 Hi my name is Danny and welcome to Estoteric Moment. Today I have another book review for you. This book was given to me as a free e-book copy for an honest review from the publisher and it is called Herbs of the Northern Shaman by Steve Andrews. Now this book was a little bit out of my comfort zone. This is a guidebook to many different herbs found in the northern hemisphere, roughly North America and UK that can alter the user's mental state. So some hallucinogenics, things like that. I do not incorporate those into my practice but I do use a lot of herbs and I was curious as to how they presented this material and kind of the overall tone of using these items in your practice because I feel like there are some differing opinions about whether it is acceptable to use some of these materials in your practice. Some of these materials are legal to use and kind of the the caution in using these herbs that can have very powerful effects on you and your mental state and your physiology. But herbs have been used for centuries so there are other people who feel like this is an inherited right and very valuable part of their shamanic practice. So the book is set up kind of alphabetically of multiple herbs and there are a lot of them in this guidebook. I can't say that each herb has a very consistent organization or description. It really depends on the herb that they are talking about. Most if not all of them have a beautiful photo, not enough of a photo to identify it in the wild I would say, but enough to really be confident in matching up with another reference book or using your own experience to identify something in the field. Some of the herbs have a little bit of the history and all of them talk about how you might be able to use this in your practice or little tidbits about other spiritualities or cultures that use these regularly. Some herbs have good information about dosage. Many don't. It is certainly not a guide that tells you every little thing that you need to know. So I would not recommend it for a beginner who has no experience using herbs, has no experience with field identification, but if you already have some solid skills of those sorts and you are looking to kind of expand your information then this is an excellent source of information. I do wish that the book was a little bit more consistent about how it approached each herb. I'm really into organization and I love it when my reference books start out with exactly the same three most important things I need to know or start with an identification paragraph and it is very easy for me to flip to the page that I want and know exactly where the information I'm seeking is at. But all the information was really great and from the cross referencing that I did on much of it seems to pan out very well. It also has an excellent index which is always a plus in my book. Overall I would give this book four out of five and would definitely recommend it to individuals who are looking at expanding their work in herbalism or looking to use these herbs provided you have some experience. I am still kind of mixed on my opinion about whether I think it is useful to use hallucinogenics and other mental altering herbs in a spiritual way. I definitely work for the legal system so there is a part of me that is very conscientious and aware of what my legal responsibilities are as a citizen and I don't want to cross those boundaries. At the same time there is something unique to be said about carefully and thoughtfully connecting to your spiritual practice in a really profound way. You know you can use trance, you can use ecstatic dance, you know there are multiple ways of altering your mental state to have a really deep spiritual presence and experience but there is I think a place for herbs that would do that as well. I think this book hasn't quite you know pushed me over one way or the other on whether I want to use these types of herbs in my practice but I'm really glad that I have it as a reference point and it's pointed me in the direction for a little bit more research and where I want to go with kind of exploring that realm. In the comments below I would love to know if any of you have personal experiences using these types of herbs in your spiritual practice and if so do you have any great references to point me into the right direction or you know tell me more I'm curious about whether they are against this altered mental state or if they use it in their own practice. Thanks for watching and as always may you find peace in the sacred grove.