Coyote Wisdom: The Power of Story in Healing

Native American healers expect miracles and prepare in all possible ways for them to occur. In modern medicine, miraculous recoveries are discarded from studies as anomalous cases that will taint the otherwise orderly results. Yet this small group of "miracle" patients has much to teach us about healing and survival.

Coyote Healing distills the common elements in miracle cures to help people start their own healing journey. Looking at 100 cases of individuals who experienced miracle cures, Dr. Mehl-Madrona found the same preconditions that Native American healers know are necessary in order for miracles to occur. The author reveals what he learned from both his own practice and the interviews he conducted with survivors about the common features of their path back to wellness. Survivors found purpose and meaning in their life-threatening illness; peaceful acceptance was key to their healing. Coyote Healing also tells of another kind of miracle--finding faith, hope, and serenity even when a cure seems impossible.

• Written by the only white man to be confirmed as a Sundance Chief by traditional Lakota elders.

• Includes forewords by prominent Lakota spiritual leaders Leonard Crow Dog, Charles Chipps, Mary Thunder, and Jamie Sams.

The Sun Dance is the largest and most important ceremony in the Lakota spiritual tradition, the one that ensures the life of the people for another year. In 1988 Michael Hull was extended an invitation to join in a Sun Dance by Lakota elder Leonard Crow Dog-- a controversial action because Hull is white. This was the beginning of a spiritual journey that increasingly interwove the life of the author with the people, process, and elements of Lakota spirituality. On this journey on the Red Road, Michael Hull confronted firsthand the transformational power of Lakota spiritual practice and the deep ambivalence many Indians had about opening their ceremonies to a white man. 

Sun Dancing presents a profound look at the elements of traditional Lakota ceremonial practice and the ways in which ceremony is regarded as life-giving by the Lakota. Through his commitment to following the Red Road, Michael Hull gradually won acceptance in a community that has rejected other attempts by white America to absorb its spiritual practices, leading to the extraordinary step of his confirmation as a Sun Dance Chief by Leonard Crow Dog and other Lakota spiritual leaders. 

When Becoming Anabaptist appeared in 1987, it was the first major study to incorporate the new history of multiple beginnings and a diverse Anabaptism into a synthesis of meanings for the late 20th century. J. Denny Weaver's attempt was welcomed and widely acclaimed by scholars and by church leaders alike. In this second edition, Weaver provides a masterful treatment of his beloved Anabaptist vision (William Willimon, in the Foreword).

Nominated for a Griffin Poetry Prize

In Now You Care, her fifth collection of poetry, Di Brandt voices a passionate argument against environmental degradation and a plea for psychic transformation in our violent times. Tuned in to the toxic fallout of over-industrialization and war, these poems face the dark side of our postmodern climate with a language that doesn't give in. They tremble and shake, they rage against despair, they speak against death and wrestle with the fateful spirits of Armageddon to loosen their choke-hold on humanity. Perhaps we won't figure it out and the horizon is already on fire, and our best love will never be more than an approximation of regret, but grass still grows between the cement blocks of the sidewalk to 'grin of the wild.'

Drawing from history, movies, pop culture, and his own life experience, filmmaker and writer Phil Cousineau shows how ancient myths continue to affect and shape our contemporary lives. Each chapter moves from the ancient to the modern, from the once, to the now, to the future. Chapters include both retellings of classical myths--Sisyphus, Odysseus, Kronos--along with new accounts of contemporary myths of time, cities, vampires, even baseball. Sisyphus is shown to be the inspiration for the French Resistance (and Cousineau's own struggles as a writer), Dionysus is made current by rock legend Jim Morrison, and new science and technology are laid at the feet of Hermes.

Cousineau, long-time student of Joseph Campbell, makes a compelling case that myths--the enduring fantastical tales of gods and goddesses, heroines and heroes--provide a map by which to chart the stories of our own lives. In Once and Future Myths, he presents a unique path to personal growth with a deep examination of our lives in the context of the world's great myths.