Text and accompanying photographs chronicle the history of the Iroquois Indians, their culture, and shattered confederacy.

Text and accompanying photographs chronicle the history of the Iroquois Indians, their culture, and shattered confederacy.

Explores the ancient Iroquois tradition of dreams, healing, and the recovery of the soul • Explains Native American shamanic dream practices and their applications and purpose in modern life • Shows how dreams call us to remember and honor our soul’s true purpose • Offers powerful Active Dreaming methods for regaining lost soul energy to restore our vitality and identity The ancient teaching of the Iroquois people is that dreams are experiences of the soul in which we may travel outside the body, across time and space, and into other dimensions--or receive visitations from ancestors or spiritual guides. Dreams also reveal the wishes of the soul, calling us to move beyond our ego agendas and the web of other people’s projections into a deeper, more spirited life. They call us to remember our sacred contracts and reclaim the knowledge that belonged to us, on the levels of soul and spirit, before we entered our present life experience. In dreams we also discover where our vital soul energy may have gone missing--through pain or trauma or heartbreak--and how to get it back. Robert Moss was called to these ways when he started dreaming in a language he did not know, which proved to be an early form of the Mohawk Iroquois language. From his personal experiences, he developed a spirited approach to dreaming and living that he calls Active Dreaming. Dreamways of the Iroquois is at once a spiritual odyssey, a tribute to the deep wisdom of the First Peoples, a guide to healing our lives through dreamwork, and an invitation to soul recovery.

The world view of the Iroquois League or Confederacy—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations—is based on a strong cosmological belief system. This is especially evident in Iroquois medical practices, which connect man to nature and the powerful forces in the supernatural realm. Iroquois Medical Botany is the first guide to understanding the use of herbal medi­cines in traditional Iroquois culture. It links Iroquois cosmology to cultural themes by showing the inherent spiritual power of plants and how the Iroquois traditionally have used and continue to use plants as remedies. After an introduction to the Iroquois doctrine of the cosmos, authors James Herrick and Dean Snow examine how ill health directly relates to the balance and subsequent dis­turbance of the forces in one’s life. They next turn to general perceptions of illness and the causes of imbalances, which can result in physical manifestations from birthmarks and toothaches to sunstroke and cancer. In all, they list close to 300 phenomena. Finally, the book enumerates specific plant regimens for various ailments with a major compilation from numerous Iroquois authorities and sources of more than 450 native names, uses, and preparations of plants.

Discusses the origins, way of life, spirituality, and social organization of the Iroquois nations, as well as their relationships with the European settlers.