Herbs of the Northern Shaman: A Guide to Mind-Altering Plants of the Northern Hemisphere [Paperback]

Steve Andrews (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 109 pages
• Publisher: Loompanics Unlimited (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559502118
• ISBN-13: 978-1559502115
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,719,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Cardiff, South Wales, in 1953, but now based in Tenerife, Steve Andrews is also known by his stage name as a singer-songwriter as Bard of Ely, which title he was given by Big Issue magazine in which he had a column in the '90s. He is the author of Herbs of the Northern Shaman, originally published by Loompanics Unlimited in 2000 but republished in October 2010 by O-Books with additional text and updated material, as well as new colour photographs by Katrinia Rindsberg. His autobiographical book Hummadruz and a Life of High Strangeness is published by Amazon Kindle.
Steve Andrews has written for Prediction magazine in collaboration with CJ Stone, and on his own for Kindred Spirit, Permaculture, Living Tenerife and Feed Your Brain magazines, as well as having been a columnist for the Tenerife Sun and a contributor to Tenerife News.
As a singer and musician he has performed at Glastonbury and the Green Man festivals and was a compère for the Avalon stage at Glastonbury in 2002 and 2003. As the Bard of Ely he has songs released on the Taffia EP on Crai Records in 2002 and on the Green Man Festival album in 2003. He has a new album out on DMMG Records entitled Welsh Wizard.
In the late '90s Steve worked as a TV presenter for two series of In Full View, a magazine series on BBC Choice.
Besides being a published author himself, he is written about in some detail in CJ Stone's Fierce Dancing, The Last of the Hippies and Housing Benefit Hill, in Peter Finch's Real Cardiff, in Christopher James Stone and Arthur Pendragon's Trials of Arthur and in Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe's The World's Most Mysterious People.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing reference material, May 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Herbs of the Northern Shaman: A Guide to Mind-Altering Plants of the Northern Hemisphere (Paperback)

I ordered this book based on the glowing reviews, here is a more honest review. As a reference material the book is sorley lacking and is nearly unusable. Most of the plants do not have so much as a sketch let alone a picture. The ones that do have drawings are poorly done and not very helpful. The very few that have photos are in black and white! There are so few plants described in this book it would have only taken a few short pages to include color plates of all the described plants. At the very least drawings should have accompanied EACH description, and included various parts, stages of growth etc.

Coupled with the fact that the suggested uses are very vauge makes this book nearly useless. Other than the very obvious well known plants (that recieve multiple pages), the more obscure plants get a very brief description with a short "guess" as to their properties and uses. The authors obviously intentional vaugeness leads one to be suspect of his sources not to mention his actual knowledge of what he is describing.

At best this book could be used to learn the scientific names of said plant so that one could do further research using better, more complete resources.

While I certainly wasn't expecting a "how to" manual, I did at least hope for a more complete reference material in the spirit of other field guides. This book falls way short of being useful as anything much more than a cofee table curiosity.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "user friendly" and highly recommended reference., March 22, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herbs of the Northern Shaman: A Guide to Mind-Altering Plants of the Northern Hemisphere (Paperback)

In Herbs Of The Northern Shaman, Steve Andres draws upon a lifelong student of plant culture to produce a comprehensive and unique guide to the mind-altering plants which grow in the Northern Hemisphere. From standard relatively well known hallucinogens as Cannabis, Datura, and Peyote, to such garden commonplace and unsuspected plants as the Buttercup, Sassafras, and the Water Lily, Andres provides a detailed and authoritative description of effects and consciousness expanding qualities that have historically been found useful in aboriginal ceremonial and medicinal ministries. Herbs Of The Northern Shaman is very strongly recommended reading for students of botany and natural hallucinogens, as well as personal and academic psychoactive plants reference collections.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Herbs of the Northern Shaman by Steve Andrews, August 7, 2001

By 

chris stone (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herbs of the Northern Shaman: A Guide to Mind-Altering Plants of the Northern Hemisphere (Paperback)

This book is a mine of useful information for Cosmonauts of Inner Space, as well as for those merely interested in the more arcane aspects of gardening and naturalism. The plants are listed alphabetically by their common names, with their Latin names and other names added for clarity. For instance, did you know that Asafetida, well known as a curry spice, is also known as Devils Dung? Or that Periwinkle is also known as Joy-On-The Ground? Clearly a reference to its properties as a pleasure-giving plant.

There are a number of surprises in the book, and it is endlessly enlightening to find out what plants have been used for their mind altering properties in the past. Just to give one example: the writer points out that Caucasian peasants used Rhododendron for Shamanic purposes, and cites a reliable source as evidence.

There are lively descriptions of each plant, its appearance and use, and warnings where appropriate. This is particularly important as some of the plants, though possibly useful as Shamanic herbs, are also highly dangerous. The style is light and approachable, easy to read and entertaining, making the book far more than just a reference work. It is also a pleasure to read.

As well as the narcotic, stimulating or psychedelic properties of the plants, their medicinal uses are also listed, making the book an invaluable addition to the home-herbalists library.

One finds oneself flicking through to read descriptions of plants one knows well, such as Cannabis and Peyote, just to find out what the writer has to say, which is always interesting and educative. The writer is clearly an expert in several fields, being not only an informed naturalist, an inspired horticulturalist and experimenter with odd additions to his house-plant collection, but a mystic traveller too. One feels a certain confidence in his sure-footed guidance around this obscure but fascinating area of knowledge.

So whether you merely wish to browse on the subject of alchemical gardening, or prefer to experiment with free and freely available mind-altering substances, this book is a must for you. Highly recommended.

CJ Stone.