The Shaman And The Medicine Wheel
By Evelyn Eaton (1902 – 1983).
212 Pages | A Quest Original 1982 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835605612.
This is the personal logbook of Mahad’yuni (Evelyn Eaton), a woman of white and Indian ancestry. Evelyn is a Metis Medicine Woman of the Bear Medicine Tribe and the Deer Tribe, who received her Pipe from an Arapaho Medicine Man, and much of her eighteen year long training from the Paiute Medicine Man in the Owens Valley, who also made the Pipe for her and blessed it. This first person account of Amerindian healing rituals includes her personal triumphs over physical affliction. It is the story of a Sweat Lodge, a Medicine Wheel, Shamans, the Grandfathers, and ‘close to Mother Earth’ people. It is a story of deep compassion. It is a story of tenderness. It is a story of power – the power of extraordinary healing capacities that are available to every human being.
She subsequently immersed herself in study of Native American spiritual traditions. Her many books include:
- Snowy Earth Comes Gliding
- I Send A Voice
- Go Ask The River
- The Trees And The Fields Went The Other Way.
- Joy of Night – The Last Years of Evelyn Eaton, written by her daughter Terry Eaton.
From page 173:
” The Wiyag Wachipipi (dance looking at the Sun) is one of our greatest rites and was first held many, many winters after our people received the sacred Pipe from the White Buffalo Cow Woman. It is held each year during the Moon of Fattening (June) or the Moon of Cherries Blackening (July) always at the same time when the moon is full, for the growing and dying of the moon reminds us of our ignorance, which comes and goes; but when the moon is full it is as if the eternal light of the Great Spirit were upon the whole world. “
Shamanism
Compiled by Shirley Nicholson.
295 Pages | First edition, 1987, seventh printing | Paperback | Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton | ISBN: 9780835606172
Explore the way of the Shaman
This outstanding collection of essays by nineteen noted scholars, religious figures, and practicing shamans from all traditions paints a vivid pciture of the mind and soul of the shaman around the world. Chapters by Michael Harner, Mircea Eliade, Joan Halifax, Brooke Medicine Eagle, Serge King, and other experts show why shamanism—one of the oldest forms of religious life—is experiencing so great a renewal of interest.
Native Healer – Initiation into an Ancient Art
199 Pages | Copyright 1991, third printing 1993| Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835606678.
Many claim to be healers and spiritual teachers: the author is both. Here he explains how a person is called to be a medicine man or woman and the trials and tests of a candidate. Lake gives an exciting glimpse into the world of Native American Shamanism. He was trained by numerous Native American teachers, including Rolling Thunder, and has conducted hundreds of ceremonies and lectures.
From the Introduction (p. 1):
” Traditional Native healers were the people, who provided medical leadership for the c0mmunity in the past, for most Native tribal systems. They were the seers, visionairies, doctors and counselors for the people. They advised the people about good health practices, which were medico-religious in nature, and they taught them to develop spiritually. When the people became sick, the Native healer doctored them. And if the healer did not have an answer to a particular problem, he or she would seek a vision by consulting with the Great Creator and spirits to find solutions. During such times the shaman could often see into the future. In some ways, that is what I am trying to share here. “
Kahuna Healing – Holistic Health Practices of Polynesia
173 Pages | 1983 | Paperback | Quest Books, Wheaton | ISBN: 9780835605724
Serge King, Hawaiian shaman amd author of Imagineering for Health and Earth Energies, believes in the power of individuals to heal themselves or others. He says that emotions can heal or hurt, and when used as a positive force, their healing power can be stupendous. In this book, he sets forth the ancient Hawaiian tradition which includes a complete program for the prevention and cure of illness–a holistic health program involving the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of human beings.
”You may be asking yourself by now, ‘What is this word Huna and what is a Kahuna?’ Huna is a Hawaiian word meaning ’that which is hidden, or not obvious.’ Sometimes we call it the hidden knowledge of the secret reality. The idea is not that anyone purposely hid it away, but only that it is usually hard to see. The term Kahuna can be translated as ‘a transmitter of the secret,’ and it was originally intended to be used for those who belonged to an order which practiced and taught the knowledge.”
— From the book
Twin from Another Tribe – Story of 2 Shamanic Healers from Africa and N. America
By Michael Ortiz Hill and Mandaza Augustine Kandemwa, Afterword by Deena Metzger.
220 Pages | First Quest Edition 20o7 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 9780835608527.
A gift to a world divided by race, this book is the memoir of two contemporary shamans born in divergent cultures and drawn together by destiny. Both became sacred healers, or ngangas, in traditional Bantu African medicine and came to see themselves as spiritual twins. Their meeting began an elegant process of mutual initiation so that they might lead their entire lives in the service of Spirit.
One ’twin’ among the poor in Africa, the other in an American hospital, together they explore the borderland between Western medicine and shamanic practice. Ultimately, theirs is a powerful statement about peacemaking, as it requires stripping to the elemental truth of oneself to meet ’the other’ as friend and teacher.
From Chapter 39 – ‘I AM HERE’ (p. 181):
” MANDAZA: You cannot separate the Ancestors from God. You can’t. These are the faces of God. I agree with the Jewish scripture that says ‘no graven images’, because what people do is create an image and then worship that image, and it becomes a God. You cannot make a God. God is not an object. If you want to see the faces of God, look at a mountain. You will really see the power of the Creator. Look at another person; you will see God. But I don’t pray to that person. I pray to the power that made that person and that mountain.
Nobody is perfect. Nobody is righteous. We are all young babies. We stand up, and we fall. We stand up, and we fall. I am not a perfect Mandaza. I am not righteous. I am just being told to say things to God’s people, to God’s animals. This is my message. Over and over again I repeat, ‘I am here’. It is all that I have to say. “
Joy Before Night
By Terry Eaton.
158 Pages | A Quest Original 1988 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835606341.
The Last Years of American Indian Writer Evelyn Eaton.
Many tribes, including the Nova Scotia Micmacs (from whom author Evelyn Eaton claimed descent) views crows and ravens as ‘little black messengers of the Great Spirit or Author of Mankind’. Evelyn Eaton was known as Grandmother, to others as prolific writer, poet, world traveler, lecturer, and teacher. At age eight, she published her first poem in the Montreal Star. She became an American citizen in 1944 and served as war correspondent. She taught at Columba University, Mary Washington University, Sweet Briar College, Ohio State, Pershing College, and Deep Spring College. She first encountered Paiute and Arapaho medicine people in 1962. She subsequently immersed herself in study of Native American spiritual traditions. Her many books include:
- Snowy Earth Comes Gliding
- I Send A Voice
- The Shaman And The Medicine Wheel
- Go Ask The River
- The Trees And The Fields Went The Other Way.
From Chapter III (p. 27 & 28):
” Four times think before you cross,
behind your elders or before –
for the grass springs back
more sweetly in their wake.Oh my mother. Grandmother to my four.
I watch your stately march to that place of surrender –
the gold-west hill, still warm in the hint of a fading star.I see you – at my distance – painted stick in hand
The hem of your dress feathers the ground
as you move in rhythm, to the ancient tunes.And the lonely heart beats time,
drums its rune of love
for the grasses where those feet have danced.For the places of young light,
for the cliffs of greener songs.
For the crater of strong winds,
Summer lightning. Storms.All pilgrim paths and waterways from which you’ve spun:
North, East and South to West, my mother
Rainbow to my suns. “
The Vision Keepers – Walking for Native Americans and the Earth
292 Pages | Published in 2007 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 9780835608510.
We are all seekers… Some find their path on pilgrimage to the Mahabodhi Temple in India or the Haji Ali mausoleum as they embark on a journey to Mecca. Others find God at the burial site of St. James in the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Author and environmentalist Doug Alderson meets ’the Great Spirit’ through the ancient spiritual practice of walking. The Vision Keepers is the compelling true story of a seeker who, under the guidance of Bear Heart, a Muskogee Creek Indian and Medicine Man, finds unity with our nation’s native people and reconnects with the earth through profound and mysterious means.
From the Epilogue (p. 260 & 261):
” The Hopi, along with traditional people worldwide, believe it is their role to uphold global balance through their ceremonies and lifestyles. As tribal life has eroded, the hefty burden has fallen on fewer and fewer people. It is now up to everyone, through prayers, thoughts, and actions, to share the responsibility of keeping life in harmonious synchronisation. To create a peaceful and beautiful world for the unborn is perhaps our highest purpose. A great adventure lies ahead, one that will present us with critical choices and challenges. I pray that we will adhere to that old Quaker adage slightly altered, to ‘live simply so that others – and the earth’s creatures – may simply live. “