The more separated we become from the Earth, the more hostile we become to the feminine. We disown our passion, our creativity, and our sexuality. Eventually the Earth itself becomes a baneful place. I remember being told by a medicine woman in the Amazon, ‘Do you know why they are really cutting down the rain forest? Because it is wet and dark and tangled and feminine.’

Alberto Villoldo, PhD, is a Cuba-born medical psychologist, author, and medical anthropologist who has studied the shamanic healing practices of the Amazon and Andes for over thirty years. He directed the Biological Self-Regulation Laboratory at San Francisco State University, which studies how the mind creates psychosomatic health and disease. He is also the founder of the Four Winds Society, an international research and training organization dedicated to bridging ancient shamanic traditions with modern medicine and psychology to achieve personal and planetary healing.