Encountering the Ineffable
Entheogens unlock the doors of the mind.
The Unconscious is becoming Conscious
The Power of Plants
Entheogens (aka Psychedelics) are in the zeitgeist. Many popular podcasts discuss them regularly. People from all walks of life, from Elon Musk down to the young bartender, or the guy at the car wash are experimenting with mind-altering plants. That’s not even mentioning the many marijuana enthusiasts.
The recent decades have been a spiritual famine. Materialism overwhelmed the world, and religion was cast aside in the name of reason (though it has been no more reasonable than any religious fanaticism.) Yet, our spiritual ailments rise and rise. Anxiety and despair are rampant. Loneliness kills many. We have become disconnected from God, Nature, the Source of all life’s energy. In this time of great hunger, plant-medicine has returned to the popular consciousness, and is shattering the notions of our age. People are entering plant ceremonies as atheists and agnostics, and waking mere hours later declaring they have encountered God.
Something profound is spreading across the world. It is hardly believable how quickly the public is embracing these plants as powerful healing medicines.
Our trust in modern medicine has been shaken by years of popping pills to no avail, and seeking therapy that never seems to end. We want a panacea. We want magic that will shift us out of our ignorance and pain into knowledge and health. Plant medicine has been hailed as a miracle… I agree, it is a miracle, but it cannot heal the world without humanity’s great effort. The miracle requires much work of us.
So, I want to spread the good news, that these plants do contain powerful, even magical healing properties. But I also want to be a voice of warning while this wave of promotion is cresting. I want to warn against using these plants in the same ways we have isolated and used our chemical medicines for the past century. Medicine and science have tried to cut life into observable pieces. But life is not able to be cut to pieces and remain living. Change and healing must be managed in a holistic manner. All the varying parts of our bodies, minds, and spirits, along with society and all of its components, must be harmonized into a healthy functioning system; much like a flourishing ecosystem. Sickness comes from society down into the individual, and also from the individual up to society. We cannot treat these plants as we have treated pills; as something to take in the morning without also participating in the healing through changing our thoughts, our habits, our diets, how we interact with people and animals and all things. Plants call us to remember the unified harmony of nature. They call us to remember our part in this universe as stewards.
So, if you are interested in exploring the magnificent beauty and healing of entheogens, I beg you, be cautious, and enter this journey knowing that it will require you to transform.
I am dedicated to the worship and promotion of Life. In the pursuit of happiness and health, I have partaken of entheogens. They have been a source of transformation beyond what I imagined medicines could perform. They have given me faith in ideas I once rejected as superstition. And, they have utterly broken me to the point of begging God to help and heal me for months on end. Plant medicine is a power tool, like a gun or a scalpel, not to be toyed nor trifled with. If you so desire to partake of these medicines, I would advise you to explore these plants and fungi under the guidance of wise spiritual guides. These plants can make or break a person… and I can only assume they have the same ability to make or break society. Let them be used wisely with reverence.
Plant Medicines I Utilize:
Amanita Muscaria:
People say you should only take a plant medicine if it is “calling to you” or you feel “called to it.” Ayahuasca was the first plant medicine that really captured my imagination. But after a few years involved with entheogens I became deeply fascinated with Amanita. I am particularly interested in utilizing medicines that are widely available and have a long history. Perhaps no intoxicant has a longer history than amanita muscaria.
There are so many articles and videos discussing the folklore of amanita mushrooms. I don’t want to focus heavily on that. I do find the theories around their being the golden apples of idun, or the golden fleece, or the cattle of Apollo to be incredibly fascinating… and I can’t forget its theorized links to Jesus. I would rather let you know how I’ve used it personally.
I bought Amanita Dreamer’s book “Preparing and Dosing Amanita” (Is that what it’s called?) to learn how to take this medicine. She goes into detail in the book and on youtube about her discovery of the mushroom. That tale is inspiring, and I suggest you go and find it. For Amanita Dreamer, this mushroom was a cure for crippling anxiety and depression. It was miraculous.
I never thought of my problems with depression as linked to anxiety. My goals with the mushroom were more visionary and mystical.
For over a year I bought and read books about the amanita. I watched every video I could find. I read facebook pages and websites. The information, though it is getting more and more readily available, was and is still not as clear cut as I would like. But after careful study, I decided to give the mushroom a try.
I particularly wanted to experience the deeply lucid visionary states that some people experience on amanita. I started with small doses of one to three grams in a tea. I noticed nothing. I went up to 4,5,6, and at 7 I started feeling the drowsiness and slight drunkenness. At 10 grams I totally passed out… but I was having no visions, no profound insights, no deep states of thought.
I kept experimenting with higher and higher doses, even going up to thirty grams of mushrooms to make a concentrated tea.
I gave up on using it as something visionary, and began to use it as a sleep aide. For a while, that’s I all I used it for. And it is good for that.
But my relationship with the amanita changed when I drank an entheogenic brew of Syrian rue and Acacia that utterly broke me emotionally and mentally. It was then that the amanita became the medicine I needed desperately.
Every waking hour and the night was filled with dread and terror. Anxiety had my brain running too fast with dark and negative thoughts. I meditated and prayed literally constantly. I experimented with different doses and frequency of doses.
For several months I had to take two to three doses per day to function throughout the day, but now I am down to a small daily dose at the beginning of every day. If I miss a day, I can meditate myself into peace.
This is the most powerful magic of the amanita in my opinion… more than the dreams, more than the visions, or whatever experiences I have read or experienced of this mushroom; its ability to calm intense panic, give courage in the face of dread, and rest to the restless, these are the powers of the amanita that I now treasure and honor.
This mushroom has been teaching me that small daily practices, and conscious thinking are the most powerful medicines for our mental health, moreso even than the grand visions I have experienced with other plants and fungi.
