Ayahuasca Yaj Yag Caapi Vine Of The Soul Visionary Effects

By Ina Woolcott

What is Ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca is a powerful teacher and healer with frequently strong visionary effects. It is a combination of 2 plants found in the Amazon rainforests, the Banisteriopsis Caapi vine and thePsychotria Viridis (Chacruna) shrub. The vine stems are pounded and scraped and then boiled for hours, sometimes even days, along with the Chacruna leaves by shamans called ayahuasqueros (makers of Ayahuasca) or medicine men. Banisteriopsis Caapi contains various harmala alkaloids which are actually monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI’s). Taken alone, the B. Caapi would not trigger psychotropic effects, unless an extremely high concentration were taken and even then would only have a moderate effect. This is where Psychotria Viridis comes into play, a botanical source of dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Dimethyltryptamine is present in small quantities in our brains. The psychoactive tryptamines contained in DMT are inactive when administered orally, without the intervention of the MAOI in the form of B. Caapi vine. When this second ingredient is added, the DMT’s psychoactive molecules are not destroyed in the stomach. This allows them to cross the blood/brain barrier and bestow the legendary effects associated with Ayahuasca.

It is speculated that an excess of DMT opens up the pineal gland, providing extraordinary visions and a feeling of transcendence. DMT affects the pineal gland that resides deep within the brain and is the only unpaired organ in the body. At the time of birth, death and near death experiences as well as other peak experiences significant amounts of DMT are released. In large doses DMT produces visions and profound insights. Some say this is crucial for the brain to function properly and that we are DMT deficient due to the pineal shrinking and going rigid in ‘modern’ man. According to some researchers one of the main culprits of this is the use of fluoride in tap/drinking water.

The two plants compliment each and work in perfect synergy, one maximizing the benefit of the other. The resulting brew, or tea, is a magical and visionary formula which has powerful consciousness expanding properties.

Sometimes other plants and herbs are added to the Ayahuasca brew such as mapacho (a tobacco used by shamans) and brugmansia, or toé. These are the 2 most common added extras, which are used to enhance the visionary effects of the tea. There are circa 100 identified species of B. caapi to be found in the Amazon. The most common one used in Peru is Cielo Ayahuasca, as it is oftentimes called. Shamans have their own recipes; oftentimes these are secret.

Known as a teacher and healing plant, Ayahuasca works synergistically on many levels, not just biochemical, but also spiritually with many feeling an intelligent presence while under its influence. Some interpret this as a grandfather or grandmother plant spirit, or even feel this presence is reptilian or alien. Others say this is your higher self guiding you.

Related Link: Ayahuasca, Sacred Teacher Plant used by Indigenous Tribes

Plant Spirit Shamanism Pusanga The Perfume Of Love

By Ross Heaven

The quest for love unites us all. What if you could find it – and a simple perfume could help? That would be magic, wouldn’t it? Read on!

In the spiritual traditions of the Amazon in Peru, this magical perfume is called pusanga. It is a made from flowers and plants which have the power to attract to the people who wear it the things they really want. For that reason, pusanga has developed an impressive reputation as “the love medicine of the Amazon”’ because love, of course, is the thing most people do want!

HOW PERFUME ATTRACTS AND HEALS

Beautiful smells derived from flowers and herbs have always been used for healing and attracting love. Even the word ‘perfume’ comes from per fumer (Latin, ‘through smoke’), and is a reference to its ritual use in ceremonies for the gods who offer love’s blessings.

The ancient Greeks, for example, believed that sweet aromas were how the deities made their presence known. The oracle priestesses of Delphi would sit in the smoke of bay leaf incense to allow these gods to speak through them during divinations to help people in their search for love. In India, too, seers called dainyals would surround themselves with smoke – this time of cedarwood – which would send them into trance and give them prophetic visions. Fragrance has also long been associated with the arts of love. In Japan, Geisha girls priced their services according to the number of incense sticks consumed during love-making, while in Indian tantric rituals, men were anointed with sandalwood, and women with jasmine, patchouli, amber, and musk. Saffron was crushed and smeared beneath their feet.

The reason for these rituals is that smell is the most powerful of our senses and is able to stimulate desire, longing, and lust, stir our memories, and carry associations of love and happiness. Scientists have found that even a year after we meet a new person, their aroma stays in our minds, whereas visual memory drops to 50% after just three months, so we may not even remember their faces. The sense of smell is handled by the limbic system, which controls our emotions, so perfumes evoke feelings as well as memories, and we experience not just an odour but a mood.

This is the secret of pusanga. By mixing plants and flowers to create particular aromas which affect the moods of those who smell them, the shamans of the Amazon say that pusanga can cause anyone to fall hopelessly in love with the wearer. One of these shamans, Javier Aravelo, puts it this way: “When you pour pusanga onto your skin it penetrates your spirit and gives you the power to draw in love”.

How you find the right plants to do this is another secret, known as the Doctrine of Signatures. This is the idea that the Creator has left a mark or “signature” on every plant in the world to show what it is used for. The discoverer of this phenomenon was Paracelsus, a 6th century alchemist who noticed how the appearance of plants so often reflects their qualities – that the seeds of skullcap, for example, resemble small skulls and, it turns out, are effective at curing headache, or that willow, which grows in damp places, heals rheumatic conditions, which are caused by damp and the build-up of fluid on the joints.

In fact, as Thomas Bartram, a modern herbalist, remarks in his Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, “Examples are numerous. It is a curiosity that many liver remedies have yellow flowers, those for the nerves (blue), for the spleen (orange), for the bones (white). Serpentaria (Rauwolfia) resembles a snake and is an old traditional remedy for snake-bite. Herbalism confirms the Doctrine of Signatures”.

AMAZON PUSANGA Following this Doctrine, the basis for pusanga in the Amazon is agua de colpa. This is water collected from clay pools deep in the rainforest, where there are no people, only thousands of brightly-coloured animals who gather to drink from the water. Some of these animals are natural enemies, but at the clay pools they stand peacefully together to drink from water which is rich in mineral content and needed for their well-being. This water, in other words, has the power to attract some of the most beautiful creatures on the planet to a place where they exist harmoniously together.

Added to this magical water are special herbs, plants, barks, roots or leaves, which also have the quality of attraction due to their colours, names, or where and how they grow. In the rainforest, for example, there are vines called sogas, which are recognised as pusanga plants because they wrap themselves around trees and draw close to them so they grow together.

Special scented liquids, such as agua florida (which means “water for flourishing”), are also added to the mixture, which is then blessed by the shaman to empower it. This is done by blowing or singing into the pusanga, sometimes with the breath, sometimes with sacred tobacco smoke. The traditional blessing whispered to the pusanga is “salud, dinero y amor” (“health, money and love”).

Once it is made, pusanga is used like a perfume, with a few drops rubbed on the pulse points of the wrists and neck, or a capful or two can be added to bath water.

Related link for further reading: Making Your Own Pusanga

Further recommended reading of Ross Heaven:
Ross Heaven is the director of The Four Gates Foundation and the author of books on shamanism and healing. His latest is Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul. Ross also teaches Plant Spirit Shamanism workshops and trips to the Amazon to work with indigenous healers and plant shamans.
Details of these are available at The Four Gates

Coca And The Sacred Plants Of The Incas Shamanism Of The Andes

Submitted by Howard. G. Charing

The Incas regarded coca as ‘the divine plant’ mainly because of its property of imparting endurance, nevertheless its use was entwined with every aspect of life; the art, mythology, culture and economy of the Inca Empire.

Millions of Indians have chewed coca on a daily basis for many hundreds of years, yet never has a plant been so misrepresented and its use so controlled by prejudice and ignorance, including up to the present day. The Conquistadors considered it an idle and offensive habit to be prohibited, but it was soon seen that the Indians could not work without coca even when forced to do so.

The coca leaf has been sacred to Andean people since the dawn of pre-Colombian civilization. Doris Rivera Lenz, a renowned Andean Ceremonialist, healer, and Coca leaf Diviner, when asked about the source of the information she divines from them, she says:

“They give me such a powerful awareness it is as though an energy comes into me from just touching them. I invoke Mother Nature and the spirit of the coca, and with just seven leaves, the answer comes, as though through an open doorway.”

Healing

An ancient method of diagnosing illness, still common in Peru, is to rub an egg over the body of the patient. Doris is gifted in this tradition and prescribes remedies which include medicinal herbs.

Much Andean wisdom is based on observation of nature, noting for example, that if the ducks go round in circles, there will be long rains, etc… Involvement with nature prevents the mind from becoming mechanical, can see that it is constantly nurturing us and helping us to grow.

The Ofrenda

An ‘ofrenda’ is the most important ceremony used by Andean Indians to relate with Mother Earth. The ofrenda is a symbol of reciprocity with nature and its purpose is to teach us to reproduce this attitude. Through it we speak back to nature saying we understand the message and concord.

The ofrenda which is also known in Spanish as a ‘pago’, is not a ‘payment’ to nature as the Conquistadores saw it, implying a sinister pact with nature spirits. Additionally, they accused the Indians of being miserly because they preferred to pay symbolically rather than with real money!

An ofrenda is an expression of gratitude, not of debt or obligation. Neither is it selfish to want things for ourselves as some people see it even today. It is true that urban people in Peru have started to make ofrendas for reasons such as wanting their businesses to flourish, but good business can equally imply good health, and harmony to the community and for the natural world.

In an Andean community realities are closer to earth than they are in the city, it is more important that the cattle do not die than to have more private possessions. Hence in the country there is a better understanding of the shamanic meaning of the ceremony, the re-establishing of relationship to nature. This is why we need a little preparation so that an ofrenda can work for us too.

Pachacuti

We live in a time of the fulfilment of an ancient Inca prophecy. This is the time of the new Pachacuti, a great change bringing with it a new relating to the Earth (Pachamama). Each Pachacuti is a era of time about 500 years. The last Pachacuti occurred with the Conquest in the early 16th century, and the Q’ero (Inca) priests have been waiting ever since for the next era, when order would start to emerge from chaos. The current Pachacuti refers to the end of time as we understand it, the end or death of a way of thinking and a way of being. A new relationship with the living Earth, and an emergence into a golden age of peace. There are many indications that changes in human consciousness are taking place, yet there is still a long way to go. It is part of Doris’s vision to show us traditional ways that we can re-engage with the sacredness of life and the Earth so we too can more fully participate in the new Pachacuti.

Howard G. Charing is a partner in Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. His initiation into the world of Shamanism was sudden, which was caused by a serious accident, which resulted in severe injuries and a near-death experience. After many months of physical pain and disability, he had a transformational experience, which started him on a path to healing. If you like to know more about his work, Howard conducts “Plant Spirit Medicine” journeys to the Amazon Rainforest.

Psilocybe Hallucinogenic Magic Mushrooms Psilocybin And Psilocin

By Ina Woolcott

Psilocybe is a genus of small mushrooms that grow globally. This genus is well known for its species with hallucinogenic properties, commonly referred to as magic mushrooms, though the majority of species don’t contain hallucinogenic compounds. The hallucinogenic compounds responsible for the hallucinogenic effects are Psilocin and psilocybin.

The word psilocybe comes from Greek, which translated literally mean ‘bare headed’, referring to the mushroom’s plain cap.

Psilocybe are typically small, non-descript mushrooms, hard to tell apart from others when one doesn’t know how to tell them apart! Macroscopically, they are characterized by their small or sometimes medium size, their brown to yellow-brown coloration,

Hallucinogenic species generally have a blue staining reaction when the fruiting body is bruised. The blue-staining species of Psilocybe contain psilocin and psilocybin. The blue-staining reaction, is not entirely understand, but is thought to be a degradation reaction of psilocin. Thus, the extent to which Psilocybe fruiting body goes blue, is a direct link to the concentration of psilocin in the mushroom. Psilocybin is chemically far more stable than psilocin. Psilocin is largely lost when the mushroom is heated or dried. Some psychoactive species contain baeocystin and norbaeocystin, as well as psilocin and psilocybin.

Location

The species in this genus are distributed world wide in most climates and habitats, high deserts being the exception. There are 60 species of Psilocybe in the USA, 25 of these are hallucinogenic. For the bluing Psilocybe, the largest species diversity is in the neotropics, from Mesoamerica to Brazil and Chile.

Many of the bluing species found in temperate areas, e.g. P. cyanescens, seem to have a natural attraction to landscaped areas mulched with woodchips. They are actually pretty rare in remote, natural settings away from where humans reside.

A popular myth is that Psilocybe mushrooms grow on dung – this is only true however for a minority of the species, P. coprophila and P. cubensis being examples. Many other species are found in forest humus soils or mossy, grassy environments.

Notable Species

* Psilocybe cubensis, Stropharia cubensis – this is the most commonly grown and consumed Psilocybe, as it is easy to cultivate.

* Psilocybe semilanceata – this is found in northern temperate climates and is also known as the liberty cap.

* Psilocybe cyanescens – found in the Pacific Northwest of North America, and also found in western Europe. Has the nicnames wavy-cap or wavies.

* Psilocybe azurescens – a highly potent species found in Oregon, but popular in outdoor cultivation, nicknamed azies.

Related article: History and Legal Status of Psilocybe Mushrooms

Coca Is Not A Drug Or La Coca No Es Droga

Submitted by Carolynne Melnyk, also known as Wawa Quilla, www.AndeanTriangle.com

Coca leaves, or erythroxylum coca, have been used in the Andes for thousands of years as a nutritional supplement, as an herbal medicine, as part of social interaction and as a ceremonial offering. The use of coca leaves is an integral part of the Andean tradition in Peru and Bolivia but the coca plants are also found in other parts of the world. Plants are found in Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Cameroon in Africa, Pakistan, India, and on the Islands of Java and Sri Lanka. It is only in Peru and Bolivia that the tradition of coca has carried on since time immemorial. Today these people face an on-going battle to defend their cultural use of coca against a western campaign, lead by the United States, which sees coca as cocaine and uses extreme methods of aerial fumigation and forced eradication by biological methods to stop the use of coca. For further reading on the eradication methods and its effects please see www.mamacoca.org .The ethnic groups that continue the tradition of coca have launched their own campaign “La coca no es droga or coca is not a drug”.

The sacredness of the coca plant stems from the Inca mythology, when Tayta Inti, father sun, saw that the people of the world were living no better than animals he sent his son, Manco Capac and his daughter, Mama Ocllo, to guide and teach the people. As part of the teachings Manco Capac, the first Inca, taught the people the many uses of the coca plant. For this reason the people of Andes believe that the plant is sacred. It is believed that the first to use the coca plant were the Aymara people from the Lake Titicaca region, the area from which Manco Capac first appeared and then spread to the Quechua people found the other regions of the Andes. Coca was used throughout the Incan Empire, which stretched from present day Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and parts of Argentina and Brazil, although it is only in present day Peru and Bolivia that use of coca remains strong.

The people have always known of the great nutritional value that is within each coca leaf, although they may not have been able to give you a list of the all vitamins and minerals that are found in the coca leaves. They did know that it helped them to live at high altitudes with ease and that when they chewed the leaves it increased their energy enabling them to till their gardens and follow their herds of llama and alpacas up and down the mountain paths. In addition to this it also staid their appetite and thirst helping them to live and work at altitudes from 2,000 to over 3,000 meters above sea level. These people were also aware of the many curative properties of the coca leaf and use them as salves, compresses, and poultices.

Today through scientific research we know of the great nutritional value and healing properties of coca. “Studies done by the University of Harvard in 1975 entitled ‘The Nutritional Value of Coca Leaf’ has show that coca leaf contains the following nutrients.

Each 100 grams of Coca Leaf contains:

Total Nitrogen – 20.06 mg
Total in volatile alkaloids – 0.70 mg
Fat – 3.68 mg
Carbohydrates – 47.50 mg
Beta Carotene – 9.40mg
Alpha Carotene – 2.76 mg
Vitamin C – 6.47 mg
Vitamin E – 40.17 mg
Thiamine (vitamin B1) – 0.73 mg
Riboflavin (vitamin B2) – 0.88 mg
Niacin – 8.37 mg
Phosphate – 412.67 mg
Potassium – 1739.33 mg
Magnesium – 299.30 mg
Sodium – 39.41 mg
Aluminium – 17.39 mg
Barium – 6.18 mg
Iron – 136.64 mg
Strontium – 12.02 mg
Boron – 6.75 mg
Copper – 1.22 mg
Zinc – 2.21 mg
Magnesium – 9.15 mg
Chromium – 0.12 mg

In addition to the above nutrients, coca also contains 14 natural alkaloids that are beneficial for their digestive, circulatory, anti-fatigue and calming qualities. These natural alkaloids are:

Cocaine: has an anesthetetic and analgesic property.
Ecyonine: a carbolic derivative of an atropine has the capacity to metabolize fats, glucose and carbohydrates. It also thins bloods.
Pectine: is an absorbent anti-diuretic which when joined with vitamin E helps regulate the production of melanin in the skin.
Papaine: this product of protein (which is found in its greatest quantity in papaya) is very similar in structure to animal cathepsin that aids in the fermentation to accelerate digestion.
Hygrine: excites the salivatory glands when there is a deficiency of oxygen in the environment.
Globuline: It is a cardio tonic that regulates the lack of oxygen in the environment that helps improve blood circulation and aids in altitude sickness.
Pyridine: improves the functioning of the brain by increasing blood flow through the pituitary glands.
Quinoline: with the aid of phosphorous and calcium aids in preventing tooth decay.
Conine: is an anaesthetic.
Cocamine: is an analgesic.
Reserpine: regulates pressure in the arteries and prevents hiccups and hypertension as well as helping in the production of cells in the formation of bones.
Benzoyne: has a therapeutic property for gastritis and ulcers.
Inuline: refreshes and improves the functioning of the liver, the secretions of bile and its accumulation in the vesicle. It is a diuretic, which helps to eliminate toxic substances. It also helps promote the production of healthy blood cells.
Atropine: is a neurotransmitter, whose function is to mediate the synaptic activity of the nervous system.

These fourteen alkaloids, the amino acids they contain, the acids, and vitamins A, B1, C and E, thiamine, niacin, and riboflavin make coca a plant with the highest quality of non-proteinic nitrogen in the world. The combination of these helps to eliminate toxins and pathogens from the body. It also has solubility and hydration properties.” (The above nutritional and alkaloid information taken from Coca is Not Cocaine )

When considering that many of the people in the high altitude rural areas of the Andes have a very basic diet of carbohydrates and meat and lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables, one can see how important coca is to their dietary needs. It also may account for the low incidence of cardiovascular diseases among the indigenous population of coca chewers.

The coca leaf is not only an important part of the Andean diet; it also serves as a fundamental part of their social structure and interaction. In the Andean culture they practise a form of reciprocal interchange called ayni. The concept of ayni is based in the idea that you help me today and I will help you tomorrow. This concept can take many forms and plays a part in many different social interactions, but one thing you will find in all these transactions is a sharing of coca leaves before the transaction is completed.

One of the main activates in which the principal of ayni takes place is in the planting, tending and harvesting of crops in the rural areas. This work is often done as a community and not individually because much of the labour is still done by hand or with the use of oxen pulling a wooden plough. Each day before the labour begins the people of the community will sit together, share some food, chew coca leaves and discuss what needs to be done that day. This process of sharing coca leaves will continue throughout the day as the group takes breaks or finishes for the day. This same process of ayni and sharing of coca leaves also takes place when building a home for community members.

In the Aymara communities around Lake Titicaca coca is used when asking for ayni. If a man or a woman asks for ayni from someone they will offer a handful of coca. If the person being asked the favour takes the coca then he or she agrees to the ayni.

When visiting someone’s house or when sitting around in a social gathering coca leaves are passed around. In a manner of bonding, trust and goodwill each person will bring out their coca bundle and prepare a kintu(three perfect coca leaves placed one on top the other) for each person in the group. These are presented to each person by holding the kintu with the thumb and forefinger of both hands with the shiny side of the leaves up. The person being offered the kintu also takes it with the thumb and forefinger of both hands holding on to the end with stem. Still holding it with both hands the person then offers an invocation to Pachamama (Mother Earth), to the spirit of the mountains, to the ancestors, to the creator and to all those gathered. They then gently blow on the leaves three times before putting them in the mouth for chewing. After each person has presented a kintu to each other person in the gathering, they then freely select and add leaves to the wade that is forming in their cheek. Once this sharing of leaves has taken place, conversation flows and a bond has been created with all those gathered.

All Andean rituals are celebrated around the coca leaves. They are offered in thanks for blessings, as offerings to Pachamama (Mother earth) for a good growing season and harvest, to the various Apus (spirits) for watching over them, for a good luck, to bless a marriage, business, or birth and the list goes on. Offerings can be in the form of a kintu, a hand full of coca in which an innovation is said or in a more formal despacho (offering) ceremony where a very special offering is made by first laying down a bed of coca leaves and then adding a wide range of others things including grains, incense, bits of llama, sweets and various items representing symbols for whatever the despacho is being offered. Coca is present for all the important moments of ones life.

Coca is not only part of the Andean people’s survival, but it is a sacred part of their lives, their culture, and their heritage. Mama Coca is not a drug but a part of thousands of years of a cultural heritage for the Andean people. To deprive them of this cultural heritage is to deny them their right to live and practise what they hold most sacred. The western world needs to view the use coca leaves with different eyes and see it’s many benefits and not focus solely on the production of cocaine, which is a chemical concoction far removed from the use of the fresh leaves.

Love and blessing,
Wawa Quilla

Psychoactives Psychotropics

By Ina Woolcott

A psychoactive drug, or psychotropic substance is a substance that primarily acts upon the central nervous system, altering the brain function, leading to short term alterations in perception, consciousness, mood, and behaviour be it a chemical or natural substance.

Some drugs are used for recreational reasons to alter one’s consciousness – such as coffee, alcohol, nicotine and cannabis. Entheogens are used for spiritual reasons e.g. hallucinogenic mushrooms or the peyote cactus. There is also prescribed medication, e.g. narcotics to control pain, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics to treat neurological and psychiatric illnesses.

Stimulants and anti-depressants can frequently become highly addictive, causing chemical dependency which may lead to substance abuse. On the flip side, psychedelics can help treat and even cure such addictions.

Drug use is not a new thing at all – archaeological evidence indicates that psychoactive substances have been used as far back as at least 10,000 years – if not more, we will never know for sure. Historical evidence of cultural use dates back 5,000 years.

While psychoactives are widely used for medicinal purposes, it has been suggested that the urge to expand ones mind, to alter one’s consciousness is as primary as the drive to eat, drink and sexual desire. Some may accuse marketing, easy access or the pressures of modern life as to why humans use so many psychoactive’s daily, however, looking back in time (or even to children with their desire for spinning and swinging etc) it is not hard to see that the drive to alter one’s state of mind is universal and timeless.

This isn’t only the case with humans – in fact, numerous animals consume different psychoactive plants, berries, animals, and even fermented fruit, clearly becoming intoxicated. E.g. reindeer love fly agaric mushrooms. Hence the association of ‘flying reindeer’. Traditional legends of sacred plants frequently refer to animals that introduced humans to their use. Biology proposes an evolutionary link between psychoactive plants and animals, as to why these chemicals and their receptors are found within the nervous system

For 1000’s of years, people have studied psychoactive drugs, both by observation and ingestion. Sadly however, humanity is bitterly divided when it comes to psychoactive drugs. Their value and use has for a long time been a subject of major philosophical and moral dispute – even to the point of war. Many lives and rites have been lost, especially those of native and indigenous peoples.

Communicating With Plants

Submitted by Bob Makransky

Plants’ experience of being in the world is very different from the experience of us animals. Because plants cannot move about, they exist in a state of profound acceptance and peace within themselves.

Emotions such as fear, hate, jealousy, possessiveness, etc. are wholly unknown to plants and would serve no useful purpose. On the other hand, plants are capable of experiencing a wide range of higher emotions the like of which we animals could scarcely conceive.

At the same time, there are feelings which plants share with us animals, such as love, pain, joy, thirst, etc. It is the feelings we share with plants that provide the basis of our ability to communicate with them.

Feeling with plants is not so different from feeling with people. For example, when we are about to have sex with someone who really turns us on, we feel a palpable surge of sexual energy connecting us to that person. Similarly, when we walk into a room to face someone who is madder than hell at us, we feel connected to that person by a palpable wave of anger and fear.

When a baby smiles at us, we feel a rush of joy that has us automatically smile back. However, most of our interactions with other people do not have this feeling of connectedness and emotional immediacy. Most of the time we don’t even look the people we are addressing in the eye, let alone feel with them.

Because of our social training, we tend to regard sharing feelings with other people as threatening. We are taught to close up and defend ourselves, and to keep our interactions as sterile and devoid of feeling as possible.

In order to communicate with plants (or people), you have to be able to regard them as your equals. If you are afraid (ashamed) to talk with homeless people, beggars, crazy people, etc. then you’ll also find it difficult to talk with plants. However, it’s actually easier to communicate with plants than it is to communicate with people because plants don’t have defenses and self-importance agendas in place, which engage our own defenses, and self-importance agendas.

To feel with plants (or people) doesn’t mean to gush all over them; all it means is to recognize them as beings whose feelings are as important to them as your feelings are to you.

When first learning to communicate with plants, it helps to be in contact with the same individual plants on a daily basis. Ideally you should go out, preferably alone, to the same tree or meadow for at least a few minutes every day. If you can’t do this, cultivating garden or houseplants will work just as well, although it’s easiest to communicate with large trees.

This is because from a feeling (light fiber) point of view, humans and trees are very much alike – the light fiber (auric glow) configurations of both humans and trees are quite similar, whereas that of insects, for example, is very different from either. It is easier for humans and trees to communicate with each other than it is for either to communicate with insects.

Now even the least psychic person, going up to a large tree, should be able to pick up something of the personality (mood) of that tree. How does the tree make you feel – happy, sad, loving, jolly, heavy? Can you pick up its sex: sense a male or female presence – or its age: young and vigorous or old and mellow?

This isn’t all that hard to do – you can call upon your senses to buttress your feelings, as in the exercise of seeing pictures in the clouds, except that you do it by feeling rather than thinking – by relaxing into the process rather than controlling it. It’s exactly what a rationalist would term “anthropomorphism.”

For example, spiky trees (like palmettos and Joshua trees) have a sassy, masculine energy. Cedar trees tend to be clowns or wise guys. Banana trees are joyous and loving.

Weeping trees really do have a doleful air about them. Tall, erect trees have proud and regal personalities. Trees that seem to be reaching longingly for the heavens are reaching longingly for the heavens.

A good time to learn to connect emotionally with trees is when they’re dying. The next time you see a tree being felled, pause and quiet down your thoughts and watch it attentively. You should easily be able to feel the tree’s agony just before it falls, since trees (and all beings) are filled with power at the moment of their deaths and profoundly affect the beings around them.

Loggers triumphantly yell “Timber!” when a tree falls to cover their sense of shame and disconnectedness – to block communication with the tree at the moment of its death.

Another good time to pick up on plants’ feelings is when they are in motion. Plants are happiest when they are moving – blown by the wind and the rain. Wave back to them when they wave at you (it’s only polite). Watch how they dance in the breeze. See how the trees, which overhang roads and walkways, cast down blessings on all who pass beneath them.

See how the young growing tips are more alert, vigorous, and naively impetuous than the older and mellower lower leaves. Be aware of the awareness of plants: when you walk through a wood or meadow, feel as though you were walking through a crowd of people, all of whom are watching you.

Some people pick up on the feelings of plants by seeing faces in the bark or foliage. They impose that thought form (of a face with a giggly, dour, saucy, etc. expression) over the feeling of the tree, since that’s how most people are conditioned to interpret feelings – by associating them with facial expressions.

What we’re tying to get at are feelings, which can be apprehended directly, without any need for sensory cues. However, the senses can provide a useful point of reference and serve as a bridge between imagination and pure feeling, which is how they function in dreams.

When you see with your feelings rather than your mind, your visual attention isn’t focused on any one thing, but rather everything within your field of vision strikes your attention with equal impact (vividness), as it does in dreams. To see this way you have to have your mind quiet, and you have to be in a joyous and abandoned mood. If you’re bummed out or grumpy, you won’t be able to see what plants are feeling any more than you’d be able to see a baby smile at you.

Much of our social training entails learning to stifle our senses – to not see what is right before our eyes, to not listen to what our ears are hearing, to be offended by smells, discomfited by touch. Cutting off our senses leaves us feeling apathetic and disconnected from our world. Therefore, if we want to renew our feeling of connectedness which we had as infants, we have to start plugging our senses into our feelings again. And because they are so non-threatening, feeling with plants is a good place to start.

Not only do different species of plants have different feelings associated with them, but also there is considerable individual variation in personalities between different plants of the same species, between different branches on the same plant, and even between different leaves on the same branch.

By lightly holding a leaf for a moment between your thumb and forefinger, you can feel which leaves want to be picked for medicine or food purposes and which ones want to be left alone. The leaves that want to be picked have a high, vibrant feel to them, whereas leaves that don’t want to be picked feel dead in your hand.

Even if you can’t seem to tune in to the feelings of plants, you can still telepathically “talk” with them. Plants can talk to you in thoughts, and these (at first) seem indistinguishable from your own thoughts. That is, it will seem to you that you are the one who is thinking these thoughts, when in fact it is the plants that are sending you messages. That’s why it’s important to have your own mind as quiet as possible – to be in a relaxed mood – if you expect plants to talk to you; if your own mind is buzzing, there’s no way the plants can get a word in edgewise. Any thoughts or feelings you have while sitting under a tree or working with plants are probably messages from the plants.

So how do you know if you are actually communicating with a plant, and not just imagining it? The answer is: you don’t. You just go with your intuition rather than going with your concepts, what you’ve been taught.

Instead of hypnotizing yourself into believing that the world of concepts is reality, you hypnotize yourself into believing that the world of feelings – of magic – is reality. The only difference between these two equally valid points of view is that from one of them plants talk to you, and from the other they don’t.

If you feel self-conscious talking to plants, just remember that what you have been programmed to call the “real” world is merely a figment of your imagination also.

And if you start calling something else the real world, then that something else becomes the real world; it becomes as real as this one.

If you’re dubious, just ask the plant over and over, “Is this you, Mr. or Ms. Plant talking to me, or am I just imagining it?” And if you keep getting the same answer over and over, “It’s me, the plant! It’s me, the plant!” – then just assume that it is indeed the plant talking to you, and listen to what it has to say.

You can ask questions and get answers, both questions and answers coming as though you were holding a conversation in your own mind.

It’s easy to learn to talk with house and garden plants, since these are particularly eager to discuss matters such as fertilization, watering, shade, grafting and transplanting techniques, etc. But in addition to such mundane affairs, plants (particularly large trees) can give you helpful advice on all sorts of matters. Take them your problems; ask them what they think you should do.

Some of my best friends and most trusted advisers are trees.

Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, you are already communicating with plants all the time. The soothing, healing, tranquilizing feeling that comes when you are gardening or are out in nature is in fact your psychic attunement to the joyous vibrations of the plants around you. To follow this feeling one step further – to its source – is to put yourself into direct communication with the plants.

It’s as easy as smiling at a baby.

(excerpted from Magical Living, http://smashwords.com/b/22860)

Salvia Divinorum Faces Growing Legal Opposition In Usa

SURPRISE SURPRISE

Taken from the International Herald Tribune:
09/09/08

Until a decade ago, the use of salvia was largely limited to those seeking revelation under the tutelage of Mazatec shamans in its native Oaxaca, Mexico. Today, this mind-altering member of the mint family is broadly available for lawful sale online and in head shops across the United States.

Though older Americans typically have never heard of salvia, the psychoactive sage has become something of a phenomenon among the country’s thrill-seeking youth. More than 5,000 YouTube videos – equal parts “Jackass” and “Up in Smoke” – document their journeys into rubber-legged incoherence. Some of the videos have been viewed half a million times. Yet these very images that have helped popularize salvia may also hasten its demise and undermine the promising research into its possible medical uses.

In state after state, the YouTube videos have become Exhibit A in legislative efforts to regulate salvia. This year, Florida made possession or sale a felony punishable by 15 years in prison. California took a gentler approach by making it a misdemeanor to sell or distribute to minors.

Though research is young and little is known about long-term effects, there are no studies suggesting salvia is addictive or susceptible to overdose or abuse. Indeed, a salvia experience can be so intense, and at times so unsettling, that many try it just once, and even devotees use it sparingly. Reports of salvia-related emergency room admissions are virtually nonexistent, probably because its effects typically vanish in just a few minutes.

With little data at its disposal, the Drug Enforcement Administration has spent more than a decade studying whether to add salvia to its list of controlled substances, as is the case in several European and Asian countries. In the meantime, 13 states and several local governments have banned or otherwise regulated the plant and its chemically enhanced extracts.

One night in August, Nathan K., a 29-year-old father of three from Waco, stretched back in his blue recliner and took a long, purposeful drag from his pipe. As he closed his eyes, he found himself transported into a dream state, he said, as if drifting down a rain forest river. A beatific smile spread lightly across his face.

The effects dissipated after five minutes, leaving him with a sense of well-being. It was, he said, as if a masseuse had rubbed out the knots in his psyche. “Just a very gentle letting go, a very gentle relaxing,” Nathan said on the condition that he not be fully identified.

For the full article HERE

How stupid of dumb kids to post videos on you tube of them getting wasted with salvia. They obviously have no idea what damage they are causing, (wonder if any of them are being paid to give salvia a bad name??) or respect for the true value of salvia and the gift it brings to those who respect it and themselves.

Coca And The Sacred Plants Of The Incas The Timeless World Of The Andes

Submitted by Howard G. Charing

The Incas regarded coca as ‘the divine plant’ mainly because of its property of imparting endurance, nevertheless its use was entwined with every aspect of life; the art, mythology, culture and economy of the Inca Empire.

Millions of Indians have chewed coca on a daily basis for many hundreds of years, yet never has a plant been so misrepresented and its use so controlled by prejudice and ignorance, including up to the present day. The Conquistadors considered it an idle and offensive habit to be prohibited, but it was soon seen that the Indians could not work without coca even when forced to do so.

The coca leaf has been sacred to Andean people since the dawn of pre-Colombian civilization. Doris Rivera Lenz, a renowned Andean Ceremonialist, healer, and Coca leaf Diviner, when asked about the source of the information she divines from them, she says:

“They give me such a powerful awareness it is as though an energy comes into me from just touching them. I invoke Mother Nature and the spirit of the coca, and with just seven leaves, the answer comes, as though through an open doorway.”

Healing

An ancient method of diagnosing illness, still common in Peru, is to rub an egg over the body of the patient. Doris is gifted in this tradition and prescribes remedies, which include medicinal herbs.

Much Andean wisdom is based on observation of nature, noting for example, that if the ducks go round in circles, there will be long rains, etc… Involvement with nature prevents the mind from becoming mechanical, can see that it is constantly nurturing us and helping us to grow.

The ofrenda

An ‘ofrenda’ is the most important ceremony used by Andean Indians to relate with Mother Earth. The ofrenda is a symbol of reciprocity with nature and its purpose is to teach us to reproduce this attitude. Through it we speak back to nature saying we understand the message and concord.

The ofrenda which is also known in Spanish as a ‘pago’, is not a ‘payment’ to nature as the Conquistadores saw it, implying a sinister pact with nature spirits. Additionally, they accused the Indians of being miserly because they preferred to pay symbolically rather than with real money!

An ofrenda is an expression of gratitude, not of debt or obligation. Neither is it selfish to want things for ourselves as some people see it even today. It is true that urban people in Peru have started to make ofrendas for reasons such as wanting their businesses to flourish, but good business can equally imply good health, and harmony to the community and for the natural world.

In an Andean community realities are closer to earth than they are in the city, it is more important that the cattle do not die than to have more private possessions. Hence in the country there is a better understanding of the shamanic meaning of the ceremony, the re-establishing of relationship to nature. This is why we need a little preparation so that an ofrenda can work for us too.

Pachacuti

We live in a time of the fulfilment of an ancient Inca prophecy. This is the time of the new Pachacuti, a great change bringing with it a new relating to the Earth (Pachamama). Each Pachacuti is an era of time about 500 years. The last Pachacuti occurred with the Conquest in the early 16th century, and the Q’ero (Inca) priests have been waiting ever since for the next era, when order would start to emerge from chaos. The current Pachacuti refers to the end of time as we understand it, the end or death of a way of thinking and a way of being. A new relationship with the living Earth, and an emergence into a golden age of peace. There are many indications that changes in human consciousness are taking place, yet there is still a long way to go. It is part of Doris’s vision to show us traditional ways that we can re-engage with the sacredness of life and the Earth so we too can more fully participate in the new Pachacuti.

Howard G. Charing is a partner in Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. His initiation into the world of Shamanism was sudden, which was caused by a serious accident, which resulted in severe injuries and a near-death experience. After many months of physical pain and disability, he had a transformational experience, which started him on a path to healing. If you like to know more about his work, Howard conducts “Plant Spirit Medicine” journeys to the Amazon Rainforest.

San Pedro The Cactus Of Vision Plant Spirit Shamanism Of Northern Peru

Submitted by Howard G. Charing

Shamans from different cultures and traditions have been using psychoactive plants since the dawn of human emergence.

These plants have been used traditionally for guidance, divination, healing, maintaining a balance with the spirit or consciousness of the living world.

Howard G. Charing and Peter Cloudsley talk with Maestro Juan Navarro.

The hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus has been used since ancient times, and in Peru the tradition has been unbroken for over 3,000 years. The earliest depiction of the cactus is a carving showing a mythological being holding a San Pedro, and dates from about 1300 bc. It comes from the Chavín culture (c.1400-400 bce) and was found in a temple at Chavín de Huantar, in the northern highlands of Peru. Later, the Mochica culture, (c.500 ce) used the cactus in their iconography. Even in present day mythology, it is told that God hid the keys to heaven in a secret place and San Pedro used the magical powers of a cactus to discover this place; later the cactus was named after him.

La Mesa Norteña – Juan Navarro was born in the highland village of Somate, department of Piura. He is a descendant of a long lineage of healers and shamans working with the magical powers of the sacred lakes known as Las Huaringas, which stand at 4,000 metres and have been revered since earliest Peruvian civilization. At the age of eight, Juan made his first pilgrimage to Las Huaringas, and took San Pedro for the first time. Every month or two it is necessary to return here to accumulate energy and protection to heal his people. As well as locals and Limeños (people from Lima), pilgrims also come from many parts of South America.

During the sessions Juan works untiringly, assisted by his two sons – as is common in this tradition – in an intricate sequence of processes, including invocation, diagnosis, divination, and healing with natural objects, or artes. The artes are initially placed on the maestro’s altar or mesa, and picked up when required during the ceremony. These artes are an astonishing and beautiful array of shells, swords, magnets, quartzes, objects resembling sexual organs, rocks which spark when struck together, and stones from animals’ stomachs, which they have swallowed to aid digestion! The artes are collected from pre-Colombian tombs, and sacred energetic places, particularly Las Huaringas.They bring magical qualities to the ceremony where, under the visionary influence of San Pedro, their invisible powers may be experienced. The maestro’s mesa – a weaving placed on the ground on which all the artes are placed, (mesa also means ‘table’ in Spanish) – is a representation of the forces of nature and the cosmos.Through the mesa the shaman is able to work with and influence these forces to diagnose and heal disease.

The traditional mesa norteña has three areas: on the left is the campo ganadero or ‘field of the dark’; on the right is the campo justiciero or the ‘field of the light’ (justiciero means justice); and in the centre is the campo medio or ‘neutral field’, which is the place of balance between the forces of light and dark. It is important for us not to look at these forces as positive or negative – it is what we human beings do with these forces, which is important. Although the contents and form of the artes varies from tradition to tradition, the mesa rituals serve to remind us that the use and power of symbols extends throughout all cultures.

SAN PEDRO

San Pedro (trichocereus pachanoi) grows on the dry eastern slopes of the Andes, between 2,000 – 3,000 metres above sea level, and commonly reaches six metres or more in height. It is also grown by local shamans in their herb gardens. As can be imagined, early European missionaries held the native practices in considerable contempt, and indeed were very negative when reporting the use of the San Pedro. Yet a Spanish missionary, cited by Christian Rätsch, grudgingly admitted the cactus’ medicinal value in the midst of a tirade reviling it: “It is a plant with whose aid the devil is able to strengthen the Indians in their idolatry; those who drink its juice lose their senses and are as if dead; they are almost carried away by the drink and dream a thousand unusual things and believe that they are true. The juice is good against burning of the kidneys and, in small amounts, is also good against high fever, hepatitis, and burning in the bladder.” A shaman’s account of the cactus is in radical contrast:

“It first … produces … drowsiness or a dreamy state and a feeling of lethargy … a slight dizziness … then a great ‘vision’, a clearing of all the faculties … it produces a light numbness in the body and afterward a tranquillity. And then comes detachment, a type of visual force … inclusive of all the senses … including the sixth sense, the telepathic sense of transmitting oneself across time and matter … like a kind of removal of one’s thought to a distant dimension.”

San Pedro, considered the ‘maestro of the maestros’, enables the shaman to make a bridge between the visible and the invisible world for his people. The Quechua name for it is punku, which means ‘doorway’. The doorway connects the patient’s body to his spirit; to heal the body we must heal the spirit. San Pedro can show us the psychic causes of illness intuitively or in mythical dream language. The effects of San Pedro work through various stages, beginning with an expanded physical awareness in the body. Soon this is followed by euphoric feelings and then, after several hours, psychic and visionary effects become more noticeable.

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talking with Juan Navarro

What is the relationship of the maestro with San Pedro?

In the north of Peru the power of San Pedro works in combination with tobacco. Also the sacred lakes Las Huaringas are very important. This is where we go to find the most powerful healing herbs, which we use to energize our people. For example we use dominio [linking one’s intent with the spirit power of the plants] to give strength and protection from supernatural forces such as sorcery and negative thoughts. It is also put into the seguros – amulet bottles filled with perfume, plants and seeds gathered from Las Huaringas. You keep them in your home for protection and to make your life go well. These plants do not have any secondary effects on the nervous system, nor do they provoke hallucinations. San Pedro has strength and is mildly hallucinatory, but you cannot become addicted. It doesn’t do any harm to your body; rather it helps the maestro to see what the problem is with his patient. Of course some people have this gift born in them – as our ancestors used to say, it is in the blood of a shaman.

Is San Pedro a ‘teacher plant’?

Of course, but it has a certain mystery. You have to be compatible with it because it doesn’t work for everybody. The shaman has a special relationship with it. It circulates in the body of the patient and where it finds abnormality it enables the shaman to detect it. It lets him know the pain they feel and whereabouts it is. So it is the link between patient and maestro. It also purifies the blood of the person who drinks it. It balances the nervous system so people lose their fears, frights and traumas, and it charges people with positive energy. Everyone must drink so that the maestro can connect with them. Only the dose may vary from person to person because not everyone is as strong.

What about the singado?

(inhalation of tobacco juice through the nostrils) The tobacco leaf is left for two to three months in contact with honey, and when required for the singado it is macerated with aguardiente, or alcohol. How it functions depends on which nostril is used; when taken in by the left side it is for liberating us of negative energy, including psychosomatic ills, pains in the body, bad influences of other people – or ‘envy’ as we call it here. As you take it in you must concentrate on the situation, which is going badly, or the person, which is giving out a negative energy.

When taken through the right nostril it is for rehabilitating and energizing, so that your projects go well. It’s not for getting high on. Afterwards you can spit the tobacco out or swallow it, it doesn’t matter. It has an interrelation with the san pedro in the body, and intensifies the visionary effects.

Tobacco is an important plant in the ceremonies – can you smoke in the session?

No, no, no. It may be the same plant but here another element comes into play, which is fire. As the session is carried out in darkness, the fire in the darkness can perturb, create a negative reflection or vision. It can cause trauma.

You use a chungana (rattle) during the san pedro sessions and I ‘see’ the sound as a beam of a light penetrating the darkness. Yes, sound and light are interrelated. Chunganas are used to invoke the spirits of the dead, whether of family or of great healers, so that they may feel comfortable with us. The chunganas are to give us ‘enchantment’ (protection and positive energy) and it has a relaxing effect when taking san pedro.

What is the power of the artes – the objects on the mesa?

They come from Las Huaringas, where a special energy is bestowed on everything, including the healing herbs, which grow there, and nowhere else. If you bathe in the lakes it takes away all your ills. You bathe with the intention of leaving everything negative behind. People go there to leave their enemies behind, so they can’t do them any harm. After bathing, the maestro cleanses you with these artes, swords, bars, chontas (bamboo staffs), saints, and even huacos (the powers from ancient sacred sites). They ‘flourish’ you – spraying you with agua florida (perfume) and herb macerations, and giving you sweet things like limes and honey, so your life flourishes. We maestros also need to go to Las Huaringas regularly because we make enemies from healing people, so we need to protect ourselves. The reason for this is that two forces exist: the good and the bad. The bad forces are from the pacts which the brujos (sorcerors with negative intentions) make with the devil. The brujo is the rival of the curandero or healer. So when the curandero heals, he makes an enemy of the brujo. It’s not so much because he sends the bad magic back, as because he does the opposite thing to him, and they want supremacy in the battle. Not far from Las Huaringas is a place called Sondor, which has its own lakes. This is where evil magic is practiced and where they do harm in a variety of ways. I know because as a curandero I must know how sorcery is practiced, in order to defend myself and my patients.

Do people go there secretly?

Of course no one admits to going there, but they pass through Huancabamba just like the others who are going to Las Huaringas. I know various people who practice bad magic at a distance. They do it using physical means, concentrating, summoning up a person’s soul, knowing their characteristics etc. and can make them suffer an accident, or make an organ ill or whatever, or make their work go badly wrong. They have the power to get to their spirit. And people can even do harm to themselves. For example, if a person has bad intentions towards another and that person is well protected with an encanto, (amulet) then he will do himself harm.

How does the ‘rastreo’ (diagnosis through psychic means) work? Are you in an altered state?

No, I’m completely normal and lucid. What allows the reading of a person’s past, present or future, is the strength of the san pedro and tobacco. It is an innate capability – not everybody has the gift, you can’t learn it from someone, it is inherited. The perceptions come through any one of the senses – sound, vision, smell, or a feeling inside of what the person is feeling, a weakness, a pain or whatever. Sometimes, for instance, a bad taste in the mouth may indicate a bad liver. All the things on the mesa are perfectly normal, natural things: chontas, swords, stones etc. They have just received a treatment – like a radio tuned to a certain frequency – so they can heal particular things, weaknesses or whatever. But always it is necessary to concentrate on the sacred lakes, Las Huaringas.

Is it necessary for the maestro to take San Pedro to have vision?

Of course, he must take San Pedro and tobacco. But it is to protect himself from the person’s negativity and illness, not because he needs it to have the vision.

In conclusion, we must acknowledge that we, as humans, have realised from earliest times that knowledge goes beyond sensory awareness or the rational way of understanding the world. San pedro can take us directly to a telepathic communion and show us that there is no such thing as an inanimate object. Everything in the universe is alive and has a spirit. This is the gift of the plants, which offer us a doorway into the infinite.

Juan Navarro was born in the highland village of Somate, department of Piura. He is a descendant of a long lineage of healers and shamans working with the magical powers of Las Huaringas.

Howard G. Charing is a partner in Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism. His initiation into the world of Shamanism was sudden, which was caused by a serious accident, which resulted in severe injuries and a near-death experience. After many months of physical pain and disability, he had a transformational experience, which started him on a path to healing. If you like to know more about his work, Howard conducts “Plant Spirit Medicine” journeys to the Amazon Rainforest.