Customer Reviews

Medicine Grove: A Shamanic Herbal

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As an herbalist, I am always looking to expand my knowledge of the plant world. Its great to know textbook uses of herbs and one can be quite successful in employing these techniques however, to learn directly from the plants is a true blessing and a healer's dream. Loren Cruden directs us to do this in her fabulous book, Medicine Grove. She is undoubtedly in tune with nature and while I believe she is gifted in this area, I also believe she consciously works at it. She generously shares her knowledge in this book, making it possible for all of us to re-connect with the spirits of the plant world. Thank-you Loren! In addition to spirit world connection tips, there's an excellent materia medica, tips for growing herbs and forms for applying medicinal herbs along with many unusual herbal tidbits included in the appendices. While I have a rather large herbal library, this is an outstanding addition. Put this book beside Eliot Cowan's Plant Spirit Medicine - they're a powerful pair!

As a northern-tradition shaman and an herbalist, this was a good find for once. I'm extremely skeptical of any book with "shamanic" in the title, having been burned on that account many times in the past. ("The Shaman's Body" was so bad that I almost puked, and "The Truth About Shamanism" deserves to be burned on a Beltane bonefire.) But this one was actually good.

It's written by a spirit-worker who does things mostly in Native American traditions, largely because of the area she works in - the Northwest, where there are many fewer European transplanted plants, and the ecosystem is largely still Native, and that's who trained her. it says more than any other herbal I've ever read about actually talking to the plant spirits; her Materia Medica section actually talks about each one from the point of view of a living being with an essence rather than just an inert thing with alkaloids in it.

As a shaman who works with plant spirits on a regular basis, I was thrilled. She differentiates between naturopathic herbalism (purging, working with medical science), naturalistic herbalism (the Wise Woman stuff, working organically) and shamanic herbalism (ask the darn plants what they want!) She repeatedly emphazises the importance of a good relationship to the spirit of each plant that you work with. While she works in an entirely different cultural system than my own northern-tradition shamanism, her writings ring true and she seems to be for real.

Certainly her chapter on psychoactive plants is one of the sanest and most practical that I've seen. She says that it isn't, for her, about whether one chooses to interact with them, but how - and gives a list of ritual steps to take in order to create a relationship with the plant before ingesting the substance - including letting the plant tell you whether it's even appropriate.

One of the few books on the market that actually earns the "shamanic" name in my narrow estimation. Worth bothering to get and read, no matter what cultural tradition you're in.

-Raven Kaldera
http://www.cauldronfarm.com/nts

While I disagree with the previous reviewer regarding Arnold Mindell's "The Shaman's Body" (the work is brilliant and practical--it has actually changed my life--but is more of the Castaneda tradition in language, operation, and purpose), I concur that Loren Cruden's shamanic herbal is a wonderful book. I had been seeking some perspective from a middle ground between the straight plant-spirit shamanism of Eliot Cowan's excellent book and the too-linear, too-rote herbalism of most formal programs of study of the materia medica. Cruden is it!

This is one of the few books that wonderfully joins the earthy world of herbalism with the spiritual world of the modern shaman.There are so many little herbal books around today,that have been watered down from Nicholus Culpepper and even Earl Mindell's later writings.This book gives the human ritual use of the herbs of Nature here perfectly.I can only recommend this book for modern herbalists,who want the deeper spiritual connection between oneself or a coven and the surrounding elements of Mother-Nature.

This book was a great resource to learning more about specific herbs and their use in shamanic herbalism. I only wish it had been a little more in depth, as the book itself isn't very long, but nonetheless it is a concise and interesting read.

One of my the treasured books on my shelf, Loren Cruden has written a masterpiece that certainly deserves the word "shamanic" with her consistent reminders that relationship with botanicals is of the utmost importance. Beautifully expressive anecdotes from her own life help to illustrate the innumerable ways one can weave herbs into their lived experience in a sacred, nourishing, holistic manner. The chapter breakdown into ceremonial, transitional, psychoactive, offering, and other experiences is extremely valuable. I have given copies away and suggested this book to others many times over. Highly approachable and relatively short for all that it holds, I honestly can't overstate this tome's value.