"We seek out ecstatic experiences because they are a direct line to our soul while in this human form. Traveling down the spiral of this earthbound mortal coil is a special opportunity unlike anything available in other dimensions, even when our suffering leads us to curse this very existence. But we are never alone on this journey. After long being discarded as weeds or mislabeled as dangerous drugs, we are now being called to remember poisonous plants as our ancient and wise teachers guiding us to dream our liberated future into being.
The visionary leadership of priestesses, shamans, medicine people, mystic healers, and other roles with more culturally specific terms, is to maintain a clear and constant channel with the creator and the realm of helping spirits. Devastatingly, within the last millennium collective leadership has shifted considerably from the hearts of those accountable to the laws of the universe to the tiny hearts of those in the western colonial world with no regard for the web of life. To maintain power, the ruling class and the systems that recreate it weaken our inherent connection to liberation—our capacity to dream.
On one such fateful daze, a spider spirit visited my dream to teach me about flying ointments. The spider slowed down my heart rate to a melodic drone and showed me floating above and flying as if I was swimming through air. With an ability to shapeshift into various frequencies and forms, we can travel across the hedges, return safely, and report back oracular wisdom with the wider community. This is what the ancient ones deeply knew and has fallen out of practice since the church marked our ancestral technologies as evil. It took me many years to begin trusting in my own oracular knowledge. I watched my schizophrenic brother and father live through inhumane treatments and social rejection and what I feared most was that I would suffer the same fate. This shame and fear continues to be weaponized by structures of oppression until the brave ones break the spell that’s been crystalizing in our DNA for generations.
This visioning requires a daring courage that doesn’t flinch at the hum of death. Our survival and evolution has always relied upon our ability to vision alongside plants and fungi held in sacred ritual. High in potent alkaloid and atropic solubles, datura, opium poppy, henbane, and many more have the effect of narrowing blood vessels, slowing down the heart rate and activating extra-ordinary states of consciousness. Tobacco is the most sacred plant within our Arawak-Taino cosmology. The first plant to offer to come to earth to aid in the spiritual evolution of humanity, its smoke carries prayers to the realm of the gods.
Have faith in your dreams, in waking and in sleep, trust that it is the creator making known how they want to take action in the world. Like a spider sees and weaves throughout all of time with the ease of a grandmother sitting in a rocking chair, have faith in the cast lines across generations made visible. Now imagine four spider legs stretching out to offer the Moirae Sisters and all sides of Hekate a glass of iced yew tea while they weave our collective paths within collapsed time. See in the dark."
Read more of the essay at BLUE.