Review – Sacred Plant Medicine: The Wisdom in Native American Herbalism by Stephen Harrod Buhner, Rochester, VT: Bear & Co., 2006. I was attracted to Buhner’s book after reviewing a number of his other books but also because of the subtitle, The Wisdom in Native American Herbalism. One of my primary interests is to commune with spirit guides and herbal spirit guides in particular, and I recognize that the Native American way of learning from plants is through their spirit dreams and waking visions of the plants. I found this book truly amazing. From my reviews of Buhner’s other books I have been much impressed with his medical and scientific understanding of the effectiveness of medicinal herbs. But this book shows his deep understanding of another dimension in the use of medicinal herbs, i.e. his understanding of the ways humans can communicate with and learn from these plants. One of Buhner’s impressive observations is that when the indigenous people are asked where in their body they live most all point to their chest, their heart, while in our culture we point to our head, our brain. We think of our heart as simply a pump to circulate the blood and don’t consider its other functions, i.e. as an endocrine gland and most important to this book, as the heart-brain with its neural connections to the brain. The heart is a neural receptor of emotions with the perceived emotions being sent through its neural connections to the brain for interpretation. This is why I find it most important in my practice and teaching of ecstatic trance to focus on our breathing and the heart to quiet the mind, a focus that moves our attention away from our brain and downward to the heart. We have been stuck in the era of rationality for the last 2500 years, a time in which reality has been considered only that which is perceived through our five senses that are experienced within the brain. We have missed out on what is brought to us through our sixth sense of listening with our heart, the way our hunting-gathering ancestors related to the world around them by listening to the emotions of all that is of the Earth. The sacred, with both its nonrational and nonlineal reality, needs to be experienced in order to be defined or understood. In modern times we have lived in a world of rationality, a reality that is only perceived through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. All other experiences such as talking with plants are considered superstitious and unreal. That which is sacred has grown to be considered irrational, yet the Earth Centered people and tribes live in a world of the sacred, of that which we have desacralized in our greed for profit. That which is sacred has been given us by our ancestors, it is in our genes, and we can again bring it alive by experiencing its reality more deeply when we listen to it through our hearts. Buhner when suffering with an undiagnosed pain found relief when he eventually was prescribed Osha by a local herbalist. After this life changing experience he spent much time in the wild, observing plants, learning their preferred environment and their stages of growth. These observations led him to distinguish the “feeling tone” of each plant, i.e. a distinct energy or life essence much more subtle than our more readily identified emotions. This opened him to a new world of listening to the plants. While sitting with and focusing on the “feeling tone” of the lichen Usnea he found himself drifting off into an altered state of visioning where his personal boundaries dissolved and the vision became that of a man telling him of the primary function of Usnea in the Earth ecosystem for healing. With my nearly 50 years of experience first with hypnotic trance and the last 15 years with ecstatic or shamanic trance, I find that I can come to hear what the plants have to say most effectively in a state of trance, a word that many people avoid using because it sounds irrational. But for the “holy people” of world’s indigenous tribes, listening to the plants in trance is quite natural. Throughout the book Buhner quotes many of these “holy people,” who through their dreams and trance experiences hear the songs of the plants, songs that become sacred to them. These songs and the quotes of these indigenous healers add greatly to the depth to this book. Other plants that have become powerful to Buhner are Yarrow and Angelica, two plants that I have planted in my herb garden. I mention this because Buhner seeks the plants he listens to in the wild, in their natural setting that give them much of their power. I live in an area where walking in the wild is most difficult because of the private nature of the properties around us though I do find a few medicinal plants alongside the road upon which I frequently walk. I have moved some of these roadside plants to our garden including Colt’s Foot, Mullein and Chicory. Domesticated species do not carry the life force and intelligence of wild plants. Each plant needs to be treated with the respect and love as you would like to be treated. I do find it interesting that Buhner values the concept of a permaculture as does Brooke Medicine Eagle who wrote the Foreword to the book, a form of gardening that I too value. Proper communication with plants needs to be with genuine feeling. Only when listening carefully to plant will it begin to trust you and speak to you. Children naturally have the feelings to communicate with plants though it is lost in adulthood because it is not supported by most adults. Unlearning our limited ways of relating to plants is required in order to think like a plant and develop the sensitivity to hear it. Receiving and feeling the pain of the Earth can be overwhelming, but to hear the Earth crying and remain balanced is the beginning of this journey. Paying attention to every detail of the plant is the cornerstone to develop this relationship, not just with eyes but more importantly with the heart, to hear its feelings. Carry the plant with you and put it under your pillow can help in developing this ability. When picking a plant or digging its root, when preparing and administering the plant medicine offer prayers and tobacco of sincere thanks. Leave a gift for the first plant you find so that the other plants know for what you are looking. Sincere desire and intent, and not so much the form of ritual are necessary for the plant’s life force to not be broken, but the sacred pipe ritual and singing the plant song can enhance this communication. Creating and carrying a sacred medicine bundle or bag shows focus and respect, and facilitates communication with the plants. The focus of healing is not merely for reducing symptoms. The healer needs to receive the pain of the illness and truly understand the territory of the illness without running from it. Illness comes from many sources besides a disease organism, and understanding the deeper cause is required for healing. Balance is of primary importance, balance that the healers frequently demonstrate through the physical acts that require great physical agility and balance. This balance requires focus of mind in dealing with the tension between two unqualified forces to hold the force of power needed to heal. The territory of healing varies from healer to healer, and the distinct spiritual identity of a plant may be its power for healing. When the healers face crossing the demarcation between the land of illness and that of death they need to recognize that resolution of the illness may be death which needs to be faced without fear. For me as the reader/reviewer, these first six chapters are the most exciting and valuable. I am a certified instructor of ecstatic/shamanic trance as taught by Felicitas Goodman. Goodman found in her research of the sacred postures used by indigenous healers that the postures give direction to the trance/healing experience. From approximately 50 shamanic postures that she found in ancient art of the hunter-gatherers, some postures bring a healing and strengthening energy into the body, while others are for divination to find answers to questions. Some are for metamorphosis or shape-shifting while others are for spirit journeying, some into the underworld, some in the middle world and some into the upper world. Then there are those postures for initiation or for providing a death-rebirth experience. What Stephen Harrod Buhner has provided in these initial chapters demonstrate the importance of sincerity, honesty, love, and ritual to facilitate healing, factors that increase the effectiveness of these postures. These postures have provided me with numerous spirit guides, and some of these guides are medicinal plants. The next two chapters describe the rituals for collecting the herbs, and for preparing the medicines. Collecting the herbs and making the medicine again requires sincerity, love, and respect for the plants as we listen to them as our teachers, teachers that we look up to for what they have to offer us, and to not put ourselves above them with an attitude of superiority. The rituals Buhner describe emphasize this sincerity, respect and love for the plants. The Earth does not understand the most important invention of humans, i.e. language, but she does understand ceremony. Ceremonies that may come from visions or are given to us by the holy teachers of the tribe are expression of sacred feelings and reverence. Many of the sacred ceremonies, e.g. the dances of the indigenous tribes of North America, are seen in their powwows and kachina dances with their elaborate masks and costumes. Some ceremonies are much simpler, e.g. the daily offering of thanks to the rising sun, smudging, and the use of the sweat lodge. The elaborate sacred pipe ceremony is described in beautiful detail, the pipe with the bowl made of pipestone represents all the four-legged and the stem all that grows from the Earth. The pipe carrier is very central in the life of the community. The smoke carries the people’s voices and prayers to the Great Spirit, joining heaven and Earth as the inherent duality of the universe is made one. Another ceremony uses the frequently found Medicine Wheel, a circle of stone representing the circle of life and the four or eight directions. For me calling the spirits of the four directions of the Medicine Wheel is an important element in the induction ritual of ecstatic trance. The next two chapters describe a number of the medicinal herbs of the Rocky Mountains, the first four he finds of greatest importance, i.e. Pasque Flower, Osha, Usnea and Angelica. The 15 additional herbs that he also values are described with the plants’ songs and their meaning to the healers of a number of different indigenous tribes, stories that are very enlightening and valuable. Of these 15 Rocky Mountain plants a number are growing here in the Northeast and in my medicinal herb garden, including Echinacea, Milkweed, Oak (burr oak whose acorns are especially tasty), Yarrow, and Wild Ginger. I have journeyed with these plants in ecstatic trance and find much importance in what they have to say to me. Buhner concludes the book with the Birth of Gaia, i.e. with the renewed realization that the Earth is a single living being and life upon her is her children. Though this awareness has been quite prevalent throughout indigenous societies of antiquity it has only recently been embraced in our dominating culture. The interdependence of all that is of the Earth, both animate and inanimate, is essential for the working of the whole system. This Earth system, Gaia, has regulated itself for millions of years, but now we are causing her great pain by putting ourselves superior to everything that is of her, causing many species of life upon which we depend to die off. But we have the ability within ourselves to again be part of Gaia and not apart from her. There is hope with the urging of our Mother, the Earth. Her urging can be seen in the many effects of the global climate crisis including the current COVID pandemic, and the massive fires. “Sacred Plant Medicine” is a most important book.