I have a deep respect for indigenous cultures because of their unwavering connection with nature and the Earth. The Earth is their Mother, and all of Earth’s creatures are their brothers and sisters, to be treated with kindness and respect.
Unlike the intellectual wisdom of our Western culture, these indigenous cultures have an embodied wisdom that comes from being part of the heartbeat of the land.
It’s no wonder that their practices have called me. Yet despite my interest in Shamanism, there is one aspect I have never explored, and that’s the psychedelic plant and animal medicine journey (think Ayahuasca, Peyote, San Pedro and the Psilocybin mushrooms, Kambò, etc.).
Instead, I’ve been led along a different path – one that allows similar access to these expanded states of consciousness, but in a much gentler and safer way.
What’s a plant medicine journey?
In its essence, a plant medicine journey is a sacred ceremony. When a plant with psychedelic properties is consumed, the receiver enters into altered states of visionary consciousness, where they are able to tap into their psyche, to peer underneath the hood of their own vehicle, thus accessing deep wounds and powerful Soul experiences.
But it goes far beyond this. The plant medicine journey is a deep bond between the receiver and the plant. In this journey (which is usually led by an experienced facilitator), the Spirit of the plant is invoked as a teacher.
Take Ayahuasca as an example (pronounced “eye – a – woska”). The Ayahuasca vine is known to be a wise, feminine teacher, who guides through relationship rather than force. When someone embarks on an Ayahuasca journey, the Spirit of the plant meets each person where they are at, helping them to see those things that are hidden deep within – their emotional wounds, unconscious patterns, ancestral memories or the deeper truths about their life’s purpose.
She teaches through visions, body sensations, and powerful emotional eruptions. This is how she helps to cleanse, realign and guide healing in her recipient, to produce a deeply personal journey.
And the results can be profound, catapulting the receiver into self-realisations that would have otherwise taken years of deep inner work to access.
Yet plant medicine journeys are not without their risks.
These journeys expand consciousness. They open portals within our psyche in order for us to access this wisdom….and those portals are normally tightly closed for a reason. They are part of our energetic protective mechanism.
Once they are opened, they are non-discerning. Both the good and the bad can enter.
Think of it like this. When we travel into outer space, we use a spaceship. That’s our protection, just like our energy field is. Going on a psychedelic plant journey is like stepping out of that spaceship. Suddenly the whole Universe is available to you. You can travel in any direction you want. But the Universe is not purely Love and Light.
When you step out of your spaceship, you are vulnerable to all the darkness that’s there as well. You have just opened yourself up to both realms.
If you are doing a plant medicine journey under the guidance of a true indigenous Shaman, they will have spent decades attuning to the unseen world. They will know how to identify dark energies, how to create protection, and if by chance something dark were to attach, they know how to clear it.
But with the surge of interest in plant medicine, many people who have benefited from it themselves have gone on to become facilitators. These people may understand the plant and its medicine exceptionally well and are certainly passionate about the experience, but most simply don’t have the decades of experience in how to protect a space from entities.
How do I know this?
It’s because I frequently meet people for whom a plant medicine journey has “gone wrong”. It may not be their first journey. It could be their third, or fourth, or fifth. But they can feel it. Something dark entered their field while they were on their journey, and they don’t know how to clear it. This was a “bad” journey, and their life is suddenly on a downwards trajectory.
Somehow, they find their way to me. Spirit nudges them in my direction through a friend or just a happenchance encounter, because I know a talented healer who can clear their energy field and help them back on track. I’ve witnessed many, many people have profound transformations once the “hitch hiker” has been removed.
So what’s the alternative?
How can we safely access the benefits of these visionary states of consciousness, without opening portals and potentially bringing chaos to our doorstep?
It’s simple. And in fact, it’s so obvious.
These psychedelic plants are not the only plants with a Spirit. Every plant has a Spirit. When we use essential oils, just like plant medicines we are working with the Spirit of the plant.
These are not just pretty smells to pop into the diffuser on a summer’s afternoon. Essential oils are powerful substances that directly impact our psyche.
As soon as you smell an essential oil, the aromatic molecules trigger nerve fibres in your nose which send signals to your brain. And what’s extraordinary is that these nerve signals completely bypass your conscious brain, travelling straight to the limbic region (the seat of your subconscious).
In fact, our sense of smell is the only one of our 5 senses to be able to do this, which is why aroma has such a profound impact on us.
The limbic region of the brain is where we store our memories and associated emotions, and it’s also the site of our spiritual visions.
Are you starting to see the picture? Through the use of essential oils, we are directly impacting those very same parts of the brain that are impacted by plant medicines…we’re just doing it in a much safer way, that doesn’t force us out of our spaceship at the same time.
Every aromatic plant has its own wisdom.
So in just the same way that we are guided by the psychedelic plant’s Soul, we can equally be guided by the Soul of the plant that makes the essential oil we’ve chosen.
If we understand the nature of the plant itself, we understand its spiritual wisdom and what it’s here to help us with.
Take Palo Santo, for example.
Palo Santo is a tree that grows in Ecuador, and its essential oil is found in its heart wood. I love to think of this as “nature’s revenge”. If man cuts down a Palo Santo tree and distils the heartwood, no essential oil is present. This tree has to die naturally, lie on the ground for at least 5 years, and only then will we be able to distil its heartwood and obtain essential oil.
Even more amazingly, its heartwood responds to the lunar cycles. We must distil it between new moon and quarter moon, otherwise the moisture content in the wood is too high, and less essential oil is yielded.
So what does this teach us about Palo Santo? It certainly has clear boundaries. It only allows us to obtain its oil under very specific natural circumstances. We can’t force the oil out of it.
So the Spirit of this plant teaches us how to find our own boundaries when we are in tricky relationship dynamics. This oil carries the energy of the Divine Masculine, grounding and protecting us. It can be put on the nape of our neck (C7/T1 vertebra) to protect us from darkness and negativity, or placed on the lower part of our spine (near our buttock crease) to anchor and ground us when we are experiencing emotional turbulence.
In contrast, the oil of Melissa (Lemon Balm) is deeply Feminine. As a plant she grows low to the ground, with succulent leaves and a soft form. Her Spirit (and her oil) connects us to Mother Earth and allows us to feel like we’re contained in a sacred womb.
She can be placed on our heart or our navel to create a sense of safety and child-like innocence. She’s a beautiful oil to help connect us to our inner child, and to allow us to feel safe enough to journey through even the most painful childhood memories.
Then there’s Vetiver oil. This is a tall grass, and we obtain the essential oil from its roots. So because of this, we already know it will be a grounding oil. Vetiver is often planted along hillsides to stabilise erosion, so we know that as an oil it will help “hold things together” and stabilise us in our life.
It’s also been planted in toxic swamps, and the water became clean again. This shows us that Vetiver oil contains the power of transformation, able to transmute that which is physically or emotionally toxic into something healthy and clean.
Vetiver oil also brings us into complete stillness, so that we can listen to the voice of our Soul. It’s a beautiful oil for meditation and any spiritual practise.
Why a sequence matters…
Whilst the use of individual essential oils can be effective in transforming emotions, if we want to use them in the same way we’d use a psychedelic plant medicine to carry us into visionary states, we’re best to use a sequence of essential oils. An oil is applied, then after a few minutes another oil is applied, then a few minutes later another, and so on.
Although we can apply the oils to ourselves, it does keep part of our mind alert. We can still have profound insights and emotional connections in this way, but the fact that we need to remember to put the next oil on prevents us going into deeper states.
If you want to dip your toe in the water and experience a “light” journey, you can anoint yourself. Sit somewhere quietly, put an oil onto your body, and let your mind drift. Then 4 or 5 minutes later put the next oil on, and let your mind drift, and so on.
For a deeper journey, these oils are best applied by a loving facilitator, preferably someone who is attuned to energy work and able to read the flow of energy in the body in order to support you on your inner journey.
I love Egyptian Emotional Clearing Technique for this purpose. This is a beautiful sacred ritual whereby 13 different essential oil blends are applied to the body over the course of an hour. As each oil goes on, the recipient goes into a deeper and deeper state of consciousness. I liken it to being on an inner vision quest.
This anointing technique is inspired by an Ancient Egyptian ritual that the Pharaohs used before they died, and the Priests and Priestesses used before moving to a higher level of initiation.
As for results…they are absolutely profound. I’ve been teaching this technique since 2000, and I never cease to be amazed by the miracles that happen in people’s emotions and relationships (with themselves and with others). If you’ve never experienced it, click here to find a practitioner in Australia.
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