Howard G Charing 
Member since: June 05, 2007
Total live articles: 60
Howard G Charing is a healer, a workshop facilitator, and a director of the Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. He has published numerous articles about shamanism in Peru as practiced in the Andean, coastal and Amazonian regions. With Peter Cloudsley he has published a documented collection of chants and Ayahuasca Icaros on a CD The Shamans of Peru. He has also co-authored the book Plant Spirit Shamanism published by Destiny Books (USA). For many years, he has been organising plant medicine retreats to work with the indigenous peoples in Peru’s Amazon basin, as well as Andean retreats with shamans of northern Peru who work with the visionary cactus San Pedro. Howard has been baptised by the Shipibo Indians, and ritually initiated into the lineage of the maestros of the Rio Napo region. Howard and his colleague Peter Cloudsley also hold Amazonian Medicine Retreats at their dedicated centre in the Mishana National Reserve. As a protected nature reserve encompassing several thousands of hectares of primary rainforest, Mishana is home to many plants and animals that endemic to that region. At Mishana, participants are able to work with indigenous shamans and experience the direct healing of nature through Ayahuasca, the visionary vine of the soul. For details about these plant medicine retreats, as well as information about upcoming workshops with Howard see his website: http://www.shamanism.co.uk To view my photo galleries on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/9671795@N04/sets/ My Shamanism Blog http://shamanism.wordpress.com
The world wide media interest in Benny Shanon's paper about Moses and entheogens, is encouraging us to take a good and hard look at the roots of religions and the notion that they were based on fertility cults, and shamanic practices such as Entheogens (or hallucinogenic) plants as a source of spiritual communion with the universal consciousness, or the mind of God.
Ayahuasca, is regarded as the 'gateway' to the Soul. The fifth and concluding part of this article explores this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest.
Ayahuasca, is regarded as the 'gateway' to the Soul. The fourth part of this article continues to explore this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest.
Ayahuasca, is regarded as the 'gateway' to the Soul. The third part of this article continues to explore this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest. Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon.
The second part of an article which explores this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest. Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis).
Ayahuasca, is regarded as the 'gateway' to the Soul. This article explores this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest. Ayahuasca is the jungle medicine of the upper Amazon. It is made from the ayahuasca vine ( Banisteriopsis Caapi) and the leaf of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria Viridis).
The rich and powerful spiritual legacy of the Andean culture is only now being properly recognised after 500 years of obscurity. This article takes a look at some of these traditions. Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley hold Retreat programmes in the Andes and Amazon where we work with many of the traditional shamans and healers.
In the third and concluding part of the interview with Javier, we continue to explore the use of Healing plants and Ayahuasca. discusses his involvement with the shamanic Plant medicines of the Amazon, and Ayahuasca in particular. Javier was interviewed by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley in the Peru, Amazon Rainforest 2000.
In the second part of the interview with Javier, we continue to explore the use of Healing plants and Ayahuasca. discusses his involvement with the shamanic Plant medicines of the Amazon, and Ayahuasca in particular. Javier was interviewed by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley in the Peru, Amazon Rainforest 2000.
Javier was interviewed by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley in the Peru, Amazon Rainforest 2000. In this interview Javier discusses his involvement with the shamanic Plant medicines of the Amazon, and Ayahuasca in particular.
There has been a huge surge of interest in Ayahuasca recently. There is a growing belief that it is a kind of ‘medicine for our times’, giving hope to people with ‘incurable’ diseases like cancer and HIV, drug addictions and inspiring answers to the big ecological problems of modern civilization.
The Amazon Rainforest is home to many thousands of plant species, and has the richest bio-diversity on the planet. Plants and herbs used for medicinal purposes flourish there. The traditional healers and shamans of the Amazon have been working with these remarkable plants for thousands of years. We explore in this article these ancient traditions and knowledge of the plant shamans by the author of Plant Spirit Shamanism (published by Destiny Books USA).
This article explores the ancient teachings, how discrete bodily postures can generate deep, spiritual, divinatory, and healing experience. This body of knowledge was re-discovered in the 1970’s by Felicitas Goodman.
This article explores the visionary and spiritual realms of the Amazonian brew Ayahuasca. This extraordinary world to which we are transported by plants is not accessible through the verbal rational mind but through dream language or an expansion of the imagination. Thus dreams & our imaginative powers act like doorways during a plant diet and connect us with the plant spirit.
A dedicated programme in the Amazon rainforest, which is focussed on an inner and deep self-exploration and encounter with the power of the rainforest. This is an adventure into the magical world of the rainforest, and a transformative experience of the ancient mystical rituals of the plant spirit medicines.
In our society and culture, death is something dark, mysterious, and fearful. Ancient cultures did not regard death as an enemy, but dared to make it an ally. It is ultimately about daring to live fearlessly from the centre of one’s truth, to challenge and defeat the tendency to inertia, fear of life and premature old age. To quote one of the great teachers, the Peruvian shaman Don Eduardo Calderon: ‘a shaman is someone who is already dead and thus has no fear of death or life’.
Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley interview two Ayahuasca shamans from the Amazon, Artidoro Aro Cardenas, and Javier Arevalo to discover more about the medicinal, mythological, and healing properties of some of the plants to be found in the Amazon Rainforest.
The second part of an article on the ‘bare hand’ or ‘psychic’ surgeons of the Philippines that have been one of the most enduring enigmas of modern times. These articles explore this practice which challenges conventional scientific and medical knowledge. This part I meet up with Jun Labo.
In the shamanic worldview, power and maintaining health go hand in hand, if the body is power-full, there is no room for illness or disease. The soul can be seen as the essence or vital nature of a person, and soul loss is when we lose a part of this vital nature. This article explores how by 'holding' on to other people's energy can lead to loss of our own.
The rich and powerful spiritual legacy of the Andean culture is only now being properly recognised after 500 years of obscurity. This article takes a look at some of these traditions. Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley hold Retreat programmes in the Andes and Amazon where we work with many of the traditional shamans and healers.
Pablo Amaringo is one of the world’s greatest visionary artists, and is renowned for his highly complex, colourful and intricate paintings of his visions from drinking the Ayahuasca brew. Pablo is interviewed at his gallery in Pucallpa, Peru, by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley
A dedicated programme in the Amazon rainforest, which is focussed on an inner and deep self-exploration and encounter with the power of the rainforest. This is an adventure into the magical world of the rainforest, and a transformative experience of the ancient mystical rituals of the plant spirit medicines.
In our society and culture, death is something dark, mysterious, and fearful. Ancient cultures did not regard death as an enemy, but dared to make it an ally. It is ultimately about daring to live fearlessly from the centre of one’s truth, to challenge and defeat the tendency to inertia, fear of life and premature old age. To quote one of the great teachers, the Peruvian shaman Don Eduardo Calderon: ‘a shaman is someone who is already dead and thus has no fear of death or life’.
This article explores the visionary and spiritual realms of the Amazonian brew Ayahuasca. This extraordinary world to which we are transported by plants is not accessible through the verbal rational mind but through dream language or an expansion of the imagination. Thus dreams & our imaginative powers act like doorways during a plant diet and connect us with the plant spirit.
Ayahuasca, is regarded as the 'gateway' to the Soul. This article explores this fascinating plant brew from the Amazon Rainforest.
The visionary plants and ancient traditions of the plant shamans reveal a hidden universe, in which the separation between the physical and the unseen universe is an illusion caused by our limited sensory perception. The body and soul permeates and infuses each other. The plant teachers show us a path to an expanded consciousness and communion with our sacred source, our soul companion.
Pablo Amaringo is one of the world’s greatest visionary artists, and is renowned for his highly complex, colourful and intricate paintings of his visions from drinking the Ayahuasca brew. Pablo wrote the foreword, a spiritual and ecological message as the foreword for the book 'Plant Spirit Shamanism', published by Destiny Books (USA).
The ‘doctrine of signatures’ is at the heart of homeopathy, folk medicine, and plant shamanism. The doctrine was revealed by the great alchemist and physician Paracelus who lived in the 16th Century. The underlying principle was that the healing properties of the plant are not only in the outer ‘physical’ form, but also in their inner or spiritual nature. The Doctrine of Signatures holds that this inner nature can be revealed by it’s outer physical form or signatures
Eagle's Wing initiated the Practitioner training course in 1994 and since then many participants have successfully been working with these Shamanic healing methods in their healing practice. This is an advanced Practitioner training Programme. This training course would benefit holistic practitioners who wish to develop and expand their work to include classic shamanic healing practices. It is also suitable for those who have a desire to work as a shamanic practitioner to help others.
Spirituality is at the centre of the Ayahuasca experience. Purification and cleansing of body, mind, and spirit in a shamanic ceremony can be the beginning of a process of profound personal and spiritual discovery. This process can continue indefinitely even if one never drinks Ayahuasca again. This article is extracted from the original interview by Howard G Charing and Peter Cloudsley which appeared in Sacred Hoop Magazine.
