Alchemy Z ~ Waking Within Blog

What is it to be a Shamanic Priest? I was called upon to embody this new title recently as Sacred Spiral organization here in San Diego begins an education process of Ayahuasca (an ancient psychedelic healing sacrament from the Amazon Rainforest peoples). Our organization is becoming legally similar to other churches with shamanic sacrament. Thus creating a daily process of ritual and transformation to be “one” with Shamanism and Priesthood becomes a practice that wakes me up early and keeps me up late (and lately, has me answering questions). What is a Shamanic Priest? Short answer is that it’s different than a “traditional anything”. So I would like to start by saying even though this path “legally” qualifies as a Reverend, Monk, Minister, or Pastor…it isn’t that as we know or understand in our American Christian Culture. Although as a Shamanic Priest, one can walk those paths (Reverend, Pastor, Minister, or Monk) and feel in perfect service to the Divine, the Earth, or whatever Sham...

So the topic has come up clearly amongst my students and friends whose interested around psychedelics and altered states has finally peaked into practice: Is vomiting good for you? Is it healthy to throw up? Do the medicines considered Purgatives, have negative effects that throw the body off to the point of dysfunction? Do magic mushrooms have negative/toxifying effects when compared to someone else's so called cleaning medicines (ayahuasca and peyote)? _____________________________________________ My teacher and I went round and round today in speculation of herbs and healing as it relates to the body's psychoactive breakthroughs and potential healings. As he spoke, so many memories reminded me of how my primary medicinal study had been with mushroom medicine as it was originally involved with yoga, the rig veda, Christianity, the garden of Eden, and Aryan or Brahman Shamanism (not just psychoactive shrooms but all fungi). We talked about the mellow and medicinal effect of m...

Dear Friends, Some of you joined us and many of you heard that last weekend we completed a beautiful series on the Magic Cactus with our Ethnobotany students. I held space along with some of my dearest friends and presented a series of Neo-Shamanic altars and rituals. The divine Earth we walked upon for our journey to healing was a blessed and sacred site that my family owns on the back side Palomar Mountain. As we got out of the city and into the country, I prayed for perfect weather and perfect community. Sunday throughout the ritual and the hiking that preceded said ritual, I was overwhelmed with GRACE for those who chose to stay behind and not attend this journey. I honored their path and allow them to continued to build trust in themselves and the medicine work and in nature and weather. When we arrived, the weather was perfect and mild and incredibly...there was rain everywhere except for where we hiked. All week and the day before, people were scared of bad weather and hard time...