Plant ceremonies and your safety in the midst of a global crisis

A person wrote on one of Facebook groups: “I was at an Ayahuasca retreat last weekend here in (country removed) and they were using the same two rapé pipes (that went up everybody’s nose) and between everyone in the room. They were using the same Ayahuasca glass between everyone and the same water drinking glass between everyone. There were people there from all over (country) and (another countries). There were 17 participants and more coming the following night. I made a presumption that they (hosts) would be taking some precautions and would at least have separate glasses. They didn’t. I decided to leave the retreat the next day. What are everyone’s thoughts on this?” Here are my thoughts.

The Therapeutic Use of Wild Tobacco in the Amazon Rainforest

Known by many names around the world, in the Peruvian jungle commonly called mapacho or sacred tobacco, bot. Nicotiana rustica is a very potent species of tobacco that holds a special place in the hearts of the Amazon people. Westerners may find the concept of tobacco being a medicine extremely difficult to grasp, but for the South American traditional healers called tabaqueros N.rustica is not only a valid and culturally approved natural remedy, but often the only plant they would agree to use in their medicinal practice. To understand their unbiased relationship with tobacco, we need to take a look at a much bigger picture – from indigenous, intimate and intentional use of tobacco to the catastrophic misuse of its energy that resulted in a mass addiction on a global scale. Let’s talk about the spirit of tobacco.

#Ayahuasca in the Age of Social Networking

What happen when you mix social media with the ancient medicine and sprinkle it with a hint of blissful ignorance? A ticking bomb, possibly. Plant medicine has taken over the Internet, it is an inevitable process and there is really nothing we can do about it. Pros? There are tons of inspirational content released every day that aim to destigmatise the unjust image of entheogenic plants. Such valuable content presents the online audience with current state of psychedelic research, discusses therapeutic properties of plants and substances and reflects on their effectiveness in combating severe mental illnesses such as PTSD, anxiety, depression and various addictions. This brings hope and contributes to promotion of health and safety on multiple levels. But the online march of plants comes with one con. A big one.

Irake – a poem by Karol Liver

Plants Are Allies – Educational Infographic Leaflets on Various Entheogens – Part 2

Every plant presented in Pangean “Plants Are Allies” infographics series is an entheogen; a plant or a substance that contains psychoactive compound or a group of compounds that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behaviour to engender spiritual or personal development in a sacred or therapeutic context.

Plants Are Allies – Educational Infographic Leaflets on Various Entheogens

The psychedelic, or should we rather say the Great Entheogenic Renaissance is certainly here, gathering momentum and attracting many who express a will, alongside basic human right, to try the ancient-old proved and available tools of personal and spiritual growth. We are on the edge of a gigantic shift – the allies of nature are out there everywhere, available and potent as they have always been and it is up to us now to fight for their rightful, legal and socially accepted place in order to contribute to our personal and collective evolution and a much brighter future.

Your consciousness is legal. Fight for your right to explore it

Your consciousness and how you access it is and should always be legal. A simple thought that begs to be highlighted in the time of a psychedelic renaissance.

Maestra Juana Isa Yaka sings Ikaros to Noya Rao Spirit

Maestra Juana mainly works with the spirits of Noya Rao, Mapacho and Ayahuasca. Her family is the carriers and guardians of the Noya Rao tree, or The Tree of Light, or ‘Camino a la Verdad’, which translates into ‘The path of Truth’.

Out of Your Mind and Off Your Head

Conscious awareness, as we understand it, is seen as the crowning jewel of animal evolution. It developed in the human species as our brains generated the kind of complexity needed to support such a capacity. As men devised elaborate hunting strategies and women taught themselves how to find and cultivate plants for food, tens of thousands of years ago, people first created art on walls and deep inside caves. At the same time, a curious trick was also discovered – the ability to switch off the conscious state in favour of an altered state.

Sacred Apukuna of Peru

In the Inca mythology the term Apu was, and still is, referred to a mountain-entity that has a powerful spirit and is alive. Body and energy field of the mountain together form a ‘Wasi‘, which in the Quechua language means “home” or “temple”.

Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend

No, I am not afraid to delve into the void. I accept the gnarled shapes and twisted forms of all my shadows. I truly appreciate my darkness. It has every right to exist. The most important lesson the realm of the medicine delivered to me was never to ignore the so-called “low-vibrational” field as it may create an emotional dissonance, making suppressed, unwanted and often misunderstood, yet extremely powerful emotions, like fear, sadness or grief, difficult or even impossible to tame. As a result, a division between the inner light and the inner shadow may intensify leading to possible imbalance and even mental and physical symptoms such as bipolarity, depression, psychosis or anhedonia, to name just a few.

Despacho Ceremony with Q’ero Elders

Despacho is a beautiful, old tradition in the Q’ero lineage of Peru that has been used for centuries for a variety of occasions and celebrations. It can be said that it is generally used to celebrate all sides of humane experiences – births, deaths, expressions of gratitude – but a profound observer may soon realise that the despacho ceremony has multiple layers and may also be used for a deeper physical and emotional healing in order to restore harmony and balance in one’s life.

It also serves as a direct prayer and offering to Mother Earth (Pachamama) and many spirits from the Q’ero pantheon.