MEADOWS, KENNETH

One of a number ofneo-shamanicauthors whose books in the 1980s and 1990s, such asShamanic Experience:A Practical Guide to Contemporary Shamanism(1991), popularized shamanic practice, especially drawing onNative Americanspirituality. That such a title as the earlyEarth Medicine:A Shamanic Wayto Self-Discovery(1989) remains in print is a testament to the popularity of this sort of approach and themedicine wheelteachings in particular. Meadows’s notion of “shamanics” styled shamanism as a technique for personal growth among Westerners, rather than something that was embedded in social relations or negotiations withother-than-human persons. Meadows has also written a book on runes entitledRune Power(1996), largely born from his rather bizarre suggestion inEarth Medicinethat there are similarities between runicdivinationand the Native American medicine wheel. Just as his many books have been vilified by Native Americans campaigning against the exploitation of their traditions, manyHeathensare critical of hisNew Ageand psychological-reductionist interpretations of runes and Heathen traditions.