Confessions of a Spiritual Thrillseeker: Medicine Teachings from the Grandmothers

Graham Jackson is a Jungian psychoanalyst and author of The Secret Lore
of Gardening.

Moonfox Press is a new house specializing in both shamanism and Jungian
psychology. However, Confessions, the first title on its list, explores
only the former area of specialization, offering a middle-class white
woman’s first-hand account of her exposure to the shamanic traditions
of North American Native peoples. For those who do not speak the
language of “auric eggs,” “naguals,” shields, drums, medicine
wheels, vision quests, and sweat lodges, Mountain Dreamer’s spiritual
journeys could well strike an oppressively New Age note—a note that is
shamelessly facile, showy, extroverted. For those who do speak this
language, her Confessions could no doubt make for compelling reading.
Despite a crying need for trimming, the book reveals a lively prose
style and a personal touch in the storytelling that—miraculously,
given the subject—avoids preciosity, at least most of the time.