Plant Spirit Medicine: A Journey into the Healing Wisdom of Plants Kindle Edition

Book Review – Plant Spirit Medicine: A Journey into the Healing Wisdom of Plants by Eliot Cowan, Boulder, CO: Sounds True, 2014. Plant Spirit Medicine was recommended to me by an herbalist friend, Jennifer Tucker. With my years of practice and teaching hypnosis and ecstatic trance I have been guided by many spirits, ancestral spirits including the spirits of animals, birds, reptiles, and insects. Several years ago, I realized that what was missing from my journeys into the world of the spirits were the spirits of the Earth’s flora. Thus, I began sitting with plants, asking them to become my spirit guides. This direction diverged from the work of many of my herbalist friends, because, like with my animal spirit guides, the plants do not need to be ingested to learn and benefit from them. As with my animal spirit guides the plants were very ready to open themselves to me. I still have so much to learn, and Eliot Cowan’s exceptional book has opened many new doors to me. For him the spirit of the plant is most central in his work as a healer. In Plant Spirit Medicine Cowan does not address the medicinal powers of specific plants but offers many fascinating stories of calling upon the spirits of the plants and how these spirits bring about the healing of those who come to him. While listening to the plant spirits in an altered-state of dreaming and waking visions, the plants are very ready to offer him direction. Cowan was raised in the conventional American way of life, but upon graduating from college he realized he knew nothing about the earth. Feeling an urgency to learn he left for a farm in Vermont where he began to take an interest in sustainability and herbal medicine, an interest that led to his interest in the spirits and the restoration of the ancient ways of healing. In this pursuit he has learned from a number of indigenous healers. He evetually became an apprentice to don Guadalupe Gonzalez Rios, a Huichol shaman of Mexico who eventually performed a ritual to make Cowan a guide to other shamanic apprentices in the Huichol tradition. Though it is most appropriate to identify the indigenous healers by their tribe, e.g. the Huichol, I am attracted to using the broader term of indigenous when appropriate because of the word “dig” imbedded in it, digging in the Earth for our sustainability. The high and unsustainable expense of our high-tech medicine is leading us to return to the effective ways of the traditional and indigenous healers, elders who rely upon the plants, animals, rocks, water, fire, wind and the entire natural world who know and love us as grandchildren. Cowan tells many powerful and fascinating stories of listening to dreams and other visioning experiences of plants and their spirits, experiences that bring us into a new yet ancient world of healing, of healing the imbalances of life, the causes of illness. Our dualistic lives are centered on that which is us and ours vs. that which is not us and not ours. This dualism isolates us from the interdependency of all that is of the Earth, a separation that brings us to violence and is leading our demise. Though this book was published in 2014, well before the election of Donald Trump, this separation and violence are now so vividly evident. Cowan hangs on to the belief that at least some humans will survive into the new age of sustainability, health, balance, and living in oneness with all that is of the Earth, but there are many who do not hold this vision and will not survive. Cowan beautifully shows us the path for this survival, a path of again listening to, learning from, and valuing the spirits of the Earth’s flora. Over the last few years I have read about the Chinese five elements: fire, earth, metal, wood, and water, or more commonly the four elements of fire, earth, air and water as they relate to herbal medicine. I have not resonated with this model but now find that Cowan’s spiritual descriptions of these five elements make much sense. The heat of fire, heat coming from the sun, sitting around campfires, and from other sources brings vitality and passion to life. Humanity lives by the fire in many ways, in cooking, eating, laughter, care for children, as well as in listening to the elders. Plants capture heat and light from the sun. Fire controls the activities of body, mind and spirit, producing joy, happiness, pleasure, laughter, relationships and sexuality. The lack of fire brings illness to the heart and mind. Earth provides nourishment, security, identity, mother’s breasts, and intimacy to relationships. Mothers need strength, and we all need Mother Earth’s nourishment to overcome the stresses of life. The spleen and pancreas provide the transportation of nourishment from the stomach to the cells, bringing sugar to the cells to give us energy and keep us healthy. Earth brings us the nurturing plants upon which we depend. Metal shows us what is valuable in life. Cowan’s mentor, don Guadalupe, acknowledged that everything of value came from his father. He showed his son the way through the world, the ways of cumulating spiritual wealth, of not hording possessions. The mysteries of water harbored in the spirit of the kidney are pooled by the bladder spirit. All the juices of life, e.g. adrenaline we call upon in danger, and the digestive fluids for food that we eat, are of the element of water. The streams and rivers, the flowing blood of Mother Earth, bring us life. Wood seen in the growing tree needs room, sunlight, water, minerals and soil nutrients, the same as our needs as humans. But our current economic system is destroying the forests as well as our lives. Besides the illnesses caused by the imbalances in these five elements Cowan addresses two other imbalances, the imbalance of being possessed by some unhealthy spirit and the imbalance of our male and female aspects, an imbalance that affects the relationship between husband and wife. Though this book does not focus on the use of specific medicinal herbs, Cowan provides a chapter describing several herbs that he finds useful in bring balance to these imbalances: the warmth of scarlet pimpernel for imbalances of fire, and the soft and nurturing nature of mullein for imbalances of the earth. As a purifier of the soul, Plantain aids in treating imbalances of metal. To treat problems related to the element of water, Cowan uses the stream orchid, Epipactis gigantea, native to western North America. For wood Cowan uses the flexible willow to treat rigidity and uptightness. Besides these five plants Cowan finds several other herbs indispensable in addressing other issues beyond those of the five elements: mugwort for opening the acupuncture meridians; anemone for a person who is preoccupied by worldly problems; St. Johnwort for binding together wounds including the wound of depression; and the Southwest desert plant filaree as a spiritual messenger when seeking answers to questions. The final four chapters are of what Cowan has learned from four of his mentors, don Enrique Salmon and don Lucio Campos of Mexico, Siri Gian Singh Khalsa from West Africa, and Grandma Bertha Grove from the Southern Ute Reservation. With each teacher Cowan’s questions pursue his interest in their uses of the spirits of plants as opposed to the prescriptive uses of the plants as used by most contemporary herbalists and high-tech medicine. These valuable interviews were very enlightening. In conclusion Cowan again tells us of the importance of ritual for treating each person individually over and above using the medicinal herbs in a prescriptive manner. He teaches his ways at his Blue Deer Center in Margaretville, NY, only 48 miles from where I live in Ulster County, New York. In my practice and teaching of ecstatic trance I rely on the shamanic body postures as researched by Felicitas Goodman, postures that give direction to the trance experience, offering a viable alternative to Cowan’s eye-opening ways of journeying with the spirits of plants. I have previously written about these ecstatic postures and find four of the ecstatic postures exceptionally useful in medicinal plant journeying. I am eager to find my way to Cowan’s Blue Deer Center once the social distancing of the COVID virus has subsided to expand my ways of journeying with the spirits.

Marci is a delight!! She is very extremely helpful. My used book was in Excellent condition!! Plus, I was very impressed with the packaging!! It came sealed in plastic to protect the book. I would definitely purchase from Russell-Dove!!

was gift for a friend

I like this book. Other people say what they say. I like reviews that mention similar books, at least books on the same path, so I do that. There Are No Incurable Diseases: Dr. Schulze's 30-Day Cleansing & Detoxification Program , School of Natural HealingHerbal Home Health Care , Herbal Healing for Women , Complete Medicinal Herbal (Natural care)  can round this out, on the herbal side. For the Shamanic side,  The Physics of Miracles: Tapping in to the Field of Consciousness Potential , Redneck Shaman , and  The Future Is Yours: Do Something About It!  are useful. There is a Sufi story about moths, and the only moth that really understands the candle is the one who gives himself totally to the light, and the light gives itself to him. This applies to shamanic work. Shamanic techniques work from the larger self, especially in service to others. Shamanism means working with the subconscious, and at times superconscious minds. It cannot be apprehended by the conscious mind, the ego. Without service, many things just don't work, or work only slightly.  Whispers of the Ancients: Native Tales for Teaching and Healing in Our Time  gives you some idea of how very different native storytelling is, and stories shape the Universe. Indigenous life, for which these techniques go hand in glove, can be approximated from  Journey to the Ancestral Self: The Native Lifeway Guide to Living in Harmony With Earth Mother, Book 1 (Bk.1)  These are very good basic books, to getting out of the box of Western culture, into the much more fascinating 7 worlds of the spiritual traveller. Wong Kiew Kit's books on Chi Kung show how ideas like this survive in Chinese culture, and Chinese Herbal medicine has aspects very similar to these. Wisdom of the Earth, by Barry Kapp, goes into similar ideas. Amazon doesn't have it in stock, though.

I love this book. Eliot is profoundly wise and his expression of the plant path is so inspiring and full of beauty and intentionality. This is one of my course books for an herbalism program and I feel truly changed by his insights, observations and love for plant people, ancestral knowledge and the beauty and complexity of spiritually connecting to all earthly things.

For those with open hearts and minds, who feel the pull to connect to their roots and to the roots of the earth. A beautiful book full of necessary truths and ideas. If we are going to get this planet back on track, the themes here will lead us there.The chapters about plants like marijuana and ayahuasca are full of information that will be important maps to the influx of people looking to do spiritual experimentation with them. Eliot writes about good intentions often not being quite enough to honor these sacred plants. This book helped me further connect with plants in a way that is beyond the physical nature of all things living on the Earth. Plants and animals and rivers and humans all have a spirit that houses their true essence and the connections are available to us if we are willing to discover truths beyond our Western conditioning..

This book brings so much together for me as I am a therapist using tools such as reflexology and reiki in what I have always thought of as "energy" therapy but will now think of as "spirit" therapy. Also, as I come to the end of my aromatherapy study, using plant essential oils, this book has given an added dimension to the considerations of the way I work - that of the plant spirits. It's rare I read a book and immediately want to read it again.Whether you are a healer, a plant lover or "just" a human being, you will be enriched by reading this book. Thank you Eliot - and the dedication, which I only read after finishing, brought tears to my eyes. I now recognise my fears and will go forth with love.

I undertook a number of medicine plant diets in the Amazon, and whilst I felt and understood a few things, I never really connected very well. Then I read this book and learnt his approach, and practiced with Harner's drumming tracks before returning to the jungle. This worked very well for me. I explained what I was doing to the shaman I was working with, and he observed me as I worked, and listened to my accounts of my drumming journeys, and approved of the approach (he said it was different, but I would reach the same end-point). However he suggested that instead of heading down into the underworld in my visions to find the plant, I should head upwards. This lead to some amazing vision adventures, most memorably with Shihuahuaco. Whilst my experiences are nothing like what is described in this book, and I have not been lead to become a plant healer, the author's very honest and clear account of how he learns from and works with the plants was the starting point. So it was definitely worth reading from my point of view.

How splendid. A different perspective to plant medicine. Download a sample and see what you think. A different, spiritual/shamanistic perspective on plant medicine which might appeal to the layperson, herbalist, shaman or anyone after an expansive approach. Really liked the writing, melding and analysis of perspectives... certainly gives food for thought.

This book, written by Eliot Cowan, is a must read for everyone interested in Shamanism and it's practical use in the healing art. Easy to read and explained I think that some basic knowledge of how shamanism works is necessary to understand and appreciate the knowledge which Mr. Cowan is sharing with us through this book. At some moment while reading I did wish I had encountered this book earlier. On the other hand I realized that this book came perfectly in time completing my own development in Shamanism. As the old paradigm says: when the student is ready the master appears. It is a well structured lecture including knowledge from all over the world. Although a master Mr. Cowan is always unpretentious. It is a good thing to experience that the true healing art is not lost and still alive and available in this world.H.J.RoesTherapist, Counselor, Healer.

Good