THE FLOWERS OF WIRICUTA
A Gringo's Journey to Shamanic Power
This book on shamanism is a must read for anyone on a quest for Vision searching for a clearer understanding of their true self and the profound teachings available from Shamanic Mystery experience.
"This fascinating book is a testament to the 'Spiritual Warrior,'
and the human quest for self-understanding. It makes "shamanism" accessible to the everyday person."
Read an excerpt from the book, or Order the book online.
(View this and other books published by Inner Traditions/Bear & Company at www.InnerTraditions.com)
Here's What Others Are Saying About this Important
Book on Shamanism
- "Flowers of Wiricuta - A Gringo's Journey to Shamanic Power " -
The Spiritual Warrior's Way and Shamanic Pilgrimage
"Tom Pinkson honors the humbling power of making ancient spiritual
pilgrimages with the Huichols in Central America. His shamanic journey, comprised of
deep inner and outer teachings, reminds each seeker on his or her respected
path that any conscious pilgrimage takes the seeker back home to heart and
Self; and is a recommitment to the good, true and beautiful, which is the
Spiritual Warrior's Way."
Angeles Arrien, Ph.D.
Author of The Four Fold Way and Signs of Life.
Story of a hunter of spiritual vision, a Shamanic warrior
"It is the story of a hunter of spiritual vision, a shamanic warrior committed to
confronting his own demons as well as protecting life in all its diversity
and beauty; a shamanic healer of compassion and humility who has accompanied
children and adults to the gateway of that final journey called
"death-of-the-body"; a mystic, and a man of strength, humor and
sensitivity. The reader will feel inspired to drink deeply from the well of
remembrance; to connect again with the Earth, and to walk in solidarity
with our native relatives whose ancient shamanic traditions keep the doorway open to
Spirit and Mystery."
Ralph Metzner, Ph.D.
Green Earth Foundation
Earth-centered Spirituality Re-viewed, December 28, 2001
Dr. Pinkson's words open a window into our nearly forgotten roots in an Earth-centered spirituality. Shamanism, as still practiced by the Huichol Indians of Mexico, grows from a deeply rooted respect and reverence for the natural world. Tom Pinkson traces his own flowering into this ancient shamanic wisdom and offers the modern world some hope for an alternative future. Nature-based cultures hold "life in balance and harmony with all living things" as an essential spiritual practice. This "eco-centric" understanding offers the promise of a truly sustainable future for humans and the environment with which we remain intimately connected. Tom's journey into Huichol shamanism, provides a light for those who seek to become part of the solution to the ecological challenges which face our planet. Readers will find themselves empowered to choose their own path toward healing on each of the planes of our existence from the personal to the planetary.
Reviewer from Amazon.com
The True Voice of Shamanism
This book brings a hidden treasure to the reader. It creates, throughout each page, a relationship with the writer where his inner shamanic journey becomes your own. This book explores with humility and strength the commitment of an young bright man who dared listening to his heart and to change the fate of his life. It opens an universe of the mysterious and brings it closer to us, seekers or just curious fellows. An example of how by listening to the inner call one can encounter the wisdom and the beauty of life . Tom is a wonderful medicine man and shaman, speaking the true voice of shamanism.
Rasana (Fairfax, CA USA)
The Flowers of Wiricuta - A Gringo's journey to Shamanic Power
This is an amazing book about shamanism that held me in the grip of inner exploration. The Shamanic unfolding of an East Coast kid's journey for understanding and connection with his true nature. This detailed and well written account of a person dealing with the life struggles we all can relate too leads the author, Tom Pinkson Ph.D., to Mexico and several years of shamanic study with the Huichol Indians (filled with cultural insights).
For me the book is a touch stone book and reference guide to shamanism and much much more, that helped me to understand more of the "unusual" experiences in my life --- A story filled with instruction and meaning relevant to the larger connection and mystery of life. This book address and connects us to the human spiritual challenge in life and honors the sacred mystery that binds us all. In ancient shamanic cultures you were consider healthy if you had encounters with the "para-normal", but it seems that in our culture you are considered psychotic - could there be more...
All in all, I felt very sane, refreshed and inspired after reading this important work on shamanism by Tom Pinkson and would encourage anyone who has unexplained occurrences in their life to begin your inner exploration and journey with this book.
There is also a wonderful Forward written by Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.(author of "Love is Letting go of Fear") who has known and worked with Mr. Pinkson for years at the Center for Attitudinal Healing. Mr. Jampolsky states, "Within this book you will find many important wake-up calls."
Ron Nadeau (No. California)
Meaningful and insightful book and account of personal transformation
Dr. Tom Pinkson's shamanism book, "Flowers of Wiricuta" is a powerful account of not only his personal transformation but a guide to go about your own personal transformation. As Dr. Pinkson perceptively recognizes, the ways of shamanic indigenous cultures can inform and provide roadmaps for psychological growth. The "old" ways have worked for thousands of years and Dr. Pinkson re-animates through eloquent writing what we have always known and he reminds us, i.e., that Shamanic Ways are precious and necessary in our lives. This book is a must read for those interested in the the Ways of the Huichol, personal transformation, Shamanism and Shamanic practices, or to attain a reminder of the preciousness and miraculousness of life.
Mark S. Miller (Richmond, VA USA)
A Book on Shamanism by a True American Shaman
I'll admit up front that I'm a fan of Tom Pinkson. He is a true American shaman, that is, an individual who is willing to go beyond the known, beyond even the knowable, and search for healing and answers through direct contact with Spirit. Shamanism was the world's first religion - it is based on a deep knowing of oneself as a part of the Greater Interconnected Whole, sorely lacking in our current culture.
The shamans in every culture are healers - they bring back knowledge and information for the benefit of individuals or the whole tribe. Tom Pinkson is no exception. The use of psychedelic substances in the 60's and 70's opened many of our minds to realities beyond the one we grew up with, and Dr. Pinkson has explored these shamanic realities like any intrepid explorer would.
With eyes and heart open, he searched for wisdom wherever it might be located, and found a huge cache in the Shamanic practices of the Huichol Indian culture - the native people of Southern Mexico who have a 5,000-year unbroken history of deep and powerful knowledge about the world and about the self through their shamanic use of the peyote cactus as spiritual medicine. In the current anti-drug mania, this is a voice of sanity reminding us that mind-altering plants have been used in religious ceremonies and for Shamanic sacred rituals for many thousands of years. Used in the right context, they are gifts from the gods. Used in the wrong context (for entertainment or escape, for example), they can destroy lives. Tom's biography is a powerful account of a brave explorer -- not of some external geography but of the infinitely more complex and interesting internal landscape of the mind and spirit. This is an authentic biography - real stories about real experiences. I highly recommend this book if you've enjoyed the writings of Carlos Castaneda, Michael Harner, Native Americans, or books about Shamanism and the spiritual quest.
Tom Pinkson is a Ph.D. psychologist and the founder of a non-profit organization and shamanic spiritual community called Wakan (I've been a member for more than ten years) -- an educational and spiritual organization dedicated to the proposition that all life is sacred, and that we can live in alignment with our own sacred nature. Dr. Pinkson's website (has ...) more information about his work is there.
Lion Goodman "lion@goodmangroup.com" (San Francisco, CA)
A book about trusting one's intuition and inner guide, March 13, 2001
In a world in which a logical positivist approach is overemphasized, it's encouraging to read about someone who listens to the wisdom of the shamans and indigenous peoples, despite having grown up in Brooklyn. It offers hope to the rest of us who have, essentially, been conditioned (programmed?) to view the world in a narrow and highly limiting way. Regardless of whether or not you believe everything in the book, it's likely to help expand the boundaries of the world that each of us uniquely occupies through our perceptions. It may be overstating it a bit, but I'd say this book has the potential to be a present-day "On the Road."
(Reviewer at Amazon.com)
(Click to read more reviews from the book cover)