While viewing the Chris Mars art exhibit & book signing at the Galleria Barnes & Noble tonight I ran across this book in the bargain section:
http://www.amazon.com/Shaman-Voyage...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236139994&sr=8-1
Being interested in the archaic/earth/nature based consciousness & "religions" outside the western contexts (jew/xtian/muslim) I've looked at this on Amazon but never wanted to part with the $50 for it (being a mere 184 pages). Barnes & Noble now has it in paperback at the easy price of $5.98. So if you're into visual encyclopedias on these kinds of subjects have look at your local shop, lots of great images and artwork. The Articles aren't bad either, not totally in depth but a good few page introduction to each subject. At least no new agey stuff in here as it aspires to put things in their cultural context. The section on enthnobotany is very brief and disappointing, and taking a rather dim view of the vision plants which essentially is a shamans key to the cosmos and source of their "power" as a healer (early psycho-pharmacology) along with a tribes belief in him/her. This subject should occupy at least 1/4 of the book as each culture has their sacred plants. Being a plant nut I suppose I'd never be happy no matter how many pages it devoted to the subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Shaman-Voyage...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236139994&sr=8-1
Being interested in the archaic/earth/nature based consciousness & "religions" outside the western contexts (jew/xtian/muslim) I've looked at this on Amazon but never wanted to part with the $50 for it (being a mere 184 pages). Barnes & Noble now has it in paperback at the easy price of $5.98. So if you're into visual encyclopedias on these kinds of subjects have look at your local shop, lots of great images and artwork. The Articles aren't bad either, not totally in depth but a good few page introduction to each subject. At least no new agey stuff in here as it aspires to put things in their cultural context. The section on enthnobotany is very brief and disappointing, and taking a rather dim view of the vision plants which essentially is a shamans key to the cosmos and source of their "power" as a healer (early psycho-pharmacology) along with a tribes belief in him/her. This subject should occupy at least 1/4 of the book as each culture has their sacred plants. Being a plant nut I suppose I'd never be happy no matter how many pages it devoted to the subject.