The interest in psychedelics and plant spirit medicine ceremonies is exploding and controversy is everywhere. This interest is driven, not by just curiosity alone, but by so many people, who like me, find themselves in a place of intense prolonged suffering. It is the massive epidemics of the disconnection, depression, loneliness, anxiety, meaninglessness, addiction, trauma, sorrow caused by destruction of nature, and so much unwellness, that are driving the search for another way to see, another way to be, a new state of consciousness- a rebirth or of what it means to be human. This longing is the true force behind the psychedelic renaissance.
What was a massive and profitable war on drugs, is now a race to stake a claim on this emerging psychedelic movement and the industries that are springing up around it. In the wake of this new wave of psychedelic research it is essential to understand and orient to what the great promise of these Divine Sacraments truly is.
Yes, there is the potential and found results for remarkable and previously unseen therapeutic benefits with isolated psychedelic molecules within clinical settings. This is sparking huge investments, a whole new industry, and a great deal of hope and enthusiasm. And while I see that the research into the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics is essential, this is not the great promise of the divine sacrament of the master teacher plants, which are ancient powerful catalysts for conscious evolution.
The great promise of the divine sacraments of the master teacher plants is Entheogenesis- the awakening and arising of divinity from within. This is a gnosis, an embodied knowing and remembrance of immanence or the indwelling nature of Spirit. It is this awakening from within to direct spiritual connection that is the source of true healing. This can spontaneously happen through the use of psychedelics, and yet over millennia in culture upon culture, this was not a haphazard affair, but the most holy and most significant rite of passage. The master teacher plants have been the most sacred medicine of the people. This is the art of ceremonial Entheogenesis. This is the mystery behind and within the mystery schools and ancient lineage of initiation.
The divine sacraments of the master teacher plants have been an inherent part of the human experience for the vast majority of history. Psychoactive plants have held a revered role in the creation of culture, meaning, spirituality, the growth of religion, and the healing arts.
I came to the divine sacraments of the master teacher plants through an undiagnosable, untreatable mystery illness and received full and lasting healing. Since that time, I have been dedicated to learning the art of shamanic medicine and healing, through sacred ceremonial work with the plants, because anything that has this potential of efficacy, in this time of such great suffering, is needed and worthy of a lifetime of devotion.
I have worked with thousands of people in plant spirit medicine ceremonies, who have transformed and healed incredible hardship, illness, trauma, and pain, going on to live lives of renewed beauty and heart. This is not a rare case but the vast majority of people we have worked with. Darcy and I advocate for working with whole plant medicines regeneratively grown and cultivated with the deepest reverence and respect. How can we expect to have a truly healing experience if we are working from a model of extraction and domination? That model only breeds more of the same. This is why it is so essential that we learn to listen to the elders, the plant spirits, and most importantly the wisdom of your very own heart.
The master teacher plants are an expression of the vast intelligence of the Gaian realm. The master teacher plants are so revered because they have a powerful role as medicine for the people. These are the plant allies that address dis-ease on every level of being- the whole medicine wheel. Plants in this category have very low toxicity. They are packed with beneficial and synergetic alkaloids which bring massive benefits to the whole mind/body. These plants have been revered because of the benefits they bring for physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and communal health. The master teacher plants are the center pole of whole lineages of practice, systems of medicine, and applied use of compounded plant, mineral, and psycho-spiritual remedies from distinct pharmacopeias. The master teacher plants have traditionally been used in culture after culture not as the only healing medicine for the people, but as a way to open the “vista” (aka shamanic sight) and see into what is needed to bring health, healing, and restore harmony. Often the traditional curandera or practitioner would then prescribe additional remedies, ceremonies, or habit changes to rectify the imbalance.
Of course, all plants are our elders and can be profound teachers. To be a student of plants is a joyous life, for there is always more to learn. To be a student of the plants is to be a student of a collective consciousness that has been on this planet for at least 500 million years. It is a profound path that requires us to learn whole new ways of learning. The work of Elliot Cowan who wrote Plant Spirit Medicine developed a shamanic journey approach to learning from all plants. This is actually how I was introduced to this work, when I was 18 years old at the incredibly wonderful Naropa University with a professor Marlow Brooks. She wove the wisdom of 5 Element Chinese Acupuncture with the approach developed through Elliot Cowan. This work opened me to shamanic journeying, learning directly from nature, utilizing creative expression to experience the different energetic signatures of elements, plants, dis-ease, and how through the power of energetic attunement alone, we can develop a strong relationship with plant allies to support our own and others’ healing. In class I watched Marlow work on students, and they would transform before my eyes, their color restored, their mood shifted, and my whole paradigm opened.
We as a human family are so inwardly divided that we create systems of medicine, governance, communication, commerce, psychology, and spirituality that reflect this divide. Until this core “division” or as we often call “illusion of separation” is inwardly illuminated and reconciled- no true healing can take place. The greatest and most pervasive illusion of separation for humanity at this time is the illusion that we are separate from Nature. The illusion of separation from nature is one of the great blind spots within scientific materialistic reductionism and is currently being perpetuated within the fields of allopathy, psychiatry and so often the newly burgeoning fields of psychedelic therapy. This grand canyon of a blind spot is informing almost every field of science and through this lack of consciousness creating synthetic constructs and complex ideologies- but rarely ever true healing. What almost no one understands especially all the institutionally appointed “experts” (many but not all of whom are mired in the limited self referential arrogance/ignorance of the classical scientific model rooted in deep insecurity and therefore requiring the inflation of superior ego structure neurosis for personal status aggrandizement) is this simple truth:
We can only heal within nature, because we are Nature.
(This is the foundational understanding within the field of Ecopsychology)