Let’s go on a journey into ourselves where time is endless and always feels dilated like we’re tripping, where lifetimes can be experienced in two hours, where people from times past are alive and everyone can fly or transform at will. In dreams, nature, gods, angels, demons and aspects of ourselves run wild and yet are completely in collaboration with us, especially if we gain Lucidity (the holy grail of dreaming). Classically I have been dreaming within my lifetime from the earliest times in my memory. I can remember dreams from when I was 5.
After many years of research into Lucid dreaming,meditation and mind states, and adopting nagualismo/Toltec Shamanism, I believe we all dream every night (often 8 dreams), but only some of us remember these visions. If you are lucky enough to remember any portions of your dreams at all, it’s my opinion that you are actually awakening from within and on a very powerful path to wholeness or spiritual development.
We’re each on a hero’s journey through many lifetimes and I want to share with you some magic plants that helped me through this journey in my current body:
Mugwort
White Sage (any sage is great really)
Silene Capensis aka Afrikan Dream Root
I started picking sage and mugwort in the San Diego area CA. I had a strong relationship with those plants for a while and enjoyed their effects on my dreams often. Both are highly effective and protective medicine plants.
In 2019, I took mugwort daily for two weeks and had dreams that were vivid and long. Ultimately I started a spontaneous detox and parasite cleanse; reality became bendy and I was super tired, more interested in napping than usual. Mugwort and Absinthe have psychoactive thujone which can cause visual hallucinations (Green Faery)
When we develop relations with a plant ally like Mugwort, we often integrate our shadow and increase our personal presence and power. Medicine (plants/entheogens) follows Power and Power leads to Medicine.
I think in the future I will touch on other plants and fungi under the topic of Oneiromancy (Dream Control/Practice). For now, let’s cover another item on the shelves at Rainbow Bliss that is used by the Xhosa culture of Afrika as well as by myself in the Nagual/Toltec practices locally: Silene Capensis.
In the traditions of Afrika, we know the Xhosa fermented the herb and that it was drunk in water after fermenting or chewed raw and it was consumed over several nights or days in a row as to encourage a build up of the active ingredients in the human body. Last week I followed the fermented water procedure with a little honey. I drank 4 to 6 ounces on the first night of a mixture that was about 18 ounces of water. I definitely noticed an enhancement of quality of dreaming and length of dreaming. I took the substance for four days before bed and I also began to add other calmative herbs such as lavender, roses, valerian and moldy blue cheese (a story for another time, yes it has effects).
The first night, I noticed at least 6 dreams. The Silene definitely helped me to notice my dream thoughts and better understand the workings of my own mind in the dream world. This concept of reading or telling time is rare for me and indicates that perhaps a person is on the verge of realization of the dream and to achieve lucidity.
Perhaps further experiments will occur and be encouraged this season as I know and understand it is the yin or dark time of year. Sleeping can often be deeper or longer if you allow it, now. Remember dreaming is a spiritual practice and waking up there in the dream world parallels to waking up here.
Authored by Hugh T Alkemi of MushroomShaman.com and AlchemyZ.com
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