“All things enjoy ecstatic union with nature. Life without ecstasy is not true life and not worth living. Without ecstasy, the soul becomes shriveled and perverted, the mind becomes corrupt, and the body suffers pain. Ecstatic union with nature is necessary for normal health; it is necessary for survival. And to think that plants are mere dumb creatures that do not know ecstacy is ignorance or tragic, arrogant folly.”
– Elliot Cowan “Plant Spirit Medicine” pg.14
The master teacher plants such as San Pedro, Ayahuasca, Iboga, the Sacred Mushrooms, Cannabis, Peyote, Tobacco, and many more are an expression of the vast intelligence of the Gaian realm. They are a living expression of Gaian intelligence, that like all life on Earth, has both a material expression and spiritual essence. The master teacher plants are so revered by cultures all over the world because they have powerful roles as medicine for the people to heal in body, mind, heart, and spirit. 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.
Master teacher 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. We dive deep into this in our online Entheogenesis course.
For 98% of human history our ancestors all around the world lived in a holistic understanding of reality based in animism. Animism understands that everything is alive, everything is sentient, and therefore we can build relationships with the whole of life. The master teacher plants are called “master teachers” in honor of their profound spiritual nature. They are undeniably wise. They awaken the potential for this wisdom within all who commune with them. It is this wisdom and expansive view of Self and reality that inspired the ancient ones to work with these psychoactive consciousness catalysts as Divine Sacraments.
The dominant culture of the postmodern world is definitely not animistic. We have become deeply disconnected from our spiritual nature, and in doing so de-sacralized the life around us. 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 that 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” (most 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)
On every level in every way- we are Nature- indivisible and inextricably woven into the Great Web of Life. Remembering this not as an idea but as an embodied experience. This remembrance is the beginning of True Healing. Isolated synthesized molecules can offer therapeutic benefits- but they can never hold a candle to the medicinal power, spiritual beauty, and radical Universal intelligence held within a single plant. Each plant is a miracle expression of this universal intelligence and 500 million years of evolution. This is why we are 100% plant advocates and passionate about stepping away whenever possible from the white powders and the four walls of the institution, office, and clinic.To truly heal, first we must remember our True Nature through returning to Nature. Healing then stops becoming a goal and becomes instead a lived experience- A coming home both to our own Heart and the Heart of Gaia which are inextricably and forever bonded as Kin. We dive deep into this in our online Entheogenesis course.