Article: Mold and Sage
Series: Dreaming in the Dark Times
Many times growing up in Southern California have I communed with White Sage (Salvia Apiana). It grew in my hometown. It grows on the property that my family and I own in Aguanga, CA. I learned to pick it and bundle it before I was fully initiated into manhood (sometime between my first sexual experience and my first sweat lodge with a Lakota Medicine woman). I recently made some Dreaming Jaguar smokes at my old job site (Happy High Herbs/Rainbow Bliss Botanicals in Tempe AZ) and included white sage but wasn’t able to continue making them because of the popularity of this herb and the trouble keeping it in stock. I really just included it for flavor then.
I had forgotten all the dreams I had of the sage fields before. In the last week, for the first time in many human years, I returned to my family land and the sage fields. I made offerings of guardianship and good will towards the sage plants on my land and collected a modest amount for tea and bundling. In renewing my bundling skills the following day and it being a full moon, as well, I realized that the bundles were really historically used for trade and travel. As a shaman I would never over use the sage for house clearing or let it burn senselessly for a long period of time unless it was for ritual (such as the Aztec Jaguar Dances).
I explained the practice of using just enough and breaking up the bundle to my roommate (Cheryl) who was only recently exposed to the smudging practice. I explained the necessity of bundling for trade and travel amongst the Native tribes of this land using examples of their nomadic lifestyles. She seemed to be in better practice and alignment for the proper use of this Medicine plant. I also imparted to her how to make it into a light green tea or medicinal healing tea, which she promptly did and we all enjoyed.
After two nights with the sage sitting beside my bed and consuming it by way of tea, I had two nights of very powerful and pleasant dreams. This morning i realized that my dreams were much more lucid and somewhat complex and helped me to explore solutions to conflicts without horizontal dark water. I find it easy to conclude that sage is an oneirogen and a true Medicine. White sage better fits and supports the modern lifestyle when used sparingly as a tea or a smudge a few leaves at a time (like mugwort). Sage is good for dreaming and settling the spirit and for chasing out negative energy in all it’s invisible forms including virus, parasites and bacteria.
I will continue to explore this herb as I care for my plants and my family land. Upon returning from the deserts of AZ with my possessions back to CA, I brought this blue moldy cheese I have been saving and eating slowly for 6 months. Since I don’t have a lot going on besides my mushroom laboratory work and taxes, I resolved to eat as much cheese as often as possible to test the mold effects on my dreaming states and I will see if there is a buildup or tolerance effect. I can conclude that moldy cheese induces dreaming, and is a darker entheogen. On more than one occasion, I noticed dark dreaming, especially conflict resolution with ocean water and tides (classic for me born by the beach and returning to it from the desert). The interesting thing from these dreaming experiences besides the venture into the darker places in my psyche, was that most of these experiences were identifiable as future sight, omens, premonitions or astral projection.
In moldy cheese dreaming, I can site at least two examples of seeing people and symbols that occurred actually the next day. One was with my X (my son’s mother) and a high tide dream, and the next day she called me to tell me she couldn’t manage his discipline and subsequently her moods and wanted to return him to me soon (semi regular communication when he visits her). Another time dreaming in the same moldy cheese week was related to my business partner and I having a conflict and communication troubles, the very next day we both had a hard day on the farm, with many unsolvable challenges which we had to eventually surrender too after work and find another way. For me, as a Capricorn moon, in my twelfth house of dreams, work undone can be emotionally challenging to me and work fully completed brings me peace.
To disclaim, I’m wyrd (aka weird in the Gaelic sense), I dream every night, and sometimes they are harder to remember or very clear. I don’t usually have nightmares but if a dream makes me feel in a place of emotional disturbance, I can for conversations’ sake call it a nightmare or a “burn-worthy” dream. My shamanic tradition of Nagualism is both by my maternal blood and by calling, and there are many books and teachers in the practice that can be followed and who will offer you perspectives on changing your dreaming life to change your waking reality.
As within so without…
Hugh Trevahr Alkemi
Recipe for Jaguar Dreaming Smokes:
Calea Zacatechichi, African Dream Seed Powder (inner nut), Sinicuichi - Sun Opener, CA Poppy, Miner’s Lettuce, White Sage (Salvia Apiana).
Use more of the Calea and Sun Opener than everything else, sub out California Poppy as desired and add more White Sage for flavor.
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