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Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul — Occult Philosophy

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Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul

Name: Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul
Price: 18.99 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9781594771187

✍️ Ross Heaven, Howard G Charing, Pablo Amaringo

Reader Score

4.6

(1 review)

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📚 WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT

This compelling volume delves into global shamanic practices, emphasizing direct communion with plant spirits as a primary healing modality, rather than focusing solely on botanical properties. Authors Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing illuminate fundamental techniques such as soul retrieval, spirit extraction, and sin eating. Drawing from extensive fieldwork and interviews with master shamans across diverse cultures—from the Amazon to Europe—the book reveals a striking universality in how these spiritual alliances empower healing, vision, and personal growth, offering a deep dive into plant-based spiritual work.

Heaven, Ross; , Charing, Howard G; , Amaringo, Pablo

🕯️

Occult Philosophy

Praise for this book

“Plant Spirit Shamanism explores not the usual medicinal qualities of plants, but shamanic communications with the spirits of the plants themselves. . . . Healers will find this essential to understanding plant processes.”

— Diane C. Donovon, California Bookwatch, Nov 2006

🏛 Destiny Books 📅 2006 📖 280 pages 📔 Paperback ISBN: 9781594771187

Fun Fact

This book offers a compelling and well-researched exploration into the spiritual heart of plant shamanism. Its strength lies in presenting universal healing techniques, backed by extensive field interviews, moving beyond simplistic views of herbal medicine. While it excels in cross-cultural comparison and spiritual depth, those seeking detailed ethnobotanical lists or specific herbal remedies might find it less practical as a guide. It firmly establishes itself as a foundational text for understanding the profound role of plant spirits in shamanic practice.

📝 Description: 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.

📑 What's inside

Foreword by Pablo Amaringo
Preface Sins, Souls, and Sun Flowers: Discovering the Power of the Plants by Ross Heaven
Preface The Call of the Plants by Howard G. Charing
Introduction The Way of the Plant Shaman
1 Nothing is Hidden: How Plants Heal
Exercise: A Journey to the Plants
Divining with Coca: An Interview with
an Andean Curandera
Exercise: Making an Offering
Exercise: Making Mojo
Exercise: The Effects of Loving Intent
2 The Shaman's Diet: Listening to the Plants
Exercise: How to Diet
3 Plants of Vision: Sacred Hallucinogens
An Interview with a San Pedro Maestro
Exercise: Dreaming the Great Spirit
Exercise: Discovering Your Ally's Song
Exercise: Creating a Seguro
Exercise: Maintaining the Sacred Communion:
Eating for a Healthy Neural Base
Exercise: Art and Action
4 Healing the Soul
Exercise: Removing Intrusions in the Body
Exercise: Returning Soul Energy
Exercise: Releasing the Soul Parts of Others
Exercise: The Quest for Vision
5 Pusangas and Perfumes: Aromas for
Love and Wholeness
Pusanga, the Fragrance of Love: An Interview
with Two Perfumeros
Exercise: Why Can't I Have What I Want?
Exercise: Making Pusanga
6 Floral Baths: Bathing in Nature's Riches
Baths in the Amazon: An Interview with a Shaman
Baths in Haiti: An Interview with a Leaf Doctor
Exercise: Love Bath (Haitian)
Exercise: Power Bath (Haitian)
Exercise: Soothing Bath (Peruvian)
Exercise: The Language of Flowers (American)
7 The Scream of the Mandrake
Exercise: Prescribing Plant Cures
Appendix 1 A Caribbean Herbal
Appendix 2 A Peruvian Herbal
Appendix 3 Hoodoo Oils
Notes Glossary Index

💎 Expert review

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💎

Esoterica Books editorial team

Occult literature desk

Heaven and Charing deliver a compelling synthesis of global shamanic techniques, highlighting the universality of plant spirit alliances from the Amazon to Europe. The text is rich with fieldwork insights, making it a valuable resource for practitioners interested in soul retrieval and sin eating. However, readers seeking strictly scientific, botanical, or pharmacological data will find little utility here, as the focus remains firmly on spiritual communion rather than chemical analysis. It may also challenge those who view shamanism solely through a historical lens, preferring instead to engage with its living, healing present.

✓ EDITOR'S REVIEW

📖 Why choose it

📖

Why this book is worth reading

Readers seeking profound spiritual depth beyond standard herbalism will find this volume essential. It is ideal for those feeling disconnected from nature’s mystical dimensions, offering practical techniques like soul retrieval and spirit extraction to foster personal growth. If you crave authentic cross-cultural insights into how plant alliances empower healing and vision, this book provides a rigorous yet accessible guide. It appeals to the serious student of esoteric traditions who desires to move beyond theoretical knowledge into active, transformative spiritual work with plant spirits across diverse global cultures.

⭐ Reader reviews

The starting rating comes from the team Esoterica Books —

⭐ Esoterica editorial review Editorial rating 4.6/5

★★★★★

For seekers fascinated by the profound spiritual dimensions of nature, this book offers a gateway. If you're drawn to indigenous healing methods, curious about the consciousness of plants, or wish to deepen your understanding of shamanic practice beyond the superficial, this is an essential guide…

Reader rating

4.6

Based on 1 reviews

Esoterica Books editorial team

Heaven and Charing deliver a compelling synthesis of global shamanic techniques, highlighting the universality of plant spirit alliances from the Amazon to Europe. The text is rich with fieldwork insights, making it a valuable resource for practitioners interested in soul retrieval and sin eating. However, readers seeking strictly scientific, botanical, or pharmacological data will find little utility here, as the focus remains firmly on spiritual communion rather than chemical analysis. It may also challenge those who view shamanism solely through a historical lens, preferring instead to engage with its living, healing present.

❓ Frequently asked questions

No, its core emphasis is on the spiritual intelligence and energetic presence of plant spirits themselves, rather than merely their biochemical effects. It explores how shamans form alliances with these spirits for healing and insight.

Absolutely not. The authors conducted extensive research and interviews with master shamans from various global traditions, including those in the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, revealing universal principles of plant spirit work found across diverse cultures.

📖 Who should read this

🎯 Key themes and symbolism

Communing with Plant Spirits

This work emphasizes that true shamanic healing with plants transcends their chemical compounds. Instead, it centers on establishing a profound, spiritual dialogue with the consciousness residing within flora. Readers will learn the ancient methods for forging these sacred alliances, unlocking a deeper understanding of nature's subtle energies and how to integrate them into spiritual practice for healing and guidance.

Core Shamanic Healing Modalities

The authors reveal the foundational healing practices common across diverse shamanic traditions worldwide. From restoring lost soul fragments through "soul retrieval" to cleansing negative influences via "spirit extraction" and "sin eating," the book outlines timeless methods for spiritual restoration and energetic purification. These universal techniques are presented through the lens of plant spirit guidance, offering powerful tools for transformation.

Worldwide Shamanic Perspectives

Drawing from extensive fieldwork and interviews with shamans in the Amazon, Haiti, and Europe, this text highlights the remarkable consistency in plant-based spiritual work across cultures. It showcases how different traditions arrive at similar conclusions regarding the power and role of plant spirits, offering a truly global perspective on this ancient art. The book underscores the interconnectedness of human spiritual experience with the plant kingdom.

📜 Historical context

This book significantly contributes to the growing body of literature exploring cross-cultural shamanism, building on foundational works that identified universal patterns in spiritual healing. It specifically enriches the discourse on ethnobotany and spiritual ecology, emphasizing the animistic perspective of plant consciousness that often predates modern scientific understanding, thereby bridging ancient wisdom with contemporary interest in holistic well-being and natural spirituality.

📚 Glossary

Shamanism
Soul Retrieval
Spirit Extraction

📔 Questions to reflect on

Reflect on a time you felt a profound connection to a natural element or a specific plant. How might you intentionally deepen this connection through mindful interaction?
Consider the concept of 'soul loss' in your own life or observed in others. What might be some modern-day manifestations of this ancient idea, and how could it be addressed?
If plants possess consciousness and offer spiritual alliance, how might this alter your daily interactions with the natural world, from gardening to simply walking in a park?