Category: Spirituality/Paganism & Magick

Most of us know that nature provides us with plants to heal our bodies. What many of us may not know, she provides us with plants that can heal our souls as well. Nature, you see, is nothing if not holistic.

Since the beginning of human experience, plants have played a role in the evolution of our species, not only in the provision of food and medicine but in our deepest spiritual experiences and the development of consciousness. According to the shamans of the Amazon – one of Earth’s last (mostly) unspoiled areas and a bastion for deep and intimate plant knowledge – it was the plants themselves who taught us how to heal and know our souls.

Article Continues After Illustration

Ayahuasca being prepared in the Napo region of Ecuador.

In 2006, Peruvian shaman and visionary artist Pablo Amaringo wrote the foreword to Ross Heaven's book, "Plant Spirit Shamanism". After a lifetime spent working with plants and with plant spirit shamanism, what do plants mean to Pablo? This article is from the foreword.

The great visionary artist, Pablo Amaringo, was born in 1943 in Puerto Libertad, in the Peruvian Amazon. He was 10 years old when he first took ayahuasca - a visionary brew used in shamanism - to help him overcome a severe heart disease. The magical cure of this ailment via the plants themselves led Pablo toward the life of a shaman, which he pursued successfully for many years, healing himself and others from the age of ten.

In a follow-up to research showing that psilocybin, a substance contained in “sacred mushrooms,” produces substantial spiritual effects, a Johns Hopkins team reports that those beneficial effects appear to last more than a year.

Writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Johns Hopkins researchers note that most of the 36 volunteer subjects given psilocybin, under controlled conditions in a Hopkins study published in 2006, continued to say 14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.

Celtic art, with it's mysterious symbolism and ancient history is capturing the interest of everyday Americans. This article reveals some of the meanings attributed to the most noteworthy Celtic symbols and gives some insight into the spirituality of these ancient people.

There is an undeniable aura that surrounds Celtic designs and Druid traditions. Although I have strong family ties to both Ireland and Scotland, you don’t need a Celtic heritage to be enticed by the culture. It’s been said that as long as you respect Mother Earth and feel an affinity with the Celtic people you too have a Celtic soul.

In the northern hemisphere June 21 is generally considered the longest day of the year, and traditionally it's the first day of summer - Summer Solstice. This is a bit of a contradiction, given that another of the day’s names is Midsummer - an ancient reference to the fact that this day is in the middle of Europe’s agricultural season. And there's yet another contradiction - the longest day on the annual calendar can sometimes fall a day or two later, depending on the year in question!

I am a Christian, and I’ve always been interested in Summer Solstice and the Pagan religion. I remember a horror film called Spellbinder, and the climactic scene was based around Summer Solstice. Since the advent of Christianity some 2000 years ago there is a view that ancient religions such as Paganism are inspired, controlled or even led by Satan. Thus solstice celebrations are rejected because they are viewed as Satanic in origin.

But this isn’t a true reflection of an old religion.

In Modern Magick, witches are not dark figures any more, but owners of their destinies and masters of their futures.

The term Magick, with the added k, was created by the very controversial Aleister Crowley. Despite the drama, strange hat and fuss over his life and career, Crowley was a real erudite and the first to establish the act of ritual as an act of the magician's will, instead than a favour from an invoked entity.

Author and editor Gwendolyn Toynton takes a look at how modern Shamanism compares with the role of traditional Shaman.

Traditional Shamanism is often thought of as a magico-religious tradition of the past, existing today only in indigenous populations. Whilst to many the practice of Shamanism is still limited to such areas, Shamanism itself has survived and perhaps even flourished under the blessing of a new incarnation. At the moment, the revival and new found interest in Shamanism is particularly predominant in the Western world. Finding themselves limited to the Western doctrine of Christianity, a number of people have rejected such traditional concepts and have either created for themselves new traditions, or, as in the case of Shamanism, revived a religion which predated Christianity.

Before ordering love spells from one of the hundreds of spell casting sites on the Internet,there are a few key essential things that someone looking for a love spell needs to know. Without knowing key information about real love spells and the different ways that a spell can be cast,you might just be throwing your money away.

Before ordering "self proclaimed" powerful love spells from the hundreds of spell casting sites that seem to pop all over the internet these days, there are a few key essential things that someone looking for a love spell needs to know.Without knowing key information about real love spells and the different ways that a spell can be cast (which directly effects the success rate of a love spell), you might just be throwing your money away.

"Creation consists of the emanations of the Eagle. There are forty eight distinct emanations of the Eagle, of which humans through our ordinary perception can perceive two of them." --Don Juan, the Yaqui Indian and teacher of Carlos Castaneda.

There is a lot of discussion and opinion on what a shaman is. The word itself is rooted in the word šaman from the Tungus people in central Asia. Definitions vary greatly in modern society, this varies from people who enjoy trancing out to music at dances and 'tribal' gatherings calling themselves shamans to a very precise definition as per Mercia Eliade who in his book Shamanism - Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy specifically defines the term shaman as distinct from medicine man, sorcerer, healer, diviner, magician, herbalist and so on. Eliade’s specific differentiation is that the shaman, who may be and practice all of the above, is defined as, "the shaman specialises in a trance during which his soul is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld." This definition is sometimes employed in a strict sense, and appears to me to be limiting in scope. To me a shaman means more than that definition.

Article Continues After Illustration

Urarina Shaman photographed by Bartholomew Dean, 1988

It is said that Skinwalkers are actually witches that practice their craft to obtain power, wealth or to simply cause evil wherever they please.

Native American and Norse legend dictate that Skinwalkers are people with mystical abilities to turn themselves into creatures, taking on not only their appearance but also their characteristics. It is said that Skinwalkers are actually witches that practice their craft to obtain power, wealth or to simply cause evil wherever they please.