Sacred Plant Medicine : explorations in the practice of indigenous herbalism [Paperback]

Stephen Harrod Buhner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2001

The first in-depth look at the processes by which indigenous peoples throughout the world developed their relationship with and knowledge of plant medicines. A reader-friendly introduction to the sacred nature of plant medicines and their ceremonies, songs, and medicinal uses.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Indigenous herbalism is explored in a title which is the first to examine the historical use of plants by peoples in indigenous cultures. A short compendium of plants and their uses as sacred medicine is presented, but the heart of the title lies in its historical reviews of native approaches to herbal medicines. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Sacred Plant Medicine offers the doorway into the heart of the Green World that people have been waiting for. Rosemary Gladstar

This is a fascinating book on the sacred uses of plants that heal. Joan Halifax

An important, groundbreaking, book for anyone who wants to deepen relationship with the natural world and its vast healing power.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Raven Press (April 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970869606
• ISBN-13: 978-0970869609
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,000,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A review worth reading., January 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sacred Plant Medicine: Explorations in the Practice of Indigenous Herbalism (Paperback)

This book is the best book I have ever seen on sacred herbalism. Unlike Eliot Cowan's book, this book goes into much needed detail and tells how to physically heal a person with a plant as well as emotionally. Stephen Buhner has very good control over his writing and he makes the reading fun as well as educational. I suggest this book to those who want to have an in detail knowledge about herbs and the spiritual healing that plants can have on all of us.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative instruction on finding medicinal plants, March 20, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Sacred Plant Medicine : explorations in the practice of indigenous herbalism (Paperback)

Stephen Buhner's Sacred Plant Medicine: Explorations In The Practice Of Indigenous Herbalism is a welcome and informative introduction to Native American herbal medicine. A general survey of the cultural and medicinal role of herbs in Native American cultures is provided, along with informative instruction on finding medicinal plants; making the plants into medicine, the role of ceremony with regard to herbal medicines; a compendium of plants and their sacred uses; and more. The authoritative, "reader friendly" text is augmented and enhanced with suggested readings and herbal sources, "wildcrafting" ethics and guide lines, an extensive bibliography, and an index. Sacred Plant Medicine is very highly recommended for alternative medicine and Native American studies reading lists and reference collections.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CLASSIC!, July 22, 2004

By 

reader (baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Plant Medicine : explorations in the practice of indigenous herbalism (Paperback)

Stephen Buhner's book is a welcome contribution. Like Joan Halifax's book Shamanic Voices, Sacred Plant Medicine is a classic text in the field of shamanic literature. It is the first text to track the commonalities between indigenous peoples in their learning of plant medicines, showing that among all Earth peoples the plants themselves taught their uses as medicine.

The book explores the main themes in such sacred plant medicine and from the writer's words the luminous world that Hildegard of Bingen called veriditas strongly emerges.

While the author's poetry and delicacy of language is evident throughout the book he also allows the indigenous elders to speak in their own words about the world they inhabit, about their close connections with the plants, and about the soul teaching that such connection and deep love has engendered.

There is no finer synthesis of the ancient world of plant intelligence than sacred plant medicine, no better exploration of the training that our ancestors received in their learning of plant medicines, no better work that explores the path of the sacred herbalist.

Sacred Plant Medicine lays out the initial exploration of the luminous world that we once all inhabited. Buhner continues this work most strongly in Lost Language of Plants and, from what I have heard, it culminates powerfully in his upcoming work - The Secret Teachings of Plants.

If you wish to learn the steps our ancestors used to learn directly from the heart of the world there is no better place to begin than this book. It, as Brooke Medicine Eagle comments, makes clear that one does not have to be of a certain color or race or ethnic background to seek and find ways of being in harmony with the Earth. And as William Lyons noted: The Earth will love you for reading it.