Overall good, but not consistent, not visionary

books:

	• Sacred Plant Medicine : explorations in the practice of indigenous herbalism Stephen Harrod Buhner Raven Press, 2001 - 210 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent

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.

Amazing!

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!

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Overall good, but not consistent, not visionary

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.

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Personal experience, not anthropology

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 CLASSIC!

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.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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.

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