'Medicine' and 'Essence'

I have started studying native American culture recently.My daughter bought me a book called Earth Medicine by a modern day female shaman.Jamie samms I think she believes that there are lesser and greater shamans those that are taught from within there family which I believe but she says that a greater shaman has a dream in which a black panther shows up.
And to embrace the unknown which I understand and that all animals have there own medicine.
I might sound a bit vague but is medicine the same as essence in this respect
Thanks again in advance

Hi. One of the problems about reading books like this is that, at best, what is being described belongs to a different culture and, at worst, is made up. Jamie Sams is often considered to be a fraud (have a look at the website ‘New-Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans’) So ‘greater and lesser shamans’ is not anything that anyone else is talking about. As for a black panther, it depends if this is your power animal or not. It means nothing.
‘Medicine’ is a word generally translated as ‘power’. For example, when I said that scrying wasn’t one of my skills, I could have said that it wasn’t my medicine. So the statement, “all animals have their own medicine’ could be said, ‘all animals have their own power’. ‘Medicine’ tends to be used when talking particularly about Native Americans – who may or may not be shamanic, depending on which Native Americans are being talked about. Some peoples (e.g. the Pomo) are shamanic. Some, (e.g. the Navajo) are not.
‘Essence’ is sometimes used to mean ‘spirit’ – often by people who are embarrassed talking about spirits or who think it might put readers off. All animals (and everything else) have spirits.
Why study Native American culture? Are you in America? Shamanism is always more powerful when it is of the land in which it is practiced.