Customer Reviews

Sacred Plant Medicine : explorations in the practice of indigenous herbalism

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

According to some beliefs, each and every entity of the physical world is permeated by the essence of the Creator and as such it is sacred. Within this framework, herbalists acknowledge the intrinsic sacredness of the plant medicine and act accordingly. This book is an excellent overview of this perspective. It is well written, it's factual and yet it's not dry. I believe the reader will enjoy this book regardless as to whether or not s/he shares the author's opinions.

Despite the scientific-sounding title, this is a spiritual book. There are some quotes from Native American medicine people, but for the most part this is personal experience and interpretation. Definitely worth reading if you are interested in the spiritual aspect of plant medicine.

A very good book that brings you to experience how our ancestors learned from nature... a book that will bring you back to the roots of life!

This book makes you feel "one with the Earth" (sorry for the cliché), makes you aware that you have to be careful with our planet, with our environment and with ourselves...

A very clear, good and educational book. By far one of the best in the field!

This is generally a good book to serve as an introduction to the consciousness of working with plants in a sacred manner. However the quality of writing, though well researched, does not inspire. You don't find yourself absorbed in the writing, just reading facts and stories.

There are a few practices buried within the book but they are buried. There should have been seperate areas to emphasize these practices. As an example of the writing style the chapter on healing and death talks about death and how shamans approach it for along time. Then the story about how animals created diseases and how plants offered to help people is relayed. Then the content switches back to the death topic again. The writing shows a general lack of polish and very much lacks telling you how to enter the sacred relationship yourself.

A good book, but did not live up to its potential.