A unique characteristic of Native American medicine is the belief that each patient holds a different spirit, and that the healing can only work when it affects the individual spirit. Mythology is essential to this healing process. The belief stories within these pages reflect a culture that holds both poignant and alarming lessons. Readers of this book will discover the intriguing past and knowledge of Native American history and beliefs which are more enlightening than they may have previously realized. Teresa Pijoan was raised as a young child on San Juan Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico by her Barcelona born father and her New York born mother. When Teresa was twelve years old, her family moved to Nambe Indian Reservation. She also spent several summers with her adopted aunt at Hopi. As a University of New Mexico at Valencia history professor, Teresa Pijoan, PhD, is an internationally acclaimed author, storyteller, and lecturer. She has won many awards for her teaching and her publications. Her other books from Sunstone Press are "American Indian Creation Myths," "Pueblo Indian Wisdom," "Ways of Indian Magic," and "Dead Kachina Man."

Heathens follow the pre-Christian indigenous beliefs of Northern Europe. We honor our Gods, our Ancestors, and nature spirits called the Vaettir, in much the same way as our Northern European Ancestors. Heathenry is a traditional Folkway, with a strong focus on our families and living this life to its fullest. This book is a collection of 66 essays and 5 poems concerning the Folkway of our People. Heathen Gods includes a chapter for new heathens, chapters on starting, building, maintaining and protecting kindreds and tribes, a chapter on living a heathen life, and a travel journal from a 2009 trip to Iceland.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Shamanism... what is it? Is it a phenomenon with a clear definition or with a set of clearly definable attributes? Has the phenomenon changed over time, or are today's versions found in suburban basements the same as those that were practiced hundreds of years ago by various tribal people? What can we figure out about shamanism if we simply look at the term itself and how it has been employed over time? What if we restrict ourselves to one geographic location? These are some of the questions grappled with, and partially answered, in this book. By discussing the historical use of the terms shamanism and shaman in North America, Peter N. Jones offers fresh insights into the history of this phenomenon. Comparing current understandings and descriptions of the phenomenon with those of the historical and archival record, Shamans and Shamanism presents a comprehensive analysis of the terms use over time. Included in the book is a comprehensive bibliography of the term's use in North America. Shamans and Shamanism is an important resource for anyone interested in this phenomenon. It provides new insights into the history of the terms, their use in both academic and pop literature, and offers a starting point for future investigations of the phenomenon.

All the races of men, along with their gods, descend from Japhet, son of Noah. The Hebrew and Hindu holy books say that all our deities and religions came from a race of spacemen from Outer Space, to keep mankind from devolving to animal level. "It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth-when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men ." (Genesis 6:4). The ancient Hindus and Turks called them Navalin (Star Ship People) and Anunaka/Anunaki (One who is from the Sky; From the Place of No Pain). The Sumerians, Mesopotamians, and Akkadians called them Anunaki (Sky Gods; People of Heaven and Earth).

The divine strangers appointed the tribe of Japhet or the Sanskrit Jyapeti to rule the earth. This divine right of kingship extended also to their close relatives, the Yadu, Yadava, and Yahuda (Jews). The divine religions they inherited were Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism-all of which originated in Siberia. But things went wrong. Mankind kept getting worse. Men started to deny that Christaya, Kurus, and Aryans, as they were called, originated from Mt. Meru in Southern Siberia. The ancient Jews insisted that mankind had spread from the Tower of Babylon, which was just a symbol of Meru. The Hindus likewise insisted that their Gods were home grown and not from Outer Space. Yet, the story might be true. It extended over the entire Eastern Hemisphere.

Traditional indigenous cultures in many parts of the world have displayed a profound appreciation of the relationship between human and ecosystem health, something global culture is trying to rediscover under the label of sustainability. A spiritual resource for sustainable living, this poem records the creation story of the Sami, a nomadic people of Northern Europe, and then retells several Scandinavian folk-tales derived from their playfully animistic world view. Their deep kinship with the wild is shown in their awe for bears: The bear is more like people are Than any other thinking creature: He stands up on two legs to strike, With eyes that skewer like a spike, And when we cut away his skin He looks like a great bloody man.

Called the Mvskoke in their language, the Creek Indians of Oklahoma continue to practice traditional medicine. In "Creek Indian Medicine Ways," David Lewis, a full-blood Mvskoke and practicing medicine man, tells about the medicine tradition that has shaped his life. Born into a family of medicine people, he was chosen at birth to carry on the tradition. He shares his memories here about his childhood training and initiation as a medicine man as well as his remembrances about his father and grandmother, who trained him. Lewis reveals part of the sacred story of the origin of plants and he identifies some of the plants he uses in his cures. He also describes several of the ceremonies his teachers taught him, stressing throughout the sacredness and importance of Mvskoke medicine.

Ann T. Jordan, a Euroamerican anthropologist, documents the place of Lewis's medicine family in the written record. Lewis is the great grandson of Jackson Lewis, who was interviewed in 1910 by anthropologist John Swanton. Jackson Lewis is mentioned numerous times in Swanton's classic works on Mvskoke medicine and culture, published by the Bureau of American Ethnology in the 1920s. David Lewis is the direct inheritor of his great grandfather's medicine knowledge.

Using a slew of disciplines - including archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, ethnobotany, biology and other fields - The Long Trip strips bare the evidence for the psychedelic experiences of various prehistoric societies and ancient, traditional cultures. It is probably the most comprehensive single volume to look at the use of mind-altering drugs, or entheogens, for ritual and shamanistic purposes throughout humanity's long story, while casting withering sidelong glances at our own times - as Paul Devereux points out, our modern mainstream culture is eccentric in its refusal to integrate the profound experiences offered by these natural substances into its own spiritual life. The Long Trip is a fascinating study of an influential yet still under-explored experience, and is revelatory in its findings, invaluable in its research, and important in its attempts to address many deep questions confronting our culture.

There exists a race of Giants who live in the Blue Mountains of India. Read this book and discover who they are, how they use Spiritual Powers, and why they Worship the Sacred Buffalo. This is a true story of Blavatsky's contact with these ancient people.

David Obey has in his nearly forty years in the U.S. House of Representatives worked to bring economic and social justice to America s working families. In 2007 he assumed the chair of the Appropriations Committee and is positioned to pursue his priority concerns for affordable health care, education, environmental protection, and a foreign policy consistent with American democratic ideals. Here, in his autobiography, Obey looks back on his journey in politics beginning with his early years in the Wisconsin Legislature, when Wisconsin moved through eras of shifting balance between Republicans and Democrats. On a national level Obey traces, as few others have done, the dramatic changes in the workings of the U.S. Congress since his first election to the House in 1969. He discusses his own central role in the evolution of Congress and ethics reforms and his view of the recent Bush presidency crucial chapters in our democracy, of interest to all who observe politics and modern U.S. history.Best Books for Regional General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association"

"An old dog (galu wamkota) does not dig for nothing," so the proverb says. The two authors, one from America (with 45 years in Zambia); the other from Zambia, explore the encounter of the Christian faith with African Traditional Religion, treating concept(s) of God, the world of the spirits, of powers and witchcraft, and then how the Bible can be translated into the language of Zambia and Malawi taking into account both changes in concepts of translation and in society

"Song of the Caiman""Spiritual Beliefs of the CiBoNey Peoples""Connect with the ancestors and there Florida and Caribbean descendents"For more information please contact: Ciboney Tribe of [email protected]

Lynn V. Andrews takes the reader with her as she goes on inward journeys with the help of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and relates the stories of others.
Join her as she is initiated into the Sisterhood and creates her own shield, which will show her the nature of her spiritual path ("Spirit Woman"). Follow her to the Yucatan, where the medicine wheel leads her, and she is faced with the terrifying reality of the butterfly tree ("Jaguar Woman"). Enter the Dreamtime with her, where she emerges in medieval England as Catherine, and encounters the Grandmother, who offers to show Andrews how to make her life one of goodness, power, adventure, and love ("The Woman of Wyrrd").
Not all these stories describe the author's own spiritual experiences. Meet Sin Coraz?n, an initiate into the Sisterhood, whose husband abandons her. She nearly succumbs to her inner dark power and unleashes her rage on men and the Sisterhood ("Dark Sister"). Andrews also writes about the elder women of the Sisterhood: their loves, their lives, their losses ("Tree of Dreams").
Andrews shows us how to channel our own spiritual and intellectual energy and balance the need for love with the desire for power ("Love and Power"). She takes the reader on numerous spiritual journeys that inevitably uplift.

Introduction; The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep; The Instruction of Ke'Gemni; Note to appendix; The Instruction of Amenemheet; Explanation of Names; Bibliography.

The first art historical study of Yoruba-descended, African Brazilian religious art based on an author's long-term participation in and observation of private and public rituals.

At a time when the art of the African diaspora has aroused much general interest for its multicultural dimensions, Mikelle Smith Omari-Tunkara contributes strikingly rich insights as a participant/observer in the African-based religions of Brazil. She focuses on the symbolism and function of ritual objects and costumes used in the Brazilian candomble (miniature "African" environments or temples) of the Bahia region, which combine Yoruba, Bantu/Angola, Caboclo, Roman Catholic, and/or Kardecist/Spiritist elements. An initiate herself with more than twenty years of study, the author is considered an insider, and has witnessed how practitioners manipulate the "sacred" to encode, in art and ritual, vital knowledge about meaning, values, epistemologies, and history. She demonstrates how this manipulation provides Brazilian descendents of slaves with a sense of agency -- with a link to their African heritage and a locus for resistance to the dominant Euro-Brazilian culture.

Manipulating the Sacred will be of value to students of art history, religion, anthropology, African American studies, and Latin American studies, and to the growing English-speaking community of initiates of African-based religions.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Are you searching for a spiritual path that speaks to your cultural identity? Are you curious about the connection of the African-American experience to ancient African culture and spirituality? The Quest for Spiritual Transformation: An Introduction to Traditional Akan Religion, Rituals, and Practices is an important contribution to the exploration of cultural approaches to healing the mind, body, and spirit. Author Nana Opokuwaa clearly illustrates the connection between the traditions and beliefs of Africans born in the Diaspora to the ancient customs of the Akans. Her writing style exhibits a special sensitivity and compassion that shows appreciation for the reader's need for guidance. Opokuwaa's approach to explaining the Akan Akom Tradition brings clarity to the complicated practices associated with African religion in the Diaspora. In addition to seven study guides meant to serve as discussion points within your organization, group of friends, or for yourself, this book includes a list of references to enlighten you about Akan culture, customs, and traditions. utilized in the book and an index for readily available reference. In the follow-up to Akan Protocol: Remembering the Traditions of Our Ancestors, Opokuwaa continues her effort to share information about the ancient traditions and customs of the Akans of Ghana, West Africa.

This book describes itself as: 'a cultural, psychological study of the way Christian Malawians account for their involvement in African traditional religion'. It is a qualitative study of how Christians manage to be at the same time involved in African traditional religions, of which the Christian church, on the whole, disapproves. It lends insight into the ways in which individuals enact two different religions in their daily lives, focusing particularly on religious practices. It further aims to adopt a position of religious pluralism, representing the voices and perspectives of the peoples studied.

This is the first volume of a projected three-volume work on the little-known South Indian folk cult of the goddess Draupadi and on the classical epic, the "Mahabharata," that the cult brings to life in mythic, ritual, and dramatic forms. Draupadi, the chief heroine of the Sanskrit "Mahabharata," takes on many unexpected guises in her Tamil cult, but her dimensions as a folk goddess remain rooted in a rich interpretive vision of the great epic. By examining the ways that the cult of Draupadi commingles traditions about the goddess and the epic, Alf Hiltebeitel shows the cult to be singularly representative of the inner tensions and working dynamics of popular devotional Hinduism.

This work contains a brief view of the myths, traditions and religious belief of races with concise studies in ethnography. These short studies in ethnography were written chiefly in the British Museum. It is meant for the general reader and not scientists, so the references given have usually been from easily attainable works in English, and only a small portion of the abundant notes that might have been given from French, German and Latin authors have been used. The object of this book is to throw light on the many important passages in Holy Writ, and to show that the finest learning and most recent discoveries have not antagonized the Mosaic author, but have followed the path he traced.

A literal translation that preserves the poem's original structure This second volume provides a literal, line-by-line English translation of the Popol Vuh, capturing the beauty, subtlety, and high poetic language characteristic of K'iche'-Maya sacred writings. By arranging the work according to its poetic structure, Christenson preserves the poem's original phraseology and grammar, allowing subtle nuances of meaning to emerge.

"Will be of interest not only to specialists in Afro-Cuban and African Diaspora religions, but also to medical anthropologists and students of anthropology, psychology, and religious studies. This work provides a particularly revealing entry way into the realities of contemporary Cuba."-- George Brandon, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, City University of New York Johan Wedel offers a visit inside the world of Santeria healing. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in contemporary Cuba, including interviews with Santeria devotees, firsthand observations of divination sessions, and interviews with healed patients supplemented by comments from Santeria healers, Wedel demonstrates how Santeria healing is carried out and experienced by the participants. Santeria--with roots in Africa and the slave trade and rituals including divination, animal sacrifice, and possession trance--would seem an anachronism in the modern world. Still, Wedel argues, it offers treatment and ideas about illness that are flourishing and even spreading in the face of Western medicine. He shows that Santeria healing is best understood as a transformation of the self, allowing the patient to experience the world in a new way. He grounds his analysis of Santeria in lively and sometimes frightening narratives in which people reveal in their own words the experience of illness, sorcery, and healing. Wedel's account will appeal to scholars and others interested in Santeria, Cuba, and religious healing. He shows that Santeria is not only a challenge to Western medical theory, but also an important contribution to our understanding of illness, suffering, and well-being. Johan Wedel is instructor in social anthropology at Goeteborg University, Sweden.