Click on cover to
see larger image.
FEATURES

Leo Panthera
When the Student Is Ready: Apprenticing with the Visionary Vine relates stories of a health care practitioner’s initial encounters with ayahuasqueros, and shares some of the lessons he has learned as an ayahuasca apprentice in the Shipibo tradition.

Vance Gellert, Ph.D.
Finding the Jaguar: Tracking the Spirit of Indigenous Healing
recounts the evolution of an American photographer’s efforts to capture in interpretive fine art photographs the healing traditions of Andean and Amazonian shamans, folk healers, and ayahuasqueros.

Wade Davis, Ph.D.
On Preserving the Diversity of the Ethnosphere,
adapted from the book Light at the Edge of the World, describes some of the author’s experiences as an ethnobotanist studying with shamans and indigenous healers around the world, and champions the idea that the well-being of our planet depends upon the preservation of indigenous languages and cultural diversity.

Rak Razam
Seekers of the Mystery on the Ayahuasca Trail
relates a journalist’s insightful observations of presenters and participants at the 2nd International Amazonian Shamanism Conference, held in 2006 in Iquitos, Peru, and raises concerns about the potential impact of Western marketing on the integrity of ayahuasca ceremonies.


ON THE FRONT COVER: Ayahuasquero Percy Garcia Lozano, Iquitos, Peru, a photograph by Rak Razam, depicts the young Siona ayahuasquero dressed in an eclectic mix of traditional regalia and a decorative jaguar print t-shirt.

ON THE BACK COVER: Percy Garcia Lozano with Achiote Flowers, Iquitos, Peru, an interpretive portrait by Vance Gellert, shows the curandero standing in front of a flowering achiote bush, a plant used as a red dye and food spice.

DEPARTMENTS

FROM THE EDITORS examines some issues surrounding the rapid growth and commercialization of ayahuasca ceremonies.

OPEN DIALOGUE calls attention to Sámi efforts to get museums to repatriate some of their last remaining traditional shaman drums, which were collected over the last centuries.

EARTH CIRCLES reports on efforts to prevent the construction of a military base within a newly established national sanctuary for plant medicines in Colombia.

LETTERS

REVIEWS
offers a critique of Black Smoke by Margaret De Wys.

RECEIVED & NOTED lists titles and brief information on new books and other media we have recently received from publishers. 

UNCLASSIFIEDS 

RESOURCES DIRECTORY
 

SHAMAN’S DRUM ARTS GALLERY (on the inside back cover) features two interpretive color portraits of indigenous healers by Vance Gellert, a pharmacologist turned photographer
.

Published by Shaman's Drum and the Cross-Cultural Shamanism Network, copyright 2009. The above content is intended for the noncommercial use of shamansdrum.org users, and it may not be reproduced or sold without the written permission of the publishers:

Shaman's Drum, P.O. Box 270, Williams, OR 97544 ~ 1-541-846-1313