series of deeply intimate stories, Ruiz explains how he overcame his addiction to suffering and embraced a life of love, clarity, and self-awareness. In one example, he recounts his unexpected journey with temporary blindness, which paradoxically allowed him to see what truly mattered. In another, he celebrates individuality in spiritual practice, challenging the idea that it must look or sound a particular way to be authentic. Throughout, Ruiz incorporates the teachings of his father, don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements). The lessons he shares are practical, profound, and accessible, making this book an essential companion for anyone seeking spiritual growth and emotional healing. Honest, vulnerable, and rich with exercises and meditations, My Good Friend the Rattlesnake redefines what it means to heal, grow, and live authentically.

What happens when we die? How are some people able to see or communicate with spiritual worlds beyond our own? Can they offer answers to some of our most burning questions about life and death? Sarah Bullen, who has had a life-altering near-death experience herself, explores these mysteries as she gathers riveting stories of people from South Africa and beyond – people who have crossed to the'other side'or those who can contact it. This book offers original interviews with a fascinating collection of teachers with special abilities, individuals who have gone through near-death experiences and those who can communicate across worlds using mediumship, gifts, trance and plants. Meet and learn from a man who woke up on a stretcher on the way to the morgue, a spiritual teacher who survived two near-death experiences on an operating table, a psychic rabbi, an influencer who communicates with the departed, a former corporate executive-turned-sangoma who runs a traditional clinic, and shamans and neo-shamans from across the continent. With her keen observation skills and insights gleaned from her own experience, Bullen offers a fresh way of looking at the world.

Grandmothers'Wisdom is a vibrant tribute to the lives of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, an unprecedented global alliance of elders who came together in 2004 to protect our planet in crisis and envision a future for the next seven generations. With a foreword by Vandana Shiva and tributes to the grandmothers who have passed on, this special work is a living portrayal of the grandmothers'upbringing, their encounters with the violence of colonialism and forced assimilation, their awakening to fierce activism, and the ceremonial practices they carry forward from their lineages with tenacity, grace, and devotion.The thirteen remarkable women portrayed in Grandmothers'Wisdom are keepers of traditional medicine and Indigenous spirituality, preserving ancient wisdom traditions and traditional ecological knowledge that have served our planet earth for millennia. Their stories come from the Amazon rainforest, the Central American highlands, the Sierra Madre of Oaxaca, the plains, deserts and canyons of North America, the Himalayan mountains of Tibet and Nepal, and the forests of Central Africa. The award-winning photography depicts the grandmothers making offerings to all of creation and stewarding earth-based medicines through their practices of divination, energetic cleansing, gathering herbs, and performing initiations with plant medicines.The grandmothers have gathered each year for two decades to pray together in their homelands, promoting deep peace and interconnection through Indigenous ancestral knowledge, cultural preservation, and a reverence for the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water. In a time when contemporary life has left many young people bereft in the rifts between us, these spiritual activists constitute an intercontinental union across differences in culture, language, and ceremonial practice. They are icons for future generations, representing a worldview that honors the richness of our differences as we unite to protect our shared home on planet earth.

• Presents the teachings of revered Ecuadorian Kichwa elder Taita Alberto Taxo as vivid, experiential journeys• Details how to return to intimacy with Nature and the natural world through communicating with the elements• Shares Andean shamanic practices and ceremonies for opening the heart, expanding consciousness, and shamanic journeyingIn this deep dive into South American shamanism, Martha Winona Travers shares the teachings and practices she learned during her 22 years as an apprentice to revered Ecuadorian Kichwa elder, Taita Alberto Taxo.Presenting Taita Alberto's teachings as vivid, experiential journeys, Travers allows you to immerse yourself in his direct, heart-centered wisdom as if you, too, were one of his shamanic apprentices. You will learn the ancient mystical traditions of the Andes, traditions saved by the elders specifically for these times. These traditions of healing invite human beings to return to intimacy with Nature and the natural world through initiating conversations with the elements, including the fifth, spiritual element, the Ushai. You will learn about the delicate dance of the Eagle (the mind) and the Condor (the heart), including how to reestablish the path of the heart to help bring the overactive mind into balance, the key to embarking on powerful shamanic journeys. You will visit sacred waterfalls, travel high up the active volcano Cotopaxi to a mountain lake for ceremony, experience the sounds carried on the wind in the mountains, see the Condor flying, and sit at night around the fire, listening to stories and laughter.As you journey together with Taita Alberto, you will begin to sense the fifth element Ushai being activated as the potent energy of spiritual transformation awakens within you. By experiencing Taita Alberto's profound mystical realizations through shamanic transmission, you will learn to express gratitude with each of the elements, leave behind those burdens you no longer need to carry, and discover how to fly higher in life.

A new and complete curriculum of Heathen ceremonial magic. This foundational textbook contains a complete curriculum of occult training, for the serious student of ceremonial magic. The Golden Dawn system has been the most influential of the modern magic schools, inspiring many thousands of spiritual seekers across the world, but its Judeo-Christian religious framework has made it more difficult for modern polytheists. Taking the cue from John Michael Greer's The Celtic Golden Dawn, and with his blessing, this book uses the Golden Dawn magical system in a Heathen context with three tracks for the Anglo-Saxon, Norse and modern Heathen, as well as the formula for additional tracks. The course of study goes through four grades,'Thrall','Karl','Jarl'and'Konr', leading the student systematically from the foundations to complex ritual magic, all the while integrating and internalizing traditional lore. By the end of the course, the magician will be competent in rune magic, Heathen herbalism and herbal magic, magical brewing, planetary magic, amulet consecration, the Heathen cabala, in addition to rituals of transformation, invisibility, conjuration and self-initiation.

• Shares shamanic practices, rituals, ceremonies, and wisdom to help you reintroduce magic into everyday life and awaken the Aquarian Shaman within• Explains major components of shamanic practice, including totem animals, spirit teachers, personal altars, medicine wheels, the power of song and dance, and the use of sacred objects and sacred circles• Explores the shamanic realm of imagination and techniques to access it, including Shamanic Breathwork and spirit journeyingAre you hearing a persistent inner calling to wake up and remember who you really are? Are you ready to be reborn into shamanic consciousness and awaken as an elemental being, fully connected to life and nature?Presenting a guidebook to walking the spiral path of transformation, shamanic teacher Linda Star Wolf shares ancient shamanic practices, rituals, ceremonies, and wisdom to help you reintroduce magic and enchantment into everyday life, create your own “shamanic medicine chest,” and awaken the Aquarian Shaman within.Describing how to recover the magical sensibility and innate awareness that most of us leave behind in childhood, Star Wolf shares essential shamanic techniques, including the Shamanic Healing Initiatory Process and Shamanic Breathwork. She discusses the power of the imagination, showing how imagination is actually a liminal realm rooted in the cellular records of our body through which we can journey to other worlds and connect with our ancestors.This Aquarian guidebook will help you not only awaken to shamanic consciousness but also cultivate more love, inner awareness, and personal power as you walk the spiral path of transformation.

May the teachings in this book help you walk wakefully as you find your way back home. Every one of us experiences periods of pain and loss in our life—dark nights of the soul. This is a groundless territory where one feels directionless and devoid of tools, with no sense of how to take the next step. In ancient times, elders guided their communities through life's initiations and challenges, paths we must all take to transform and grow. In Walking through Darkness, legendary shamanic experts Sandra Ingerman and Llyn Roberts help us forge a pathway through the dark—as we embrace nature as our guide and healer. Sandra and Llyn share metaphorical stories that engage animals, plants, trees, and other aspects of nature. Through the feminine process of circular joint storytelling, they weave the rich tales of their own experiences alongside wisdom that they have gathered for years from their own studies, as well as from healers around the globe. Through teachings from the land, the sky, the sea, and the spiritual world, this sensitive and empowering guide opens us to our spiritual light so that we can face our greatest challenges with courage and love—no matter what they are.

A JOURNEY FROM FEAR TO SELF DISCOVERY It all began with a prophetic coca leaf reading in the high Andes of Peru. When Don Andreas, a Q'ero shaman, saw a book in the leaves and urged her to write it, Chrappa embarked on a quest to awaken the Divine Feminine within herself and share ancient wisdom with the world. Set against the backdrop of New York City, the mystical landscapes of Peru, and the high deserts of New Mexico, this memoir chronicles Chrappa's experiences with shamanic teachings, the power of the Apus (mountain gods), and her own life challenges. Karen's honest and often raw narrative resonates with anyone who has ever felt trapped by their own fears or societal expectations. As part of a group of women seeking to change the customs, rules, and power structures of everyday America, Chrappa learns to trust her intuition and embrace the unknown. Through sharing, ceremony, and personal growth, she discovers that enlightenment isn't a solitary journey to the mountaintop, but a shared human experience. With grace and vulnerability, Chrappa shows us how moving beyond fear can open the door to a life of purpose, connection, and profound inner peace.

Empowering and told from a unique perspective, this globe-spanning memoir of self-discovery and sacrifice has a singular, resounding message for its audience: love is boundless, but it must begin with nurturing oneself.When Alicia Rodriguez, a successful entrepreneur recovering from divorce and loss, accepts an invitation to Ecuador to help a friend who is studying with a shaman, she has no idea how profoundly the decision will change her life's course. In Ecuador Alicia meets Napo, a powerful shaman, and they begin an extraordinary relationship that spans two continents and eight years. As their connection deepens, Alicia learns the principles of shamanism and witnesses Napo's remarkable healing abilities. Confronted with the illusion of her life in the United States, she decides to move to Ecuador to be with him, and they make plans to build a healing center together on the coast. Within a short time, however, she realizes that she has surrendered her power and agency to Napo, who now wields it as a weapon against her. After years of inner struggle, Alicia finally finds the courage to leave Ecuador and moves to Portugal, where she finds peace... until an unexpected phone call rekindles old memories. An extraordinary memoir steeped in spirituality, shamanism, and metaphysics, The Shaman's Wife is the story of a woman who, through a daring journey of self-discovery, reclaims and embraces her feminine wisdom—and realizes that love is the answer to her lifelong spiritual quest.

Growing older is inevitable, but aging can be prevented, even reversed—but only when you upgrade your brain, using both ancient and modern science, to create psychosomatic health.A healthy brain is the foundation for a healthier and more fulfilling life, and in Grow A New Brain, modern shamanic practitioner Alberto Villoldo reveals research and introduces protocols for readers to improve their brain function, right now. It combines ancient and modern science to eliminate old senescent cells, detoxify your brain and body, reduce inflammation, increase the growth of brain cells that support neuroplasticity, and more. Readers will learn:How to turn your kitchen into a shaman's laboratory to make your own probiotics that repair that gut and produce neurotransmitters that balance the brain.How to use shamanic meditative techniques to switch on genes for health and turn off genes for illness and disease, and drawing on the science of epigenetics how to avoid being trapped in the destiny inherent in your genetic codingHow to reverse damage to the brain caused by free radicals and restore the functioning of our mitochondria (or power centers) in our cells.How to increase the amount of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) you produce, allowing you to grow new brain cells (neurogenesis) that will support neuroplasticity.

Supported by Mayan traditions, this book shows you how to embrace gratitude in every area of your life so that you may find ultimate bliss, happiness, and connection to all things.In Remember Your Roots, Mayan Spiritual Guide Christine Olivia Hernandez draws upon her lineage's wisdom and cosmovision. She bridges these ancient teachings to the modern day so you can connect to your roots and live with greater wholeness, regardless of your specific ancestry. However, there is a problem. Many people do not feel connected to their roots, but rather, a sense of loss, mistrust, and unsafety in the world.By speaking to the core issues we all face, Christine guides you through an intentional 13 chapter journey to help you access gratitude in every area of your life. Gratitude is a state of being that brings health, abundance, and enlightenment, for it's the key that unlocks all doors in your life. When we remember this truth, we find that we are connected to the wisdom of the trees, the light of stars, the elements, and to each other. Realizing this, we can overcome any adversity.From accessing the wisdom of your body and creating a positive mental environment, to resolving unhealthy generational patterns and embracing the importance of ceremony and celebration, this book guides you to feel wholeness and gratitude in every area of your life.

When Oshada Jagodzinski was a child, she had otherworldly visions and a relationship with the dead that only her grandmother, who experienced the same, could understand. Jagodzinski's astonishing life story details not only those early visions, but also the turmoil she felt before coming to appreciate, and, ultimately, harness her remarkable powers in service of others. Overcoming battles with substance abuse and her own inner demons, she emerged, after much healing work and study, an ordained Spiritualist minister and certified medium. She went on to build a fruitful career helping clients overcome the searing pain of loss, as well as both spiritual and emotional hunger. But Oshada's story doesn't end there. Her quest to find spiritual enlightenment led her to the Lakota of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and the Chipps family's well-known tradition of Yuwipi medicine men, dating back to Woptura, mentor to Crazy Horse. During her years with the family, she developed a profound understanding of the relationship between humans, other animals, and the earth itself.Oshada Jagodzinski's memoir takes the reader on a rare and dramatic journey of discovery. She reveals life-changing accidents, a near-fatal encounter with a raging storm, spine-tingling shamanic rituals, a Lakota vision quest, and, ultimately, the very essence of what it is to be alive. Through it all, we learn what it takes to dedicate 45 years in service to the spirit world in order to help others approach a better understanding of death and grief, without anger or fear. For anyone grappling with questions of life and death, substance abuse, spirituality and the wellspring of transformative ritual, My Life Among the Spirits offers immeasurable wisdom and sustenance. For the rest of us, it is simply fascinating.

• Examines the complexities of Indigenous legends and creation myths and reveals common oral traditions across much of North America• Explores the history of Cahokia, the Mississippian Mound Builder Empire of 1050-1300 CE, told through the voice of Honga, a Native leader of the time• Presents an Indigenous revisionist history regarding Thomas Jefferson, expansionist doctrine, and Manifest DestinyWhile Western accounts of North American history traditionally start with European colonization, Indigenous histories of North America—or Turtle Island—stretch back millennia. Drawing on comparative analysis, firsthand Indigenous accounts, extensive historical writings, and his own experience, Omaha Tribal member, Cherokee citizen, and teacher Taylor Keen presents a comprehensive re-imagining of the ancient and more recent history of this continent's oldest cultures. Keen reveals shared oral traditions across much of North America, including among the Algonquin, Athabascan, Sioux, Omaha, Ponca, Osage, Quapaw, and Kaw tribes. He explores the history of Cahokia, the Mississippian Mound Builder Empire of 1050–1300 CE. And he examines ancient earthen works and ceremonial sites of Turtle Island, revealing the Indigenous cosmology, sacred mathematics, and archaeoastronomy encoded in these places that artfully blend the movements of the sun, moon, and stars into the physical landscape.Challenging the mainstream historical consensus, Keen presents an Indigenous revisionist history regarding Thomas Jefferson, expansionist doctrine, and Manifest Destiny. He reveals how, despite being displaced as the United States colonized westward, the Native peoples maintained their vision of an intrinsically shared humanity and the environmental responsibility found at the core of Indigenous mythology.Building off a deep personal connection to the history and mythology of the First Peoples of the Americas, Taylor Keen gives renewed voice to the cultures of Turtle Island, revealing an alternative vision of the significance of our past and future presence here.

Following Lynn V. Andrews on the continuation of her life's journey as an initiate of a secret organization called the Sisterhood of the Shields, Crystal Woman, the fifth book in the internationally bestselling Medicine Woman series, takes Lynn into Australia and the uncharted territory of the soul.On a quest to free a story that dwells within her spirit, Lynn V. Andrews goes to Australia where she is initiated in the traditional ceremonies of the First Peoples'clever women. It is here in the stark desert landscape of the Red Centre, not far from the mysterious Ayers Rock, that this extraordinary woman begins a new cycle in her search for selfhood. With her Cree mentors, Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs, by her side, Lynn seeks out Ginevee, a member of the Sisterhood of the Shields and a Koori shamaness. It is Ginevee and numerous other women of high degree who teach Lynn to enter the legendary Dreamtime of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia using crystals as energy links and psychic amplifiers. There she encounters ancient sky beings, evil sorcerers, and animal allies, and visits the hidden places of the psyche—where terror lurks in the conflict between male and female selves, where her healing powers are called upon in a battle between the forces of life and death, and where she discovers the knowledge of becoming a whole person that is essential to us all.

Paganism in Europe was not defeated by Christianity: it never went away. From the fourth century to the twentieth, against the background of a largely Christian culture, people repeatedly attempted to revive various kinds of pre-Christian religion – beliefs and practices that we have come to label as ‘paganism'. Ancient paganism did not survive the Middle Ages in its original form; this book tells the story of the persistence of elements of paganism and the pagan idea through Europe's pagan revivals, from Byzantine Greece to medieval Eastern Europe and Renaissance Florence, from eighteenth-century Norwich to revolutionary Paris and Edwardian England. While some of these revivals are well known and others are almost entirely forgotten, they reveal the rich diversity of interpretations of paganism – and how those interpretations have been conditioned by the surrounding culture. Revived paganisms ranged from the austerely rational to the earnestly romantic, from the mystical and occult to the stridently nationalistic. Paganism Persisting reveals European paganism's long afterlife, up to and including the emergence of modern paganism as a mass movement in the twentieth century. The authors are both historians of religion specializing, respectively, in the intellectual history of the idea of paganism and in the development of popular religion and folklore. This book has much to offer to anyone interested in European cultural history, the history of ideas and religious studies.

Following Lynn V. Andrews on the continuation of her life's journey to embrace her sacred feminine power, Star Woman, the fourth book in the internationally bestselling Medicine Woman series, will inspire you to face your fears, recognize your shadow self, and embrace the power of the stars inherent within.A little more than a decade has passed since Lynn Andrews first became initiated into the Sisterhood of the Shields, a secret circle of woman shamans from all over the world, but her journey into the depths of her own power has seemingly just begun. Serving as a bridge between primal ancient knowledge and modern consciousness, Lynn must embrace the dark side of her own spirit and follow the west wind, tapping into the innate, extraordinary powers that exist within us all. Upon visiting a man claiming to have bred a magical horse, Lynn meets the spectacular white stallion, Arion. But, obsessed with power, the horse breeder deceives Lynn, poisoning and kidnapping her for the evil shaman Red Dog, who longs to finally destroy her. In a blaze of light and glory, Arion and Lynn escape, starting her vision quest into the depths of her soul. When she awakens, she meets a new teacher of the Sisterhood: Twin Dreamers, a nomadic shape-shifting shaman woman who, together with Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs, guide Lynn in the unraveling of the barriers of her consciousness, her self-imposed limitations, and her deepest fears.

In Windhorse Woman, the sixth book in her bestselling Medicine Woman series, an odyssey of the spirit will take Lynn V. Andrews to the completion of the circle of learning as an apprentice shaman and the start of another quest for the truth only reached through struggle on the human path.Outside of Kathmandu where the majestic Himalayas thrust their jagged peaks against Nepal's azure sky, Lynn V. Andrews begins her most momentous journey yet. Her destination is a remote valley high in the mountains where she is searching for a secret hidden for three millennia. More than fifteen years ago, Lynn Andrews became an apprentice to Agnes Whistling Elk, an Indigenous shamaness in the far north. Then, with help from other wise women of the Sisterhood of the Shields—a secret society of Indigenous shamaness women from around the world—she continued her quest for selfhood. In Windhorse Woman, on the roof of the world in Nepal, Lynn seeks an urgent solution to both the wounds of woman's inner self and the ongoing destruction of Mother Earth. Believing the key lies with the healing powers of woman, Lynn follows an extraordinary dream to a Nepalese woman who'll become her new teacher. But also waiting in this high land of snow is an awesome male force, Windhorse. Unlike the male antagonists of her past who embodied only negative male energies, Windhorse is ready to offer a passionate marriage of spirit and flesh—and a oneness of all-surpassing love able to transform Lynn's destiny and perhaps our own.

• Explains the techniques used to achieve trance in seiðr, how to journey in the Nine Realms, and the different gods and spirits you may encounter• Discusses the tools of seiðr, such as the seiðr staff and hood, and how to create them, empower them, and care for them• Details Norse divination methods, ways to alter fate, healing techniques, the use of protective songs, and the practice of Norse soul retrievalWhile Norse rune work is well known, there is another major ancient Norse magical practice: seiðr (pronounced'sayther'), a form of trance spirit work and divination. Although seiðr is often considered an ancient form of witchcraft, recent archaeological evidence suggests it is more closely related to shamanism.In this practical guide to seiðr, Dean Kirkland, Ph.D., reconstructs the magical and shamanic techniques of the seiðr priest or priestess using the sagas and other literature from the Viking Age, tools found in the archaeological record, and surviving indigenous shamanic traditions. He addresses the misconception that seiðr was reserved only for women and shows how anyone called to this work can practice it in the modern world. He discusses the tools of seiðr—how to create them, empower them, and care for them—and he explores the use of protective songs (varðlokur) that involve forming bonds with spirits, a practice he likens to the medicine songs of Amazonian shamans.Looking at trance journeying in the Nine Realms of the Norse cosmos, the author discusses the different gods and spirits the seiðr practitioner may encounter in the Upper, Middle, and Lower realms. He shares methods of divination using the seiðr staff as well as ways to alter ørlög, or fate, through spiritual work. Discussing soul-healing techniques in seiðr, the author looks in depth at the Norse shamanic practices of soul retrieval and reintegration of the soul parts. He then explores the role of seiðr in death, dying, and dealing with the dead, including work with the valkyries and the ancestors.Presenting a historically based handbook for contemporary heathens, this book offers a practical path for anyone seeking to explore Norse trance magic and mysticism.

• Explores the alphabet of Nature personified in animals and the spiritual lessons of animal medicines—animals personified in plants—including Turtle, Bear, Deer, Wolf, Alligator, and Horse Medicine teachings• Shares profound experiences from the author's long career as an herbalist and his first years growing up on a remote Seminole reservation in the Everglades• Offers shamanic adventures interwoven with comparisons to the psychology of Freud and Jung, the visions of Castaneda, and the occult teachings of Steiner and GurdjieffSharing profound experiences from his long career as well as his first years growing up on a remote Seminole reservation in the Everglades, renowned herbalist Matthew Wood interweaves practical herbalism and the spiritual potency of Nature to deeply explore the plant teachers, animal medicines, and foundational principles of shamanism as a spiritual path.Wood describes a universal “language of the shamans,” based on direct, sometimes supernatural experiences as well as case studies from his practice. He examines the alphabet of Nature and spiritual lessons personified in animals and plants, especially “animal medicines”—when the plant looks like an animal. He shares accounts of Turtle Medicine plants for self-examination, Bear Medicine plants to open the imagination, and Wolf Medicine plants for wholeness and magic. He explores the plants of Alligator Medicine for healthful prosperity, Horse Medicine plants to bring the conscious self in harmony with the animal self, Badger Medicine plants to strengthen gut instincts, and many other herb and animal teachers. He also looks at plants associated with journeying to the spirit world through the medicine of Crane, Dragon, and Bat.Revealing the shamanic roots of his herbal teachings, Matthew Wood provides not only an inside view of his lifelong spiritual path but also an immersive and experiential guide to the shamanic wisdom of countless plant and animal teachers.

• Provides a full explanation for each character of the Celtic tree alphabets and their historic variants, including each symbol's corresponding trees, colors, birds, cryptic codes, and esoteric inner meanings• Explores the use of Celtic tree alphabets in spiritual invocation, divination, and symbolic art as well as the practice of Ogham cryptography• Explains how, like Norse Runes, each Ogham character is a meditative symbol in its own right and offers the possibility of deep psychic transformationEmanating from the spiritual traditions of Celtic antiquity, Ogham is best known as a “tree alphabet.” It is a symbolic system that encapsulates the archaic skills and wisdom of ancient Ireland and Britain and is important in contemporary Druidry. Studying the Oghams enables us to engage with ancient ways of thinking and gain access to the elemental powers that speak to the inner nature of our being, the wildwood in our hearts.Presenting a wide-ranging exploration of the Ogham tree alphabet, Nigel Pennick explores the traditional lore of the Celtic trees and their relationship to ancient, mythic beings from whom their understanding was legendarily derived. Each Ogham character is a meditative symbol in its own right, embodying a creative power available to all. Pennick provides a full explanation for each of the Ogham letters along with correspondences from historic Irish sources and considers their use in ciphers, spiritual invocation, divination, and symbolic art. He also discusses ceremonies that assist in reconnecting us with nature and the wilderness, including “Maying” and greenwood marriages and the use of colors and magical binding-knots in the Celtic tradition. Also included is a chapter on the little-known Coelbren y Beirdd, a cryptic system devised for the use of Bards and Druids.This handbook for learning Ogham and Coelbren offers a comprehensive understanding of the ancient Celtic worldview, allowing you to apply their wisdom in modern life.

• Analyzes the syncretic magical system of Voudon Gnosticism and the traditions from which it is sourced• Explains the practices of Voudon Gnosticism in detail, including how to speak with the Lwas (spirits) and establish relationships with them• Explores the history of Voudon Gnosticism and significant teachers like Martinez de Pasqually, Lucien François Jean-Maine, and Michael BertiauxThe Voudon Gnostic system—a unique melding of Haitian Vodou with Gnosticism, Martinism, and other traditions—is one of the most creative and rich ways to explore magic. Providing a comprehensive introduction to this complex magical tradition, Frater Vameri explores its history and practices, initiating novices and more advanced readers into his own Voudonist world and the tradition's conceptions of life and death.Vameri begins by exploring the founding and evolution of the system from its origins in Haiti to its séances in Chicago, including significant teachers such as Martinez de Pasqually, Lucien François Jean-Maine, Papus, and Michael Bertiaux. He looks at Voudon Gnosticism's early connections with Caribbean Martinist colonies, the Black Templars, Paschal Beverly Randolph, the Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua, and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.The author explains how the lwas of Voudon Gnosticism are the same spirits found in traditional Haitian Vodou, yet approached differently. He explores how to learn to speak with the lwas, establish relationships with them, and profit from their revelations. He examines the Hoodoo system of the Voudon Gnosticism tradition and details how to build a Hoodoo altar as well as an atua, or spirit house, for adepts who have decided to establish enduring relationships with the spirits.Presenting a practical guide to this unique system, Vameri not only enables you to understand the history and intricate mechanisms of Voudon Gnosticism, but also reveals how to build your own magical universe with the help of Les Vudu.

Rhonda McCrimmon brings the ancient, healing wisdom of Celtic shamanism to life so we can break free from the chains of past traumas, hurts, and heartaches and live a whole, connected, and more meaningful life. Celtic shamanism is a spiritual tradition whose origins predate the arrival of Christianity in northern Europe. According to this ancient tradition, the root of a person's physical, spiritual, and emotional health comes from the balancing the body's three energy centers called the “three cauldrons,” the Cauldron of Warming, the Cauldron of Motion, and the Cauldron of Wisdom. The Celts believed a person must activate, nurture, and maintain all three cauldrons to live a whole, connected, meaningful life. Now, Rhonda McCrimmon—a beloved shamanic teacher— takes readers on a spiritual journey from the lowest of the three energetic cauldrons to the highest, sharing practices to cultivate each cauldron's unique potential. The Cauldron of Warming, the wellspring of our innate knowledge, can be drained by past traumas, leaving us anxious and fearful. McCrimmon teaches you how to replenish this cauldron and restore your birthright of inner peace and security. The Cauldron of Motion is on its side at birth but fills as we experience deep grief or joy. It is the source of our capacity to love and nurture. Learn how to balance this cauldron, establish healthy boundaries, and protect yourself from emotional drain. The Cauldron of Wisdom is upside down at birth. When it is righted, we receive one of the most sublime gifts of Celtic spirituality—a profoundly felt connection with nature.In each chapter, McCrimmon provides self-reflections and other exercises designed to help readers: Activate and balance your inner cauldrons. Dispel fear by tapping into your innate wisdom. Work through past traumas, foster love, and nurture emotional resilience. Manifest creative potential through rituals and meditations. The book also explores the tradition of Celtic fire festivals and the sacred practice of saining. Regardless of your ancestral roots, Rhonda McCrimmon invites you to explore this ancient wisdom and begin your journey down the shaman's path. The book includes a foreword by HeatherAsh Amara, author of Warrior Goddess Training.

Power Tools for Spiritual TransformationThe Shaman's Book of Extraordinary Practices is a treasure chest of time-tested shamanic practices to help you achieve radical personal transformation. Building on his decades of experience as a shamanic practitioner and spiritual teacher, author José Luis Stevens offers fifty-eight simple but extraordinarily effective practices to bring about spiritual growth. The practices in this book are organized into six categories: Preparatory—Establish a foundation of essential basic skills Energetic—Unblock and redirect stuck energy Relational—Deepen your relationships with others, nature, and yourself Physical—Use your body as a portal to the divine Creative—Harness the power of the imagination for spiritual growth Perceptual—Learn to perceive things in fresh new ways Contrary to popular belief, Stevens asserts that you don't need to attend intense retreats or to leave behind your home, job, and relationships to seek spiritual growth. You can awaken right now, today, in whatever circumstances already surround you.

Mexican Magic shares spells and recipes deeply rooted in Mexican folk beliefs and magic. “Some are born with a star, while others are born starry.” This dicho (saying) refers to the Mexican belief that good luck is a matter of fate—something you are born with or not. Mexicans traditionally attribute their good or bad luck to a greater force, to God's will, even to the stars in the sky. Being born with a star is a blessing. While some gain their luck through fate, Laura Davila believes even more in faith, virtue, and purpose. Some people are born with a natural gift for magic, but many others are compelled toward magic by life experience. The best brujos and magical people are not those who necessarily started off in perfect circumstances but those who looked at magic as a skill to be mastered. Mexican Magic offers an overview of magic and spells from across Mexico for daily use. Although the book's spells may be practiced by anyone, they are deeply rooted in Mexican folk beliefs and magic. Featuring magical recipes, spells, tips, and advice for a wide variety of intentions, including love, lust, sex, good luck, money, protection, commerce, gambling, justice, pregnancy, travel, education, and more, Mexican Magic also offers direction on how to be a magical person and live a magical life.

• Comparte ritos y prácticas de veneración tradicionales para conectarte con tus antepasados, incluidos rituales de limpieza, viajes de trance, trabajo energético y jardinería sagrada• Explora las prácticas ancestrales de elaboración de altares, herramientas sagradas para los altares y cómo invitar a tus antepasados a tomar un papel activo para intervenir en tu nombre• Describe el proceso de deificación de antepasados estimados y cómo esta práctica abre el acceso a poderes especiales para aquellos que comparten el linaje de ese antepasadoAl explorar los diversos y dinámicos ritos de veneración ancestral de los antiguos mesoamericanos, así como los que se practican en el curanderismo contemporáneo, Erika Buenaflor muestra cómo podemos aprovechar estas tradiciones para reconectarnos con nuestros antepasados, profundizar nuestros viajes de sanación y dar forma a nuestras vidas. Ella explica cómo los ancestros tienen energía sagrada que puede continuar en sus herederos físicos directos, renacer en el paisaje en sitios sagrados o manifestarse en otros seres que habitan las mismas tierras. Ella describe el proceso de deificación de los ancestros estimados y cómo esto abre el acceso a poderes especiales para aquellos que comparten el linaje de ese ancestro.Buenaflor examina las antiguas ofrendas y ceremonias sagradas utilizadas para asegurar la ayuda, guía e intervención de los antepasados, así como el bienestar y la comodidad de los antepasados en el más allá. Al llevar el conocimiento a la actualidad, comparte numerosos ritos de veneración y prácticas de sanación para fortalecer los lazos con sus antepasados, incluidos rituales de limpieza, elaboración de artesanías rituales, viajes de trance, respiración chamánica, trabajo energético con vidas pasadas y presentes, jardinería sagrada y altares ancestrales. Ella te introduce a la espiritualidad de Nepantla, el camino de la recuperación del espacio liminal sagrado, y te muestra cómo puedes sanar tu linaje ancestral y recuperar a tus estimados ancestros, aquellos que te anclan con un sentimiento de pertenencia a algo más grande, divino y hermoso.Ya sea que puedas crear un árbol genealógico largo y detallado o no tengas conocimiento de tus abuelos o incluso de tus padres, este libro ofrece muchas formas de conectarse con tus antepasados espirituales, sanar tu linaje y recibir ayuda espiritual mientras reclamas a tus antepasados y les da la bienvenida en tu vida.

An engaging narrative, poetic in style, Enter the Journey: A Mystical Guide for Rebirth and Renewal opens the imagination and takes you on an extraordinary adventure from the wintry Arctic landscape to the portals and vortexes of Sedona, Arizona's red rocks. Assisted by power animals and spirit guides, Enter the Journey will return you to your true essence and compel you to embrace your destiny in a new equilibrium. Author Rosanna Ienco demonstrates the profound soul connection and hidden wisdom mysteriously waiting in the caves deep within your interior landscape. Through creative visualisation and wild imagination, you will accompany Rosanna along her metaphysical voyage deep inside a mysterious cavern in the Australian Outback, where she reunites with an ancient teacher who shares hidden knowledge. Enter the Journey is an enchanting mixture of shamanic journeys and authentic storytelling, an otherworldly odyssey in which Rosanna shares her own tales of transformation - revealing a sacred, unbroken bond of love and trust as she transports you through the aurora borealis, among the stars, opening your imagination, guiding you through the magical gateway to your soul. Enter the Journey opens a path through Earth's wisdom to rebirth and renewal.

Discover the healing power of food using over 100 ancient recipes and ingredients adapted for the modern world, from the author of The Sacred Science.Satisfy your tastebuds, appetite, and soul with this inspiring collection of easy-to-make, flavorful recipes. Nick Polizzi grew up in a restaurant and has spent much of his life traveling the world, studying traditional healing foods from Northern Africa all the way to remote regions of the Amazon rainforest. In their home kitchen, Nick and his wife, Michelle, have translated this hard-earned culinary wisdom into everyday meals meant for sharing.Every recipe meets three fundamental criteria: 1) it has ingredients that can be traced back at least 500 years, 2) it has well-documented health benefits, and 3) it's absolutely delicious. Accessible and easy-to-follow, this cookbook focuses on:Soups and stews Medicinal spices and saucesFermented superfoodsDried and cured snacksNutrient-dense proteinsSavory mushroom dishesGreens, petals, and grassesForgotten ancient grainsEnzyme-rich breadsHealing elixirs and spiritsTeas and tonicsAppealing to a broad palate, this full-color cookbook provides tips and substitutions for adjusting to different needs, including gluten-free and vegan diets.

A complete guide to shamanic drumming for enhancing Reiki practice• Shares Reiki drum techniques and step-by-step shamanic practices to strengthen the potency of Reiki symbols and treatments and bring empowerment, healing, connection, and clarity to you and your clients• Looks at selecting a drum, attuning to its unique power, and how to use it for self-healing and for work with clients• Explains the essence of shamanic journeying with a drum, including how to set intentions, access and navigate the three shamanic worlds, meet spirit guides, and connect deeply with your intuitionCombining the drum with reiki allows a practitioner to deepen their practice by integrating vibrational sound and shamanism. In this guide, reiki master and shamanic teacher Fay Johnstone explores reiki drum techniques and step-by-step shamanic practices to bring empowerment, healing, connection, and clarity to you and your clients. Exploring the magic of the drum, Shamanic Reiki Drumming explains the essence of shamanic journeying, including how to access and navigate the three shamanic worlds, meet spirit guides, and connect deeply with your intuition. Outlining different techniques of drumming for yourself and others, the author presents a shamanic reiki treatment fl ow protocol for the basic structure of a session, whether in person or distant healing. Simple, practical exercises are offered to help restore connection to our true self through drumming with nature, exploring the cosmos, and honoring the ancestors. The book includes guidelines for conducting ceremony and holding drum circles or reiki shares for group healing and shamanic journeying. Welcoming all reiki practitioners into the rhythm of the drum and the path of shamanism, this guide will inspire you to journey deeper into the unseen web that connects us all.

A guide to connecting with your ancestors and healing your lineage• Shares traditional veneration rites and practices to connect with your ancestors, including limpia rites, trance journeys, energy work, and sacred gardening• Explores ancestral altar-making practices, sacred tools for altars, and how to invite your ancestors to take an active role in intervening on your behalf• Describes the deification process of esteemed ancestors and how this opens access to special powers for those sharing that ancestor's lineageExploring the diverse and dynamic ancestral veneration rites of the ancient Mesoamericans as well as those practiced in contemporary curanderismo, Erika Buenaflor shows how we can draw from these traditions to reconnect with our ancestors, deepen our healing journeys, and shape our lives. She explains how ancestors contain sacred energy that can continue in their direct physical heirs, be reborn in the landscape at sacred sites, or manifest in other beings that inhabit the same lands. She describes the deification process for esteemed ancestors and how this opens access to special powers for those sharing that ancestor's lineage. Buenaflor examines the ancient sacred offerings and ceremonies used to ensure ancestral aid, guidance, and intervention as well as the ancestors'well-being and comfort in the afterlife. Bringing the knowledge into the present day, she shares numerous veneration rites and healing practices to strengthen your bonds with your ancestors, including limpia rites, ritual craft-making, trance journeys, shamanic breathwork, energy work with past and present lives, sacred gardening, and ancestral altar-making. She introduces you to Nepantla spirituality, the path of reclaiming sacred liminal space, and shows how you can heal your ancestral lineage and reclaim your esteemed ancestors, those who anchor you with a feeling of belonging to something greater, divine, and beautiful. Whether you are able to create a long and detailed family tree or have no knowledge of your grandparents or even parents, this book offers many ways to connect with your spiritual forebearers, heal your lineage, and receive spiritual aid as you reclaim your ancestors and welcome them into your life.

The first in the late Lynn Andrews's widely popular and visionary Medicine Woman series, this book will encourage you to find your own sacred feminine power.Join Lynn V. Andrews in her pivotal book Medicine Woman, following her journey as an American Indian art collector turned shaman initiate. While visiting an art gallery in Beverly Hills, Lynn sees an image of a rare American Indian basket, which immediately captivates her and haunts her dreams. Upon calling the gallery the following day, she finds that it has mysteriously disappeared. Through a series of serendipitous events, Lynn eventually finds herself in the wilderness of Manitoba to locate a Cree woman named Agnes Whistling Elk, who is said to know the location of the sacred marriage basket and could help Lynn retrieve it. But once up north, Lynn finds more than she bargained for. The evil shaman Red Dog has stolen the marriage basket from Agnes. Agnes asks fellow wise woman Ruby Plenty Chiefs to help her teach Lynn their sacred ways before she attempts to steal it back. From there, Lynn is instructed to become a huntress, invite her wolf-self forward to better serve her on her mission, and to learn to embrace her own sacred medicine. Will Lynn find the feminine power within herself in time to face and defeat Red Dog once and for all?

¿Por qué la acción ritual y el chamanismo son tan importantes para los pueblos amerindios? ¿Qué hay detrás de las dispendiosas celebraciones dedicadas a sus deidades? Desde la experiencia del pueblo o'dam (tepehuano) del norte de México, la vida se plantea como una deuda con los dioses que la concedieron. Para mantenerla, los seres humanos les retribuyen a través de un elaborado ceremonial, observando arduas abstinencias como el ayuno y la acción ritual de los chamanes, sus intermediarios privilegiados. Este libro explica el proceso de iniciación chamánica y describe el carácter de los distintos ancestros con los que los humanos entablan relación y negociación: los dioses de la caza y la agricultura; los dioses cristianos de origen europeo; los espíritus del bosque causantes de las enfermedades. El retorno de los ancestros constituye un detallado recuento etnográfico que explora una teoría o'dam sobre el mundo, los dioses y la humanidad.

A journey through the three pathways of time--present, past, and future--to open yourself to shamanic visions• Presents shamanic tools to help you prepare to receive visions, release the burdens of the past, and bring clarity to your visions of the future• Shares Earth Whispering practices to expand the senses, set intentions, and connect deeply with intuition and spirit helpers• Offers advice on working with guides and soul protectors as well as the different realms a guide might emerge fromVisionaries dream the future into life, and throughout the ages shamans have served this role within their communities. Yet, how does one as an individual open to visions and allow the messages we need to hear to come through? Enter the stage of Shamanic Dreaming for a playful, evocative rendezvous with circle consciousness. In this shamanic guide, visionary Carol Day shows how to access our creative potential to shape a strong vision for ourselves and others, connecting intimately to the world around with the support of seen and unseen realms. Earth whispering practices prepare for shamanic visioning by expanding the senses; we open up to different dimensions and initiate a conscious relationship with nature, myth, and archetype through the creativity wheel. A time travel adventure through present, past, and future lands connects us with the ancestors and the future ones. Working with nature portals on the land and attuning with nature and animal guides, we visit the past to heal our ancestral lines. Visiting the future ones, we understand the importance of what we hold today in creating the environments and conditions of the future. Closing the circle to the present, our longing finds us ready to bring clarity to our own visions. Ingeniously crafted, Shamanic Dreaming provides us with all the practical skills needed for insightful visionary questing.

Reveal the secrets of the esoteric druidic alphabet and unlock its potential as a powerful magical tool. Writing systems have been used for magical power and mystical insight in spiritual history throughout history, and the Coelbren Alphabet is no different. Originally devised by a famous Welsh poet, the Bardic Alphabet, known as the Coelbren, has always seemed to hold great promise in the esoteric world. But because of its impenetrable nature, the capacity of the Coelbrean Alphabet as a system of divination has remained hidden, simply a relic of a bygone era. However, in this revised and expanded edition of his classic book John Michael Greer illuminates the power of the Alphabet and shows you how to implement it to full effect in your magical studies. The book provides the name of each letter, alongside the Welsh keyword, meaning, symbolism and pronunciation as well as the divinatory interpretation of each letter, showing readers how to use this unique system for divination and magic. It also provides sample readings, scrying, meditation techniques and tips for making your own Coelbren set. The new edition includes a chapter on gematria, as well as expanded chapters on the symbolism and magic of the alphabet.

Bridging the mystical and the scientific for Maximum Medicine• 2024 Coalition of Visionary Resources Gold and Silver Awards in separate categories• 2024 Nautilus Silver Award• Shows how applying shamanic and energy medicine techniques alongside allopathic medicine can shift your health and allow you to increase your life force• Reveals how to sense the energy body in order to understand imbalances and develop greater control over your health• Looks at new ways of viewing health challenges and visualizing the potential for healing using symbolic medicine wheels and the Andean symbol of the ChacanaFor more than 20 years, Dr. Sharon E. Martin has been blending allopathic medicine with ancient shamanic knowledge to help her patients not only heal but also increase their vitality. In this practical guide to her Maximum Medicine program, Dr. Martin shows how understanding the energetics behind health imbalances and applying shamanic and energy medicine techniques can shift not only our perspective but our health, change the course of illness, and allow us to increase our life force. Bridging the mystical and the scientific, Maximize Your Healing Power helps us visualize our potential for healing using symbolic medicine wheels based on the elements, the compass directions, the four perspectives, and the inner tasks of intuitive exploration, amplification, intention setting, and ritual. Viewing our organ systems through the Andean symbol of the Chacana can help us understand and overcome health challenges. Change and healing is enacted through the process of the Four As—become aware, allow, act, affirm—with a new mindfulness matrix amplifying and deepening the process toward a greater ability to self-reflect. Presenting a clear, stepwise approach to attaining mastery of your health through many case studies as well as simple practices and methods to gain control over illness, Dr. Martin shows how anyone can support their own healing and experience being more fully alive.

Discover powerful energetic rites based on Andean shamanic teachings to heal the wounds of your past, further your spiritual evolution, and reveal your sacred purpose.Our world is desperately in need of a new compass and the rites of the Munay-Ki, which have been crafted for a Western audience, offer shamanic wisdom for the modern person. These initiations—based on initiatory practices of the shamans of the Andes and the Amazon—are profoundly healing and will alchemize your deepest wounds and limiting beliefs into sources of compassion. They encourage you to grow your love and empathy and see the interconnectedness of all life as you join a lineage of healers and Earthkeepers. The Sacred Andean Codes includes detailed explanations of each rite's benefits, how it came to be, and how you can incorporate its wisdom into your own life. As a powerful blueprint for self-realization, these initiations invite you on a heartfelt evolutionary path with love at its core. Embark on your own sacred journey, recognize your innate wholeness, tune into unlimited energy, and fulfill your potential as a luminous being—and an agent of change and transformation in the world.

An investigation into the underpinnings and superstructures of the Pagan world view Pagan religions have tended to be more concerned with practice that with theory and in a system that has no dogma - no legislated doctrine - that is as it should be. Yet as the movement grows and matures, it is inevitable that we will begin to think in a more abstract way about our models and systems. John Michael Greer has provided a primer on the kinds of ideas and themes that must be included in any discussion of the theology and philosophy of Neo-pagan religions. Much of the book takes shape in a dialogue with existing ideas in theology, philosophy, and comparative religion. It looks to find a middle ground between too much and too little reference to the work of other scholars to find a comprehensible yet intellectually rigorous middle ground. It aims to be part of a conversation, that stretches out over the centuries. Voices of polytheist spirituality have had little place in that conversation for many years, but much of value has been said in their absence. The rebirth of polytheism as a living religious tradition in the Western world will inevitably force a reassessment of much of that heritage, and pose challenges to some of its most cherished assumptions. Yet reassessment is not necessarily rejection, and the traditions of modern polytheism are deeply enough indebted to legacies from the past that an attentive ear to earlier phases of the conversation is not out of place.

Through the perspective of having grown up among'HinJews'in the Ram Dass community and cannabis legalization movement, journalist Madison Margolin takes the reader on a journey inside New York's Jewish counterculture and the Hasidic underground, reconciling her roots, tackling ancestral Jewish trauma, and finding intersectionality between the Jewish and psychedelic experience.Exile and Ecstasy sets out to explore the psychedelic path that occupies the crossroads between the Ram Dass movement and Hasidism. It's a path of seeking and escape, rebellion and return, medicine and magic.Bridging the polar ends of the Jewish and psychedelic worlds, while buttressing the experience with expert reportage, Madison Margolin prods at Be Here Now to find its relevance and utility in a new generation, facing different issues than those Ram Dass faced as a generally well-to-do boomer. In doing so, she looks at solutions to our lack of presence and offers practices that help us integrate our psychedelic experiences in mundane life, as well as in the context of our roots and religious identities.This book is for anyone looking to feel spiritually kindled, to make peace with where they come from, and to reconcile seemingly disparate experiences of spirituality and psychedelics, with traditional religion.

In the ancient world, priestesses were wise women who delivered messages from the gods. They also served the people, offering healing, virtue, leadership, and insight. In our modern times, women's responsibilities can be overwhelming. When you're juggling a high-powered job, caring for your young family and even your elderly parents, when can you find time for yourself, let alone service to the wider world? This practical guide offers lessons both ancient and modern to help us to rise into our own inner power. It invites us to look to the timeless mythos of the cultures of the world for direction to build resilience, strength, and confidence as well as our capacity for profound joy, creativity, and focused action. Priestess Path will inspire you to be more ethically powerful, make a positive difference to your community and to the planet – and, in turn, inspire others.

Humanity is in crisis. War, poverty, environmental disasters, and more have brought the planet to a tipping point. In our personal lives, many of us carry deep-seated fear, resentment, anger, and even hatred for others and ourselves. Since ancient times, Toltec shamans have taught that the root of all this discord can be found in the human mind and what they called its addiction to suffering. They have also taught that the time will come when we must choose to either break free from this addiction or pay the ultimate price. According to Toltec Shaman don Jose Ruiz, that time is now, and the change that is needed can only come from within. In The Shaman's Path to Freedom, Ruiz will teach you how to find and claim your own personal freedom, one based on unconditional love for yourself and others, and in doing so break your mind's addiction to suffering. By walking this path, you can live a life of peace and harmony within yourself, which is the most important thing you can do to bring about the change that is needed in the world. Filled with Toltec practices for establishing personal freedom, The Shaman's Path to Freedom is don Jose Ruiz's most personal and radical book yet, guaranteed to thrill both new readers and longtime fans.

Provides a clear and accessible guide to the many different North Asian shamanic traditions, past and present. What is shamanism? Where is it from? How does one become a shaman? What are the requirements to become one? Anthropologists tell us that the word shaman derives from the Tungus language and traditions, but few people understand the full scope of what that means. In his groundbreaking book, Spirit Voices, David Shi answers all these questions and more. Drawing upon his own ancestral traditions, Shi explores the history and practice of shamanism. He guides readers through what may be the unfamiliar landscapes of North Asia—the place where shamanism was born—as well as the largely hidden and unfamiliar traditions of Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungus shamanism, exploring the subtle and unique aspects of each tradition. Shi provides a clear and accessible guide that explores the many different North Asian shamanic traditions. So, what exactly is shamanism? David Shi suggests that the most accurate definition derives from shamanologist Nicholas Breeze Wood, who writes, “A shaman is someone chosen by the spirits [typically at or before birth] and who can go into a controlled and repeatable deliberate trance state, during which they A) experience ‘spirit flight,'where they go to the spirit worlds and meet spirits, who they either fight with, negotiate with, or trick, in order to create change in this physical world, or B) are often taken over/possessed by the spirits (normally ancestral shaman spirits, or local land spirits) while in this physical world—the spirits using the shaman's voice and body to heal, or give advice to members of the shaman's community. Without the spirits and their blessing, a shaman cannot exist or function. Without the trance state, it is not shamanism.” Featuring history, firsthand experiential reports, mythology, and folklore, Spirit Voices explores the spirits, spirituality, tools, and practices of true shamanism, past and present. Shi also provides practical information for those readers seeking to implement shamanic practices, including those that are appropriate to noninitiates and outsiders to the culture. As the author points out, “the purpose of shamanism can be summed up in two words: coexistence and balance—coexistence with our spirits and our communities, and the balance that must be preserved between all of us and within ourselves.”

WISDOM FROM THE WOMEN HEALERS OF THE PSYCHEDELIC UNDERGROUND The use of entheogens, or psychedelics, is out of the closet today. LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, and other medicines once associated only with the counterculture are now being legally studied for their healing properties. But as Rachel Harris shows, the underground use and study of psychedelics by women dates back to the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece. Harris interviews the modern women elders carrying on this tradition to gather their hard-won wisdom of experience. Any reader interested in inspiration, healing, and enlightenment will find here a wonder-filled narrative packed with provocative and perhaps life-changing insight.

Spell work, spiritual cleansing, herbal magic, how to protect against the Evil Eye, and cast, break, and avert hexes and curses.Mexican witchcraft, or brujeria, has long been an integral part of traditional Mexican culture that permeates all strata of social hierarchy, ethnicity, or level of education.“Brujeria de Rancho” refers to brujeria as it is practiced in the rural areas of Mexico. There, the brujos de Ranch offer their healing and divinatory powers, acting as advisors, and even meting out justice through the use of cursing and hexing for people who are often not able to pay lawyers'fees.Davila, a practicing bruja de Rancho and for whom this is a multi-generational family tradition brings this tradition to light in this comprehensive guide to Brujeria and Hechiceria (sorcery), presenting the beliefs and practices to today's readers. The tradition includes a component of folk Catholicism that will be accessible to Pagans, non-Catholics, and practitioners of Hoodoo and Conjure. Topics included in the book are spell work, cleansings (limpias), herbs, talismans, how to protect against the Evil Eye, and also how to cast, break, and avert hexes and curses.

Guided by leading Black herbalistKaren Rose, discover how to harness the magic of plants and diasporic ancestral practices in remedies and ritual. Master Herbalist Karen Rose is a first-generation immigrant from Guyana with ancestors from Ghana, the Congo, China, and India who continues her grandmother's legacy as a healer and herbalist. In The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism, she shares her wisdom on how to partner plants and rituals to guide the process of self-healing. As you alleviate physical symptoms and heal emotional and spiritual imbalances, you will see how plants can help you stand in your power, strengthen your intuition, and provide protection. This guide to harnessing the power of plants is a practical tool for working through the symptoms of body disease and the underlying emotional and spiritual issues. Organized by major body systems—circulatory, respiratory, digestive, liver, sexual, skin, nervous systems, and immune health—The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism gives a brief overview of the physical mechanisms of the system, the spiritual correspondences associated with that system, and the plants, remedies, and rituals that can be used to bring oneself back to healing and balance. Accompanied by beautiful color illustrations of the plants, the organs they affect, and their related spirits, or orishas, each plant profile includes: Botanical and pharmacological information Planetary correspondences Ethnobotanical and historical use Healing properties and indications Methods of preparation and dosage Applying this herbal wisdom, the recipes include: 4th Chakra Heart Oil for healing a broken heart, also helpful for healing generational trauma Inspired Sleep and Dreams Tea to inspire dreams Breathe Easy Steam to improve respiratory health Immunity Chai Tea to fight off cold and flu viruses Laying Hands Stomach and Womb Oil for indigestion and menstrual discomfort A Castor Oil Pack for Liver Health to remove pain and swelling from sprains and bruises Filled with stories, ancestral recipes, and accessible practices that anyone can use, The Art & Practice of Spiritual Herbalism shows you how to use the power of plants for spiritual and physical healing.

Unlock the strength and wisdom in your own lineage, connect with ancestral guides and animal spirits, and discover the healing powers of Indigenous Medicine.Follow the path of the 13 Ojibway moons to help you directly experience your own connection to your inherent healing powers. Through storytelling, personal reflections, ceremonies, rituals and shamanic journeys, The Medicine Within shows you how to apply ancient wisdom and ancestral medicine to your life in meaningful ways that are respectful and conscious of the stolen lands, lives and traditions of Indigenous peoples. You'll discover how to:· ground and root yourself in your own lineage and ancestral guides· connect to Spirit and your innate healing powers in your own unique way· practise self-care and rest on your journey· trust and surrender in order to manifest· release self-doubt, fear, disconnection and insecurityIf you feel you don't have access to your roots, ancestors or spiritual connection and you look outside of yourself for answers, you are forgetting the medicine you need lives within you.

Inspiring teachings centered on navigating our world's collective challenges with indigenous wisdom and the power of psychedelics• With contributions from Christopher Bache, Zoe Helene, Dennis McKenna, Martina Hoffmann, The Dank Duchess, Jamie Wheal, Grandmother Maria Alice, and others• Explores the immense healing intelligence of nature, the wisdom of ancient Indigenous prophecies and shamanic practices, the importance of the Divine Feminine for environmental regeneration, and the crucial role of psychedelic and entheogenic plants in initiating transformations of consciousnessExploring the way forward for humanity in the face of unprecedented crisis, more than 25 contributors show how the wisdom of Indigenous peoples and the power of psychedelics can help us enact the radical shift in consciousness necessary to navigate the collapse of the old world order and the birth of a new consciousness.We hear from psychedelic visionaries Christopher Bache, Zoe Helene, Wade Davis, Chris Kilham, Laurel Sugden, and others on the promise of psychedelic medicines for spiritual and healing work. We learn about Indigenous stories to support our transformation from Native American leader Solana Booth, ancestral memory from Grandmother Maria Alice Campos Freire, cannabis's role in world building from Minelli Eustàcio-Costa, the ritual roots of talking plants from Michael Stuart Ani, and alchemy across the arc of time from shaman Ya'Acov Darling Khan. We also hear from cannabis grower The Dank Duchess; Tyson Yunkaporta, Australian Aboriginal artist and scholar; visionary artist Martina Hoffmann; activist Duane Elgin; Kohenet Rachel Kann, ordained Jewish priestess and ceremonialist; and several other wise leaders for our time. Throughout these profound essays we are reminded of the immense healing intelligence of our plant allies, of the wisdom of shamanic practices, of the importance of the Divine Feminine for environmental regeneration, and of the crucial role of entheogenic plants in initiating transformations of consciousness and healing our world's collective disconnection from Spirit.