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Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer
The compelling drama of American herbologist Rosita Arvigo's quest to preserve the knowledge of Don Elijio Panti, one of the last surviving and most respected traditional healers in the rainforest of Belize.
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1994
55 people are currently reading
671 people want to read
About the author
Rosita Arvigo
15 books23 followersRosita Arvigo is an American herbalist, author, and teacher dedicated to the study of medicinal plants and their role in human health. Born in Chicago in 1941 to immigrant parents, she was influenced by 1960s counterculture movements and lived in communes across the U.S. and Mexico. Her interest in traditional medicine began during her time in rural Mexico, where she witnessed the healing power of plants during a birth complication. She later studied Naprapathy in Chicago and returned to Belize, founding a clinic and learning from traditional healer Don Elijio Panti. Arvigo also co-founded the Ix Chel Tropical Research Foundation and The Arvigo Institute to preserve and share traditional plant knowledge. Her work combines modern therapeutic methods with ancient healing practices, especially those focused on women’s reproductive health. Though praised for preserving Indigenous wisdom, she has faced criticism for commercializing traditional techniques and privileging Maya traditions over others. Arvigo maintains that her teachings were passed down with full consent. She continues to advocate for the respectful integration of herbal knowledge into holistic health practices.
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October 20, 2011
Circle of Life in the Jungles of Belize
Sastun, is the amazing memoir of an American women’s adventure into a renewed way of life as she transports herself and her family deep into the jungles of Belize. Rosita Arvigo, and Italian/Assyrian women from Chicago, together with her husband and daughter, make the difficult decision to leave the hustle and bustle of today’s modern society to attempt a new life by homesteading and opening up a health facility in South America. Rosita is trained in naprapathy medicine, a sort of chiropractic massage therapy, and her husband is a trained paramedic.
Together they purchase a large many acre plot of jungle in Belize, spend years clearing the land as they set up practice, and live like pioneer settlers integrating themselves into this new world of backbreaking work and daily battles with sweltering heat, insect infestations, creeping jungle flora, perpetual damp and mold, and local diseases. Hearing of a local Mayan medicine man, Rosita makes his acquaintance and from that moment on, becomes determined to learn natural and spiritual healing to accompany her already trained hands.
After meeting Don Elijio Panti, Belize’s renowned healer and Shaman, Rosita falls in love with the 90 year old sage and soon begins a long lived friendship and apprenticeship in which she will sacrifice much time to slowly learn the ways of the forest, train herself with Elijio’s guidance, breathe the natural world around her, and learn to harvest the many hundreds of jungle plants that can heal all of man’s physical and spiritual ailments. This story is one of the most engaging and fascinating memoirs I have ever read. I can’t imagine any reader not falling in love with the delightful and mischievous Don Elijio, aged and wrinkled, so full of life, love, and laughter, that turns no soul in need away from his door. Hundreds of South American patients travel many miles each day to be treated by Don Elijio, to seek his wisdom, medicine and healing hands.
Never did Rosita imagine that such a full bounty of natural pharmaceuticals was right there at arms reach, just a few steps away in the heart of the Belize jungle. Just ripe for the harvesting, so many trees, plants, leafs, berries and bark samples, were there for the healing with the right knowledge to use them. Spending years with Don Elijio by his side training daily allows Rosita to witness healing and miracles like she had never seen in any modern medical facility or hospital. Medical emergencies and sicknesses abound in Belize and not a day went by where she didn’t drop her mouth in awe as she watched and learned what the medicine man was capable of, using combinations of plants, the laying on of his hands, shamanistic spiritual counsel, and his 90 years of common sense and experience with the nature of man and the natural world around him. With a twinkle in his eye, an incredible sense of humor, and with the wisdom of the ages, he teaches Rosita to someday replace him as the village healer. The two embark on a journey close to that of father and daughter, welcoming the village people into their homes and hearts as they line up putting their trust and faith in their hands.
This is a very insightful and illuminating story that will entrance the reader with the wonders of the natural world and what it has to offer us if we just learn to tap into it’s gifts. The book surely holds a story that is uplifting, inspirational, and is a book that will renew one’s faith in mankind. I found the knowledge within this book eye-opening and felt the man himself, Don Elijio Panti, truly a magical human being. To his own people he is a god. After you read this book you will agree he is what the world needs more of.
Sastun, is the amazing memoir of an American women’s adventure into a renewed way of life as she transports herself and her family deep into the jungles of Belize. Rosita Arvigo, and Italian/Assyrian women from Chicago, together with her husband and daughter, make the difficult decision to leave the hustle and bustle of today’s modern society to attempt a new life by homesteading and opening up a health facility in South America. Rosita is trained in naprapathy medicine, a sort of chiropractic massage therapy, and her husband is a trained paramedic.
Together they purchase a large many acre plot of jungle in Belize, spend years clearing the land as they set up practice, and live like pioneer settlers integrating themselves into this new world of backbreaking work and daily battles with sweltering heat, insect infestations, creeping jungle flora, perpetual damp and mold, and local diseases. Hearing of a local Mayan medicine man, Rosita makes his acquaintance and from that moment on, becomes determined to learn natural and spiritual healing to accompany her already trained hands.
After meeting Don Elijio Panti, Belize’s renowned healer and Shaman, Rosita falls in love with the 90 year old sage and soon begins a long lived friendship and apprenticeship in which she will sacrifice much time to slowly learn the ways of the forest, train herself with Elijio’s guidance, breathe the natural world around her, and learn to harvest the many hundreds of jungle plants that can heal all of man’s physical and spiritual ailments. This story is one of the most engaging and fascinating memoirs I have ever read. I can’t imagine any reader not falling in love with the delightful and mischievous Don Elijio, aged and wrinkled, so full of life, love, and laughter, that turns no soul in need away from his door. Hundreds of South American patients travel many miles each day to be treated by Don Elijio, to seek his wisdom, medicine and healing hands.
Never did Rosita imagine that such a full bounty of natural pharmaceuticals was right there at arms reach, just a few steps away in the heart of the Belize jungle. Just ripe for the harvesting, so many trees, plants, leafs, berries and bark samples, were there for the healing with the right knowledge to use them. Spending years with Don Elijio by his side training daily allows Rosita to witness healing and miracles like she had never seen in any modern medical facility or hospital. Medical emergencies and sicknesses abound in Belize and not a day went by where she didn’t drop her mouth in awe as she watched and learned what the medicine man was capable of, using combinations of plants, the laying on of his hands, shamanistic spiritual counsel, and his 90 years of common sense and experience with the nature of man and the natural world around him. With a twinkle in his eye, an incredible sense of humor, and with the wisdom of the ages, he teaches Rosita to someday replace him as the village healer. The two embark on a journey close to that of father and daughter, welcoming the village people into their homes and hearts as they line up putting their trust and faith in their hands.
This is a very insightful and illuminating story that will entrance the reader with the wonders of the natural world and what it has to offer us if we just learn to tap into it’s gifts. The book surely holds a story that is uplifting, inspirational, and is a book that will renew one’s faith in mankind. I found the knowledge within this book eye-opening and felt the man himself, Don Elijio Panti, truly a magical human being. To his own people he is a god. After you read this book you will agree he is what the world needs more of.
February 24, 2011
I picked this book up on the Belize Island of Caye Caulker at a really cool organic coffee shop/art salon/healing center known as 'Coco Plum'. The owner Destino with her glowing eyes recommended it to me and after grazing through the pages I knew I had to have it. I'm personally fascinated by Mayan 'Curanderos' or healers who for thousands of years have learned how to heal, vitalize, and balance the human vessel via natural remedies found in the forests of Central America. This particular book hit close to home since the healer known as Don Elijio lived just minutes from San Ignacio, Belize where I've spent much time and where I'm also involved in a project called 'The Vision Exchange'. Not only does the author Rosita provide useful medicinal information she also livens up the spirit of those searching for NATURAL remedies in a world filled with pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and basically junk. My bet is that you'll read this one in one sitting or at least in a few days. It's very hard to put down ;)
April 26, 2018
This book has been added to The Chronicles of Han Storm Book Club Reads.
As I'm currently on a personal journey in Belize, as an author, healer and herbalist, having met with one of Don Panti's daughters, the Shaman Rosario Panti, it seemed like destiny or fate to walk back into my apartment and on the shelf lay "Sastun" as if left just for me to find and experience some of Don Panti's life. Intriguing, yet sad as the world is changing and had been changing for the last 20 years to one of desperation in the field of natural medicine. It is up to individuals to say no to the continued destruction and biopiracy of all original, traditional medicines. Profit is the bottom line in all that is being destroyed, including health and life itself.
As I'm currently on a personal journey in Belize, as an author, healer and herbalist, having met with one of Don Panti's daughters, the Shaman Rosario Panti, it seemed like destiny or fate to walk back into my apartment and on the shelf lay "Sastun" as if left just for me to find and experience some of Don Panti's life. Intriguing, yet sad as the world is changing and had been changing for the last 20 years to one of desperation in the field of natural medicine. It is up to individuals to say no to the continued destruction and biopiracy of all original, traditional medicines. Profit is the bottom line in all that is being destroyed, including health and life itself.
March 31, 2020
This is a difficult one to review. It is extremely interesting, and it is compellingly focused on Don Elijio, the Mayan healer, rather than its narrator. For this bring written in the 90s it was surprisingly less cringey than I expected. But being Latinx and reading this is still difficult. The white author lacks self-awareness, and some of the descriptions and dismissal of certain things are quite terrible but not unexpected. I appreciate the information I learned, even if the narrative voice wasn’t what I would have wanted or hoped for.
February 8, 2016
AFTER DON ELIGIO PANTI SENT ME BLESSINGS OF PROTECTION...AND I IN TURN, SENT HIM A TIBETAN BLESSING BRACELET...HE PASSED AWAY. I THEN BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH HIS NIECE...MARIA MEX GARCIA...AND HER NIECE PAULINA. THEY WERE SACRED CEREMONIALISTS. ROSITA ARVIGO FIRST FACILITATED THESE CONTACTS AS A RESULT OF WRITING HER BOOK. WE PARTICIPATED IN A MULTICULTURAL SACRED FEMININE CEREMONY WITH THE INTENT OF BLESSINGS AND NEW BEGINNINGS...WITHOUT PREJUDICES AND IN FAIR AND RESPECTFUL TRADE...FREE FROM ALL FINANCIAL RESTRAINTS AND YET HUMBLY GLOBAL. THE CEREMONY INCLUDED SUBLIME SACRED BATHS...PURIFICATIONS WITH COPAL; A FRANKINCENSE-LIKE RESIN...AND SACRED ELIXIRS.
April 9, 2014
I was transported into the heart of the Beliezean rainforest. Having been there a couple of times, I was completely into this story. I purchased this book in 1996 when I was there and finally read it! Loved every delicious page of it. Doctor Rosita's compelling story of healing and our interconnectedness to plants is timeless. Nature has many answers for us when we take time to observe, listen and learn from those who have taken time. You will love the story, you will learn so much along the way. I highly recommend it.
November 1, 2009
I have been to Belize and made a point to hike the Panti Trail. I purchased some salve made from products in the rain forest. It worked great! I had a chance to speak with Ms. Arvigo while visiting Chaa Creek. Her story and work in the healing arts inspired me to get her book. It is a wonderful story and one I recommend for those interested in medicine, travel or human interest. If you are traveling to Belize I also recommend visiting Chaa Creek and the Panti Trail.
September 16, 2012
This book was fabulous and for me, as an herbalist myself, an inspiration. While there is a sadness in the fact that this ancient healing modality is disappearing just as the rainforest is, there is a hop through Rosita Arvigo that not only will the healing methods be carried on but also that the plants will be preserved.
May 2, 2018
The story of my teacher's journey with her primary teacher, Don Elijio Panti, a shamanic healer of world renown.
Rosita's story-telling is charming, easy and so enjoyable, it was hard to put this lovely account down the first time I read it.
and yes, I said "first time" because I re-read it often!
Rosita's story-telling is charming, easy and so enjoyable, it was hard to put this lovely account down the first time I read it.
and yes, I said "first time" because I re-read it often!
November 17, 2021
English Review Below.
كتاب من الصعب تقييمه، لأنه لا توجد كتب كتيرة عن دولة بليز، وأغلب الكتب الموجودة شبه الكتب السياحية. بس أنا كنت عايزة قصة معبرة عن الدولة وثقافتها وتاريخها، ورغم أن الكاتبة مش من الدولة نفسها، لكنها عاشت فيها فترة معقولة، فقدرت أعتبره أقرب حاجة متاحة عشان أقرأ كتاب من دولة بليز. ده كتاب عن الطبيعة وكمان مذكرات عن روزيتا، الطبيبة الأمريكية اللي نقلت بليز مع جوزها وبنتها عشان تعيش حياة طبيعية وتعالج الناس هناك باستخدام علاجها الجسدي بالتدليك وباستخدام النباتات والأعشاب، وبتوثق رحلة تدريبها مع واحد من آخر المعالجين بطريقة المايا اللي بيتبع أسلوب علاجي يجمع بين الأعشاب والنباتات والصلوات اللي بتجمع بين المسيحية وثقافة المايا.
الكتاب مليء بالمعلومات ومفيد لمعرفة الكثير عن النباتات في تلك المنطقة، بس الأسلوب قديم وخصوصا لأنه كُتب في 1994 تقريبا وكمان حسيته كتاب أكاديمي شوية، يفتقر لحيوية الحكي عن موضوع شيق زي ده. أسلوب الكاتبة كمان فيه بعض التعالي الغربي ومعجبنيش جدا، كنت أتمنى أشوف فيه تركيز أكبر على البلد نفسها، لكن كان فيه تكرارية كتيرة للأسف. الكتاب مش سيئ لكنه مكنش اللي كنت بدور عليه بالضرورة.
This is a hard book to review and rate. First of all, there aren't that many books from and about Belize that aren't more like tourist guides. I wanted a story narrative that shows the true nature of that country, and while this isn't written by a native, it's the closest thing I could find.
It's nature writing/memoir of Rosita, American woman who moves to Belize with her husband and daughter to live with the nature and to heal people using the plants, and her journey as an apprentice to one of the last remaining (at that time) Mayan healers, who uses both plants and spirituality and prayers in hes healing. It's informative, you get to know a lot about the plants, but it's a bit dated since it was published 1995 I believe, the writing is very stiff despite the subject that could be made into an interesting book, and I didn't like the narrator's voice most of the time as she sounded like a typical westerner.
The book was sadly boring in parts, but I'm always intrigued by the Mayan civilisation, and I think I wanted more about the civilisation and the culture than what I got. It's not a bad book, but not exactly my cup of tea.
كتاب من الصعب تقييمه، لأنه لا توجد كتب كتيرة عن دولة بليز، وأغلب الكتب الموجودة شبه الكتب السياحية. بس أنا كنت عايزة قصة معبرة عن الدولة وثقافتها وتاريخها، ورغم أن الكاتبة مش من الدولة نفسها، لكنها عاشت فيها فترة معقولة، فقدرت أعتبره أقرب حاجة متاحة عشان أقرأ كتاب من دولة بليز. ده كتاب عن الطبيعة وكمان مذكرات عن روزيتا، الطبيبة الأمريكية اللي نقلت بليز مع جوزها وبنتها عشان تعيش حياة طبيعية وتعالج الناس هناك باستخدام علاجها الجسدي بالتدليك وباستخدام النباتات والأعشاب، وبتوثق رحلة تدريبها مع واحد من آخر المعالجين بطريقة المايا اللي بيتبع أسلوب علاجي يجمع بين الأعشاب والنباتات والصلوات اللي بتجمع بين المسيحية وثقافة المايا.
الكتاب مليء بالمعلومات ومفيد لمعرفة الكثير عن النباتات في تلك المنطقة، بس الأسلوب قديم وخصوصا لأنه كُتب في 1994 تقريبا وكمان حسيته كتاب أكاديمي شوية، يفتقر لحيوية الحكي عن موضوع شيق زي ده. أسلوب الكاتبة كمان فيه بعض التعالي الغربي ومعجبنيش جدا، كنت أتمنى أشوف فيه تركيز أكبر على البلد نفسها، لكن كان فيه تكرارية كتيرة للأسف. الكتاب مش سيئ لكنه مكنش اللي كنت بدور عليه بالضرورة.
This is a hard book to review and rate. First of all, there aren't that many books from and about Belize that aren't more like tourist guides. I wanted a story narrative that shows the true nature of that country, and while this isn't written by a native, it's the closest thing I could find.
It's nature writing/memoir of Rosita, American woman who moves to Belize with her husband and daughter to live with the nature and to heal people using the plants, and her journey as an apprentice to one of the last remaining (at that time) Mayan healers, who uses both plants and spirituality and prayers in hes healing. It's informative, you get to know a lot about the plants, but it's a bit dated since it was published 1995 I believe, the writing is very stiff despite the subject that could be made into an interesting book, and I didn't like the narrator's voice most of the time as she sounded like a typical westerner.
The book was sadly boring in parts, but I'm always intrigued by the Mayan civilisation, and I think I wanted more about the civilisation and the culture than what I got. It's not a bad book, but not exactly my cup of tea.
September 9, 2024
I read this book for my Read the World series for Belize. Technically I cheated because Arvigo is American although she does live in Belize. I was interested in this book because it is about a Mayan or Mayan descendant medicine man. He is quite the character and Rosita Arvigo becomes his student.
Each chapter starts with a description of a plant that is also featured in the story of the chapter which was nice. Rosita is a doctor of naprapathy and a traditional healer. Her family moved to Belize to develop the land and help treat people there. She meets an older man one day and it turns out he is also a healer so she asks to become his apprentice to learn his ways. He is not sure about her at first because although he believes in God he also gets help from the Mayan spirits. They have sent him a Satsun to help read the signs of people's illnesses and is not sure the spirits will work with someone who is not from his heritage. She offers to help him gather plants until he decides and they develop a deep friendship.
This is a really sweet story and Arvigo keeps an open mind to her teacher to not only learn about the plants that are being burned away for farm land but also to the spiritual ailments of the people. Although Don Elijio Panti has since passed away, he is alive for the entire book. There is a part where he gets sick and I am so glad that he was able to make a recovery. This is not mentioned in the book but he passes at the age of 103, just 2 years after the book is published.
This book is not just about Don Elijio Panti but also the struggles that Arvigo and her family have with their homestead in the jungle of Belize. It is not an easy place to live and many times they think about packing everything up but the tutelage of Panti becomes an important sticking point. I really enjoyed this story and am glad we found each other.
Each chapter starts with a description of a plant that is also featured in the story of the chapter which was nice. Rosita is a doctor of naprapathy and a traditional healer. Her family moved to Belize to develop the land and help treat people there. She meets an older man one day and it turns out he is also a healer so she asks to become his apprentice to learn his ways. He is not sure about her at first because although he believes in God he also gets help from the Mayan spirits. They have sent him a Satsun to help read the signs of people's illnesses and is not sure the spirits will work with someone who is not from his heritage. She offers to help him gather plants until he decides and they develop a deep friendship.
This is a really sweet story and Arvigo keeps an open mind to her teacher to not only learn about the plants that are being burned away for farm land but also to the spiritual ailments of the people. Although Don Elijio Panti has since passed away, he is alive for the entire book. There is a part where he gets sick and I am so glad that he was able to make a recovery. This is not mentioned in the book but he passes at the age of 103, just 2 years after the book is published.
This book is not just about Don Elijio Panti but also the struggles that Arvigo and her family have with their homestead in the jungle of Belize. It is not an easy place to live and many times they think about packing everything up but the tutelage of Panti becomes an important sticking point. I really enjoyed this story and am glad we found each other.
March 5, 2018
I think one of the best ways to learn more about the world is to learn about topics that challenge our beliefs. Sastun epitomizes many things I habitually challenge: the importance of alternative medicine, faith and religion, the intertwining of faith and medicine, overselling medical practice (such as when the Mayan healer says that he has a letter of thanks from an ethnobotanist, then telling patients that he has approval from the president of the US), and most importantly the often blind criticism of modern medicine from alternative medicine practitioners. To be honest, if I were to hear a talk by Arvigo, I'd likely be rolling my eyes and huffing about superstitions and backward views that cannot possibly be true, but by reading her about her story, I have voluntarily decided to open my mind. Therefore, it would be silly to complain about self-induced exposure to differing beliefs and I can transcend my stubbornness. I recommend this book to people of similar scientific bullheadedness, because it's hard to roll your eyes when reading about rainbow-colored birds flying through the wild tropical jungle, about stories of people in need of help, and how rituals of faith may heal them.
November 7, 2025
I read this book about 25 years ago when Professor Susan Swensen was a guest professor in one of my courses. I still recall the passion and precision with which Arvigo recounted the life of this Maya healer. I recall too my deep admiration for Don Elijio Panti and for Arvigo's project to archive his life.
The book came storming back to me when I finished reading Witches. Arvigo's is the far better book if the goal is to preserve the memory and meaning of indigenous healers. Of course the projects are different. One is a biography/ethnography the other is a novel. Still, one benefit of Lozano's book is that it brought back Arvigo's book into my life.
The book came storming back to me when I finished reading Witches. Arvigo's is the far better book if the goal is to preserve the memory and meaning of indigenous healers. Of course the projects are different. One is a biography/ethnography the other is a novel. Still, one benefit of Lozano's book is that it brought back Arvigo's book into my life.
December 17, 2021
This book on Belize ethnobotany concludes my 2021 Around the World in 80 Books TBR Takedown challenge - my 4th year completing it.
Rosita Arvigo’s memoir details her years apprenticing with a traditional Maya healer. She has since gone on to partner with Belizeans to secure and promote traditional herbal remedies. I found the book fascinating, even though I struggled at times with letting go my dependance on alopathy. But my mission while reading my way around the world is to open myself to new cultures, new ways of perceiving the world, and old ways that are mostly lost if not for the literature that captures them.
For this I am thankful to Dona Rosita for her decades of work.
Rosita Arvigo’s memoir details her years apprenticing with a traditional Maya healer. She has since gone on to partner with Belizeans to secure and promote traditional herbal remedies. I found the book fascinating, even though I struggled at times with letting go my dependance on alopathy. But my mission while reading my way around the world is to open myself to new cultures, new ways of perceiving the world, and old ways that are mostly lost if not for the literature that captures them.
For this I am thankful to Dona Rosita for her decades of work.
June 26, 2017
I rated it two stars because I felt like "okay" was my rating. It was really just a memoir that wasn't very interesting to me. I would have preferred either a scientific take on the maladies and botanical cures, or a anthropological take on Mayan traditional healing, a journalistic look at the phenomenon or even more of a biography of Panti. Basically, I wanted more real information and it really strained credulity for me that the cures were informed by looking into a magic marble or that they were using herbs to cure "spiritual illnesses" caused by curses and "evil winds."
January 25, 2025
Loved this book and learning how leaving your soul out of medicine really diminishes the healing qualities of the practice both for the healer and the client. I googled all of the landmarks in the last chapter of the book and it seems as if none of them exist anymore which is ultra ultra disappointing. I hope to be able to visit this part of the world one day and will have to do some more internet sleuthing to see if maybe they’ve just been renamed and hopefully not demolished.
April 15, 2025
Wonderfully written book on the experience of Rosita Arvigo developing a beautiful friendship with Don Elijio Panti while studying Mayan medicine and healing from him as one of the last living H’men in Central America. The book is told in first person and is based on her real life, but was so fun and engaging to read it felt like a novel and I couldn’t put it down. I finished wanting to learn more about the lives of these two incredible and inspiring people!
May 30, 2025
What an amazing memoir! Dr. Rosita is a badass who spent a seven-year apprenticeship with a Mayan curandera in the jungles of Belize. She spent sweaty days cutting down medicinal plants with Don Panti and then watched him cure alcoholism, diabetes, and more. She sent lots of samples to the NIH for study. When Panti died at 100, the New York Times ran his obit.
Fascinating. How much wisdom are we losing in the loss of the rainforests?
Fascinating. How much wisdom are we losing in the loss of the rainforests?
November 27, 2025
What a special story! I remember when this book was out on the popular book shelves in the early to mid nineties and I didn't pick it up back then.
I never knew what "naprapathy" was until now.
I was searching for books about Belize for my trip to Hopkins and I'm disappointed her other books didn't pop up in internet suggestions.
I would love to see the Panti Maya Medicine Trail someday.
I am heartened to see what developed as a result of Rosita's apprenticeship with Don Elijio Panti.
I never knew what "naprapathy" was until now.
I was searching for books about Belize for my trip to Hopkins and I'm disappointed her other books didn't pop up in internet suggestions.
I would love to see the Panti Maya Medicine Trail someday.
I am heartened to see what developed as a result of Rosita's apprenticeship with Don Elijio Panti.
September 3, 2018
I am currently looking into starting a career in Herbalism and this book was the flicker of anecdotal inspiration that I needed. “Sastun” is a story for the rich in faith. A biography providing hope for those seeking to learn and incorporate the lost wisdom of the ages (long lost from Western culture) into their practice. Whatever that may be. It’s there! You need but have faith and listen.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2024
I have owned this book since it was newly published in 1994, and have just re-read it before a trip to Belize. I am looking forward to being in the area where the author Rosita Arvigo apprenticed with Don Eligio Panti, a Mayan healer, and perhaps to walk the Panti medicinal trail. This book is particularly recommended to anyone interested in ethnobotany, medicinal plants, or Mayan spirituality.
February 5, 2025
Interesting description of traditional medicine in Belize, with an American ethno-botanist learning from the local healer, the uses of native plants. She was able to save much of his knowledge thru her US connections . Written in 1994, a little updated,but most interesting in her description of cases she treated with traditional plants and prayers.
November 21, 2021
This book was given to me by a friend who has studied with Rosita Arvigo - I found this book to be an amazing and fascinating journey. And well written! I learned a lot about this interesting aspect of healing.
January 29, 2023
I loved reading this collection of stories about Arvigo's time with Don Elijio. The stories are medicine in and of themselves and would often help me relax enough to sleep in those evenings I had trouble sleeping.
November 11, 2017
Wonderful read about healing herbs, healing and shamans
March 10, 2018
Lovely plant healing stories from Rosita's apprenticeship with Don Elijio.
March 10, 2021
Having traveled nearby it was so breath taking to hear about it from someone who lived local. I loved her mentorship relationship with Don Elijio.
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September 30, 2021I didn’t read this. Somehow it ended up on my page and this was the only way to get rid of it
November 16, 2021
I read this 25 years ago and loved. I'm going to read again. We'll see if I still love it.
December 24, 2021
Such an interesting mix of stories and science in the Mayan setting of Belize.
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