Sacred Plant Medicine: The Wisdom in Native American Herbalism » (New Edition)

Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of ten books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. He comes from a long line of healers including Leroy Burney, Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist who worked in rural Indiana in the early nineteenth century. The greatest influence on his work, however, has been his great-grandfather C.G. Harrod who primarily used botanical medicines, also in rural Indiana, when he began his work as a physician in 1911.

Stephen's work has appeared or been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America.

Indigenous peoples the world over have been able to gather knowledge of plant uses by communicating directly with plants and honoring this sacred relationship. Stephen Harrod Buhner examines the techniques and states of mind these cultures use to explore the dimension of plant and human interactions and the territory where plants are an expression of Spirit.

Preface to the New Edition

Preface to the First Edition

1 The Sacred and the Earth

2 To Be Healed by the Earth

3 Visions of Sacred Plant Medicine

4 The Sacred Song of a Plant

5 Making Sacred Relationship with Plants

6 Healing in a Sacred Manner

7 Digging for Medicine: The Wildcrafting of Medicinal Plants

8 Making Plants into Medicine: The Technology of Herbalism

9 Ceremony: Making Deeper Relationship with Plants

10 Four Sacred Plants of the Rocky Mountain Region:
Their Sacred Qualities and Uses as Medicine

11 A Short Compendium of Plants and Their Sacred Uses

12 The Birth of Gaia

Appendix: Wildcrafting Ethics and Guidelines
by the Rocky Mountain Herbalists’ Coalition

Notes

Suggested Readings and Herbal Apprenticeship Programs

Index