Books

The first comprehensive guide to the shamans and tantrikas of Nepal. The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal may be the only culture in the world where both shamanic and tantric techniques are still alive and in full practice today. The result of eighteen years of field research, Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas presents for the first time a comprehensive overview of shamanism that is based on the knowledge and experience of the different tribes from that region. Included are original statements from the various ethnic groups and 135 color thangkas, which act as visual guides to the specific practices of the tantric tradition. In addition to the thangkas, the book is lavishly illustrated with numerous photos of different shamanic healing ceremonies, ritual objects, and culturally significant plants that have never been published before.

The book also contains a wealth of original recipes, smoking mixtures, scientific tables, charts, and descriptions of more than 20 plants whose psychoactive properties and uses by shamans have never before been researched or documented. 

• 605 color and black-and-white illustrations, including 135 color thangkas.

• Includes more than 20 psychoactives never before documented.

• The result of 18 years of field research.

Award-winning Peruvian author Cesar Calvo takes us on a quest through the mysterious, dreamlike world of powerful Amazonian sorcerers.

"Navigating South American humor, floridly poetic prose and extensive sexual metaphor, Symington skillfully translates this Peruvian book, originally published in 1981 as the first part of a trilogy called The Invisible Colors. Folklore, the iconography of the subconscious and cultural history all converge upon the unexplainable in a psychological and physical jungle. Calvo's journeys took place during the 1970s, when he traveled the depths of the Amazon in search of an interview with renowned sorcerer Ino Moxo. The leader is in fact a 'half-breed,' the son of a rubber collector kidnapped by the chieftain Ximu as a child and raised to become one of the most powerful practitioners in the region. Descendants of the Inkas and other indigenous peoples, the aged Ino Moxo and the four other sorcerers the author encounters continue ancient traditions. Ino Moxo and his contemporary 'green magicians' combined herbalism with 'icaros,' a sort of chanted vibrational healing. Ino Moxo's recollections, however, are not all pacific but include stories of fighting rapacious rubber barons, most notably the Fitzcarrald (two brothers, Fermin and Delfin; Werner Herzog's hero seems to be yet another.) As part of a ritual to determine whether he is worthy to receive sacred understanding, Calvo undertakes an initiation into the mysteries with the help of an hallucinogen, ayawaska, the holy drug of sorcerers, which is supposedly responsible for inspiring significant portions of text." ― Publisher's Weekly (Monday, January 23, 1995)

Wizard of the Upper Amazon is an extraordinary document of the life among a tribe of South American Indians at the beginning of the 20th century. For many readers, the most compelling sections of the book will be the descriptions of the use of Banisteriopsis caapi, the ayahuasca of the Amazon forests. This powerful hallucinogen has long been credited with the ability to transport human beings to realms of experience where telepathy and clairvoyance are commonplace. Manual Cordova, the narrator of these adventures is a well-known as a healer in Peru.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

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As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Shamanistic practices involve ancient traditions that have been found in similar cultures around the world. The roots of shamanism in practices of healing, prophesy, group leadership, art, and mythology reflect neuropsychological basese that underlie the often surprising effectiveness of its practice.

One of the world's leading authorities on Zen Buddhism, D. T. Suzuki was the author of more than a hundred works on the subject in both Japanese and English, and was most instrumental in bringing the teachings of Zen Buddhism to the attention of the Western world. Written in a lively, accessible, and straightforward manner, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism is illuminating for the serious student and layperson alike.

In Warrior Goddess Training, bestselling author HeatherAsh Amara provides the antidote to the flawed idea that you are not enough. Direct, honest, and unapologetic, Amara will show you how to release the layers of expectations to finally see yourself for the authentic, perceptive, perfect woman you really are.

If you don’t love and honor yourself with every fiber of your being, if you struggle with owning your power and passion, if you could use more joyful play and simple presence in your life, then it is time for an inner revolution.

It is time to claim your Warrior Goddess energy.

Drawing on the wisdom from Buddhism, Toltec wisdom, and ancient Earth-based goddess spirituality, the Warrior Goddess path includes personal stories, rituals, and exercises that will encourage and inspire you to become the true warrior goddess you are meant to be.

Thought leader, racial justice educator, and sought-after spiritual activist Rachel Ricketts offers mindful and practical steps for all humans to dismantle white supremacy on a personal and collective level.

Heart-centered and spirit-based practices are the missing but vital piece to achieving racial justice.

Do Better is a revolutionary offering that addresses anti-racism from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spiritually-aligned perspective. This actionable guidebook illustrates how to engage in the heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices that racial justice educator and healer Rachel Ricketts has developed to fight white supremacy from the inside out, in our personal lives and communities alike. It is a loving and assertive call to do the deep--and often uncomfortable--inner work that precipitates much-needed external and global change.

Radical racial justice includes daily, intentional, and informed action. It demands addressing the emotional violence we have perpetuated on ourselves and others (most notably toward Black and Indigenous women and femmes), both as individuals and as a society. Do Better provides the missing pieces to manifest practicable, sustainable solutions such as identifying where we most get stuck, mitigating the harm we inflict on others, and mending our hearts from our most painful race and gender-based experiences, plus much more.

This inspirational and eye-opening handbook is filled with carefully curated soulcare activities for getting into our bodies and better withstanding the grief, rage, and conflicting emotions that naturally arise when we fight against injustice. Culturally informed, secular spiritual exercises, such as guided

Activating the Heart is an exploration of storytelling as a tool for knowledge production and sharing to build new connections between people and their histories, environments, and cultural geographies. The collection pays particular attention to the significance of storytelling in Indigenous knowledge frameworks and extends into other ways of knowing in works where scholars have embraced narrative and story as a part of their research approach.

In the first section, Storytelling to Understand, authors draw on both theoretical and empirical work to examine storytelling as a way of knowing. In the second section, Storytelling to Share, authors demonstrate the power of stories to share knowledge and convey significant lessons, as well as to engage different audiences in knowledge exchange. The third section, Storytelling to Create, contains three poems and a short story that engage with storytelling as a means to produce or create knowledge, particularly through explorations of relationship to place.

After 2 decades in the study and practice of medicine, Sarah Seidelmann took a 3-month sabbatical to search for a way to feel good again. Having witnessed human suffering early in her career and within her own family, she longed for a way to address more than just the physical needs of her patients and to live in a lighter, more conscious way.

Swimming with Elephants tells the eccentric, sometimes poignant, and occasionally hilarious experience of a working mother undergoing a bewildering vocational shift from physician to shamanic healer. During that tumultuous period of answering her call, Sarah met an elephant who would become an important spirit companion on her journey, had bones thrown for her by a shaman in South Africa, and traveled to India for an ancient Hindu pilgrimage, where she received the blessing she had been longing for. Ultimately, she discovered an entirely different way of healing, one that she had always aspired to and that enabled her to help those who are suffering.

Tree of Dreams, A Spirit Woman's Vision of Transition and Change, is book twelve of the Medicine Woman Series. Shaman healer Lynn Andrews finds herself at a crossroads in her own life, a time of transition and change when that which once seemed sure begins to unravel. With disarming candor, she reveals her own spiritual questioning and metaphysical battles to her teachers, Agnes Whistling Elk, Ruby Plenty Chiefs and Spider Woman. Their strength, power and wisdom have remained constant and guided her through the many challenges she has experienced in life, and in this book they use their own blend of magic to 'trick' her into learning valuable lessons, even when she is most resistant. It is the wisdom of the elders passed down through an apprentice, timeless teachings of growth, healing and spiritual connection that will last a lifetime.

A set of ancient inscriptions on marble found forty years ago in southern Italy, recording details so bewildering that scholars have kept silent about them.

Strange evidence about a tradition of people who were mystics but who were so intensely practical that, two and a half thousand years ago, they shaped our existence and the world we live in. And yet they did this with a purpose we've completely forgotten.

These are just two ingredients of this extraordinary book, which uncovers an astonishing reality that lies unsuspected right at the origins of the western world. Our dramatic failure to acknowledge or come to grips with that reality is what has been responsible for so much of the emptiness -- of the sense of something missing -- in our modern lives.

In the Dark Places of Wisdom is no work of fiction. The documents, the discoveries, the people that it describes are all as real as we are. But the story it has to tell is far stranger than any fiction, because this is the story of ourselves.

Welcome Home: Following Your Soul's Journey Home is Sandra Ingerman's follow-up to her deeply moving debut, Soul Retrieval, which captivated readers with its introduction of shamanic journeying, an ancient tradition of healing.

With the characteristic warmth, passion, and authenticity that have earned her worldwide recognition, Ingerman now continues to share her lifework with Welcome Home, an empowering action plan for creating a more positive future by truly letting go of blame and guilt.

With their ability to enter trances, to change into the bodies of other creatures and to fly through the northern skies, shamans are the subject of both popular and scholarly fascination. In Shamans Ronald Hutton looks at what is really known about both the Shamans of Siberia and about others spread throughout the world. He traces the growth of knowledge of shamans in Imperial and Stalinist Russia, describes local variations and different types of shamanism and explores more recent western influences on its history and modern practice. This is a challenging book by one of the world's leading authorities on Paganism.

An ideal resource to be used in conjunction with don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements, this Daily Companion Guide based on ancient Toltec wisdom is a detailed road map for those on the journey to personal freedom.

Through explorations of the three pillars of Zen--teaching, practice, and enlightenment--Roshi Philip Kapleau presents a comprehensive overview of the history and discipline of Zen Buddhism. An established classic, this 35th-anniversary edition features new illustrations and photographs, as well as a new afterword by Sensei Bodhin Kjolhede, who has succeeded Philip Kapleau as spiritual director of the Rochester Zen Center, one of the oldest and most influential Zen centers in the United States.

Soul on Fire is a magical collection of stories describing the awakening of spiritual powers of an Episcopal priest turned shaman - powers that have usually been ascribed to Eastern masters of traditional shamans. It is about the quest for ''lost knowledge'' and the powers that Christ himself once promised.

Within these pages we learn about the ''Path of Return'' to our wondrous Earth as a means by which we can reclaim our original soul powers. Soul on Fire is an inspirational guide and must-read for long-time seekers and those just beginning their journey alike. It may just be in a genre of its own. At a time when old modalities no longer seem to be working for many people, the stories in this book reveal a different way of thinking, feeling, and being. You won't be able to read this book and still perceive the world in the same way.