Goes beyond the stereotypes to restore Vodou to its proper place as a powerful shamanic tradition • Provides practical exercises and techniques from the Vodou tradition that can be used as safe and effective means of spiritual healing and personal transformation • Shows how to remove evil spirits and negative energies sent by others • Written by a fully initiated Houngan (Vodou shaman) Providing practical exercises drawn from all aspects and stages of the Vodou tradition, Vodou Shaman shows readers how to contact the spirit world and communicate with the loa (the angel-like inhabitants of the Other World), the ghede (the spirits of the ancestors), and djabs (nature spirits for healing purposes). The author examines soul journeying and warrior-path work in the Vodou tradition and looks at the psychological principles that make them effective. The book also includes exercises to protect the spiritual self by empowering the soul, with techniques of soul retrieval, removing evil spirits and negative energies, overcoming curses, and using the powers of herbs and magical baths.

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.

A healing and balanced faith, Haitian Vodou is a member of the African Traditional Religions that came into the Western Hemisphere via the Transatlantic slave trade. Despite a much misunderstood image, Vodou gives its practitioners the tools to understand the world around them. By participating in an annual calendar of observances, rituals and services, servitors can engage with the Vodou "Mysteries" , thereby enlisting their aid in helping lead a balanced life. Manbo Vye Zo uses her own story of becoming manbo or mother of the spirits as a stepping stone for her students and godchildren so they can learn by her example. An educational text as well as story, Manbo helps the reader gain a greater understanding of the faith as she leads us ever deeper into unexplored territory. Come experience the world of Haitian Vodou from an insider's perspective, and leave forever changed in your outlook on the world of Vodou.

The first book to examine the spiritual and therapeutic practice of retreat in physical darkness to explore inner light • Shows how experiencing complete darkness over prolonged periods helps in developing mental clarity and creativity • Draws upon many indigenous and spiritual traditions that use this technique The use of ceremonial darkness is a classic and cross-cultural method for exploring hidden aspects of unconscious and super-conscious states, accessing invisible landscapes, and embracing the deeper recesses of the self. In Darkness Visible Heaven and Buxton examine the spiritual and therapeutic practice of taking retreat in physical darkness. For millennia mystics and sages have used darkness as a spiritual tool for breaking with their pasts, prior conditioning, and the limited reality of their societies. Spiritual seekers from many traditions--Celtic, Eastern, indigenous North and South American, Tibetan, and African--have used darkness as a tool for spiritual enlightenment. Heaven and Buxton show how experiencing complete darkness, even for only a period of hours, brings about a remarkable clarity and mental stillness and thus provides a springboard for creativity, intuition, and spiritual development. They include exercises that explore lucid levels of dream consciousness, drawing both from their experience as teachers of this method and from the many cultures that include this practice in their spiritual traditions. Darkness Visible shows how deprivation of sight can truly teach us to see.

A working guide to the proper methods of interacting with the full Vodou pantheon • Includes the myths, cultural heritage, and ancestral lineage of the lwa and how to honor and serve them • Provides an introduction and guide that is especially useful for the solitary practitioner • Discusses the relationship between Vodou, Haitian culture, and Catholicism In The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Kenaz Filan, an initiate of the Société la Belle Venus, presents a working guide to the proper methods of interacting with the full Vodou pantheon, explaining how to build respectful relationships with the lwa, the spirits honored in Haitian Vodou, and how to transform the fear that often surrounds the Vodou religion. Until recently, the Haitian practice of Vodou was often identified with devil worship, dark curses, and superstition. Some saw the saint images and the Catholic influences and wrote Vodou off as a “Christian aberration.” Others were appalled by the animal sacrifices and the fact that the Houngans and Mambos charge money for their services. Those who sought Vodou because they believed it could harness “evil” forces were disappointed when their efforts to gain fame, fortune, or romance failed and so abandoned their “voodoo fetishes.” Those who managed to get the attention of the lwa, often received cosmic retaliation for treating the spirits as attack dogs or genies, which only further cemented Vodou’s stereotype as “dangerous.” Filan offers extensive background information on the featured lwa, including their mythology and ancestral lineage, as well as specific instructions on how to honor and interact fruitfully with those that make themselves accessible. This advice will be especially useful for the solitary practitioner who doesn’t have the personal guidance of a societé available. Filan emphasizes the importance of having a quickened mind that can read the lwa’s desires intuitively in order to avoid establishing dogma-based relationships. This working guide to successful interaction with the full Vodou pantheon also presents the role of Vodou in Haitian culture and explores the symbiotic relationship Vodou has maintained with Catholicism.

Reveals for the first time the ancient tradition of bee shamanism and its secret practices and teachings • Examines the healing and ceremonial powers of the honeybee and the hive • Reveals bee shamanism’s system of acupuncture, which predates the Chinese systems • Imparts teachings from the female tradition and explores the transformative powers of the magico-sexual elixirs they produce Bee shamanism may well be the most ancient and enigmatic branch of shamanism. It exists throughout the world--wherever in fact the honeybee exists. Its medicinal tools--such as honey, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly--are now in common usage, and even the origins of Chinese acupuncture can be traced back to the ancient practice of applying bee stings to the body’s meridians. In this authoritative ethnography and spiritual memoir, Simon Buxton, an elder of the Path of Pollen, reveals for the first time the richness of this tradition: its subtle intelligence; its sights, sounds, and smells; and its unique ceremonies, which until now have been known only to initiates. Buxton unknowingly took his first steps on the Path of Pollen at age nine, when a neighbor--an Austrian bee shaman--cured him of a near-fatal bout of encephalitis. This early contact prepared him for his later meeting with an elder of the tradition who took him on as an apprentice. Following an intense initiation that opened him to the mysteries of the hive mind, Buxton learned over the next 13 years the practices, rituals, and tools of bee shamanism. He experienced the healing and spiritual powers of honey and other bee products, including the “flying ointment” once used by medieval witches, as well as ritual initiations with the female members of the tradition--the Mellisae--and the application of magico-sexual “nektars” that promote longevity and ecstasy. The Shamanic Way of the Bee is a rare view into the secret wisdom of this age-old tradition.

"Most studies of Korean shamanism--a popular religion that is both celebrated and stigmatized--have minimized regional differences, focusing on shamans from central Korea whose work involves spirit possession. Less attention has been paid to hereditary shamans, a number of whom have resided for centuries on Cheju Island, off Korea's southwest coast. Although simbang (native Cheju shamans) are relied upon to perform important rituals, for which they receive lavish offerings, they are often perceived as charlatans who swindle innocent people. This first study of the material exchange and politics of Korean shamanism describes interactions between shamans and their clients in order to show how this ritual exchange is distinct from other forms of transaction, such as barter, purchase, bribery, and gift-giving. The "ritual economy" of Korean simbang involves not only monetary payment, but also reciprocity, sincerity, and the expressive forms that practitioners use to authenticate ritual actions that both emphasize ritual exchange and distinguish it from other forms social and economic transactions"--

The first practical guide to the transformative uses of salvia • Explains how salvia connects you with your higher purpose and aids you in envisioning your unique path in life • Describes appropriate methods of use, a shamanic diet to increase effectiveness, and the meaning of the symbols experienced during salvia’s ecstatic embrace • Explores recent clinical research into salvia’s long-term positive psychological effects and its potential as a treatment for Alzheimer’s, depression, and addiction Salvia divinorum has been used since ancient times by the Mazatec shamans of Mexico for divination, vision quests, and healing. Known by many names--nearly all associated with the Virgin Mary, who has come to symbolize the spirit of salvia--this plant ally is now regarded as the most powerful natural hallucinogen. Providing the first practical guide to the shamanic, spiritual, and therapeutic uses of salvia, Ross Heaven shares his in-depth quest to connect with the spirit of this plant teacher. He explores recent clinical research into its many long-term psychological effects, such as increased insight and self-confidence, improved mood and concentration, and feelings of calmness and connection with nature, as well as salvia’s potential for combating diseases like Alzheimer’s, depression, and even cocaine addiction. Reviewing the traditional Mazatec ceremonies surrounding salvia’s harvest and use, Heaven describes appropriate methods of consumption, typical dosages, and the shamanic diet he used to increase salvia’s effectiveness. Examining firsthand accounts of salvia journeys from around the world, he decodes the meaning of the symbolic images experienced during salvia’s ecstatic embrace and details the interplay between salvia and the lucid dreaming state. Comparing salvia to ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus, Heaven explains that salvia’s greatest strength as a shamanic plant ally lies in its ability to connect you with your higher purpose and aid you in envisioning your unique path in life.

I returned to the village after a time away at university and, seeking out my old friend, I came instead upon a mystery: Adam's cottage, his garden, and Adam himself were nowhere to be found. The author and minister Frederick Buechner wrote that "in one way or another, man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage." And so it was for me. To find my friend, or at least solve the riddle of what had become of him, I embarked on a new journey of discovery. Filled with shamanistic insights and magical experiences, this spiritual memoir tells the true story of Ross Heaven's search for Adam Dilwyn Vaughan. The enigmatic Adam, who introduced Heaven to the lost art of sin eating and other Celtic traditions, left him a gift—his journal. As Heaven travels on the dragon path, he explores the mysteries of the Holy Grail, encounters spirit healers, and experiences an incredible vision of the earth oracle. His fascinating journey ultimately leads to powerful revelations of his life purpose and the fate of humankind. This guide includes a sin eater's workbook of simple Celtic divination, dreamwork, and intuitive practices. Praise: "The story is beautifully told, characters vividly described, and for anyone vaguely interested in the way that dimensions intertwine, this book is fascinating."—Kindred Spirit

Influence the unconscious mind. To practice Voodoo is to enter the ancient world of Magik, where secret arts developed from rituals held by ancient pagans, Native American tribes, Haitians, and Wiccans. Understand Voodoo’s underlying ideas and learn to make use of its powers with illustrated instructions and exercises. Use charms to bring good luck to your relationships, finances, and health--or curses to keep away harmful forces and persons. Make and employ the full range of sacred objects: dolls, candles, incense, ritual clothing, swords, knives, needles and nails, goblets, keys, mirrors, musical instruments, amulets, and masks, for charm or curse symbols to place in your room, car, or clothing. Breathing exercises enable you to enter trances, contact the unconscious and even the dead.