Books

An inspiring exploration of the goddesses of the West African spiritual traditions and their role in shaping Yoruba (Ifa), Santeria, Haitian Vodoun, and New Orleans Voodoo.

Throughout Africa and beyond in the diaspora caused by the slave trade, the divine feminine was revered in the forms of goddesses like the ancient Nana Buluku, water spirits like Yemaya, Oshun, and Mami Wata, and the warrior Oya. The power of these goddesses and spirit beings has taken root in the West. New Orleans, for example, is the home of Marie Laveau, who used her magical powers to become the "Voodoo Queen" of New Orleans.

Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens shows you how to celebrate and cultivate the traits of these goddesses, drawing upon their strengths to empower your own life. In addition to offering a guided tour of the key goddesses of the African religious traditions, the book offers magical spells, rituals, potions, astrological correspondences, sacred offerings, and much more to help guide you on your own transformational journey.

A practical, hands-on guide to Mexican-American folk magic or brujeria.

The essential book of Mexican-American saints, folk-magic, and healing and a go-to for anyone interested in shamanism and Indigenous peoples' magic. American Brujeria is about the fascinating blend of American and Mexican folk magic currently used by those living in the US but whose roots are steeped in Mexican culture. This type of Mexican-American folk magic, which the author calls "American Brujeria," features its own unique saints and spirits as well as familiar ones, such as the notorious Santa Muerte.

American Brujeria includes stories from Mexico (folk saints, the story of Guadalupe), the influence of Catholicism, the art of limpias (spiritual cleansings), spell casting, oil crafting, praying the rosary (in English and Spanish), making an altar to Guadalupe, using novena candle magic, crafting protective charms from saints' medals, and more.

Plants of Power is a guide to sacred plants traditionally used by Native Americans and other Indigenous people. It's an excellent tool for those seeking to connect more fully with the mysterious world of plants, animals and Spirit. For thousands of years Native cultures have used plants to heal physical and spiritual ailments. Highlighted here are 14 significant plants, with information on their properties, growing conditions and medicinal applications, along with descriptions of Native American ceremonies and rituals in which these plants play a central role.

Alfred Savinelli has wildcrafted plants for almost 40 years and is part of a network of Native American wildcrafters from Canada to South America. An active defender of plant rights and Indigenous wisdom, he seeks to promote health and well-being through spiritual harmony. His shop, Native Scents, sells herbal products and related items and sponsors a Native Prisoners Support program that provides prisons with herbs for religious ceremonies. He lives in Taos, New Mexico.

Stepping beyond the shape of a footprint and into the unseen story of the track, veteran wilderness guide Tamarack Song takes you inside the eyes and mind of an intuitive tracker, with intimate stories where Frogs show the way out of the woods, scat reveals life histories, and Bears demonstrate how to find missing people.

This book is based on talks by Ram Dass at the Menninger Foundation in 1970 and at the Spring Grove Hospital in Maryland in 1972. The text grew out of the interaction between Ram Dass and the spiritual seekers in attendance at these talks. The result of this unique exchange is a useful guide for understanding the nature of consciousness--useful both to other spiritual seekers and to formally trained psychologists. It is also a celebration of the Dance of Life--which, in the words of Ram Dass, is the "only dance there is."

Anthropologist Johannes Wilbert here presents a comprehensive ethnography of magico-religious, medicinal, and recreational tobacco use among native South American societies. Surveying nearly three hundred societies, Wilbert has found that South American Indians employ numerous means of nicotine application and that a close functional relationship exists between tobacco and shamanism. His book is "a superb reference and a pleasure to read."—Robert Byck, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine

Merging Buddhist mindfulness practices with the Twelve Step program, this updated edition of the bestselling recovery guide One Breath at a Time will inspire and enlighten you to live a better, healthier life.

Many in recovery turn to the Twelve Steps to overcome their addictions, but struggle with the spiritual program. But what they might not realize is that Buddhist teachings are intrinsically intertwined with the lessons of the Twelve Steps, and offer time-tested methods for addressing the challenges of sobriety.

In what is considered the cornerstone of the most significant recovery movement of the 21st century, Kevin Griffin shares his own extraordinary journey to sobriety and how he integrated the Twelve Steps of recovery with Buddhist mindfulness practices. With a new foreword by William Alexander, the author of Ordinary Recovery, One Breath at a Time takes you on a journey through the Steps, examining critical ideas like Powerlessness, Higher Power, and Moral Inventory through the lens of the core concepts of Buddhism—the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, mindfulness, loving-kindness, and more. The result is a book that presents techniques and meditations for finding clarity and awareness in your life, just as it has for thousands of addicts and alcoholics.

The Book That Will Help You Believe in Miracles!

“Unique and captivating!”

Shaman Stone Soup is a collection of beautifully written and heartfelt stories in which Shaman Elizabeth Herrera brings miracles to life through her personal experiences and as a healer for friends, family, and clients. Inside you’ll find stories about the ghost who overstayed her welcome, the spirits of ancient wise men who provided a miraculous cure from cancer, a conversation with a hurricane and its unintended impact, the man who got out of his wheelchair to go hunting and fishing, healing the karmic ties of a young college boy, a vivid dream of a pastor who needed guidance, the transformation of a schizophrenic, the loving contact from her mother who died unexpectedly, and more.

Shaman Stone Soup offers a multifaceted view of miracles that is not limited to shamanism, A Course in Miracles, religion, spirituality, or lack of faith, but rather emphasizes that miracles are natural occurrences experienced by everyone.

The Mesa 101 - Keep the Medicine Sacred to Your Heart book teaches you in a unique way, to be an active participant in paving the way for your Divine path to unfold as you wish. 

Elizabeth teaches you to walk in alignment with the Creator God that gave you the breath of life. When you walk in alignment with God, the whole Universe conspires on your behalf, for your Soul's highest good at all times. Life can be better than we ever dreamed. It's time to be the Co-creator of your life. It's time to make your dreams become reality. 

Crystals brings a fresh new approach to the world of crystals by providing the user with step-by-step instructions on how to work and connect with crystals to promote healing. The reader is encouraged to become actively involved and to experience the crystal energy for themselves.

The book lists over 200 popular crystals with color photographs of each and provides instructions on how to connect with them. Also included are many case studies and stories showing how crystals have assisted healing on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels and blank sections for recording your own experiences. 

Updated Edition, Revised

Centuries of colonization and other factors have disrupted indigenous communities' ability to control their own food systems. This volume explores the meaning and importance of food sovereignty for Native peoples in the United States, and asks whether and how it might be achieved and sustained.

Unprecedented in its focus and scope, this collection addresses nearly every aspect of indigenous food sovereignty, from revitalizing ancestral gardens and traditional ways of hunting, gathering, and seed saving to the difficult realities of racism, treaty abrogation, tribal sociopolitical factionalism, and the entrenched beliefs that processed foods are superior to traditional tribal fare. The contributors include scholar-activists in the fields of ethnobotany, history, anthropology, nutrition, insect ecology, biology, marine environmentalism, and federal Indian law, as well as indigenous seed savers and keepers, cooks, farmers, spearfishers, and community activists. After identifying the challenges involved in revitalizing and maintaining traditional food systems, these writers offer advice and encouragement to those concerned about tribal health, environmental destruction, loss of species habitat, and governmental food control.

Each and every one of us has shamanic powers. Glimpses of them can arise at any age in the form of intuitive dreams, deja vu, spontaneous visions, and out-of-body experiences. Most people dismiss these experiences. However, by embracing these gifts, we can unlock our shamanic potential to change ourselves and the world around us. Revealing his transformation from skeptic to respected shamanic healer, Itzhak Beery explains how, after countless prescient dreams and visions throughout his life that he brushed off, a series of synchronistic events led to his first shamanism workshop with Michael Harner, renowned shamanism scholar and teacher. Beery shares his experiences with ayahuasca rituals in the Amazon, messages from power animals and plant spirits, dreams that foretold future events, and holographic sightings of past lives and spiritual entities, both evil and benign.

Epics of ancient India rank with the timeless myths of classical Greece and Rome in the power of their language and the underlying moral lessons. The Ramayana and Mahabharata, both originally written in Sanskrit, contain vibrant stories of kings and princes, sages and tricksters, demons and gods, damsels in distress, and mighty heroes. Ganesha Goes to Lunch collects some of the most vivid stories from these and other early Indian folklore and spiritual texts including the Vedas and the Puranas.

These stories feature the gods of India in their celestial and earthly abodes, hapless humans struggling with life's many problems, and gods and humans interacting. Assembled by Kamla Kapur, these stories illustrate the great spiritual and practical themes of the human condition. Kamla Kapur brings her poet's eye and ear to the retelling of these stories, recreating and dramatizing them to illuminate their relevance to modern times.

Robert Moss helps countless people live more enriched lives by working with the energy and insight of their dreams and becoming conscious dream journeyers. One of the greatest dreamers of all time was Harriet Tubman, who personally escorted three hundred slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. On the eve of the American Civil War, Tubman was guided by specific dreams to safe houses, river crossings, and friendly helpers she had never encountered previously.

As Moss explains, our own dreams run like an Underground Railroad through our lives, offering us paths to creativity, healing, and mutual understanding. He shows us how to dream true the way Harriet Tubman dreamed true: how to dream the future, how to go back inside our dreams to clarify their messages and use the information to make wiser choices, and how to bring through life-helping guidance for others.

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.