One area of traditional healing arts that has always fascinated me is plant knowledge. Becoming
a herbalist is a difficult path, involving years of training, but plant knowledge takes many
forms. I have two groups of herbs I drink as infusions: licorice, ginger and other warming
spices to boost my energy levels, and herbs such as mint and chamomile to calm me, and use
others for calming stomach upsets and to help with other minor ailments. I am also exploring
Bach Flower Remedies with the help of a friend trained
in their use, and the synchronicities and differences between these and the plant's Ogham
associations will make for rewarding study.
Recently I was drawn to find the first sketchbook I owned, many years ago. I remember at the
time, coming at the end of lots of deeply personal, therapeutic pieces, and ending the book
with a little sketch - an illustration for a 'children's' story I had liked re-reading. When
I found it again, it turned out to be a portrait of Ceridwen, the goddess and witch from the
legend of Taliesin. Taliesin was employed to stir Ceridwen's cauldron for a year and a day,
'until three blessed drops were obtained of the grace of Inspiration.' As is the way of such
tales, Taliesin spills the three drops on his own figer, and a chase ensues. Ceridwen, thus,
is associated with wisdom of both the arts and of plants, and I await her impact on my path as
an apprentice with a little trepidation and much excitement.
Some will assume that as a shamanic apprentice, I do much dabbling in 'magic' or hallucinogenic
plants. The opposite is true. The doorways and paths opened by shamanic practice are similar to
those opened by chemical entheogens and hallucinogens, and the respect I hold for such plants
is exactly why I am wary of their use. Untrained and unknowing use of such substances, in
particular, can temporarily or permanently damage these gateways, blowing open the crown chakra
in particular, until with over-repeated use someone can remain permanently open to an undiluted,
unfiltered, incomprehensible experience of the universe.
This is not to say that I entirely dissaprove of the use of plants for mind altering effect.
Every plant is sacred, a gift from the goddess, and should be respected. Nearly all of us have
used caffeine to wake ourselves up in the morning. But my generation is not the first to have
stumbled on the Shining Realms by chemical means. For many of us, our eyes were opened to a
universal love we never knew existed by less than perfectly legal means. I rage against a Law
that allows only for abstinence; and can counsel only abstinence, when every generation has
experimented in the same way, when the only workable answer is education, quality control and
yet more education.
As for myself, I worry about those who see the face of the goddess and aren't ready to handle
it. If I can learn to be a trip mother, a way home, for some, so much the better.
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