Plant Spirit Medicine: The Healing Power of Plants

This book is an accessible, sincere and inspired guide for anyone who is curious about how to recover the human's innate ability to be in communication with the non-human world - which apparently just awaits our intention to do so. Eliot Cowan shares his own fascinating journey of discovery in a way that also offers to the reader ideas for how to do the same. His message is not, "look at me, I have special abilities," but "look into yourself and see what is there just waiting to be revived." The disastrous psychological, ecological and spiritual situation humans find themselves in as a result of having stopped engaging in "the great conversation" with nature, as author Thomas Berry puts it, can begin to heal if we try hard, now, to apply ourselves to the wisdom available in such books as Plant Spirit Medicine. We have a responsibility to read and utilize such information as Eliot Cowan makes available here. --Tayria Ward, Ph.D.

Plant Spirit Medicine is a fascinating look at what an ordinary person can do with a sincere desire to heal. Trained as an acupuncturist, Eliot blended his skill in 5 element methodology, herbalism, and basic shamanism to create a gentle, non-invasive way to restore harmony in the mind, body, and spirit. Plant Spirit Medicine is the ability to see beyond a persons symptoms to the real cause of the disease, where the person is out of balance. Balance in 5 element methodology is the relationship of fire, earth, metal, water, and wood from the viewpoint of Traditional Chinese Medicine . Though to deep to explain here, Eliot dedicates a chapter to each element and well as specifics on plants and how to contact them and the healing power of dreams. My favorite part of the book is Eliot's frank portrayal of his teachers and experiences during his apprenticeship in the Huichol ways as well as "talking shop" with other shamans and plant healers. This book is a gift to humanity.

I am a psychotherapist. Although traditionally trained, I'm drawn to holistic means of healing the psyche. I agree with another reviewer, that this book is not just about plant spirit medicine. It is much bigger than that. To me it is about all healing and about being in relationship with one's self, plant spirits, others, All That Is. Unlike the other reviewer, this book proved to be much greater and more wonderful than I expected. I was deeply moved by it, finding myself tearful at times. It profoundly resonated for me. In my opinion Cowan has tremendous depth and truly gets what's going on. He really speaks to the heart. If you're looking for a herbal recipe book "use this herb for this ailment", you'll be disappointed. If you want to get a strong sense of the loving & amazing power of plant spirits to assist our healing, you won't be able to put it down. I read many books on personal growth and healing. This is one of the best books I've read in a very long time.

Buy this book and read it. It is an amazing and powerful experience. I read it three times in a row and soaked up more and more with each reading. This book turned me on to Shamanism, but as I went off and read more about Shamanism, I discovered that nothing else was quite as clear, powerful, or sincere as Eliot Cowan's book. Don't take my word for it, read it for yourself!

Of the dozens of books I have read on traditional naturopathy and on the interaction of the chemical compounds present in plants with the human organism, this was the most profoundly moving and amazingly informative yet. Having always been a skeptic of religious and spiritual practices, particularly traditional "folk" healing methods, I found Cowan's credentials and background reassuring in that he and I came from similar pasts. In spite of his education (or perhaps because of it!), he overcame his scientifically critical nature in order to relate to plants in a more pure and spiritual form, and thus opened his healing path to a broader and more thorough way of helping people. Reading about his experiences has helped me to do likewise. The topic of this book aside, I found it well written and engaging, a wonderful read for an afternoon in the sunshine, and one that I will keep on the shelf in my front room for many years to come.