Plant Spirit ShamanismBy Ross Heaven and Howard G. Charing

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD by Pablo Amaringo 00

Preface: Sins, Souls, and Sun Flowers: Discovering the Power of the Plants by Ross Heaven 00

Preface: The Call of the Plants by Howard G. Charing 00

Introduction: The Way of the Plant Shaman 00

Chapter 1. Nothing is Hidden: How Plants Heal 00© Exercise: A Journey to the Plants 00 Divining with Coca: An Interview with an Andean

Curandera 00© Exercise: Making an Offering 00© Exercise: Making Mojo 00© Exercise: The Effects of Loving Intent 00

Chapter 2. The Shaman’s Diet: Listening to the Plants 00© Exercise: How to Diet 00

Chapter 3. Plants of Vision: Sacred Hallucinogens An Interview with a San Pedro Maestro 00© Exercise: Dreaming the Great Spirit 00© Exercise: Discovering Your Ally’s Song 00© Exercise: Creating a Seguro 00© Exercise: Maintaining the Sacred Communion:

Eating for a Healthy Neural Base 00© Exercise: Art and Action 00

Chapter 4. Healing the Soul 00© Exercise: Removing Intrusions in the Body 00© Exercise: Returning Soul Energy 00© Exercise: Releasing the Soul Parts of Others 00© Exercise: The Quest for Vision 00

Chapter 5. Pusangas and Perfumes: Aromas for 00 Love and Wholeness

Pusanga, the Fragrance of Love: An Interview 00 with Two Perfumeros

© Exercise: Why Can’t I Have What I Want? 00© Exercise: Making Pusanga 00

Chapter 6. Floral Baths: Bathing in Nature’s Riches 00 Baths in the Amazon: An Interview with a Shaman 00 Baths in Haiti: An Interview with a Leaf Doctor 00© Exercise: Love Bath (Haitian) 00© Exercise: Power Bath (Haitian) 00© Exercise: Soothing Bath (Peruvian) 00© Exercise: The Language of Flowers (American) 00

Chapter 7. The Scream of the Mandrake 00© Exercise: Prescribing Plant Cures 00

Appendix 1: A Caribbean Herbal 00

Appendix 2: A Peruvian Herbal 00

Appendix 3: Hoodoo Oils 00

Notes 00

Glossary 00

Index 00

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THE SHAMAN’S DIET: LISTENING TO THE PLANTS

When the spirit accepts the dieter and the dieter has

the will, the spirit will grant him energy. The path to

knowledge opens and the healing can take place.

Guillermo Arevalo, Amazonian shaman

This chapter will open you further to the spirit of the plants through

a process known as the shaman’s diet. This body of practices involves

certain actions and restrictions on the behavior of the shaman-to-be so

he (or she) can learn from his plant ally how to use it for healing, and

how to strengthen himself physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

One of the great revelations (and comforts) that we can experience

while working with plants in this way is that we are not separate from

the natural world at all; we are all connected. Here, we have included

a few exercises to enable you to work deeply with your plant allies and

experience more of this connection for yourself.

A few obvious comments first:

1. Work with plants that grow locally.

The healing needs of the various cultures will differ from one

another. Sometimes this is a matter of climate and other physical

factors. Wherever we are, though, shamans tell us that the Creator

42 The Shaman’s Diet: Listening to the Plants

knows and has met our healing needs and so local plants will always

be stronger and more appropriate in our diets and cures.

2. There is power in every part of a plant.

Nothing need be discarded and we can learn from each flower,

root, leaf, or fragment of bark. Even common plants (or so-called

weeds) have spiritual and medicinal properties. Choose the plant

that calls to you, irrespective of its status in the Western world.

3. The process of selecting a plant to diet is intuitive and emotional,

not rational and cerebral.

Your choice might result from many factors—the color or scent

of a plant can be meaningful to you, or perhaps there was a flower

you loved as a child and would like to know more about now.

© How to Diet

As our example, let’s take rosemary. Its distinctive scent is invigorating

and stimulating, and maybe that sense of revitalization is a quality you

want in your life. You feel that dieting this plant would help and you are

drawn to it emotionally.

If you now “tune in” to or research this plant, you discover that

rosemary has long been known as a blood and nervous system stimu-

lant. Oil of rosemary is used in salves to treat rheumatism, nervous

headaches, muscular aches, and sprains, and when added to baths it

helps tone the skin. Your research shows that your emotional percep-

tions were right. So you decide to diet it.

Make Friends with the Plant

First, spend some time simply being with the plant. Look at it, noting its

shape and colors, run your hands through its leaves, feel how smooth

the body of each one is, but how sharp the tip, like a needle ready to

inject its health-giving properties. Inhale its scent as you visualize its

stimulating and purifying qualities entering your body. Be playful and

invite the plant to become your friend and teacher.

The Shaman’s Diet: Listening to the Plants 43

Gather the Plant

Before you pick any part of a plant, tune in to it again and it will tell you

the best time for gathering it. Night gathering tends to infuse a plant with

gentler and more “feminine” moon energy, for example, whereas picking

at midday will mean it is charged with powerful and “masculine” sun

energy. By the same token, gathering early in the growing season will

give you a subtle, “adolescent” energy which is not yet fully developed

(but that may be exactly what you want), while picking toward the end

of the season—in the plant’s “old age,” as it were—will mean a plant

filled with wisdom but whose energy is now returning to the soil as it

begins its winter hibernation. There will always be an optimal time to

gather, according to your needs, and the plant itself will reveal this.

Once you have taken what you need, air-dry the leaves, which you

can then store in a moisture-sealed glass jar. Once they are dry, the

active ingredients in the leaves will also be released more easily into

water or alcohol.

Prepare the Plant

There a number of ways to prepare a plant, as we have seen. The easiest

is to make an infusion. This is simply a tea made by steeping the leaves

in freshly boiled water for ten minutes. As a guideline, use about an

ounce (around 30 grams) of dried plant to two cups of boiled water,

which will provide three doses of plant infusion.

Another method is to make a macerado, or tincture. Here, you mac-

erate the leaves and stems in alcohol.

Whichever you choose, remember that your intention is always the

most important ingredient, so hold in mind your purpose for dieting

the plant as you go through each stage of preparation. In this way, you

reach out to the spirit of the plant and inform it of your needs.

Diet the Plant

Each morning before breakfast, take a half cup of the infusion or, if you

have made a macerado, a half shot glass (about three teaspoons). Do the

same in the evening.

44 The Shaman’s Diet: Listening to the Plants

After a week or so, you may start to find your life taking on some of

the qualities of the plant itself. In the case of our example, as rosemary

is stimulating, you might find that there is more going on around you,

or that you have more “get up and go.”

As you maintain your practice, there will come a moment when you

sense the plant actively reaching out to you. At that moment you will

know that the plant is your ally—the door will be open for you to learn

its ways, how it will help you, and how it can guide your deeper journey

into the plant world.

Leaf walk in Haiti to collect magical plants for healing baths. The procession is led by Houngan Babou, who cracks a whip to hold malevolent spirits at bay.

Ross Heaven (right), in ritual Vodou costume, opens a

ceremony in Haiti. The “mist” behind the two figures is

reckoned to be a Lwa (spirit) entering the circle.

Amazonian shaman, Wilson Montez, holds (left to right): mashushillo, floripondio, and buseta, plants that are all used in plant magic.

Wanga (charm) bottles hanging in a Haitian Makaya House (house of magic). The bottles contain plants

and essences to attract good fortune to the person they are made for

and remove evil magic or negative energies. Also note the snakes: in

plant spirit magic, many shamans recognize a primal connection

between serpents and plants and the affinity they have for each other.