For generation after generation, Toltec shamans have passed down their wisdom through teaching stories. The purpose of these stories is to implant a seed of knowledge in the mind of the listener, where it can ultimately sprout and blossom into a new and better way of life. In The Wisdom of the Shamans: What the Ancient Masters Can Teach Us About Love and Life, Toltec shaman and master storyteller don Jose Ruiz shares some of the most popular stories from his family's oral tradition and offers corresponding lessons that illustrate the larger ideas within each story. Ruiz begins by explaining that contrary to the stereotypical image of "witch doctor," the ancient shamans were men and women who fulfilled several roles within their communities: philosopher, spiritual guide, medical doctor, psychologist, and friend. According to Ruiz, their teachings are not primitive or reserved for a chosen few initiates but are instead a powerful series of lessons on love and life that are available to us all. To that aim, he has included exercises, meditations, and shamanic rituals to help you experience the personal transformation these stories offer. The shamans taught that the truth you seek is inside of you. Let these stories, lessons, and tools be your guide to finding the innate wisdom that lives within.

One of the main tenets of shamanism is a belief in the power of rituals and ceremonies to manifest change in the physical world. Every shamanic school on the planet uses rituals and ceremonies as tools for personal transformation. In this book, shaman and New York Times bestselling author don Jose Ruiz explains many of the most popular rituals and ceremonies used in shamanism and instructs readers how to perform these rites on their own. This book is a how-to guide for creating power objects and animal totems and learning how to do soul retrieval, recapitulation, dream training, and more. The son of don Miguel Ruiz, the author of the world-renowned Four Agreements, don Jose Ruiz is a shaman in the Native American Toltec tradition.

In Discovering Your Spirit Animal, shamanic healer Lucy Harmer presents a practical approach to understanding spirit animals and applying their power to specific situations in daily life. Written in clear, simple language and featuring compelling stories and anecdotes, the book explains what a spirit animal is, describes its purpose, and shows that understanding the “medicine” of one’s spirit animal—assimilating its qualities and characteristics—allows one to apply the lessons and messages they convey and use them for personal transformation. Lucy Harmer notes that particular animals that cross one’s path or appear repeatedly nearby probably want us to share in their medicine, their teaching, their energy, and their spirit. Discovering Your Spirit Animal provides guidance for meeting and getting to know one’s spirit animal through easy exercises and shamanic techniques. Lucy Harmer explains how to discover the strengths, qualities, and skills one shares with one’s personal spirit animal, enabling one to learn how to reinforce this connection and access innate wisdom and inner power, overcome fears, increase natural healing capacity, and improve relationships.

For us to perceive any of the worlds that exist beside our own, not only do we have to covet them but we need to have sufficient energy to seize them. In this revolutionary book, Carlos Castaneda offers readers the key to this energetic conditioning for the first time, revealing a series of body positions and physical movements that enabled various sorcerers, and their apprentices, to navigate their own sorceric journeys. By sharing this centuries-old wisdom, Carlos Castaneda makes it possible for readers to travel to some of these other realms, which are as real, unique, absolute, and engulfing as our own world. Castaneda offers both a philosophical history of magical passes and an innovative, easy-to-understand instructional format, complete with more than 450 computer-generated illustrations. Written with humor, clarity, and authority, Magical Passes further illuminates the true meaning of sorcery and magic.

Praise for Michael Samuels and Mary Rockwood Lane "Filled with the truth about how spirit can heal us. I was very moved by this powerful book." -Christiane Northrup, M.D. (on Spirit Body Healing) "Dr. Michael Samuels provides us with new tools and ways of thinking about our capacity to heal. He has been a wonderful teacher for me and can be for you. . . . His work is inspiring." -Bernie Siegel, M.D. "Healing is a creative process. These heartfelt stories and beautiful visualizations inspire the reader to see all life as a healing journey." -David Simon, M.D. (on Spirit Body Healing) "Dr. Michael Samuels is one of the leading pioneers in exploring creativity as an important part of every person’s healing journey." -Dean Ornish, M.D. Ancient spiritual wisdom-practical results Long before there were medical doctors, surgical procedures, and prescription drugs, shaman healers learned to combat illness and restore physical health using the tools and skills of the body, mind, and spirit. Shaman Wisdom, Shaman Healing shows you how to harness the power of these ancient shamanic traditions to expand your ability as a healer. This practical, prescriptive guide offers a step-by-step program that shows you how to focus the power of your mind, open yourself to your visionary life, and allow the healing spirit to flow through you. You’ll learn how to heal yourself and others using proven techniques drawn from both Native American and Asian traditions, including: Heeding the call, Creating a sacred space, Inviting spirit through prayer, Using guided imagery and moving healing energy, Invoking spirit animals and the spirits of ancient ones, Using a medicine wheel and cultivating visions

A powerful debut from one of the world's most respected shamanic teachers, following Marcela Lobos's journey in this world and the world of spirit. The stress, conflict, and crises of the outer world are a signal: the time has come to awaken your inner shaman. However, you don't need to be initiated into arcane mysteries to answer the call from Spirit. In this book, Marcela Lobos reveals how to use the maps offered by the shamanic Medicine Wheel and the hero's journey to activate your inner wisdom and live a self-realized existence of discovery, healing, and wholeness. From her childhood in a war-torn country to her initiation with the shamans of the Andes and her life today as a teacher and medicine woman, Marcela's story offers a flesh-and-bones context for each step on the archetypal journey to Self. It is also an invitation to step out from your ordinary life and take the first steps on your own quest for spiritual understanding and deep transformation: to learn to walk the Medicine Path and to find your own power and inner beauty.

This book explores how the ancient path of shamanism can help us to understand the nature of mental illness, recasting psychological breakdown as a potentially transformational experience. What we label as pathological could actually be an initiation into a better relationship with ourselves and the world. Written for those who are experiencing or who have experienced mental illness, or whose loved ones are going through such episodes, or who are mental wellbeing practitioners, this is a guide to the potentially transformational experience of that which we label mental illness. It explores the ancient concept of the "shamanic sickness", whereby the prospective shaman underwent many years of mental distress as part of their initiation, and looks at what this can teach us about mental health. It argues that, in some cases, what we seek to medicate could actually be a calling to a path of service and healing. The book also explores our cultural biases around mental illness. What we define as pathological, many cultures see as a sign of being inspired and in touch with greater powers. It looks at our uneasy relationship with altered states of consciousness and how these might hold the key to healing many symptoms of mental illness. Finally it looks at how we, as species, have come out of balance in our relationship to nature and the devastating affect this is having on our mental health. By learning from ancient indigenous cultures who have remained in balance with the natural world, this book looks at solutions to heal this modern imbalance and find a way forward for the Earth and ourselves.