The Use of Plant Medicines in Spiritual Awakening
Except for any noted source material, content copyright, Neva. J. Howell, all rights reserved
There is an aspect of Native-American (and other indigenious people’s) ceremony and spiritual structure that is seldom talked about or dwelled on: the use of ceremonial alteratives, plant medicines such as marijuana, peyote, mushrooms, mescal, datura, etc., as a way of opening the group mind to a higher consciousness and to enter different levels of spiritual consciousness. Such use is intended to be a bridge but never a destination.
Because of my own addictive and compulsive tendencies, I may not be the most unbiased person to speak of these things or perhaps my experience makes me the logical person to do so — either way, I will speak of this matter. Although it is possible for marijuana, peyote, or other mind-altering substances to be used in a sacred way — they have been so used for thousands of years — it is also possible for abuse and addiction to occur within that journey.
What follows is admittedly the opinion of a white woman who never lived at a reservation and doesn’t know what it was really like. I have gleaned my ideas from the stories I’ve been told, movies I’ve seen, and books I’ve read. I’ve also glimpsed the past through visioning but that was only my past lives, and may not be true of the Native American people as a whole.
I believe one of the reasons the ceremonial use of alteratives is different today than in times past, has to do with modern culture and lifestyle. In the Native way, before “Western Civilization”, from all that I’ve read and seen in documentaries about the way things used to be, the indigenous peoples of this land lived in intimate relationship with nature.
From the first waking moment into the dreamtime, each day was a continuous circle which revolved around toe good of the whole and the connection to Great Spirit. No one walked alone but lived within a strong, communal support system which made hunting, food preparation, child care, and care for the elderly a shared responsibility. Now, the focus of the average person in the work-a-day world is much more individualized. Our efforts revolve around making a living, and staying ahead of the bills. We are concerned with promotions, rent, traffic, smog, material acquisitions, etc. There is little communal interaction, with regard to daily tasks.
Even the preparation of food has drastically changed. Going into the grocery store and picking up a loaf of bread is not usually a spiritual experience. It contrasts broadly with the community experience of gathering the grain, stone-grinding it in the sun while singing or praying, and preparing it for the whole tribe. Of course things haven’t just changed for Native-Americans but for pioneer descendants like myself, as well. I sure don’t do it the way Grandma did. She road into Alabama on a wagon, helped to build her own house, raised a garden, canned fresh vegetables, killed her own meat for food, and lived a lot closer to the land on a daily basis. However, even grandma lived a lot of her older years in a house with a well and a bathroom.
Living directly on the land, in teepees, getting water from a nearby stream and going in the woods presents a very different potential for staying grounded and centered and certainly could have made the use of spiritual plant medicines a lot safer than I feel it is today.
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Those same indigenous peoples who once worked in such a communal, natural way and who lived free of such concerns as monthly rent and utilities, taxes, car, house, and medical insurance, etc., are now living on reservations or working out in the business world. This is important to remember, with regard to the use of ceremonial alteratives. For a certain period of time, the ceremonial use of mood-altering substances was prohibited by our government, as was the practice of many Native Ceremonies. In the interim, the brutal hand of alcohol addiction touched the Native people and, as is true of those of every race, many Native-Americans still struggle in it’s deadly grasp. To utilize alteratives (herbal or other) as spiritual medicine, in a modern society where so many battle the demons of drug addiction, entails huge responsibility. In order to safely facilitate a medicine journey for someone, the teacher or healer must walk in a consistent state of personal balance. They must have a balance of heart and third eye energies. No human is immune to addiction. It is possible for a spiritual leader to become physically or emotionally addicted to the medicine they use. In this case, instead of opening doorways to higher consciousness, they open doors of addiction, confusion, and even madness for those who follow them. Another danger is that a teacher, healer or spiritual leader may have an active, open third eye but a heart that is closed. Therefore, they may have the knowledge necessary to initiate someone to higher levels of knowledge but, without a healthy heart chakra, are not able to ground the new awareness in compassion and love. The bible says when the blind lead the blind, everyone ends up in the ditch. If you are considering participation in the medicine way (with peyote, marijuana or other ceremonial alteratives), approach the decision as if your mental and emotional stability depended on making the right choice. Get to know the person who works with such medicine. Observe their daily personal life. Don’t be led by the blind. Speaking of addiction in general: One reason humanity is drawn to addictive substances is because there is a need, and a desire, to transcend the third-dimensional reality — to open the barrier between flesh and Spirit, so that we may connect more strongly with Godforce. Experimentation with alteratives is part of a spiritual search for higher purpose in our lives.
The problem is that we get addicted to the effect itself, and forget the spiritual need that drove us, or we take the alteratives before we have healed our imbalances and find that using them makes it easier to ignore the parts of us that need healing. Some of us choose substances which numb, to keep a fuzzy little cloud around emotions that we don’t want to feel, can’t handle or have no outlet for releasing, or to avoid making decisions and changes we need to make in our lives. Others of us choose stimulating substances that distract us through an overabundance of adrenal excitement. The problem is that the problem is still there. Our imbalance just gets buried, under the layers of suppression. Eventually, physical or emotional illness manifests, due to the cellular burden our suppression has created.
Although addiction in various forms affects many of us, addiction does not require a drug to exist in our lives. One can become addicted to another person, money, watching television, working, worrying, hatred, jealousy, fear, etc. I’ve been addicted to several of those things in my lifetime.
One of the most insidious forms of attachment is to become addicted to the cure itself. I learned this from my soul mate. He commented that a friend of ours, who threatened to walk 10 miles to his AA meeting if no one would take him, that he may have gotten addicted to AA. To me, that sounded like a callous remark at the time. I thought he was probably determined to stay sober and feared that missing a meeting might set him back. Looking back now, I see what my mate was saying. (As an aside, I’m not with my soulmate. I learned that even the deepest level of soul love is sometimes not enough and that, sometimes, being apart is a spiritual imperative for both souls. I know being apart was a spiritual imperative for my soul.)
We can become so dependent on getting card readings, for example, that we lose the capacity to simply intuit our own answers; we can so heavily rely on healers to keep us physically, mentally or emotionally stable that we no longer remember how to pray healing prayers on our own behalf or to channel healing energy from our own hands to our own bodies; we can lean on ceremony to the point that we don’t even feel spiritually connected unless we are in church, a Sacred Sweat Lodge, etc.; we can addict ourselves to therapy, AA meetings, support groups, etc., to the point that we continue long after the need for them is past; we can worship the messenger (the Shaman, guru, preacher, counselor, etc.) until we no longer have the capacity to evaluate the message in our own lives.
My personal substance addictions were alcohol and diet pills. I took the “speed” because it gave me a sense of confidence. I drank because it numbed the pain of an abusive childhood–a past I was not even willing to consciously remember at that time. I also passed through sexual addiction, compulsive over-eating, and an eight-year period of being a workaholic. All these journeys were, in an indirect way, a search for peace and for spiritual meaning. Each one was incredibly painful and stressed my physical body to the point of absolute exhaustion. Therein was the danger and the blessing. It took getting to the point where I knew death was not only possible but actually imminent, before I would listen to Spirit. I recall the words I heard, very clearly: “You can drink, or you can live.” They were not the words I had hoped to hear. It took the better part of an eternal night for me to decide that I wanted to live.
Following that night, there were many times when I longed for the numbness, and for the excitement that would temporarily distract me from hard life choices or personal work that had to be done. There were many occasions when the need to escape was almost overwhelming. Later, when I stepped on the Spirit Path in a conscious way, I was very tempted to use “medicine” to deal with the constant, intense energy shifts I was experiencing. I even tried to do so, but Spirit intervened and let me know it was not to be for me, ever again. I was shown that I must walk clear of addiction, and walk through all the spiritual doorways, clear of chemical alteration. It is a hard path. It is a very hard thing–much harder than were my addictions. I pray daily, for strength to walk in this way without judging any brothers and sisters who walk the addiction trail, and without suffering beyond my ability to endure.
If you find yourself in a situation where you have broken the addiction habit but keep attracting people who are addicted, realize that you have work to do. It is your job to be clear and strong, as a channel for Godforce. It is your test, and it is your task.
The journey to Oneness ultimately means that we will all feel each other and know each other’s experiences, hear each other’s thoughts. So, if you are feeling the altered state of others, it is because you are coming closer to Oneness. It is not an easy thing. You may have been beating yourself up because you didn’t end a relationship, or leave a situation where drugs were a factor. Maybe you stay because your work is to help the other to heal. You will never do that by lecturing or judging, though that can be “Heyokah medicine” for them–Spirit uses every weakness–but what you can do is transmit the frequency of your clear, strong, Spirit-connected mind.
Show them the doorway without the drugs, and you can lead them through it. Of course, you have to accomplish that for yourself before you can do it for someone else. That’s why you are placed in the most challenging position imaginable for doing so.
