Sandra Ingerman, MA, is an award-winning author of 12 books, including “Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self,” “Medicine for the Earth: How to Transform Personal and Environmental Toxins” and “Walking in Light: The Everyday Empowerment of a Shamanic Life.” Sandra is a world-renowned teacher of shamanism and has been teaching for close to 40 years. She has taught workshops internationally on shamanic journeying, healing and reversing environmental pollution using spiritual methods. Sandra is recognized for bridging ancient cross-cultural healing methods to our modern culture, addressing the needs of our times.  In her book “The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life,” Sandra Ingerman presents a rich and practical resource for creating ceremonies filled with joy, purpose and magic.

According to the author, her purpose in writing this book is to share what she has learned over the years, hoping to inspire others to lead healing and blessing ceremonies. Starting with the Introduction, Sandra Ingerman defines a ceremony: “Every shamanic journey a shaman takes, every healing method a shaman works with, is considered a ceremony.” She goes on to briefly describe the history of ceremonies and look back at the first ceremony she performed in 1982. The book is divided into for parts: Part One: The Power of Ceremony, it clarifies the basics of what constitutes a ceremony, how to prepare and perform one, Part Two: Sacred Transitions, Part Three: Ceremonies to Create Energetic Balance and Part Four: Life as a Ceremony, it includes examples of blessing and healing ceremonies for people and places, as well the community as a whole. The final part of the book includes other resources for further information on the practice of shamanic journeying.

Shamanism has been around for tens of thousands of years and has been a serious practice with the sole purpose of helping the community thrive. Today’s ceremonies are used to improve health and the quality of life and with so much negativity going on in the world, for serious practitioners, shamanic ceremonies are now more important than ever. The author connects ancient shamanic practices with modern culture and makes them relevant to today’s issues. The book touches on all topics related to ceremonies, including how choose the space, preparing ceremonial items and the types of ceremonies: for weddings, births and new beginnings.  Some of the ceremonies are familiar ones while others include newer adaptations of known ceremonies, the most poignant being the ones to honor death: burying a pet, plant ceremony, honoring trees and honoring environmental losses. All this information is given in plain and easy to understand language without being condescending to possible newcomers. While it may not be for everyone, “The Book of Ceremony” has resourceful guidance for readers who are genuinely interested in shamanic ceremonies.

“Once we wake up and recognize that other spectacular dimensions of reality exist, we experience a new sense of awareness about how to connect with nature, the flow of life, and the web of life.”

*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.