Important lessons from sacred plant teachers
“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. “ -George Washington Carver
One of the many great tragedies of our so-called ‘civilised’ Western society is how most of us have lost our connection with nature. It didn’t always used to be that way, and for most of the remaining indigenous peoples on the planet, working in harmony with nature is still a way of life. But sadly for most of us Westerners nature has become almost a foreign concept, which is weird when you consider how absolutely vital it is.
For example, You should be aware that our very survival is entirely dependant on nature. If it wasn’t for all the plants and forests there would be little or no oxygen on this planet, and instead Earth would have an atmosphere of poisonous CO2 gas.
You should also aware that a healthy diet involves eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. Plants and fruit are where all our most important nutrition comes from.
Perhaps you can recognise and name several common plants and trees, and maybe once in awhile you feel like getting out of town for a short hike into the countryside or wilderness. Then of course it’s back home to plonk yourself back in front of the TV, where thanks to the likes of David Attenborough you’ve probably come to obtain almost all your current knowledge of plants and nature.
Perhaps you’re vaguely aware that many illnesses can be cured using plant medicines, although you most likely still visit your GP, and not your local herbalist if you have a problem. It’s interesting to note that most pharmaceutical drugs are ultimately derived from chemical compounds found in plants.
The Western mindset generally sees nature as something to control, dominate and do what the heck we like with regardless of the consequences. If that means killing millions of species then so be it. It’s only nature after all, we’re far more important aren’t we?
Indigenous peoples all around the world have a totally different view of nature. They understand that they are not separate from nature, they know that trying to control and dominate nature is pure insanity, and for hundreds of thousands of years they have peacefully co-existed with nature.
They also have another different perspective of the world which is that everything contains spirit and consciousness. Even the plants and the trees.
The idea of plants having consciousness is alien to most westerners. Isn’t consciousness generated by the brain? and plants don’t have brains, right? Wrong, consciousness is ultimately the ground of all being, but that’s a subject for a future blog post.
Indigenous shamans, often through many years of training, can obtain the knowledge and ability to tune into this consciousness, to learn and be guided by it. This is not something they believe, it’s something they do.
Different plants and trees can impart different types of knowledge, some more profoundly than others.
Some plants, when ingested, have the affect of profoundly altering your state of consciousness for several hours, or more, putting you in meditative state where you often receive profound visions and lessons that are almost always very relevant to your personal life.
These plants are always considered to be sacred plants and are often referred to as plant teachers. Some of these plant teachers include Peyote, a small cactus that grows in Mexico and parts of south western USA, various mushroom species that grow in many locations around the world. San Pedro, a cactus that grows in several South American countries including Peru, and of course Ayahuasca which is a brew made from a combination of boiling two plants that grow in the Amazon basin.
These plant medicines have been used by indigenous peoples for many thousands of years (and probably much longer than that) as a way to obtain spiritual knowledge and healing, as well as many other insights relating to their personal lives and their communities.
Ayahuasca in particularly is a master healer and there are countless stories of ‘miracle’ healings from people who have ingested this amazing brew. I will write much more about Ayahuasca in a future post because it really has had a profound affect on my life.
Now to many westerners who don’t have much knowledge about these plants and how they work, ingesting these plants is nothing more than ‘taking drugs’. However this is a very small-minded opinion which displays a complete lack of knowledge on what they’re talking about.
Certainly on a very basic level you can argue it’s a drug experience. These plants do contain certain chemicals which have psychoactive properties; In Ayahuasca these chemicals are DMT and harmaline, in most mushrooms it’s psilocybin, and in Peyote & San Pedro it’s mescaline.
However, as almost everyone who has ever experienced these plant teachers has come to realise for themselves, there is something far more amazing and profound happening than just a ‘drug experience’.
Almost all recreational drugs are taken for fun, or to get high and take your mind off any problems you might be experiencing. Taking many of these plant medicines is rarely fun (with perhaps the exception of fairly mild doses of ‘magic’ mushrooms). And you certainly don’t take these plant medicines to avoid your problems, you take them to face your problems head-on. The experiences, particularly with Ayahuasca, can often be very intense and not for the faint of heart. You have to be willing and able to face and accept all aspects of yourself, particularly the bad and the ugly. People can get away for years believing they’re good people, when really they’re quite rotten. If you have a rotten side then one of the first things Ayahuasca will do is to bring it to your attention and show you just how your rottenness is hurting other people. That can be quite a nasty shock for many people.
Another thing is that almost all western recreational drugs are ultimately quite damaging to the body, particularly if used for a regular and prolonged period of time. Virtually all shamanic plant medicines have no harmful side effects, however, it’s quite common to feel a bit sick and even throw up (usually referred to as purging) during a sacred plant medicine ceremony; however, that’s just a sign that the medicine is healing you and removing many toxins and negative energies from your body. Usually by the end of the ceremony, and certainly the next day, you feel quite incredible, almost like you’ve just done a 6 month detox in one evening. I’ve heard it said that western drugs make you feel good first and bad later; shamanic medicine makes you feel bad first and good later. There’s a great deal of truth in that.
I’ve been working with plant teachers, on and off, for about 6 years now, and I never cease to be amazed by what they show me, the lessons they give me, and the incredible healing and sense of wellbeing they bring to my life. Many times on Ayahuasca I’ve experienced the intense and profound love that I now know is ultimately behind the force that brings all things into being. When you experience that for the first time it changes your perspective on virtually everything. You can’t be quite the same person ever again.
I strongly believe that if everyone worked with these plant teachers, even if just a couple of times in their life, then the world would be an infinitely more loving and peaceful place, and much greater numbers of people would seek to live in harmony with nature and continue to learn from nature as do the indigenous tribes that still exist today.
It’s time for all Westerners (not just a minority out on the fringes of society) to wake up and realise that nature is not separate from us. There are no real boundaries between us and nature, and if we don’t stop destroying nature then our actions will surely end up destroying us. The survival of our Earth depends on the continued functioning of a great many complex eco-systems and if just one of them should breakdown it can affect all the others. That’s something that’s starting to happen and the consequences could be horrific.
The only way we can change our understanding of nature, and the way we interact with nature, is to learn from nature and I believe the best way to do that is to go straight to the source, and I believe that plant teachers are a good place to start.
“You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.” – St. Bernard
