Eliot Cowan is the founder of the Blue Deer Center in Margaretville, New York, where he provides training in Plant Spirit Medicine and other traditions. For many years he apprenticed with the shaman Don Guadalupe Gonzalez Rios who, in 2000, ritually recognized Cowan as a guide to shamanic apprentices in the Huichol tradition. He is also a member of the Council of Elders for the Temple of Sacred Fire Healing. His website is www.bluedeer.org.
Down through history, shamans have been those people in the indigenous communities who make friends with the spirits of nature and call upon them for assistance in all types of healing. In this new edition of Plant Spirit Medicine, which was first published in 1995, Eliot Cowan discusses their medicine, dreams, ancestors, emotion, place, and teachers. There are new chapters on community; on controversial sacred plants; and additional interviews with plant shamans from many traditions.
Cowan believes that plants "wish us well in every way. They are perfectly willing to bring us into the blessings of their union with nature." But plants have to be asked properly, and shamans help us see just what that entails.
Later in this paperback, Cowan shares plant spirit medicine's five-element view of healing. There are many other teachings along with a series of invaluable questions readers can use to make an assessment of their body, mind, and soul.
