When it comes to Medicine Work, I do believe that every Medicine Person has their own unique set of gifts and specialties. I think many of us can do similar things, or even the same things on some level, but we all have a handful of things that we are experts in.
For me, one of my specialties is working with pools of collective consciousness, especially when in the context of a Shamanic Ceremony with the plant spirits.
One of the funny things about doing this work is that there is a shit load of blind faith involved. There is so much trust in God (divine, universe, etc.) that it feels absurd. I often do what my heart tells me to do without knowing what the hell I am doing - to some extent. I just know that it feels good in that heartwarming kind of way and it also feels expansive. I trust the Medicine and I trust my own inner knowing. Eventually, and almost like a grand surprise, one day I am gifted with the knowledge of what I have actually been doing all those times I did ______. It's kind of funny, really.
That's how I found out that I was working with pools of collective consciousness.
The day I found out, it was a few years ago during a Ceremony I was hosting in Orlando, Florida. It was a small group and there was one person who I felt was sort of out of place from the rest - an active military man. At that time I worked with many veterans, but never anyone who was still in. We were almost done with the Ceremony and I felt compelled to lay hands on this man. I asked my facilitators to lay hands on me and I pulled this massive energy through this person that was linked to the collective consciousness of the military branch he was in. The entire group was there to support me through that process as I purged the energy from where it came. I have since learned that this process is called "unbirthing" and it is taking a creation that needs to be removed from this dimension and sending it on it's way.
We all looked at eachother in that moment and we were just like "what the f*ck was that?!"
That was the first time I knew for sure that what I deal with in Ceremony is linked to the collective. Part of my job appears to be to reach into the collective consciousness of different peoples, organizations, bloodlines, locations, etc., and unbirth creations that don't belong there anymore. In all cases, they are pretty icky things that feel somewhat demonic to me. I don't use that word lightly, but what I mean by it is something that is far from the light (love) - it feels dense, dark, miserable, and vomit-inducing.
This process has since been refined in my Ceremonies lol.
When I put this knowledge together with my experience with Cannabis, Ayahuasca, and Mushrooms, it helped me make sense of some of the things I see when I enter the collective consciousness of these plant medicines. And it's not good.
First, remember that these three spirit beings (fungi, plants, plant mixture) are all door openers. They are able to open a portal to other dimensions outside of our own. What portal they open and where they go depends on many things, including the context in which they are collaborated with or used, the facilitator, or the person who has ingested them.
I will start with cannabis. When I work with cannabis, I immediately enter a horrific landscape and it doesn't leave me for days to weeks. The last time I worked with cannabis, it was in a micro-amount and I was in an extreme altered state for 7 days. I felt dense pain, paranoia, depression, and anxiety. Everything was so heavy and dark. I felt all these things without the benefit of having relief at the end of the 7 days - which might happen if they were my own emotions that needed to be processed.
I have come to know this experience as what it feels like to dip my toes into a collective energy without having a rope to pull me out. What a beautiful lesson it gifted me! When I sit with this feeling more deeply, I can see that this energy is here because of how many people use cannabis to numb their feelings, sensations, or problems. This plant is tied into so much profit, regulation, and manipulation. I question whether or not we are even able to touch in with true spiritual practices that involve cannabis or if we have access to heirloom varieties of the plant at this point. For me and the work I do, cannabis is a big no-no.
Next was my experience with Ayahuasca. Though I have never had what I would call a "positive" experience with this Medicine, it was always fruitful and left me feeling sufficiently scrubbed down. It always felt good when I was done, even if it left me pissed as well. However, about three and a half years ago, Ayahuasca (the spirit) did visit me asking to come through a different doorway to work with me. She didn't want to come through the doorway of the traditional plant brew any longer. I know this brew to be the caapi vine and chacruna combination. When I asked further questions, the response was because of how much abuse is taking place in the spaces that are using the "traditional" ayahuasca brew. I saw how many people were serving it who don't have permission from the plant spirit and the people drinking it are getting hurt. There is a lack of consent on all sides. More recently, I have been seeing many clients who have their energy systems ripped to shreds by Ayahuasca Ceremony. They often look like big gaping holes in the aura that I have no idea how to repair. Nor am I provided with instructions, I am only shown the devastation. Since then, I have stayed away from traditional Ayahuasca brew and she comes to visit me and my participants through other Ceremony doorways.
Finally, and maybe most importantly to me, we come to the mushrooms. I had visions about the collective consciousness of mushrooms about two months ago that make me want to sit and cry. It was about celebrities and scientists, designer strains and flowing money. There was a party with all the "woke" folk who thought they were bettering our society by pushing legalization (regulation) and moving mushrooms into a combination of recreational profit and medical practice. What I was seeing was a lack of acknowledgement around all of the shadows that are arising out of these models we are setting up. The energy of profit, control, working without permission of the plant, feeding the ego, etc. This is a place where there is no consent, no respect, or spirit. There simply isn't space for it in a place that is tightly controlled and where everyone involved gets their cut - and the people at the bottom are the ones who pay the price.
Hmm, sounds like our society doesn't it?
So there I was, walking through the vision. Feeling unnerved and unsettled with how things were unfolding around me. Then I was guided to exit... It was time for me to leave the scene. This is the future of our collective mushroom consciousness - the doorway through which I walk people for Ceremony, spiritual connection, transformation, and healing. Once it reaches the level I was shown, it will be time for me to stop working with these plants as well because the collective consciousness of them will not be one I can work with. Or this was the message I feel I received anyway.
I felt so compelled to share this perspective. In a way, it feels like a warning, much like the ones I get about the earth and environment here in SW Washington. Like a car crash that's on the horizon that we can't stop because it *needs* to happen. It doesn't change how awful it makes me feel though.
The questions these experiences leave me with are always numerous and I long for conversations around them. I feel deeply called to carry earth medicine and wisdom, to hold these plants in sacred ways, yet this is not the way they are going collectively. It makes me wonder if this path I am shown is inevitable or if there is still time to change the trajectory. Is this a warning or a prophecy? Or both? Are these things meant to change or am I simply meant to surrender and move on?
This work leaves me with so many more questions than answers...
