When I think about Psilocybin Mushrooms, my first thought is never one of drugs or parties. It’s never of intense hallucinations, being “high”, or being paired well with music festivals. I don’t personally know the mushrooms to be recreational because they have never presented themselves this way to me. In my world, Psilocybin Mushrooms are master plant spirits with endless spiritual complexity. One that can bring you to the edge of your personal depths while revealing the mysteries of the universe (if you are given permission to learn them!). Perhaps this is because my approach is sacred in nature, but never-the-less, this is my context. Therefore, what I discuss here only pertains to my work with them as partnering spirits in the Shamanic Ceremony setting.
I am sure that I have written previously about how to tell when Psilocybin is a good option for you, or what will happen during a Ceremony, but it’s time for a little refresh and reframe. Perhaps a deeper perspective. Of course, there are many things that fall into these categories that I will not specifically mention, so it’s not meant to be all-inclusive. If you have questions about whether or not this is right for you, please engage in further conversation with me.
In all cases, your heart already knows the way.
Initiation
There is a realm (dimension) beyond the one we live in, one that is accessed during the “spiritual awakening” process. This is a place some people may access naturally, through regimented spiritual practice, or through the ingestion of a portal-opening plant such as mushrooms. The mushroom spirits don’t just take you here, they also show you what you need to do in your life in order to have access to this place all the time. They show you what blocks are present or what needs to be done to open this ability for you. This Ceremony may also initiate you into a spiritual awakening if that’s where you need to go right now.
In general, initiation is the first step to all the others.
In addition to the spiritual path initiation, this may also be the initiation into the next phase of your life, whether it be as a father, as a crone, a single person, an embodiment of a specific energy, or as the next role you will be playing. Some initiation processes happen over and over again until you die because you are in a constant state of change. Other initiations will only happen once, such as the initiation into motherhood — even though that role just goes deeper over time. How this specifically looks will be different for everyone.
For me, my last initiation experience was me leaving the role of “the person who suffers” and entering “the person who has respect”. Since then I have been on a path of discovering how to better respect myself, my body, and my heart. For me, initiation feels like celebration, closure, excitement, and fear all at once. You are closing the doors on one era, grieving that version of yourself, and opening the doors to something unknown that is bigger and also more joyful.
If you are feeling like there is an initiation coming or needing to be called forward, this is a good step for you.
Communion with the Plant Spirits for Spiritual Lessons
My role as a Medicine Woman means communing with the spirits both in and out of formal ceremony. In a Shamanic Ceremony with Psilocybin Mushrooms, many plant spirits are called in to provide lessons and healing for the people in my group, not just the mushrooms! This is one of the greatest benefits of my deep relationships with the plants. What I describe here is when we engage in dialogue with the plant spirits to open our hearts and mind for deep spiritual teachings. When I think of this, I think of what some people call “mystery schools”, or places where people learn the mysteries of the universe. These secrets are not surrendered lightly, as one must often demonstrate respect, devotion, and willingness to open their heart fully in exchange for such information. It requires the pure intent to surrender the ego and desire to be of service or accept the greater life calling. And believe me, the spirits know how pure your intentions are!
It also requires the willingness to have old constructs and beliefs destroyed. This is probably the heftiest price that is paid for the information exchange. If you don’t know it already, letting go is usually the hardest part of spiritual work.
Communing with the plant spirits may also help a person understand their purpose of incarnation or life purpose so that it can be fully integrated and embodied, as well as provide healing. All plants are teachers and they all have information that will help us during our lifetime as a human. When we come to them with the intent to listen and learn, and we treat them like the master teachers they are, this is where the magic happens.
Surrendering of Sins
Now I personally don’t love the word sin, but it is the word that is constantly repeated back to me by the spirits. Apparently, it properly conveys the point they wish to make.
We come to a point in our lives where we are ready to surrender the burden of things we are carrying that no longer need to be carried. This burden may be guilt over something that you did. It may be rage you are holding towards your parents. It may be a feeling you never expressed because you weren’t safe enough to process it when it first came up. It may even be the underlying cause of your binge eating. In almost all cases, we don’t even know what it is until we get into the Ceremony space.
These things all have literal weight in the astral field. Some grow with time, creating entities that follow you around and inject intrusive thoughts, and some cause cancer in your body. When you carry them on your back, they are like a backpack of rocks you can never fully put down. An easy way to identify if you have a backpack is if you feel like you need help putting it down at the end of the day. Do you feel called to drink nightly or smoke a joint before bed because you just need help relaxing? Yep, that’s one of the many signs that you have your own backpack of rocks. There are many other indicators as well, but this is one I have been seeing a lot lately!
When I work with people in Shamanic Ceremony who have something they are ready to surrender, the mushroom spirits allow me to take their burden from them with the touch of my hand. (For more information, please see the blog I wrote about Sin-Eating a few months ago).
There is no need to relive the pain and trauma of the original sin — carrying it is punishment enough.
Healing
Laying of hands is one of those things that happens for me whether we are in a formal group Ceremony or not, but when you partner with the mushroom spirits, it takes that healing to the next level. Laying of hands initiates physical and energetic alignment to the true self and the opening of the heart. It may also initiate true physical healing as well, sometimes spontaneous and full healing, and sometimes the beginning of a healing process.
Spiritual healing is a whole separate level that may or may not occur at the same time. Rather than healing of the physical body, which only exists in the 3D, we work with “healing” the spiritual aspect of the self. Remember, this Ceremony opens the portal to the shamanic realms, where it is possible to collaborate with plant or animal spirits, perform a soul retrieval, resolution of “karmic” cycles, childhood trauma restructuring, bloodline healing, or anything else that prevents full soul integration.
As a healer, my work in the mushroom ceremony only amplifies my healing abilities for the person who is on the receiving end. This can mean crazy levels of healing, balancing, or recalibration in one very short period of time.
Death and Rebirth
Although we don’t often recognize it for what it is, we are in a constant state of death and rebirth. Ceremony with Mushrooms can initiate a (spiritual) death and rebirth process that needs extra support or that requires special circumstances to complete. It can facilitate the death of a version of ourselves that needs to move on, the death of a paradigm we are clinging to, or many other things I don’t particularly have words for.
Don’t fret, death is actually the most peaceful energy there is — if we just learn to surrender to it!
Try to consider for a moment that all suffering we experience as humans is a result of resisting the death of something. It’s a result of our inability to let go. Sitting in Ceremony helps us learn to allow the constant cycle of death and rebirth that allows us to be here fully. We are not here to suffer but to enjoy this incarnation on earth with joy and ease.
Whether you are feeling called to sit with mushrooms for an unknown reason or you have something specific you’d like to tackle, all of these points are worth considering. They may also be helpful in understanding what has happened to you in a previous experience with Plant Medicine (or out of plant medicine!).
Ready to talk about working with Psilocybin Mushrooms? Schedule some time with me here to discuss it further: https://nadiadoe.as.me/
